Which guns fired from the shoulder have the most KO power & recoil?

Question

CALIBER- with BULLET DIAMETER, WEIGHT, & VELOCITY
.50 Browning Machinegun-.510"; 750 grains, 2769 ft/sec;
.50 McMillan FatMac-.510", 750 gr, 3425 f/s;
.577 Nitro-.584", 750 gr, 2050 f/s;
.577 Tyrannosaur-.585", 750 gr, 2400 f/s;
.600 Nitro-.620", 900 gr, 1950 f/s;
.700 Nitro-.700", 1000 gr, 2000f/s;
8 bore Paradox-.835", 1250 gr, 1450 f/s;
6 bore matchlock musket-.924", 1750 gr, 930 f/s;
5 bore Paradox-.983, 1880 gr, 1330 f/s;
4 bore paradox-.1.052", 2620 gr, 1250 f/s;
2 bore paradox-.1.065", 5250 gr, 1080 f/s!
Here are the top candidates I found for the most powerful guns one can fire from his shoulder. Each has various loads. Which ones have the most KO power by John Taylor's system, and which kick the hardest? This question has been asked, but most people are unaware of all of these calibers. Muzzle energy gives undue credit to velocity. Taylor uses momentum and diameter in his tables of KO Values. The .50 BMG load given has 12,775 ft-lbs of energy, for example.

There are 7000 grains in one pound avoirdupois or 437.5 grains in an ounce. I weigh 360 pounds at 6'1",and I am a poweerlifter. Smaller and weaker men than I am have fired these guns listed here.

Hey guys, I am not an ignoramus. I know how many grains are in an ounce or a pound of lead or gold. Do you? I know the calibers of some guns are exaggerated, but to say some calibers never existed is too much. You do not have the knowledge of all guns ever made. Baker's gun is said to be a 2, 3 or 4 bore in different sources. I just saw a test in a mag of a gun that had 212 ft-lbs of kick. I'll let you figure it out. Others have more. Both energyand momentum become absurd in extreme cases. I know the big guns lacked penetration, but they were the best one could do with black powder. Some of you are ignoring the question.

Answer 1

The 2 bore is going to have the most 'kick.' The deadliest? As follows:

.50 McMillan (most velocity & decent bullet weight n diameter)
.577 T-Rex (less velocity than the .50 BMG but greater diameter)
.700 Nitro Express (terrific bullet weight n diamter)
.600 Nitro Express (diameter n weight only exceeded by .700)
.460 Weatherby Mag. (You didn't list this one, but you and I know it
belongs here and is on par or superior to the .600 Nitro Express).

Best.

H

Answer 2

It is due to Newton's third law,"Whenever a particle A exerts a force on another particle B, B simultaneously exerts a force on A with the same magnitude in the opposite direction. The strong form of the law further postulates that these two forces act along the same line. This law is often simplified into the sentence, "To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Thus when the bullet of mass m(kg) is fired with a velocity v(m/s) a impulse(I) of mv(N-s) is applied on the gun of mass M(kg) which recoil with a velocity V(m/s). =>m x v = M x V

Answer 3

It's an interesting project, but not that much. Note that Taylor used nominal bore rather than actual bullet diameter when he developed his table, though I'm sure had he actually thought about it a little harder (or more soberly?) he would have realized some of his errors, like counting the 404 as smaller in diameter than the 416. With that exception, though, I think his theory is a lot closer to the truth than the use of muzzle energy.

Answer 4

Have you considered Steyr IWS 2000 with its 15.2mm armor-piercing, fin stabilized, sabot discarding round? Designed to take out tanks, it has a recoil-reducing system that makes the recoil feel like a typical Barrett .50 BMG.

Answer 5

Firstly shoulder fired can also apply to 'shoulder fired on the ground', so the 20mm anti tank rifles might be included and will wipe out all the above easily. However I assume you8 mean shoulder fired from offhand, that is standing up holding the gun to fire. Which keeps the 20mm out of the list.

The recoil of the above will of course depend on the gun weight.

Of that list the 2 bore of course will have the most recoil and KO.

recoil energy can be worked out on any recoil calculator on the net. I use handloads.com, just search on any engine. The manual formula is projectile wieght in grains added to 1.5X powder load in grains. That figure divided by 7000, multiplied by muzzle velocity in fps. That figure squared, divided by 64.34 and then divided by gun weight in lbs.


Ko factor is just momentum x bullet calibre as a fraction of an inch.Bullet weight in grains x muzzle velocity fps/7000, x calibre.

However remember taylors KO factor did not apply to the 'bore guns', in other words the 10,8, 4 bores etc. because it favoured the massive calibre of the bore guns too much.

For example a crappy winchester 12 ga slug scores as well as a lot of elephant guns, just due to it being .729. Which is ridiculous since a 12 ga slug is not a good killer on very large game.

The same thing with the bore guns, that despite their awseome calibre and projectile weight none of them were reliable for the toughest shot of all, frontal brain shot on elephant. It was not until smaller lighter faster nitro calibres came out you coulod even stop an elephant charge 100% of the time. Even the mighty 4 bore was not reliable for this shot.


So he meant KO only for the modern calibre guns he was using.

He even said a heavily loaded 10 or 8 bore was roughly equivelent to a 375 H&H in real life, despite its KO factor being three time's higher for the bore guns.

So generally for a bore gun therefore you can divide its KO by three to compare it to a modern gun.

So this puts the mighty 8 and 4 bore etc. back into perspective.

As to recoil and gun weight the most ever withstood for a career of hunting was for those using the 4 bores in the 1800's. With a 28lb gun the maximum recoil energy figures were around 150ftlbs or so.

There was a 3 bore made from african hunting whose figures were close to 300ftlbs recoil from only a 20lb gun or so, but the firer, Sir Samuel White baker used to get concussed from firing it.


The 2 bore never existed for african hunting.4 bore was the biggest generally 'bakers 2 bore' was actually the 3 bore mentioned above. It still exists in a museum. People mistook it for a 2 bore since he said it fired a half pound shell, indicating a 3500grain round ball. Howvever it was a longer conical shell of lesser calibre.

The 2 bore mentioned would be something modern somone has made just for kicks(pun intended :).

There are several more powerful for your list considered still to be shoulder fired. Such as Ed hubels 700 Hubel built of the 50BMG case, with a 1000gn bullet at 3000fps and energy levels over 20,000ftlbs.

Rob Garnicks 12 gauage from Hell using a 50BMg brass blown out to 12ga with rim screw on. Gets up to 24,000ftlbs and can still fire a normal 12 ga too!.

But probably the most powerfu is any modern 4 bore built on a strong modern single shot action. The sky is the limit for these, since they can appraoch 20mm cannon power.

Of course realistically the last of the above three cannot be shoulder fired since it will need to weigh over 50lbs just to surivive the recoil.

Once again using history as an example the most you can really hunt with is keeping gun weight to around 25lbs and recoil to 150ftlbs or so.

So the 700hubel(or 700nitro loaded to maximum levels in a strong single shot), 12ga from hell etc are about the highest level of KO and recoil there is for 'shoulder fired'.

Answer 6

for every action there is a reaction...the 2 bore paradox fireing a 5250gr slug will knock you over,,7000grs to the pound

Answer 7

700 is the most powerful