Accuracy sucks!

I've hunted since I was about 16. My first deer gun was a 7mag savage. I shot it until last year when I bought a .243 savage.

I have never been accurate with my 7mag. I know it is accurate because other people shoot it well. I can shoot 2" groups at 100 yards and have some that I pull. Other hunters can shoot 1" groups with it at 100 yards perfectly.

My .243 I can shoot 1" groups with it almost always. I haven't pulled any.

I know it's all in my mind. I'm not confident with my 7mag I guess. I've tried to have the shot sneak up on me and be as good as possible but I will still pull some.

Both guns have 1.5 lb triggers and soft recoil pads.

How can I become confident with my 7mag? Should I shoot my .243 more and then when confident with it shoot my 7mag and repeat that? I've been doing this and it has helped some.

Obvious you don't like recoil. Make it heavier.

I agree. Better recoil pad as well.

Brake it!

Brake and a P.A.S.T. recoil pad you wear

Man muzzle breaks have the opposite effect on me. The blow back is hard on my sinus and ears.

The PAST pad helps a great deal for practicing from the bench; I, too, am not a fan of brakes. You might want to try shooting your 7mm for accuracy using the managed recoil loads. That might be a simple fix for your problem.

I sold all of my harder recoil guns. Glad they are gone. .243 will kill most anything most of us will hunt. Including elk.

Lots of dry firing wouldn't hurt either.

Suppress it and work up a better load

Few things you can do to tighten the group on 7 mag

Have barrel floated, better stock w aluminum pillar and bedded properly

Premium ammo or Good loads w good bullets

My stock 7 mag was shooting 3"
Down to 1/4-1/2" with the upgrades mentioned

Just shoot it off the bench and don't worry at all about accuracy... just shoot it at the backstop. It sounds like your flinching as your concentrating on small groups and hitting a bullseye. If you can afford to "just shoot several rounds over a trip or two" and truly get more comfortable with the recoil you'll do better. I'm thinking since it was your first rifle out of the gates at 16 the recoil may have smacked you pretty good and that has stuck with you. If others can shoot it well and make it group at least you know the rifle isn't the factor. A good test is to let someone sit next to you and let them hand you the rifle to shoot, they may have loaded it or they may not have loaded it "you don't know", go through your routine to squeeze off a round at the target, if it fires then ok you went through your routine to make a shot, if it doesn't fire and goes "click" did you jump or flinch? It's a good test...

Or just have your buddy keep punching you in the shoulder at random so you get used to it

Yep! That would work just as good!

Sorry Mathman, I was the same way for a while too. I just had to get used to what the gun was gonna do to my shoulder. If you can put some sort of thick pad on there and find a way to add a little weight, practice, practice practice. That won't cost you much. What kind of stock are you running? Mine is an ADL lightweight sporter so it pops a little too.

This ^^^

Ditto. The noise/blast rattled me more than the recoil. I had my 30/378 rebarreled to 338/378 and left the brake off then just shot the hell out of it until the recoil was no longer a problem.

When it comes to recoil, I consider myself a 1%er, that is I figure I can handle more recoil than 99% of the folks out there. For me it was just a matter of putting rounds down range until you get over the hump. That said, some people may never get over the hump. If you have the 243 and you're decent with it, focus on that. It'll kill anything in Texas (and beyond) Use the 243 to hone your mechanics. Basically use the 243 to learn how to shoot well. Once you've honed your skills, then you can work on the 7Mag. If you just go try to hammer away with the 7Mag, you may end up with a flinch that is difficult to overcome. As the others have mentioned, that are things you can do. Better recoil pad, add weight, a PAST pad, etc. A Bull's Bag up front and a small rear bag will also help quite a bit.

The PAST pad is a tremendous help. It helped me get over hot loads in my 45-70. Its just tough to bang away from a bench with those mule kickers. I still use it with the 45-70 hot loads from the bench.

You ever get up my way, come see me. If the rifle and ammo can do it, you can make it do it.

Yes on the brake, yes on the improved recoil pad, yes on dry firing. I think I can now say EVERYBODY, that comes to me has bad trigger discipline. It shocks lots of guys to learn how important such a small detail really is. Even saw a video of Army Snipers yesterday performing a final shooting test and saw bad trigger discipline. It is very common. But I am pretty sure you are inadvertantly closing your eyes right before the shot, holding your breath, and/ or not using good trigger discipline. Learning how to properly use a bipod instead of a front sandbag will help reduce felt recoil as well.

Heavier Barrel and Brake.

Don't shoot it a lot.

Take it out and shoot a group and put it away. Hard to do by yourself, but get a buddy to load the gun for you and sometimes not put one in it and you will see what your doing wrong. Know that the recoil, while it may sting, will not physically injure you, and then practice.

Go get a 300 win mag and shoot it for a while, then when you shoot the 7 mag it will seem tame.........

Know that the recoil, while it may sting, will not physically injure you



Dead on. Let it suprise you and every time you go boom, you'll realize it really aint that bad


Plus what JG said.

I'm a breath holder with a flinch. I've been trying to get rid of the flinch, but I just recently learned holding your breath can be a bad thing. That's how my daddy taught me to shoot. I'm going to try to work on it next time out.

Hold the breath, heart rate increases, vision become blurry, physical shaking ensues if held long enough.

Not good for shooting small. Breathe normal, squeeze it slowly on the natural respiratory pause after exhale.

I had a 257 weatherby Mark v with the same issues. I also had a friend that wanted one. He now owns it. I couldn't get it to shoot for me so I sold it. Not my problem anymore.

Find some lighter loads and work your way up. I used Custom Ammo from Horndy for my Dad and his 308 last year. He didn't complain about the recoil at all.

Mathman, thanks for the post. I've learned a lot from reading through the responses.

Dealing with recoil is much like trying not to blink at the swing of a bat when catching behind the plate. It can only be overcome by conditioning the mind through repetion to ignore the distraction. And just like playing catcher, it's something that a lot of guys can never do, no matter how much they try. Rather than trying to truly condition themselves to ignore recoil, they convince themselves that being able to fire just one or two accurate shots is all they need do to kill a deer. And in many cases, this holds true. However, don't ask them to go out and shoot several very tight groups. They know that if they do, the inability to control flinching will get the best of them.

No matter the caliber, whenever you practice, shoot as many rounds as you can afford, or at least a box of shells. Your goal should be to make your last group as tight or tighter than your first. If your groups don't improve the more you shoot, swallow your ego and choose a caliber that works better for you. Or, as some have suggested, try reduced recoil ammo or a better recoil pad.

Two inches at 100 yards is not bad at all. If you reload, load up some reduced recoil (and barrel wear) rounds to practice with.

With a 7 mag and 2 inches at 100, keep your targets below that imho. Yes that's a dead animal at 100 but it will exponentially get worse at 200, 300 and beyond.

OP, what range are you working at?

Just wear a life vest when shooting off a bench. It works about 100x better than a past pad. I learned this trick from a range owner that sights in about 300 guns for people before deer season every year. I can shoot about any gun without flinching with a vest on. Mine is tan and from a distance just looks like a shooting vest.