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.