Ongoing argument
 

Me and my brother have been having an ongoing argument about bullet weight versus recoil. I know very little about reloading so forgive me if I get the amounts wrong. I say that in a given cartridge, let say a .264, if you put in 50 grains of powder and a 200 grain bullet it would kick way more tha a .264 with 50 grains of the same powder and a 90 grain bullet. My brother says it would kick the same either way. P.S. I do not have a reloading press so don't tell me to try it myself.
Minihuntur:D

More power/speed/bullet weight equals more kick. There is an relationship there... There is a formula around I am sure of it that would tell you...

Rocky??

The formula is here.......http://stevespages.com/recoil.html

Mini
 

Just tell yer bro that you win again. That is what the others have been a saying. Only way to make the large bullet kick the same as the little one is to reduce the bullet speed(less powder). Down to about 10-15 grains in a like case as you stated

It's simple physics, really.

Recoil is simply the reaction to the action of accelerating the bullet and powder gas in one direction. Newton's law says there will be an equal and opposite reaction.

So, if you increase any of the three "thattaway" elements (more powder, more velocity or heavier bullet), you will get a proportional increase in the "thisaway" reaction (kick or recoil).

Powder has to be included because the weight of the powder (actually the weight of the gas produced plus the weight of any unburned powder) is also accelerated out the barrel. Use more of a slower powder and the recoil has to go up, as long as bullet and velocity stay the same.

In the original post, using an identical load with a lighter bullet will reduce the recoil - but not by a lot because you will also be increasing the velocity, which offsets the weight loss by a lot. Changing the velocity has the most effect because the formula squares the velocity.

Bullet weight, powder weight and velocity is why a .22LR hardly kicks at all, but a .458 Win Mag sure as heck does!

Thanks guys I think I'll go rub it in my brother's face now. Just kidding, I'm not that mean. Thanks again.
Minihuntur