Pistol recoil is unpleasant to deal with, but pistols wouldn't work without it.
We'll cover how recoil works, how to reduce it without causing jams,
and which pistol has the least recoil.
When you fire a pistol, a bulletlaunches out of it. This makes an equal and opposite reaction in the pistol, like someone jumping off of a diving board.
What does this look like? Recoil drives the slideback:
Then the pistol uses the slide's return to reload itself.
Too little recoil and you get jams.
But too much recoil isn't good either. How do we change and minimize recoil to suit us?
Recoil Effects
Muzzle Rise is how much the muzzle climbs up per shot.
The more muzzle rise, the more time it takes to get your sights back on target and ready to shoot.
Too much muzzle rise, and the sights go completely off target, which can take even more time to correct.
Velocity (sharpness) is how fast and hard the recoil feels. Fast, sharp recoil is startling and unpleasant for most people.
If it's too much, it becomes hard to practice or train with the pistol.
It can also result in the muzzle dipping after each shot. Like muzzle rise, that adds time between accurate shots.
Energy is the overall force of recoil. It affects both muzzle rise and sharpness.
Two pistols can be the same weight and shoot the same ammo, but one can feel sharper and/or have more muzzle rise than the other. How is that?
A pistol's bore axis affects muzzle rise, and its slide design affects sharpness.
Does Pistol Recoil Affect Accuracy?
Imagine you have two pistols, but one is loaded with stronger ammo, so it recoils more.
Which pistol is more accurate?
Neither.
Without getting into details like barrel harmonics, pistols themselves are not more or less accurate for having more recoil. Why?
The bullet leaves the barrel before muzzle rise even begins.
However, recoil has a psychological effect on the shooter. Every shooter on Earth has felt this:
If a gun's recoil is outside your comfort zone, you may flinch in anticipation of the recoil, and that starts before the bullet leaves the barrel.
Recoil spoils your accuracy by throwing off your mental game.
The more a pistol recoils, the more skill, effort, and time it takes to get back on target.
So in a vacuum, recoil doesn't affect a pistol's accuracy.
But in practice, it can affect the shooter's accuracy.
Over 35% recoil reduction: Tuning for reliability.
Adds 0.75-2 inches of length.
Costs $60-350.
How to Control Pistol Recoil?
Grip technique, and to a point, grip strength, are the keys to controlling recoil.
That is what can take you from shooting 1 accurate shot per second to 3-5 accurate shots per second.
Upgrading your pistol is easy, but it can only take you so far.
Learn How to Grip a Pistol The Right Way
Which Pistol Has The Least Recoil?
The Laugo Alien pistol is the clear winner, with its outstanding bore axis, fixed barrel, heavy weight, and light slide.
Sadly, the Laugo Alien costs $5,000. Not something for most people.
Bryan Hill / October 02 2021
