My .45 Kodiak is a soft shooting rifle. I use the 200 grain XTPs and load anywhere from 63 grains weighed to 77 grains weighed and the only thing at 100 yards that changes is 3" of rise between the lighter and heavier charges. Windage doesn't move a fraction of an inch. Scoped and with the sling this gun is right around 9 1/2 pounds and recoil pad is very absorbent. I can shoot the heavy stuff in a t-shirt. The new 195 grain bullets should shoot near the same, maybe having to tinker with the scope a bit, but recoil should stay relatively tame.
When I shot 250 grain XTPs in the .50 long guns with the 77 grain weighed charge the recoil wasn't real bad so I will have to assume that the Barnes 250 will have recoil of similar degree so I'll be ok. I like the accuracy that the 300 grain XTPs deliver in these guns but now I am aware to the arthritis and just how much recoil I want to mess with. I plan to shoot the Barnes while its cool yet so I can wear the coat I hunt in. Actually while hunting I don't mind the 300's recoil since its hardly ever more than one shot and if two ever are needed there's the loading time in between them so its not a big deal. On the bench though, in the summer, when I really enjoy striving to poke single holes in 5 shots using the 300s things can get dicey so stepping back to a 250 probably won't bother. I'm not a flincher so that's not an issue but I love to shoot and sometimes those 30 round sessions color me a bit but so far the shoulder joint hasn't hurt. Tapping my eyebrow, now that's another thing but doesn't happen often at all. I'm going to give these Barnes a go without any extra padding and if I think I need it will likely order one of the Past pads.
My Optima Pistol at 63 grains weighed with a 240 grain XTP is a real hammer to shoot and on deer. Lots of recoil. This load was chronoed at the gun club by another member at just under 1600fps. The buck in my avatar picture was hit shoulder thru shoulder, three ribs, and a golf ball sized exit wound. He was taken at 15 yards. I'm going to order a box of the 225 grain solid copper HPs from Barnes to try in it since my maximum range is never going to be over 50 yards and most likely well inside of 25. I have a 3m dot Red Dot 2X on the pistol and am sighted at 50. Five shots are pretty much a loose single hole. If the Barnes won't repeat this I'll stick with the XTP's but I am really wanting to start to conform to the lead free bullet stuff before we're all require to do so. I might try the 200 grain solid copper HPs too since I am fairly well convinced that inside my shooting parameters with the pistol they too will do a deer easily.
