Handgun Weight & Recoil

Before purchasing a handgun, you should be sure that you can physically handle both:

• the weight of the loaded handgun and
• the amount of recoil that handgun will produce when firing various cartridges.

Serious consideration should be to your upper body strength, wrist strength, and any physical conditions - such as arthritis or other joint pain/tenderness.

Recoil, also known as kick, is the force a handgun exerts back upon its user when it is fired. Because recoil flips the barrel of a handgun upward (a phenomenon called “muzzle flip”), this moves the handgun up away from the target. The greater the recoil, the greater the time needed to reacquire the target in your sights. That’s why a “lighter” recoil makes it easier to direct rapid fire.

Far too many people incorrectly associate recoil with a particular caliber. In reality, the recoil energy a handgun produces primarily relates to four factors:

• Bullet weight
• Bullet velocity
• Propellant charge weight
• Handgun weight

New handgun owners typically incorrectly assume that a small (e.g., a compact or subcompact) or light-weight handgun (e.g., made from composite material or aluminum vs. steel) will be easier for them to handle. In reality, the opposite is usually the case. The goal should be to find the right balance between handgun weight, cartridge, and the resulting recoil for you to handle comfortably WITH the proper handgun grip. The below video is Pro Shooter Jerry Miculek (64 years old at the time of the video) training you as to how to grip your pistol to control recoil.

(Alternate Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kWc_kvaPZI)

The chart below lists several common cartridges with various pistols (e.g., Glock, Staccato (C DPO & C2), Smith & Wesson M&P® Bodyguard® (a popular CCW handgun), Springfield Armory HELLCAT® 3″ Micro-Compact (a popular CCW handgun), Beretta M9 (Standard Issue for the US Military from 1985-2017), Sig Sauer P320-M17 & P320-M18 (Standard Issue for the US Military from 2017-Present), and Rock Island Armory (Armscor)) sorted by the resulting recoil energy.

If you would like to calculate the recoil of a specific handgun and cartridge, you can use the free, online Recoil Calculator.

<note>All of the 9mm cartridges above (115 gr., 124 gr. & 147 gr.) were commercial 9mm Luger (Parabellum) cartridges. To understand how these are different from other 9mm cartridges, read: “The Many Names of 9mm Ammunition”.</note>

While on many pistols, you can “tune” your recoil by changing the weight of your recoil spring, you should “know what you're doing” before you start experimenting.

Tuning Your Pistol with Recoil Springs (1911s)

How to Tune Your Recoil Spring - On a Glock (or any pistol)