Last summer I put a thumbhole stock on my winchester model 70 .270 and you will not feel any recoil on your hand, only on your shoulder. And as mentioned above the large vertical grip is much more comfortable that a traditional rifle stock. The length of pull did not change significantly and I found I got a much better cheek weld and sight alignment with the thumbhole stock. If you are going to bench shoot it also is much steadier and I shoot slightly better groups with the thumbhole stock. And as far as hunting with it to each his own. I used it last year and it didn't bother me a bit, but some guys just do not like a thumbhole on their hunting rifle. I got mine from stockysstocks.com for around $130 to replace the factory plastic stock. It is woodland camo.