Well, it looks like everyone is having a good time being ear DR, so I'll just answer the question you asked - which is hard to answer honestly.

I have a BOSS equiped Win 70 in 7 mm Rem Mag. I also have a Savage 7 mm Rem Mag with a custom Bishop stock. Not even sure if Bishop is still in business as this gun is somewhere around 30 years old. Then, I also have a Rem 788 in 6 mm. So, I've got somewhat of a comparison in guns I actually shoot.

The 6 mm has a plastic butt plate, and kicks worse than any of them. I have no idea how much difference the BOSS makes to the Win 70, as it's always had the BOSS equiped - ??? The Win 70 has a rubber recoil pad - the solid pad, no 'perforations' visible from the side - if you can visualize what I'm trying to describe.

The Savage 110 with Bishop stock, has a 'perforated' recoil pad, and is by far the least felt recoil of the three.

There are many ways to manage recoil, the easiest I've found is shooting technique and putting on another shirt, coat, vest - not trying to be a smart axx - but I tend to think of several different things before a muzzlebrake if I'm trying to manage recoil. I didn't have any hearing problem issues with my BOSS equipped Win 70. At the range I wear hearing protection, in the field I pull down my hat over my ears - works for me anyway.

Just the other day I put on a T-shirt, a sweatshirt, a quilted flannel shirt, a down vest, a carhardt type coat and hearing protection and shot my non-braked 338 RUM with 275 grain bullets for the first time - well actually the first dozen times. The recoil was not an issue.

IMO - the BOSS does make a difference in acheiving accuracy - however it could take an entire summer of shooting to really 'tune' it in. I quickly accomplished sub moa, which was for me - as good as I was trying to acheive.