And that is your right. I agree that the range is where good shooting skills should be perfected. I disagree with you wholeheartedly that you should be able to shoot multiple boxes of shells before your shoulder get tender. I quarantee you that I can't even shoot one box of shells through my 280 which is a "non Magnum" before my shoulder gets sore and flinches stop. Besides the barrels heat up and groups deteriate after the first five or so. The point I was trying to make is that if you can take five shots before your form starts to faulter, take five shots and quit for the day. Clean your weapon and return to the range a little later.

Granted its better to teach shooting skills with a light kicker. A shooters skills should be refined and have a very good knowledge of how to align the sights, breathe, squeeze tthe trigger, and follow through prior to shooting magnums. But, I will go a step further and say that thesame exact thing can be said about the 270, 30-06, 308, 7mm-08 etc. I have seen someunbelievable flinches, trigger jerks, closed eyes, and worse with shooters shooting a 243.

My point wasn't that its okay to go out and get the $hiet muslim kicked out of you. My point was: the shooter needs to realize that there is a fair amount of felt recoil, that he/she doesn't have to shoot it all day long, shoot until it becomes uncomfortable and stop for the day, and when you get in the field you won't feel it anyway. If you go intoit with those points in mind the magnums don't seem nearly as untameable.

BTW: my boywas taught the proper shooting techniqueswith a 22. Like most of us. It was his idea to shoot the 300 win. not mine. My friends and I didn't act like it was any big deal so neither did he. Heshot a sub 3/4 inchfive shoot group. Not bad for the first time shooting a centerfire rifle. After five shots he said that his shoulder was a little tender.I told him to stop for the day. That its when you get sore that you start learning bad habits. That was a couple of years ago, and now he has fallen in love with a 270 wsm. Killed a nice 5 x6 whitetail this last fall.

EKM:
my dad killed a 5x6 Elk last fall with a 338 ultra.