Soilarch,
You are on the right track to be pursuing answers regardingrifle stock shape and fit versus bodytype (and incidentally weight) as it isquite important IMHO. Since you cannot readily changeyour body shape and weight, whether you get hit "harder" with more felt recoilthansome "little guy" or not is really beside the point; what counts is doing something to manage your OWN felt recoil andmakeyour "hit" as managable as possible. To that end, rifle stock fit is critical.
"....Rifle fit really has nothing to do with the size of the shooter...."
Au contrare! I believe rifle stock fit (especially length of pull)is critical.[In addition tohaving the appropriate weight of rifle vs the cartridge being usedand having a quality of recoil pad.]. Personally, I like some drop at the heel on my stocks, I'm 6'5" and 220, long neck, no jowls, long arms, and I don't want to have to drop my head down,
not one bit, to be able to acquire the sight picture. Especially with friskyrifles I want to shoot in a "heads up" posture.
This type of "drop at the heel" stock that I favor does cause the rifle's muzzle to jump up a bit, which with a bolt action, doesn't bother me at all since jacking in another round will break your stance anddisrupt your"sight picture"anyway. However, you do have to pay attention how the stock "welds" to yourcheek and whether it will "recoil clear" or catch your cheek, for my physique --- no problem at all.
My favorites for handling recoil are the CZ European Lux "hogbacks"(416 Rigby and 458 Lott), Winchester Model 70 (375 H&H, 30-06) [straighter, but heavier out of the box]. Remington 700's are okay, though my 270hurt meoften inmy early years as the stock (length of pull) wasn't long enough for my physique (and I didn't know any better).It would put my thumb into my nose/upper lip on occasion--- bad for accuracy on prairie dogs when you are running thru a 50-60 rounds at a setting.
The super linear, "all the recoil comes straight back" type stocks are NOT my favorites --- though they DO look sexy and quite cool--- however, to me theyfair poorlyon reducing felt recoil, especially if it features a fly weight synthetic stock combined with a frisky cartridge (duhhh!).That said the folks I've observed that seem to like them theBETTER for recoil management are the NFL lineman type body physique-- no neck, lots of muscle, bound up tight --- the same guy whosejowls will likelyget "clipped"in the "cheek weld" zone by the recoil due to the muzzle rise if his rifle has too much drop at the heel.. These guys seem to like the recoil to just come straight back, but honestly they are built to take it. Even with that kind of rig,modifying it to createa heavy enough rifle and then adding a QUALITY ENGINEERED recoil pad can go a long way towards managing recoil.
Move into the heavy hitters and they'll teach you to pay attention to this kind of stuff aplenty.