Ask a little advice, and you get a lot! fun thread.

I'm sympathetic to Mr. Savage221. Many years ago I developed a rotten flinch shooting a Savage in 30-06. Of course, I was young & dumb and shot without hearing protection much of the time. Muzzle blast and noise will hurt as bad as the recoil boot, IMHO, sometimes worse. Since then I've learned some things. I'm something of a recoil weenie, and so avoid it. Then I was in a club for years where we ran dogs hunting deer, and I got used to 3" buckshot loads. They hurt. After that 30-06... I had an SKS for a while - very mild - then when I started hunting I dumped the SKS and got a synthetic-stocked Savage 111F in .270. It was very light, but it didn't beat me up. I liked that gun. Never shot it without hearing protection (except in the field) and got rid of the flinch. I did the dry firing routine some have suggested, and adjusted the .270 trigger light and would gently sqeeze so that firing would be a surprise. I got better. I shoot a muzzleloader with some heavy conicals, they boot pretty hard... but I've learned to deal with it. That said... I've just moved to a 30-30, and find it oh so mild to use. Heck, it isn't even all that loud, relative to a .270/30-06 (or so it seems to me). I'll just have to pass on the deer in the next county, until I get another .270...