i understand the recoi idea and am no stranger to teaching others to shoot however my remark about "that will not boot the snot out of her" was i fired a ruger compact in 308 with the 16.5 inch barrel and i hve to say that the recoi was comparable to my 300 win mag. for me not a problem but coud become fairly uncomfortable with a long day on the range. and yes she is firm on 308 which is ok with me because i have 100 +rounds for it allready from my 308.