There's not a whole lot of difference between them on recoil-especially with a good recoil pad. You need to put a good pad on it and make SURE to have enough eye relief-just as with any .300 mag. I'm betting you won't feel the need to replace the barrel & stock later on the A-bolt if it's like every other A-bolt I've seen/shot (a BUNCH). I'm sure someone will chime in about their nephew's cousin's neighbor's friend that has a crappy shooting A-bolt, just I've never seen a bad shooting A-bolt. If you're willing to work up a good load or experiment with factory ammo-just as with any rifle, it should shoot ok for you.