Personally never noticed the difference. I'm not recoil sensitive, but will wear a Simms pad if I know I'll be shooting a lot of big game rifles. Now I normally shoot 90 to 100 gr loads for hunting. My bullets are 300 gr. XTP or Parkers. The longest I have ever shot was when I tested the BH209 to see how long I could go without needing to swab the barrel. I went 24 shots and swabbed the barrel to see what I found. It was virtually clean enough to keep shooting without a swab. But I was shooting 95 gr. loads and didn't notice any recoil pain mostly because I was using a Simms pad. But I would say the BH209 did have a different recoil then the other powders.

Now as to the scopes and eye relief. This has always been a bone with me. I don't believe the 3.5" to 4.5" eye relief is comfortable. Especially if you would be using the maximum range on a variable scope. Something in the range of 4.5" to 5" minimum would be more comfortable. How much of a pain would that cause for the manufacturers to fix? I had a major problem with the Knight Vision's eye relief:



I had to find an offset ring to fix my problem. I could have changed the LOP and cut down the stock, but really why should I have to do this on a new gun. Bad on you Knight!!!

I would say that the Simms pad or one like it would be an easy fix. Recoil and sound report is never a problem when taking that game shot. Who remembers them? But a fun filled day at the range, would need some form of shoulder protection. Constant pounding to your should and high levels of loud noise to your hearing requires some form of protection! Should be common sense. As an aside, I worked on an aircraft flightline for over 26 years working on jet fighters and wore two forms of ear protection and am finally beginning to lose my hearing now after more then 25 years. So even with good protection, you still have to realize it will have some form of bad effects to your body.

Sorry for the soap box guys!!!