There is reduced recoil ammunition available for some of the popular cartridges such as the 30-06 and 270. The recoil reduction can be quite significant. Of course a handloader can make most any cartridge shoot softer and to a degree make them shoot harder.
You can make the common cartridges shoot softer but it is quite difficult to make the smaller cartridges shoot harder.
http://www.midwayusa.com/low-recoil/br?cid=22221
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/882...oint-box-of-20