Learning curve My Eye !!! and I mean my eye. I have been shooting my 7 mag for years and never have I been hit by it, probaly because that I am fully aware that if you do not sholder any rifle with this kind of recoil correctly ( firmly against your sholder ) it can and will smack you. . .
As a reminder this years past muzzleloader season I was reminded of it very well and I dont think that I will forget it for a while, I was sitting on a chair along a logging road that I have hunted for years, so being right handed I was sort of set up to shoot primarly to my left ( I also had cut me a shooting stick ) well as you can guess I glanced to my right to see a nice 8 point Whitetail about 150 yards away he had already crossed the road and must have stopped ( for some reason ) just to glance at me, well I know from hunting this road for years that I had NO time to waste so I turned very Quickly moving the shooting stick along with the 7 and as soon as I seen the deers rack I hastly put the crosshairs on his vital area and pulled the trigger ( I have to mention that I use 150 grs ( 3 pellets ) and I busted the Buck and also took a chunk of meat out of the bridge of my nose, and was bleeding like a stuck Pig, a couple of days later I ended up with two Black eyes. What I did wrong was not turning completly and not setting up properly.
Moral of my story is Hold that rifle very firmly against your sholder and your head firmly against the stock and as long as you have 2 inches of eye relief it should be enough.

PS It is hard to follow a blood trail if you are also leaving one