limb saver recoil pads
 

recently purchased a remington 700 in 338WM. the person that installed the scope told me i should also purchase a limb saver recoil pad which he installed. when shooting it i get the feeling that it is to soft and allows the gun to come back and hit my shoulder pretty hard. i am thinking about reinstalling the original pad as it seems to be a little firmer and i am thinking it would cause my gun to more or less pivot around my anchor point as opposed to hitting straight back into my shoulder.

I like a slightly stiffer pad on hard kicking rifles, but I also want the rifle to come straight back during recoil for rifles up to and including the .375. .416s and larger rifles ("big guns" to me) I have to let the rifle to rise and flex with the recoil or it beats me up too much. I shoot "big guns" from standing, even to the point of using a standing rest for sighting in.
The recoil of a .338 WM is stiff and sharp, but you probably don't want the rifle to "pivot" during recoil. Too much pivot and not enough flex may equal a scope in the face. Grip the fore end firmly and let it come straight back into your shoulder and you may find the recoil is heavy, but not too bad.
Good hunting.

The .338 WM is a stout thumper...I'd keep the limb saver myself (or swap to a kick-eze).

I have Limbsaver pads on several of my rifles, including my .375 RUM, my .300 Weatherby, and my 7mm Rem mag. I think they work just fine.

You will regret it if you go back. What I feel more of is face slap if I press my cheek to the stock. I have learned to ease up there. As long as you have both, put the original back on, I would be extremely surprised if you didn't switch back to the SIMS after one shooting session.

I use a limbsaver on my turkey guns. I've had black and blue shoulders from my 3" gun after a day of patterning, My 3.5" gun was even worse. Since I installed limbsaver pads, no more purple body parts.

Tamed down my 45-70 to a tolerant kick.

I just bought a GG in 45-70 and a slip on limb-saver pad to lengthen the pull as stock was just too short. I haven't shot the gun yet so don't know how much kick to expect compared to my 270 or 338 and plan on experimenting with and without the limb-saver. How much recoil reduction have you guys seen with the limb-saver?

The felt recoil difference should be very noticable. It is a good soft pad.

Rifles with a short LOP seem to bother me with recoil more than a similar rifle with a longer LOP.