RECOIL
When buying a pistol the amount of recoil you are able to stand plays an important part.
This is not entirely a matter of physique.
A slight, wiry man, whose hands and muscles are in hard condition, and who “gives” to the recoil will be able to shoot a pistol having a recoil which would knock all the shooting out of a man who was in a flabby condition, or not accustomed to manual work, even if that man were much heavier and stronger.
Some men can bear punishment better than others.
The duelling pistol has not only no appreciable recoil, but the recoil is distributed by the big stock over the whole of the hand.
The duelling pistol has the longest stock of any pistol and also has no projections to hurt the hand.
The pistol most people would imagine has no recoil is the small .32 pocket revolver and this is the very one whose recoil hurts more than almost any other pistol.
Recoil depends on the proportion between the cartridge charge and the weight of the pistol.
A pistol weighing 2½ lbs. would shoot the .32 cartridge with hardly any appreciable recoil.