Author: Grumpy
“The Way We Were”
I saw this article from Michael Smith and it made me think, it was something that I read that a soldier commented during the Korean war and it was really driven home during the Vietnam war and every war since.
There has been a disconnect between the G.I’s fighting and the American people, as one commented “Its like they don’t even know that there is a war on except for the evening news and the caskets coming home, there is no sense of urgency, no sense of sacrifice, 24 hours after you catch the freedom bird you are home. and you feel lost.
The people at home have no clue what you went through, they have no frame of reference. nothing.” This sentiment has gone on through every war since Korea, now the WWII vets had an idea so that helped with Korea, but after that, there was no frame of reference.
This disconnect has caused a chasm between the actions of the U.S. Military and the society. The WWII generation would have understood what President Trump was trying to do to keep the Mad Mullahs’ from getting nuclear weapons.
But this generation is soo coddled so inured, they have no sense of sacrifice, they can’t endure any discomfort, what was to happen if we were to get into a war with a peer or a near peer adversary, our soft society couldn’t handle the strain, they would fold rather than fight to save the country, rather than endure, not realizing what would happen in the future is much worse. I fear for this country. for the country that my son will inherit.
I just paid $3.79 per gallon for regular gas to fill up my truck. Two months ago, that was $2.49 per gallon.
As I was thinking about that change, I also thought about going through my mom’s stuff after she died and finding ration coupons from the WWII era and it trigged a consideration about just how soft and coddled America is as compared to the war effort against the Axis powers and how some are not willing to pay even a small price or experience a tiny amount of discomfort as America seeks to end a global threat.
My dad was a Sergeant First Class in the Army Corps of Engineers and was on the beach at Normandy as a combat engineer. I remember him talking about the start of the war and how the people of rural Mississippi pulled together as husbands, fathers, brothers and sons enlisted, left the farms and went to war. I remember my mom and my extended family of grandparents, aunts and uncles, talking about what it was like during the war and the sacrifices they willingly made.
How different it seems today.
During World War II, the American home front became an extension of the battlefield, not through combat, but through discipline, restraint, and a shared understanding that victory required sacrifice from everyone. The government did not simply ask for support, it organized daily life around it, and ordinary citizens adjusted accordingly.
Rationing was the most visible expression of that shift. Basic staples such as sugar, meat, butter, and coffee were no longer items of casual purchase but controlled commodities, distributed through coupon books that limited how much any household could buy.
The system was not merely about scarcity; it was about fairness and prioritization. Soldiers needed food first, and industry needed raw materials, so civilians learned to stretch meals, substitute ingredients, and accept that abundance was temporarily off the table.
In backyards across the country, “Victory Gardens” appeared, turning private property into small-scale food production and reinforcing the idea that self-reliance was part of national service.
Fuel and transportation were similarly constrained.
Gasoline was rationed, and tires became precious due to rubber shortages, forcing Americans to rethink mobility. Carpooling was encouraged, unnecessary travel discouraged, and even speed limits were lowered to conserve fuel and extend tire life.
The automobile, long a symbol of American freedom, became subject to collective necessity. Convenience gave way to coordination.
Clothing and consumer goods followed the same pattern. Fabric, leather, and rubber were diverted to military use, leaving civilians with fewer options and a clear message: use what you have.
The phrase “make do and mend” was not a slogan but a practical instruction. Clothes were repaired instead of replaced, wardrobes simplified, and even small luxuries, like nylon stockings, disappeared almost overnight because those materials were needed for parachutes and other military equipment.
Perhaps the most participatory aspect of the home front effort was the nationwide push for scrap collection and recycling. Americans were asked to gather metal, rubber, paper, and even used cooking grease, all of which could be repurposed for war production.
These drives turned neighborhoods, schools, and civic groups into active contributors to the industrial war machine. It was not enough to conserve, one was expected to contribute.
Even energy use became a matter of national concern. Households were encouraged to limit electricity and heating consumption, and in coastal areas, blackout measures were enforced to reduce visibility to potential enemy attacks. Daily routines were adjusted in small but meaningful ways, reinforcing the sense that the war touched every aspect of life.
Rationing wasn’t just about scarcity, it was about true shared sacrifice and discipline, not the made up virtue signaling crap of today. The government framed it as a civic duty: every pound of sugar saved, every mile not driven, every scrap collected contributed, at least symbolically, to victory.
It created a culture where restraint and conservation were patriotic, and waste and excess were quietly frowned upon.
Taken together, these measures reshaped American habits and expectations. Comfort was reduced, convenience curtailed, and consumption disciplined, and in exchange, there was a widely shared belief that these sacrifices mattered. The home front operated on a simple premise: that millions of small acts of restraint and contribution could add up to something decisive.
There is no doubt that presidents, politicians, and planners played a large role in crushing the spirit of unity. From Jack Kennedy to the Biden administration, America cocked up pretty much every military operation, and our military paid the price. Soldiers and sailors returning from Vietnam were spit on and called “baby killers.”
I get the feeling that tide has turned, at least for most of America. I hope so, given we are engaged in what I and many others believe is the alteration of the global power structure in a positive direction for everybody but America’s stated enemies.
Something we should remember as we head into our 250th year.
Want to get better at handling the hard hitters? Here are six ways to reduce felt recoil from the bench.
When we shoot from a bench rest, we’re usually sighting in a rifle or testing ammunition. When doing either, it’s important to get the best shot to shot results we can. The problem is that sustained recoil can negatively impact not only your shooting but also your enjoyment. There are some ways you can mitigate felt recoil when shooting from a bench rest, and these techniques become very important when you crawl behind a hard-kicking rifle.
The general consensus among firearms trainers is that most experienced adult shooters can withstand about 20 shots from a bench rest with a .30-06 Springfield rifle without experiencing excessive discomfort or a negative impact on accuracy and precision. The amount of free recoil energy the average .30-06 rifle with a scope will generate is right at about 20 foot-pounds. Of course, some rifles recoil much harder. A .338 Winchester Magnum can generate almost twice as much free recoil energy.
But it’s not always about free recoil energy.
Due to the configuration of some rifles and their lack of a soft butt pad, even lighter recoiling rifles can be uncomfortable to shoot, and too, everyone has different recoil tolerance levels.
Years ago, I purchased a Marlin 1895 Cowboy lever action rifle in .45-70 Government. Based on recoil calculations, that rifle recoiled with just a tad more than 20 foot-pounds of free recoil energy.
However, because of the way the rifle was configured with its thin hard plastic butt plate, it was painful to shoot from the bench. Shooting while standing offhand wasn’t bad at all, but after four or five shots off a bench with full-power loads, your eyes would start watering.
If you’re going to be doing a good bit of shooting from a bench rest with a rifle that has a bit of bite, try some of these techniques to help diminish that bite. Individually they all work, but by combining them you can usually make a rifle that’s no fun at all to shoot from a bench at least tolerable enough to allow you to test several loads and/or sight it in.
1: Hold Her With Passion
As soon as a rifle fires, it will begin moving to the rear. If there is a space between the rifle’s butt pad and your shoulder, that movement and impact will enhance recoil pain. This is especially true if the rifle does not have a soft butt pad.
Before you press the trigger, make sure the butt stock is snug against your shoulder—but be careful not to pull the rifle back into your shoulder forcibly. The stress of your muscles will make it more difficult to hold the rifle on target steady.
2: As Mom Would Say: Sit Up!
When most shooters get behind a rifle positioned on a bench rest, they tend to position the rifle as close to the bench as possible. If you do that and you’re about 6 feet tall, with most benches you will need to lean over to get low enough to place your shoulder on the rifle stock and your eye behind the sights. This position puts more of your body behind the rifle and when the rifle recoils your body will absorb—feel—more of the recoil because your body will not move easily to the rear.
The closer you can sit to an erect position when you shoot from a bench the less you will feel the punch on your shoulder. It more closely replicates shooting from a standing position. A gunsmith I know who builds dangerous game rifles built his test shooting bench high enough to shoot from while standing to limit felt recoil.
3: Get Yourself a Sissy Pad
One of the easiest ways to limit the pain associated with recoil when shooting from a benchrest is to use a sissy pad. These are pads you strap on your shoulder to help mitigate recoil. Caldwell and PAST offer several versions—and they do work. Your range buddies might call you a sissy and rag on you for using one … but just ignore them.
Remember, the reason you’re shooting from a bench is to evaluate ammo or sight in your rifle, and both need to be accomplished with as much precision as possible. You don’t shoot from a bench rest to demonstrate your manhood.
4: Slings Aren’t Just For Shoulders
When I am doing a lot of shooting from the bench with a rifle that has stiff recoil, I like to take the rifle strap and loop it firmly around the top front sandbag(s). This can tremendously reduce the reward force of the rifle during recoil, because the rifle must pull against the weight of the sandbag as it moves to the rear. If you’re using a real sandbag—filled with sand—as opposed to those filled with polymer pellets, this technique works like a lead sled.
5: It’s Time to Get a Suppressor
The baffles inside a suppressor redirect and slow the gas produced when a rifle is fired. This, in conjunction with the weight a suppressor adds to the rifle, helps reduce free recoil energy, sometimes by more than 25 percent.
But when it comes to felt recoil, the reduction can seem even more. With big-bore, hard-kicking rifles, the reduction is very noticeable because big-bore rifles require big, heavy suppressors. For example, the Banish V46 V2 suppressor, which will work on 0.375- and 0.458-caliber rifles, weighs right at 1 pound.
6: It’s OK to Put on Weight
The Caldwell Lead Sled is a mechanical rifle rest that has a cradle for your rifle’s forearm and a pocket for the butt stock. It’s adjustable and holds the rifle reasonably firmly. If you add one or more bags of lead shot to the undertray, it can eliminate a lot of felt recoil. The system, however, is not perfect because you are dramatically altering the way the rifle reacts to recoil … and this can alter your point of impact.
If you sight in your rifle with a lead sled, you should confirm your zero without it. Also, with extremely hard-recoiling rifles, the lead sled can strain the bedding of the rifle and, in some cases with extensive shooting, cause damage.
A lead sled still has application and is especially useful with new or young shooters who are very recoil sensitive, but if you properly employ the first five techniques a Lead Sled is not necessary.
Don’t Overdo It
All these techniques—individually or combined—can help you make hard kickers more tolerable to shoot. But even with these techniques, some rifles can still be uncomfortable. It’s not just the impact on your shoulder; it can be the sort of whiplash sensation applied to your neck.
One of the best things to do when shooting a heavy recoiling rifle is to shoot in moderation. A sustained pounding is what puts professional fighters on the canvas, and it does little to help you shoot your best.
Physics Lesson: Free Recoil Energy
If you use the internet as a source for recoil calculation, you’ll find various calculators you can plug data into to determine the recoil velocity, recoil energy and recoil impulse of a gun. Ironically, just as two shooters will experience the felt recoil of the same gun differently, these calculators will give you different results—they’ll be close but rarely identical.
But does it matter?
Not really, because none of these calculators will tell you exactly what it feels like to shoot a specific gun with a specific load. Still, because humans are conditioned to rate or score everything by numbers, we want a numerical answer to everything including how hard a gun will kick.
The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAAMI) sets the specifications manufacturers follow when they make guns and ammo and is a great source for free recoil energy information.
According to SAAMI, the momentum of a free-recoiling firearm is equal and opposite in direction to the momentum of the bullet (or shot charge/slug and wad column) and the propellant gases. Because propellant gases are extremely difficult to weigh, SAAMI equates the propellant gas weight to the powder charge weight.
But SAAMI tempers the velocity of the propellent gases based on gun type. The way the different calculators express the velocity of propellent gases is one reason you’ll see different results from different formulas.
According to SAAMI, the formula for determining the free recoil energy (FRE) of a firearm can be expressed as:
FRE = WF/(2×32.17) ((WEVE + WPCVEf)/(7000 x WF))2
where:
WF = weight of firearms in pounds
WE = weight (in grains of the ejecta—bullet or shot and wad column)
VE = velocity of the ejecta in feet per second
WPC = weight of projectile charge in grains
7000 = conversion factor for grains to pounds
VEƒ = velocity of the propellant gases (VE) multiplied by gun factor (ƒ)
where the value of ƒ =:
High Powered Rifle – 1.75VE
Shotguns (average length) – 1.50VE
Shotguns (long barrel) – 1.25VE
Pistols & revolvers – 1.50VE
Given this formula, a 7-pound high-powered rifle firing a 165-grain bullet with a powder charge weight of 40 grains at a muzzle velocity of 2,700 fps would have 18.26 foot-pounds of free recoil energy (FRE):
WF WE. VE WPC VE ƒ WF. FRE
7/(2×32.17) ((165*2700+40*(2700*1.75)/(7000*7))2=18.26 foot/pounds
I plugged this same data into three online recoil calculators, and the results were: 18.19, 18.2, 18.88, for an average of 18.42 foot-pounds for free recoil energy. You can take the time to work the formula, but that time will be mostly a waste because we’re all going to experience recoil force differently … at least by as much as the varied results provided by online calculators.