One great advantage of handloading is adjusting the ballistics to suite a particular need. Wish you could enjoy that .375 H&H at the range for 50 shots instead of 2 or 3 before the recoil takes its toll? Or how about some extended practice on a plate rack with your “grizzly bear stopper” revolver? The Hodgdon Reloading Data Center has an option to do just this. 

Unfortunately, creating a low recoil load is not as simple as just dropping the powder charge. For most cartridge / powder combinations, getting the powder charge low will cause ignition and ballistic problems. Low velocity, low recoil loading is possible, but as always, only with the correct reload data.

Hodgdon has three separate tabs under the DATA menu of the website’s main page to help in low recoil loading.

• The first is titled “H4895 Reduced Rifle Loads”. H4895 has proven to be a versatile powder that performs superbly at lower powder charges. Loads in this listing are reduced from full power but still offer mid-range performance.
• If the goal is minimum recoil, the answer is Hodgdon Trail Boss powder. The second tab under the website DATA menu is titled “Trail Boss Reduced Loads”. Trail Boss can be applied to any cartridge you may want to reload. Trail Boss reloads are very mild and easy to shoot. Designed for Cowboy Action Shooting, Trail Boss has proven to be a great way to get more practice with your big bore hunting rifle.
• Not to leave shotgun shooters out, the third tab under the website’s DATA menu is titled “Reduced Recoil Shotgun Loads”. These loads give enough velocity to break a thrown clay target but take a big bite out of the recoil. Ideal for training, particularly for women and youth shooters, where even a light standard target load can wallop the shoulder hard.