To help fight recoil from an AR-15 chambered in 450 Bushmaster, here’s how I installed a recoil pad.

by Charlie Briggs

A new customer brought me his wife’s brand-new 450 Bushmaster. This is essentially your everyday AR-15 on steroids. He had purchased his own, largely for hunting Florida’s abundant feral hogs, but his petite young bride had decided she wanted to join him on these potentially exciting hunts and wanted a 450 Bushmaster of her own. However, he thought the recoil was stout enough (about that of a 20 gauge shotgun) to warrant a recoil pad. In the August 2020 issue of iiShooting Times an article noted, “Shooting the 450 Bushmaster is an adventure. It’s accurate, all right, but you know when you’ve touched it off! It kicks. For recoil figures, handloads ranged from 9.5 to 14.6 foot-pounds, bellowing huge, bright orange balls from the muzzle. But everything shot with it is apt to stay shot.”

Not surprisingly, after shooting his at the range, the recoil quickly became a problem for her. My customer was initially interested in an “exotic” compensator for her rifle but I suggested a new recoil pad instead. Here’s how I installed it.

Read more in the March 2021 issue.

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