All of the rifles I hunt with without doubt qualify as harsh recoiling. I own three belted magnums, a 300wsm, three fully rifled 12ga slug guns, one dedicated 12ga smooth bore slug gun, three 12ga 3.5" turkey guns two .50 cal inlines both push a 325 grain FTX at a MV of about 2100fps and one .50cal smokeless ML that my favorite load pushes a 250 grain Barnes T-MZ at a MV of 2850fps and a my second favorite pushes a 290 grain T-MZ at a MV of 2450fps.
The first 6-7 years of my deer hunting was done with 12 gauge 3" magnum 1oz Active foster slugs and for those of you who don't know, a 1oz slug equals 437.5 grains and the 1oz Active slugs have a MV of 1650fps. I didn't know any better and just accepted that this was the way things were and don't ever recall even noticing the recoil. Then I graduated to fully rifled slug guns my first being a Marlin 512 slug master and at the same time discovered and used for the next 6-7 years Lightfield slugs and used their 12ga 3" magnum 1-3/8oz (or 600grns) Commander IDS sabot slug at a MV of 1450fps. The next 6-7years were with 12ga 3" magnum Winchester PT/G sabot that pushed a .50 caliber 385 grain bullet at a MV of about 1700fps. For 6 of the last nine years I have been using the discontinued Federal Barnes Tipped Expander sabot rounds that pushed a .50 cal 300 grain bullet at 1900fps. Since Indiana allowed certain bottled necked cartridges for hunting on private ground three years ago I have been using my 300wsm as that's what I have that is allowed
Over the 30+ years I have been deer and turkey hunting and practicing with the rifles and shotguns I hunt with I have expanded thousands upon thousands of rounds out of quite hard recoiling firearms and I can honestly say recoil is a complete non-factor for me. BUT, all of my rifles and shotguns have Limb Saver recoil pads on them and I use a Past magnum recoil shield as well but only for bench sessions.These two factors combined help a great deal with reducing felt recoil.
I will admit on my worst recoiling long guns being my 10ML-II and my turkey guns I do need to limit my shots from the bench. In the case of my 10ML-II its about 35-40 shots per bench session, which works out well as seeing it's a muzzleloader and needs time to cool off between shots and takes time to load it and I periodically pull out the breach plug and clean it, if I can get 6 shots off in an hour I'm doing well. It doesn't hurt it weighs with optics and ramrod a little over 10lbs either.
Thankfully or should I say mercifully I rarely need to take more than 20 shots from the bench with my turkey guns because there is no load development involved only patterning and sighting in at 50 yards and under. For those who know most shotgun stock designs generally sux for helping to manage or mitigate felt recoil, at least that is my opinion of the design of the stocks on my REM/870's. My turkey guns are where the LImbsaver recoil pads have made the most noticeable reduction in felt recoil. 2-1/8oz loads of #5 shot at a MV of 1200fps truly defines the saying tends to kill on one end and maim on the other.
For those looking for help with recoil I can not recommend the LimbSaver Air tech recoil pads strongly enough, they DO make a HUGE difference in felt recoil. Put one on my 12ga turkey gun when they first came out and it worked so phinominally well I put them on all my rifles and even replaced the ones that already had Pachmayr Decelerator pads on them they IMHO worked that well.
My sons (10-1/2 and 13) had spoke with their friends who turkey hunted prior to them and they had my sons quite concerned about recoil from the stories they were told of shoulders hurting for days after firing only a few 12ga 3" magnum turkey loads. I had them gradually work up to full bore turkey loads by firing light trap loads then gradually heavier upland game loads then turkey loads and thanks to the LS pad and having them wear my Past recoil shield they have no fear of recoil and regularly shoot my 300wsm with no issues.
For me like most people, recoil came down to what I was use to. I imagine if I started out deer hunting with a .243 or 7mm/08 for decades and then for the first time ever, shot a 7.5lb Remington 870 loaded with a 12ga 3" magnum 1.25oz/547 grain Foster slug with a MV of 1500-1650fps my opinion of recoil would likely be much different if not the direct opposite of what it is now.