When my wife surprised me with a brand new Weatherby .378 with the walnut stock and no muzzle brake (I had never heard of a muzzle brake) I took the rifle to the range to sight it in. The first thing that happened is that I was asked to move to the end of the range after the first shot.
I had all day so I shot and cooled the barrel between shots. I shot 19 rounds that afternoon and saved the twentieth round in case I needed to stop a big truck on the way home. My shoulder hurt a little that evening and the next morning my shoulder was black, blue, and greenish-yellow. Then I tried to turn my head. My neck was sore for almost two weeks. That was about 40 years ago. I now have a brake on the rifle and it isn't bad to shoot at all. I do occasionally take the brake off for others to shoot and enjoy. Most only want to shoot it once--after pulling the scope out from above their eye--they are convinced.
