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Recoil Pad Reviews

Jun 07
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Best Recoil Pad

Wide Open Spaces Reviews FalconStrike Hydraulic Recoil Pad

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Take the pain out of shooting with the innovative and effective FalconStrike Hydraulic Recoil Pad. Your shoulder will thank you.

The FalconStrike Hydraulic Recoil Pad will reduce recoil by 25 percent and muzzle rise by 35 percent, which in turn allows for greater accuracy. Do I have your attention yet? When a company makes such a claim about their product, I tend to really take notice and I knew I had to put it to the test for myself.

The folks over at FalconStrike were kind enough to send me their hydraulic recoil pad to review and I couldn’t have been any more impressed with the product.

As an avid military surplus rifle shooter, I have encountered my fair share of different recoil pads. They have usually all provided the same result; a slight decrease in felt recoil. Standard aftermarket recoil pads may be enough for more casual shooters or those who prefer shooting rounds with light recoil. However, I wanted to find something better. That’s where the FalconStrike Hydraulic Recoil Pad comes in.

Simply put, I have never come across a more effective recoil pad and don’t think that is likely to change any time soon.

Best Recoil PadHow it Works
I received a recoil pad to test on my Mossberg 535 12 GA shotgun. I use that firearm primarily for turkey hunting and knew that the heavy turkey loads I shoot would be a great test for the FalconStrike Hydraulic Recoil Pad. Before I get to my test results, let’s talk more about the technology that went into the creation of this recoil pad and how it works.

The FalconStrike recoil pad is the only pad on the market with a built-in hydraulic damper which converts 94 percent of the energy that flows through it into heat at a molecular level. In turn, this reduces the felt energy by 30 percent. One of the most impressive parts about this recoil pad is the fact that the more energy you put through it, the more effective it becomes.

According to Nicholas Lemieux of FalconStrike:

This unique damper reduces the peak force of firearms by 25% and total recoil energy by 35%, compared to any rubber-only recoil pad. The more you make it work, the more it works! For example, a 12 gauge shotgun like the Remington 870 tactical loaded with 2 3/4 shells has about 1400 lbs. of peak force. The FalconStrike Recoil Converter can reduce this peak force down to 600 lbs. of peak force which is a reduction of peak recoil by more than 50%.

 

 

Installation
Installing the FalconStrike Hydraulic Recoil Pad is a simple endeavor. All you have to do is remove your particular firearm’s original recoil pad, or butt plate, and attach the included adapter plate with the included hardware. Once that is done, you attach the cam plate to the adapter plate using two included machine screws. The only thing left to do is attach the recoil pad using the well-designed latch system.

My Test
My goal with my testing of the FalconStrike Hydraulic Recoil Pad was to keep it as simple as possible. All of the science and math behind the effectiveness of this product is impressive, but I wanted to simulate real-world use.

I simply took my shotgun out to the range with a handful of heavy turkey loads and some targets and got to shooting. Having owned my shotgun for several years, I am very familiar with the recoil and muzzle rise that I could expect. Make no mistake, this is no light-kicking shotgun, especially when the adrenaline provided by a live turkey in my sights isn’t available.

 

 

From my first shot, I was very impressed with the reduction in recoil that I felt. I almost couldn’t believe just how effective it was. However, shot after shot proved that the FalconStrike recoil pad is the real deal and does exactly what it claims to do. The decrease in muzzle rise was also very impressive and staying on target for a quick follow-up shot was much easier while using the FalconStrike.

All in all, I ran 10 rounds of heavy turkey loads through my Mossberg during my test. That may not sound like a lot, but hey, that turkey ammo ain’t cheap. If I had shot 10 rounds in one range session with this gun and no FalconStrike Hydraulic Recoil Pad, I guarantee that I would have had a very sore shoulder the next day. Luckily, I was saved from that discomfort thanks to the FalconStrike.

I really can’t praise this product enough. It makes some impressive claims and backs them up with its performance. Products that do that are few and far between these days, but the FalconStrike comes through with flying colors. If you need more convincing, check out this video of an egg placed between a shooter’s shoulder and the recoil pad and being unscathed after a shot is fired.

 

Final Verdict
After testing and researching the FalconStrike Hydraulic Recoil Pad, I would not hesitate to recommend this product to any hunter or shooter. If it has one downside, it would be the price. While that is a lot compared to some of the other available aftermarket recoil pads, it is well worth it in my opinion.

It would especially be worth it for high-volume shooters and hunters. Upland game hunters, duck hunters and shooters who spend a lot of time on the range would all save their shoulders a lot of wear and tear by using the FalconStrike Hydraulic Recoil Pad. If you fit any of those descriptions or are simply tired of getting kicked by heavy recoil, then this product is for you and you won’t regret the investment for a second.

To purchase one of these recoil pads for yourself, go to the FalconStrike website today.

This article appeared on Wide Open Spaces and was written by Brian Belko

 

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Mar 07
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A Better Recoil Pad?

By Recoil Pad Reviews, Recoil Pad Reviews No Comments

Whither the recoil pad?

As a rule, the firearms industry thrives on better-mousetrap optimism.  Every year, thousands of products are put on display at trade shows in hopes of finding a distributor; some succeed and most disappear without a trace.  Many offer improvements in performance measured in percentages or fractions, and after a while, they all blur together and nothing seems like genuine innovation anymore.  We therefore admit guilt to the following: nobody at Calibre believed the claims about the Falconstrike recoil pad.  Is there really a new way to stick an inch of padding on the end of a gun?  We thought the search for recoil reduction had relocated to the muzzle end, and that it still didn’t work very well.

But not everyone gave up on finding a solution to the seemingly intractable problem.  Like so many aspects of this industry, sometimes you just need to put the problem in front of the right person.  In this case, that person was Martin Gaudet of Gaudet Compensating Dampers.  GCD, in addition to owning the Falconstrike brand, build industrial damping equipment, and their entire engineering and manufacturing business revolves around measuring, and defeating, unintended motion.

Enter the Falconstrike Recoil…Converter.  Yes, it’s a pad.  But this is the most intelligent pad we’ve ever seen.  There’s an outer rubber layer which is grippy and kind of stretchy, an inner layer of cohesive gel, and the whole thing is wrapped around one of Gaudet’s industrial dampers, although the padding around the damper is so thick it’s almost impossible to feel where it begins and ends.  It certainly feels squishy and comfortable, so naturally we took it to the range, downloaded an accelerometer app onto an old phone, and duct taped the phone to a Remington 870.

 

Falcon Strike

 

In retrospect, we should have taped the phone to something other than the receiver.  Also, the glass would have been safer facing outwards.

At any rate, what we can tell you is this: the claims Falconstrike makes about this pad are pretty accurate.  It eats recoil, better than any pad we’ve tried.  During the firing cycle, the gel balloons the rubber surround outward, and the damper deadens the impulse.  Why is it called a “Converter”?  It’s called a converter because the laws of physics prevent any device from deleting energy from the recoil, but there’s no reason that energy can’t be converted from motion into, say, heat.  That’s what the Falconstrike does: it uses some kind of space-age polymer which reacts to impact by getting warmer instead of bouncing.

The effect is astonishing.  The Falcon Strike genuinely does soak up impact like nothing we’ve tried.  True, its appearance is somewhat true to its industrial origins; true, the consistency is so squishy that some competitive shotgunners will find the feel a bit indistinct when trying for a truly repeatable shouldering.  But the recoil reduction is second to none.

With a street price around $200, buyers will expect performance that blows cheaper pads away.  But even after we tell you how well it works, we still think you’ll be surprised.

To purchase one of these recoil pads for yourself, go to the FalconStrike website today.

This article appeared on Calibre and was written by Geordie Pickard

 

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