<< Mookow,
Good explanation. There's also barrel length and balance to consider. I wonder about this, though:
<< A 1 pound 44Mag could probably be made, but the kick would be ugly, just because the gun would be traveling backwards 3x faster than a 3 pound 44Magnum >>
It doesn't seem to me that the recoil could be 3x greater just because the weapon was 1/3 the weight. I don't know how to explain it technically, but my sense is that it wouldn't be that linear.
Russ, NCNE >>
I didnt say the recoil was linear, its just that the speed of the gun is linear (going from physics).
total momentum before = total momentum after
0=0
thus the total momentum afterwards = 0
the equation for momentum is: momentum=m*v
so, the speed of the bullet times its mass must be equal to the speed of the gun times its mass.
Going from that, I think the speed of the gun should be linear. But, you dont feel the speed of the gun, you feel its kinetic energy, or, rather more specifically, you feel the impulse due to its kinetic energy.
kinetic energy is = 1/2*m*v^2
I dont feel like getting into impulse, mainly because I would have to look it all up to double check. In any event, I can say that the gun's initial speed (before it really hits your hand) scales like so: v=K/m, where K is some constant.