Speaking of how your shoulder feels, I'm reminded of the story about a reporter who asked a Marine sniper "what do you feel when you shoot a terrorist?" His reply was "recoil". Now that's succinct !
The muzzle break tames it down to '06 levels. But without the break it's 50+ pounds of felt recoil. An '06 is about 16 if I recall. A .375 is about 35. My .375 is having a break put on it as we speak
As far as noise goes I've got two examples for ya. My last .375 had a KDF slimline break on it. The range in Kenai has a covered shooting area about 100' long with about a dozen benches to shoot off of. No side walls, just something to keep the rain off. I showed up one day and there were two guys at one end setting up to do some practice competitve shooting with some tricked out .308s. Knowing I my muzzle blast was significant I set up at the far end. I set up and by the third round I noticed they weren't shooting. Turns out the muzzle blast was echoing so bad under that roof that they couldn't concentrate! They also said something about the shockwave probably throwing off the flight path of their 168 gr boat tails
The other example is when I loaned that self same rifle to my father for a hunt on Kodiak Island for Sitka blacktails. He and the guy he was hunting with spotted some dear. Dad swung the rifle up and aimed at the biggest buck. The guy with him stepped up just in line with the side of the muzzle (not in front of the muzzle but still VERY dumb--behind the reciever is my policy) as Dad touched it off. The deer went down and dad's hunting partner went down. Dad thought for a minute the guy had actually been shot even though he was 3 feet to the side. He was ok, but deaf in one ear for most of the rest of the day. One last similar example is don't shoot one across the hood of a truck...will leave scorch marks in the paint! The noise for the shooter isn't any worse then with a rifle without a break, but for the people to the sides it's significantly more.
Here's a size reference:
Left to right:
.22 Stinger (LR)
.357 Magnum with 125gr Hydrashock
.44 Magnum with 232gr Hard Cast Keith type slug
.45 ACP with 230gr Golden Saber
.22-250 with 55gr Sierra Gameking BTSP
.270 with 130gr Speer (practice load)
.32 Winchester Special with 170 Gr Speer flat point (practice load)
.375 H&H with 270gr Barnes Triple Shock
.458 Lott with 500gr Barnes Triple Shock
.458 Lott with 400gr Barnes Monolithic Solid
They don't make the 400gr Solid anymore, just 450 and 500. I'll be going to the 500. There is a little over 6000 ft-lbs of energy at the muzzle.
With the muzzle break, it's fun to fire at night
I'll have to do that and post a pic sometime.