Several years ago I was in Orlando for work, at AT&T on behalf of Army Operational Test command. One of the AT&T guys took a couple of us to the range. He had two Mosin-Nagants. One set up like a WW-II sniper rifle. He loaded differently for the two, and for the SVT he also had. I shot the scoped MN and the SVT. Neither kicked all that bad. I had my target on the wall of the office, along with a picture of the (type of) rifle.. and on the target I wrote "Enemy at the Gates". :) I didn't think either kicked all that much.
Yep. I think that whole "kicked like a mule" myth is hooey. I've shot an '06 that was much worse, even with a butt pad.