I know this thread is old but I'm only posting this because the info here is wrong and it comes up on google as the first answer. Recoil direction does NOT get better as the numbers go up. The distance of the reticule jump after each shot gets lower as it goes up. Recoil direction takes turns going left and right every 10. 50 is left. 60 is right. 70 is left. Every number ending in 5 is straight up. 100 is also straight up. So basically 50 is left, then gets less left till 55, then starts going right, and maxed right at 60. Then it starts going back to the left. Hope that helps someone.

Think of it like a percentage of shots that land dead centre accurate at where you're aiming with millimeter precision. So at 73 you have 27% that are landing off centre to the left or right, most guns tend to lean one way and not the other but also one thing to note is that this is really mainly just a factor under sustained fire, like shooting through the whole magazine at a wall will display the direction and severity of the recoil pattern or sway. Also the precision frame seems to mitigate this and keeps the spread tight around the true centre spot. I'd have to do testing to really get into that though. Pulse rifles are a bit different and the recoil direction stat appears to heavily influence the vertical/horizontal grouping within the individual burst ( 3 rounds per trigger pull ). Very similar to what was going on with the auto rifle in that firing through the magazine you'll see movement to probably one side and naturally there's muzzle climb so the pattern tends to rise from the initial shot. But also this recoil affects the individual bursts of 3 with thier own mini pattern if you can call it that. A recoil direction of 55 might look like this: O O O A recoil direction of 90 will probably look like this: O O O Nearly vertical. Also high stability will make the vertical grouping closer together, so a high recoil direction combined with high stability is obviously the preferred way to go. 90+ recoil direction with 80+ stability : O O O Very tight and accurate! These are just hypothetical examples but hopefully it helps you to see how it works.

Recoil direction is the tendency for your gun to kick to the side, this is widely regarded as the "worst" kind of kick. The higher the stat number the more of a straight line upwards your recoil will have. You want higher numbers. That said some guns fire rate or actual stability negate the need to have high recoil direction.