Agreed. I don't think a Mosin will bruise you if you hold it correctly.
It's more of a friendly shove than a kick if you hold it right. I think the problem is, most people don't hold it tight enough to their shoulder. ...
The best way to shoot is to keep it low an towards your armpit, not your shoulder, then extend the rifle about 1 to 2 inches away from you to avoid the recoil, attempting to make the rifle snug on your shoulder is a misconception, with a scoped rifle follow the same thing while keeping your eye as close to the scope as you can for a good sight picture.
I don't feel much shooting my Mosin, the pad on my ATI stock, albeit small, is much better than the factory metal plate... However, my shoulder is also desensitized from thousands, upon thousands, upon thousands of 7.62NATO in my shoulder.