Balancing the stock

This sure has been a semi dead topic among the community. I really expected between the 2 forums that you would have had a bunch of opinions on this. I would like to see if everyone else's opinions are close to what mine are as well. I hope you get more responses fairly soon.

Tad
 
What about balance do you find subject to lots of opinion. Other than a heavy on a one piece rest, something around the action/ barrel junction, as Pete stated, is pretty standard, with weight between the bags.
That said, what might your thoughts be?
 
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I think there's no reason to concern yourself where the rifle balances. Just build a good rifle and never check that particular point. What I'm sayin' here is that if it won't shoot...balancing won't make it better. If it will shoot you don't need to balance it.
 
You mean all them Edge stocks McMillan sells with that hole in the back was a spot to hide the Mrs.' diamonds ?
 
tim said:
What about balance do you find subject to lots of opinion. Other than a heavy on a one piece rest, something around the action/ barrel junction, as Pete stated, is pretty standard, with weight between the bags.
That said, what might your thoughts be?
Click to expand...

Well there is many reasons I felt there would be many opinions about this subject. First being that heavy in a one peice rest is the go to thing for most shooters. That works fine for someone shooting unlimited only but not so well for the person that needs to try and make one rifle work for all classes(excluding sporter). There are many good guns out there that easily make 10.5lbs and are just as competitive as unlimited guns. For that matter there are some sporter guns that are just as competitive as well though not as many. Why is this? I feel that with RFBR just making the gun heavy is just a crutch to helping the balance and it just masks the balance issues that may or may not be there. I think making the gun just overall heavy is just easier for most and does work I guess in most cases except someone trying to meet weight requirements.

When a person is changing up the contact points or bag preasure of the rest on the stock they are changing the balance of the rifle if they realize it or not. I know most play in this area alot when setting up a new rifle and there can really be a difference in group size. This change is not as easily seen in the static state of the rifle in rest but makes a big difference to rifle behavior in the dynamic state. Has anyone set their rifle balance before to be in balance under recoil/being fired condition? I believe so but probably done by accident and the shooter/gunsmith was unaware that was what they did. One can also start to think about how their change in cheek or shoulder preasure and if pinching the trigger or not can really effect the dynamic balance of the rifle.

My opinion is that under recoil/shooting condition the balance point should be the centerline of the barrel/action in the vertical plane and somewhere around the trigger group as far as the horizontal plane is concerned. This will make the static balance different for most rifles but be somewhere remotely close to the same. I'm sure this opinion will be frowned upon by some and that's ok. Doesn't hurt my feelings either way. Just my 2 cents on the subject.

Wilbur,

I think for the largest part you are right that a good shooting rifle will just keep shooting and a poor rifle just will not. I think the rifle balance comes into play when you are trying to get the last bit out of a particular rifle if it shoots good, bad, or mediocre. There are quite a bit of good shooting rifles out there but few great ones. I just wonder how many of the good ones could have been great if the shooter would have pursued making changes in the right places. If it's balance or something else who's to say but I think balance is a semi discounted part of the puzzle.

Tad
 
I moved over to Air Guns 8 years ago and felt the same way about if balance is important.

When getting started I spent way too much money getting the gun set up and into an absolutely beautiful Mike Turner Black Laminate wood bench stock, plus adding a few other doo dads. It is beautiful!

I still have it in that stock, but the point of balance ended up forward of the intersection between the barrel and action due to their being a fairly large air tank up front, plus I added a custom barrel and the equivelant to a tuner, an Air Stripper made from brass. The gun does shoot lights-out, but is front end heavy.

In Airgun Benchrest we also shoot free recoil from the same rests as used in rimfire, both 2-Piece and One-Piece. The problem I found with all that weight being out closer to the muzzle is, this gun requires me to apply a good amount of pressure just above the pistol grip as it will float otherwise.

Even though I've always believed in positioning any gun as far back in the front rest as possible, the butt end is still to light and needs added pressure to keep it stable. Someday I'll probably either add some lead under the end cap (in airgun, the Class I shoot allows up to 15#, so I can add just under 5# and still make weight).

I don't know if any of this helps, but it is another opinion coming in from a different angle.

Good luck.

Dave
 
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Thanks guys. Tad E stated my opinion. The gun is a 10.5 class rifle and I am trying to get every bit out of it that I can. I have been shooting it in the unlimited class also. I just got a 2500X action built that will be the unlimited class gun but have not received it yet. Thought I would ask for playing with the weight of the unlimited class rifle. Not much I can do with the 10.5 and still make weight.
 
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