Purpose of adding weight to an air pistol

Jack Milchanowski · Post by **Jack Milchanowski** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 9:47 am

Exactly what is the purpose of adding weight to an air pistol? I am not convinced that the purpose is to absorb the shock of the shot as there is little or no recoil.

I have read and heard some say, “It helps to hold the front sight steady”. Does it really? Adding weight at the end of a long fulcrum seems in a way to be self defeating for holding steady.

Like many of us on the forum, I have only been shooting for a few months, and I am inquisitive. It seems that more dry firing and working on the settle, hold, front sight, and follow through would benefit one more than trying to add weight to “hold still”.

I have done a search and believe I have read all past forum comments. None were very specific as to why adding weight is helpful or not.

Come see us in the woods.
Jack

Fred Mannis · Post by **Fred Mannis** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 1:04 pm

When I'm having a bad day, and shooting a pistol balanced toward the grip, I notice that the front sight seems to vibrate a little. Adding mass at the end of the barrel increases moment of inertia and dampens the vibrations. This also helps reduce the lower frequency motions associated with movement of your entire arm.

If you do not pull the trigger straight to the rear, the sideways force will displace the front sight. Again, increasing the moment of inertia will reduce the rate at which the sight is displaced so that the shot may be gone before the sight has moved. Of course this does not address root cause, but it may be one reason why some pistols are more 'forgiving' than others.

Oz · Post by Oz » Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:50 pm

I like how Fred summed that up. I can give you a personal example of this. About 6 months ago, when my goal was to build up muscle for stamina, I tapped a tin of pellets near the front of my pistol. Over 3 weeks my scores continued to increase and I felt pretty good about myself. Thinking I was so smug, 2 days before a match I took the tin of pellets off believing I was removing an intentional handicap. I couldn't wait to see how much my scores were going to go up.

To my horror, the front sight of my pistol bobbed and darted around like nothing I had ever seen before. It took a lot of effort and extra practice to get my hold back in time for the match. The extra mass out front does a great job of damping and smoothing out that front sight.

Oz

toznerd · Post by **toznerd** » Sat Apr 04, 2009 5:37 pm

In the last World Cup in Bangkok, 3 out of 8 mens 10M shooters had an additon of weight, all on the axis of the barrel: 2 Steyr LP-10s (relatively 'light' out of the box), and a Walther LP-300 (What, an airpistol not a Morini or Steyr in a world class event? Isn't that a sign of the modern apocalypse?)

toznerd

Jack Milchanowski · Post by **Jack Milchanowski** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:42 am

I certainly appreciate the replys. Fred puts it so politely- "lower frequency motions associated with movement of your entire arm".

Does the addition of weight just mask the problems one has with trigger movement and hold?

Toznerd pointed out that three in recent finals at world cup had extra weight. Two might have been because of "light weight" pistol to begin with.

I guess I am wondering how many shooters actually use extra weight and is it useful?

I know I can add weight and see if it is helpful to my shooting. I am trying to be thrifty. It will cost over $100 US to buy a weight system for my Mornini 162 M.

Come see us in the woods.
Jack

Oz · Post by Oz » Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:50 am

Everyone has issues with trigger movement and hold motion. There are just at different levels. Of course the idea is to minimize them as much as possible through training. But if the addition of weight is a method that is useful in reducing the issues, use it!

BTW - You only need to buy the expensive purpose created weights if you want. A lot of elite shooters use stick-on wheel weights and strategically place them on their pistols. Those will cost you about $5 for the same amount of weight.

Oz

toznerd · Post by **toznerd** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:22 am

Jack Milchanowski wrote:
I know I can add weight and see if it is helpful to my shooting. I am trying to be thrifty. It will cost over $100 US to buy a weight system for my Mornini 162 M.

Actually, there are a set of 4 30gr weights that slide onto the barrel and use o-rings for a friction fit. They are offered by Morini, but also fit the SAM and Matchguns APs, since they all source barrels from Lothar Walther. I think I paid around $50 for the set from ISS. I would imagine Scott also stocks them. If you look on the Morini Options page, they are the 4 piece set on the right.

toznerd

BPBrinson · Post by **BPBrinson** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:26 am

Jack, most everyone should experiment w/ different things. It is part of the process. Do not buy weight yet! 1st of all, an 35mm film canister w/ the bottom cut off fits over a Morini cylinder, stick self adhesive tire or hobby weights to the plastic canister. Fit is just tight enough so that you can slide the weight back and forth. I have one used w/ 1/2 a pound of weight for holding drills. Also call me next time you come to the range and I will loan you a Morini weight bar. You do have 35mm film canisters? LOL!

Brooks
www.teamshootingstars.org

Jack Milchanowski · Post by **Jack Milchanowski** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:18 am

Brooks--I have a few thousand plastic 35mm containers laying around! I do plan on being there Tuesday7 April.

Thanks
Jack

Tolkach · Post by **Tolkach** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:58 am

BPBrinson wrote:You do have 35mm film canisters? LOL!

Brooks
www.teamshootingstars.org

I'm using a pill bottle (from an old prescription). Hack saw off the ends, split the cannister, stick on weight & it clamps firmly to the cylinder. Total cost is < $1, including weight.

What is a film cannister?

just kidding -- I used to teach wet film photog.

cm

Shooting Bloke · Post by **Shooting Bloke** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 8:29 am

Brilliant - I got extra weights with my FWB P34 and never used them. Struggling to get over 510 regularly. The weights might be the answer......

jacques b gros · Post by **jacques b gros** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 5:55 pm

Want a cheap weight, take a look at mine at the end of the post. Very cheap...

viewtopic.php?t=21449&start=0&postdays= ... highlight=

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 6:15 pm

Shooting Bloke wrote:Brilliant - I got extra weights with my FWB P34 and never used them. Struggling to get over 510 regularly. The weights might be the answer......

I do not want to burst you bouble, but if you have problems getting over 510, then little coaching or at least reading and understanding of the following: http://www.pilkguns.com/menu_coaching.shtml will do you more good then putting more weight, buing more expensive pellets, or in general spending more money tring to buy your score. The last is very common with the shooters that are having problems gettinggood score.

Muffo · Post by **Muffo** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:41 am

Can somebody provide me with a link to somewhere that sells the set of 4 weights that slide onto the barrel. Last week i fitted a blow-out compensator to my toz free pistol. On the weekend I shot at nationalls where I wasnt that happy with my score. I shot 506 for my 4th time shooting it, the previous times shooting around 515. The added weight to the end of the pistol was a large factor in this. for the match I shot almost nothing outside the 9 ring measured from side to side but with the weight I couldnt stop moving up and down constently. This brings me to training. I am tryong to keep my air and free pistols very similar in how they are weighted and sight radius ect. I want to add weight to the end of my airpistol and for a while I want to add a bit extra just to build up some extra strength as I am only just starting to train. I have added about 300 grams of wheel weights but with theses stacked on top of each other at the end I dont think it will fit in the box anymore

David Levene · Post by **David Levene** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:50 am

Muffo wrote:Can somebody provide me with a link to somewhere that sells the set of 4 weights that slide onto the barrel.

Not a link but, presuming you want them for your 162EI, why don't you try your local Morini importer (they are a Morini item).

I don't know how much weight you want to add but I seem to remember they are only 12-13g each.

ken4all · Post by **ken4all** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:12 am

I think it was Franck Dumoulin who once said:

"the extra weights are too often used to compensate a lack of technique"

Muffo · Post by **Muffo** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:17 pm

I thought some1 said they were about 30 grams each. I want to add probably 180 grams to stay there and i can stick with the stick on ones to train with. The importer had all the other weight systems but not the set of 4 that slide over the barrel. I am not using them to compensate for my lack of technique but that being said If it actually worked you would be stupid not to. If i could shoot nothing but 10s standing on my head with a 5 kilo trigger pull that i yanked on to set it off, gues what i would do.

David Levene · Post by **David Levene** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:10 am

Muffo wrote:I thought some1 said they were about 30 grams each.

It's not impossible, but I'd be surprised.

I have just weighed (electronic kitchen scales) one of the weights from a single weight bar and that was 13-14g. The weight bar with 2 weights was 64-65g.

You're probably still OK but, with all this extra weight and your special grips, have you checked that you're still under the 1500g limit.

Muffo · Post by **Muffo** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 4:46 am

Yeh before I added the compensator to the free pistol they were both about 1080 grams, give or take a couple

toznerd · Post by **toznerd** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:16 pm

Wow,

I either saw the weight set listed somewhere (of course, I can't remember where as of now) as "4 each 30 grams", or pulled that number straight outta me arse. I just weighed one of mine: 15 grams each. Sorry about the bad info.

toznerd

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