TargetTalk

I noticed on the butt plate of Bindra's air rifle all these metallic squares and I am wondering if they are stick-on weights or some kind of decoration (they look kind of like CPUs for computers...)? I see them in a lot of photos of shooters on the Walther web site on different parts of their air rifles but can't find any mention of them in their products section. Can anyone shed some light?

I use wheel weights on my air rifle. They are just like the ones pictured above. Cost me $10 and I got a whole bunch of them. I bought mine at a local automotive shop. These ones just stick on like you mentioned and I have never had a problem with them falling off.

Yes, they are stick on lead wheel weights. I had the auto parts store order me a box years ago. They work great.

x3. My rifle was loaded with them in the back end when I used an aluminum stock. I can think of no better way to get a perfect balance than those.

Checkk out most any hobby shop that carries remote control planes. Thye are used there to balance the planes. They come in 1/4 ounce squares.
Jim

Be careful you don't go over 5.5Kg using those weights. I saw it happen at a comp and the owner had to prize off a 200g. It was his fault though for not checking the weight first before check control.

Regarding peep sights last post, I will also comment to that as I added a bunch of weights, and when I got to a local match it was 5.49. I didn't weight it prior to going with an accurate scale, so I was lucky it was under and it was just a club match but you do have to be careful!

Its an interesting trend now with air rifles where we see the back end [butt] being weighted up quite extensively with these wheel balance weights.
I wonder if all the gun manufacturers are taking notice of this. They could quite easily build in more facilities for weight addition so balance weights are not needed.
I would love to see where some of these guns balance points [C of G] are
and what the overall weight is.

You can keep the overall weight down by locating the stick-ons as far away from the CG as possible. The leverage factor is huge. Move a 1 oz. weight 2X from the CG and its the same as adding 2oz. at the original 1 oz. location. In the lower pic of post #3(?) the balance can be shifted back by stacking some of the weights. If the overall weight is an issue check the distribution.

I'm in the midst of restocking my Izhmash 7-4 biathlon rifle with a super light stock. Its well below the 4 kg. min. (no max but you have to carry it during the ski) and I want to be able to add the weight where I will reap the most benefit. Aside from bedding issues where I need a solid platform, additional weight in the bedding area is useless.

peepsight wrote:Its an interesting trend now with air rifles where we see the back end [butt] being weighted up quite extensively with these wheel balance weights.
I wonder if all the gun manufacturers are taking notice of this. They could quite easily build in more facilities for weight addition so balance weights are not needed.
I would love to see where some of these guns balance points [C of G] are
and what the overall weight is.

The rifle I shot with at college had a massive tapered Lilja barrel mated to an anschutz 1913 action. With a 21" barrel, length, the COG was nearly 5" in front of the front of the action, and that was with no tube on it.

Talking of adding weights, what is the exact purpose of adding weight at the back of the rifle?? Most of my shooting mates say I should add weight at the front, but I seldom hear a word about adding weight at the rear. Mind you, while dismantling my rifle for maintenance I discovered that the previous owner had inserted a massive 250g slug of lead inside a recess in the butt end of the stock ("Ah, so THAT'S why it's so steady!"). Also, does the position of the weight (at the top or at the bottom of the stock) affect the rifle in any way?

Cheers,
Nicholas

Nick
The trend is to get the rifle balancing [C of G ] just a few CM in front of your support hand position on the fore end [any where between 2 & 6 CM according to the book Air Rifle Shooting].
To achieve this some extra weight will be needed at the Butt hence all the lead wheel balance weights. The manufacturers are slowly beginning to make facilities on their rifles to fit weights at these positions.
Yes, too much weight at the top of the butt can make the gun top heavy and visa versa at the bottom, although i would think that the differences felt would be hardly noticeable.
Balance and all up weight are the two important points. Remember the limit of 5.5 Kg.
Peepsight

Nick_Burman wrote:Talking of adding weights, what is the exact purpose of adding weight at the back of the rifle?? Most of my shooting mates say I should add weight at the front, but I seldom hear a word about adding weight at the rear. Mind you, while dismantling my rifle for maintenance I discovered that the previous owner had inserted a massive 250g slug of lead inside a recess in the butt end of the stock ("Ah, so THAT'S why it's so steady!"). Also, does the position of the weight (at the top or at the bottom of the stock) affect the rifle in any way?

Cheers,
Nicholas

In smallbore it is more useful to add a bit more weight to the front of the rifle to counteract the recoil which will make the front end jump. In air rifle there is no recoil and a lot of the rifles (especially the aluminium stocks) are too front heavy so people put weight in the back to move the centre of gravity back and make it easier to control.

Speaking of weights and SB... I have used some weight to the front in SB prone to reduce muzzle jump, but I have never thouht of adding some at the rear. My question is: Could there be any reason at all to add rear weight in prone? I personally dont belive so, since it is a very solid position as it is, but does anyone know?
Thanks.