TargetTalk

Have a few questions for all you smallbore shooters out there....

(1) why do I see (sometimes) where the buttplate is slanted either forward or backward?
What's going on here?

(2) I've read about a balance point of the rifle being just in front of the trigger...
what does this have to do with anything?

(3) I've seen some rifles that have extra weight added... front, rear, where ever.... what's going on here?

Thanking you in advance for your thoughts.

1) Is about getting the butt to fit the shoulder. Depending on the shape and size of this area a buttplate that's dead perpendicular to the bore may leave gaps. If the plate doesn't adjust enough to fill these tilting the plate to bias it towards the collar bone or armpit may do the job. In prone some may find the butt resting over the collarbone uncomfortable..

2) I've not heard this myself. It may apply to some of the newer short actions, but out of the box traditional bolt actions tend to balance around the front of the receiver. BSA Martinis balance several inches further out! The relevance is to the shooter holding it, the further forwards the point of balance the more weight is wobbling out in front of your hand. A 6ft+ prone shooter won't normally have to worry about the point of balance, as they can reach well ahead, but a smaller 3P shooter may. This summer I bought a 1955 Finnish Lion, thanks to a 29.5in x 31/32nd in barrel (an Anschutz heavy is 27.2 x 15/16th in comparison) and a lightish butt balance is well forwards. I can shoot it, but a more neutral balance would be nice.

3) The shooter wants to alter the weight of the rifle. Sorry to be facetious. These are more common among 3-P shooters I'd say, but prone shooters sometimes add weight, say to counter a long tuner tube (and a long aluminium tuner tube counts as a weight). Weight will make the rifle more inert, but can also change the balance potentially making it easier to aim. Many 3P shooters also shoot air rifle, and may want to emulate the balance of that.