Yeah, I've not been an air rifle shooter since childhood, but it seems having a camera off to one side would feel strange even if it's just the 3.3 ounces they weigh without the housing. What about a tower to mount vertically, leaving sights open, with a rectangular C shape instead. It could be a couple of inches high and wide enough so as to bypass a scope if necessary, but put the camera centered above the barrel so as not to put a twisting weight off to the side.
What's the application by the way? I mean, which sort of shooters are wanting to mount cameras to their air rifles? Seems like it might be better suited to paintball or airsoft than to target sports, in which case I wouldn't worry about the offset weight considering the relatively low priority on precision. If it's for those sorts of shooting then the one you've drawn should be just fine.
One thing I got from the responses is the emphasis on accuracy plus precision.
Yes, the balance of the rifle will change. That is a dead on conclusion.
The idea about the tower and C-shape I like it a lot, I am doing some sketches in a piece of paper.
The application was just to record a point of view, the gun point of view.
I was not thinking about accuracy and precision or weight, neither the effects that the camera would have on the gun (twisting effect).
You are correct if I am doing paint ball or air-soft and the level of accuracy is forgiving this design could fly. In fact, I just found a company that makes similar system for AR15 rifles.
I thank you for all the great points. By coming directly to you it is like having a great thinking tank to study something before it gets made and flaps.
The offset weight might have a minor impact on the feel of the rifle, but I think your big problem will come from the recoil. Accelerating the rifle backwards while having an eccentric weight on it will cause it to twist, pulling you off target.
Consider a) getting the camera as close to the axis of the bore and as close to the rifle CG as possible, b) adding a counter weight on the other side of the rifle, and c) mounting the camera so it does not touch the barrel.
I shoot high-power, where you will always float a barrel for maximum accuracy, so attaching to the barrel and upsetting harmonics is definitely not the done thing. Dunno if your application has that same need.
ShootingSight wrote:The offset weight might have a minor impact on the feel of the rifle, but I think your big problem will come from the recoil. Accelerating the rifle backwards while having an eccentric weight on it will cause it to twist, pulling you off target..
What recoil might that be in air rifle ?
I agree with others in that balance will be massively changed though, also not quite sure of the purpose of the camera on the gun ... ?
Recoil is less in an air rifle, but it is not zero. Conservation of momentum states that the forward momentum imparted to the pellet, plus the air that is moving forward, must be offset by an equal amount of momentum imparted rearward to the rifle. Otherwise, the universe as we know it will come to an end.
Granted, the velocity and mass of a pellet are a lot lower than for a bullet, but they are still there.
ShootingSight wrote:Recoil is less in an air rifle, but it is not zero. Conservation of momentum states that the forward momentum imparted to the pellet, plus the air that is moving forward, must be offset by an equal amount of momentum imparted rearward to the rifle. Otherwise, the universe as we know it will come to an end.
Granted, the velocity and mass of a pellet are a lot lower than for a bullet, but they are still there.
interesting...
I have seen 'scopes that had no problems on rimfire rifles have their internals fall to pieces on an air rifle.
Last edited by Spencer on Mon Jan 28, 2013 2:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
This is correct, unless a scope is specifically designed for a rifle that recoils forward, an airgun, especially the old spring piston type, could wreck a scope in nothing flat.
Medellin,
As for a mount to put on my air rifle. I am trying really hard to think of an application. Pick the rifle up, it looks down range, you hear a noise, put the rifle down. Repeat
Hmmm, not exactly an "action" flick. The only thing I can think of it that it would be a poor man's SCATT but not sure it would have the resolution to pick up the fine details.
There's a fellow somewhere on Youtube with quite a large following of his many videos on pest animal shooting. He uses some sort of high-powered PCP rifle system, including a high-power scope with a camera mounted to look through the scope. He actually kills his prey (mostly on, in, and around farm out-buildings and the like) after aiming by watching the camera's display. It's a setup which is almost as tall from grip to camera/scope as it is long from butt-plate to muzzle. Looks very tech. Anyway, that's one setup where putting a camera on top seems very useful. He's able to display ultra-slow motion video and demonstrate, with commentary, a lot of things about longer range shooting (for an air weapon, that is) and compensation for wind/range factors. Heck of a nice batch of tutorials for would-be snipers. I find them a bit too nasty, but have to admire his dedication to a scientific approach in what might otherwise be a somewhat less 'humane' taking of lives.
And as medellin suggested earlier in the thread, I think, the intended application is not really around precision shooting. More an action sport application it seems, such as paintball, airsoft, or other entertaining shooting sports where users might want a shooter's-eye perspective captured as a video.
Regardless of need or not. If you really wanted to do something like this, considering the concerns about the weight of the camera throwing off balance and what-not, my suggestion would be to use something other than a GoPro. That camera seems like it's kind-of overkill for this type of application. You'd be better off getting some type of smaller camera which rather than being an entire self contained box type camera, has a very small camera aperture which runs it's signal via cable back to the guts which could be sitting on the table in front of you, or in a shirt pocket perhaps. I know I've seen these cameras before but am not knowledgeable in the least about where to find them.
In any case. If you wanted to try any of this out there are 3D printing services like shapeways.com which I've used before that produce fantastic prints at finished product quality. Something like that would probably cost you about $15-20 to have printed. Less if you optimize your design for minimal material usage. I've been looking for a reason to design something shooting related to have printed actually. GoPro mounts are not uncommon items on that site.
