TargetTalk

Hello, I am wondering whether or not I should have a front heavy air rifle or a back heavy air rifle. I've always had it slightly more back heavy but at 5.445 kg total. I am trying to do everything I can to have a better hold. Thanks

Doing some experiments I've found that on certain spot air rifle may be dead steady. You should check two things: the first is if rifle is fitted to you, and only if yes - check out various weight on barrel (and it's not like it has to be 16 tons on barrel).
In my case, by some these trials I "magically" added nice amount of points. And I did verify this at competition already. Funy thing is I do now many more center shots and maybe one or two eight @ 60ar. High tens build the score.

I must admit looking at some of the air rifles on video at the various internationals and Olympics, many shooters have loaded huge amounts of weights including wheel balance weights to the rear butt. I have never understood the physics behind that. As we know, no matter where weights are added on, the rifle must not exceed 5.5kg.

The idea is to get the center of gravity as close to the shooter as possible, hence weight at the butt stock to compensate the extension of the butt plate.

Everyone is different in this regard, but it depends a lot on how well your rifle is staying in your shoulder. As someone who has experienced a fair amount of success in 10m competition, I will say I prefer having most of the weight of my rifle balanced right over the middle of my body, not waggling around out in front of it at the end of my barrel. But that being said, just because I like it that way doesn't make it the "right" way. I found that when I put extra weight out front that my buttplate would start to slip up out of my shoulder just a little bit, and by bringing the weight back, I was able to solve that problem (note: this isn't an issue in smallbore as you're allowed to have a buttplate hook, and when shooting 50m I do have some more weight out front than in air rifle).

My suggestion would be to try out multiple balance arrangements and see where it is that the gun seems to just "sit" most comfortably and feel most balanced. To me, one of the key ingredients to shooting good standing is having good balance, including of your position, sway, and rifle. Try out some different ways and see what you like!

Ryan

If you are very tall (like myself) you can sometimes feel like the rifle is pulling away from you because you are pointing downwards so much towards the target, so loading up the back with weight can counter that feeling somewhat and make it easier to deal with.

In ways of the rifle book they suggest a small amount of muzzle weight to give it some inertia. but as most people have said, experiment to see what suits you.
I do think that a completely recoilless match air rifle may require a different balance point to a recoiling small bore rifle
JSB

I found that I had to add weight to the muzzle of my P70jr, to help reduce my wobble.

But as has been said, center of gravity and location of mass is a very individual thing. What I like, someone else may hate. So experiment and do what works for YOU and your rifle.

I have to add the weight to the butt because
of the ( ! ) trend toward truck axle barrels . (rant).
A lot of strain and fatigue .....

M