doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Gun balance.

What if it's a 2-bbl. set with differing barrel lengths? Then what?

They both might provide good balance. I don't define good balance by tipping at any particular place. A longer set of barrels may balance further out than the short set but still "feel right", at least to me. Gunmakers do try to match the balance on two barrel sets...Geo

In my view, a 'good balance' means a gun mounts evenly and smoothly.
When not balanced well, either the barrels tend to rise first, or the stock, both needing small but concious correction.

But it is more complex than that because guns that feel best usually have a centralised weight concentration and so a lower moment of inertia. This is achieved by hollowing in the stock and careful striking up of the barrels to give thinner walls near the muzzles (where the pressure is low). This is why some 'best' British guns often have (and have had from new) quite low wall thickness towards the muzzles.

I can't say it more succinctly than that, but being superfluous hasn't stopped me before. Watch an accomplished shooter mount from the low-gun position and swing on a target. If the mount starts with a muzzle-dip or you detect any see-saw motion in the swing as he closes on the target...he's not as accomplished as he could be.

If you can see the muzzle rise on a smooth, continuous line from start to finish you can be assured that the shooter has a practiced mount and both hands are moving in concert, making the shot seem almost effortless....especially if he happens to execute the shot almost immediately after the mount is complete (not always necessary or desireable, but it doesn't happen by accident). When you've witnessed it, you'll know that the shooter has mastered the gun mount, and it was greatly facilitated by a well-balanced (for him) gun.

If no hinge pin, then 2"= 3" in front of the trigger guard.
As Lloyd says, you know it as soon as you pick up the gun.
A friend has a Perazzi with 32" barrels, you would think it forward heavy, but no it balances beautifully, on the hinge pin!

It is of course easy to correct 'balance' strict by adding weight at the 'other end'. The result is a heavy and slow handling gun. The skill, which I'm sure Perazzi have, is getting the balance right with long barrels without excessive weight.

If you rotate from the waist, the pivot point is the center axis of your pelvis (whatever that means) and if the gun is tucked tightly into your shoulder and becomes part of you then how does the balance point of the gun affect your swing?

I am sure it is more complicated than a simple arc radius. Does the location of the concentration of mass of the gun change the feel? I am sure it does but don't understand how other than the apparently simple physics involved would explain it. If the gun is simply held tight to the body then the gun is not rotating but the body is with a wood and metal weight attached. Then the argument for a well balanced English gun makes no sense to me.

I would love to understand this better and I am sure others are also as confused as I am.

I am sensitive. No bashing please.

For a game gun I like the balance at the pin. For a Clays gun I like a little more weight and the balance a little more forward. But to me their is more to it than balance point. A gun with the proper weight distribution will feel lighter and livelier than one with too much weight in the middle or too much weight at the ends.

Lots of ink has been spilled on this subject, yet it remains an intangible. It's the "art" part of gunmaking that escapes most gunmakers. Very few mass-produced guns can make the claim. Hard to define and hard to describe, yet very real. I tend to associate the concept with lightweight game guns, but there's no reason a target gun couldn't have it as well. Darn subjective and hard to measure (although there are MOI machines out there), my first exposure to the concept was a 1920s LC Smith featherweight in 16 that my father, brother, and I fought over because it felt so good and worked even better. The last one that struck me that way was an mid-1890s Boss light 12. FWIW: most of the 2-inch 12s that I pick up seem to have it as well.

Builder obviously knows more than most gunfitters about balance. Novice shooters who hold their guns at arm's length for low gun games are at a distinct disadvantage. Those who hold their guns close to the pivot point exert much less effort in addressing the bird.