One of the most interesting posts that I have seen regarding doubles was placed on Shotgunworld, by Shotgunguru July 16, 2012.
It explained the concept of achieving optimal game gun balance when weight was concentrated at the action. He discussed how to weigh the gun components individually. It is something you should read.
volleyfire, with all due respect and no offense intended, I'd take exception to said article's precept. First, there is no such thing as an "optimal" characteristic for a gun. There will be one or more sets of characteristics that are optimal for one given shooter. As an example, there is no one optimal set of stock dimensions. Each shooter has his own. So it is for handling, no one universal set of optimal characteristics; each shooter will have his own.
Second, handling is characterized with weight, balance (the teeter-totter definition), unmounted swing effort, and mounted swing effort. It is impossible to "sum-up" handling with one characteristic. Length of pull does not define a stock. Likewise, balance does not define handling; it takes all four of the above.
Third, the term "balance" is often misused in an attempt to sum up handling. Subjective explanations are always suspect since two shooters would have to be "calibrated" to each other's subjective words to gain truly accurate information. For example, "This gun has perfect stock dimensions!" Perfect for who? "This gun has perfect balance!" Perfect for who? Is the reference to teeter-totter balance or to the subjective summative definition?
Stan gave a very good explanation; he truly "gets it." I'm just fleshing it out a bit. Fourth, if the weight were truly concentrated at the balance point the gun would require zero effort to swing unmounted and less than usual mounted. This is certainly not desirable, much less perfect/optimal.
Post back to discuss or for clarification.
DDA
