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

Occasionally a member will refer to balance: "this gun has correct balance." Or, "check for balance."

What is the proper balance point for a double barrel shotgun?

I have a 1909, 28 inch, 7 lb 12 oz, 12 gauge CE. When I balance
the gun on a narrow pivot point, where should the gun's balance
point be if it is correctly balanced?

Thanks

Fox,

I'm sure Rocketman will be by shortly to expound on this.

There is no single "correct" balance point for a shotgun; there is only what you personally prefer. And balance point is only one of several "swing" variables. A broomstick with bricks attached at the two far ends of the stick and a another broomstick with bricks attached right next to each other in the middle of the stick will both balance at the same spot (the middle of the stick), but the dynamics between the two sticks when swung will be drastically different. This is why "balance point", by itself, is not especially helpful.

SxS advertising blather often makes a point of touting that a gun "balances on the hinge pin" as if this was the ideal. Repeated often enough and people start to believe this means a lot by itself. The "best" balance point is one where the gun feels the "best" in YOUR hands. That point will vary from person to person depending on their personal preferences for how they like a gun to feel when swung. Rocketman can provide "typical" balance point measurements.

Good luck,
Ken

Outstanding explaination, Ken! It makes me feel really good to see other people who "get it" write such explainations!!

FOX SXS- a quick check is to pick up a gun and quickly mount it to your shoulder while giving it a swing or two. If you move your front hand during the mount of feel any urge to move it after mounting, consider that the balance does not entirely suit you. Balance determines the % of the gun's weight that is proportioned into each hand. People have, as Ken pointed out, differing preferences on this characteristic. Also, some peole have diffeering preferences as the gun's weight and swing effort vary.

Weight, balance (teeter-totter point), unmounted swing effort (moment of inertia around the balance point), and mounted swing effort (MOI around the butt) make up a handling "fingerprint" of the gun. Knowing these parameters is to gun handling as knowing prefered stock dimensions is to gun fit. "Proper" in both cases is whatever you shoot best or enjoy shooting most; usually "shoot best" and "enjoy most" will be different for handling.

"Balance" is often used as a subjective summation of the gun's handling. Since I deal in objective data, I can't comment on what anyone considers subjectively proper.

Hope that helps. Feel free to post back questions. Sorry there was not a simple answer to your question.

I guess all balance at one place or another but, as Ken says, you know it when you feel it between your hands. I wouldn't buy a gun that didn't "feel right" and come up properly in my line of sight. I suppose they all have "correct balance" for me but only my hammer Parker 16ga 0 frame levitates, like magic.

We like what we like but sometimes I think that we hit better with a forward heavy gun as opposed to one that feels right when we pick it up in the store. I love my SXS but some of them are butt heavy. I have a 28 ga SXS that is a joy to carry but does not weigh enough for me to shoot it well after I have been jogging to catch up to a dog on point.

Things like balance, barrel length etc. have to be figured out by the indidvidual

The explanations from Ken and Rocketman are spot on in my opinion.

I have several guns that I shoot particularly well, but all are different. One is a 12g 682 gold E, 32" bbls, 7 3/4 lbs, very muzzle favored (but not muzzle "heavy"). Another is a 20g Browning 525, 32" bbls, 7 lbs even, very muzzle favored. The last is a Browning BSS 20g, 28", 6 1/2 lbs, slightly muzzle favored. I've shot well above other guns with these, almost astonishingly so, to me at least.

There's something about these guns that I need to quantify. Rocketman's rig for deriving MOI is the only method I've seen to do this.

To me a well balanced gun seems lighter than it should be. A well balanced 7 1/2pound 12ga can feel like 6 pound gun, where as a poorly balanced 6 pound 20 gauge can feel like 7 1/2 pounds. Some early American guns struggle with the balance issue. I think English guns for the most part realy have and know how to balance shotguns.

Tim,
that's exactly the issue Rocketman's work has addressed. What makes one gun of the same weight as another feel so different in it's 'swing' characteristics? Moment of inertia. Or MOI. This amounts to more than just how much something weighs, but also how the weight is distributed, including 'balance' and how much weight is at the extreme ends of the gun (both ends).

If you have the the Jan/Feb. 2008 isssue of Shooting Sportsman there is an article "A Question of Balance" by David Trevallion (CC here) that explains it very well.
Aparently in Europe all the higher grade guns are balanced from the factory. Usually measured from the breech face, which in most cases will be close to the hinge pin.