I'd disagree with Mr. Powell as I have found SLE and BLE balance points over quite a wide range and with general overlap. Not definitive, but indicative, data shows shooters can generally , after some "calibration" and sensitivity training, detect 1/4" change in point of balance.
Remember that shooters are each unique in size, strength, muscle reaction speed, hand-eye coordination, and a bunch of psychological factors.
The four handling factors must be separated for the shooter to understand the gun. Interested shooters need a weigh scale and a balance fulcrum to get started. Knowing weight and balance, you can concentrate on unmounted swing and mounted swing separately. It is not helpful to try to understand/feel the four factors all at the same time.
Weight tells you the amount of physical effort expended in lifting, holding, and carrying the gun. Balance, along with hand placement, tells you the % of weight in each hand. Note that the closer the hand center is to the balance point the more of the weight it will hold. Ever see a guy pick up an unfamiliar gun and slide his forward hand back and forth trying to get comfortable with the gun? This little exercise tells you that the gun's balance point does not suit him. He will place his hands in his "natural" locations and, not being comfortable with the feel, start trying to correct by repositioning his front hand.
Swing efforts tell you the effort you will expend to point the gun in a different direction. The unmounted gun will naturally wish to swing about the balance point unless extra effort is expended to force it to swing about a different point. Unmounted swing is considerably less than mounted. Why? Because mounted forces the gun to swing about the axis represented by the shooter's spine. We can estimate this factor (normalize it to remove the shooter's influence) by calculating the swing effort about the gun's butt.
DDA
