Balance point

[Tony Q]

What is the correct balance point, or weight dispersion for a bipoded rifle?

I suspect that it would be to the front to control muzzle climb/rotation and to the rear to keep weight on the bag. Or is it always trial and error as rifle and shooter dynamics can vary?

Also .. are muzzle weight allowed? … do they make a difference?

The reason I ask is occasionally I put beginners or younger newcomers on my 308 rifle with a good muzzle break, although the shot placement changes the group tightens.

Is this simply reduced recoil related? Or is it the extra weight on the muzzle? Or a combination of both?

For the record the muzzle break weighs 264gms. The rifle with 1kg bipod attached weighs 6.8kg all up. (excluding muzzle break) in theory the break produces a 30% reduced recoil effect .. do i interperate that as being the same effect as increasing my rifle weight x 30% (8.8kg)?


Ps. I just found a recoil calculator so to any one interested this is what it said in regard to my last question.

6.8kg rig = velocity of recoiling rifle is 6.5 Feet/sec. recoil energy is 9.4 foot/lbs

8.8kg rig = velocity of recoiling rifle is 4.8 Feet/sec. recoil energy is 6.9 foot/lbs

So it is around 30%+ difference.

[Tony Z]

With the brake you are spreading the blast jet radially which reduces the backward thrust thus also reducing upward angular movement of the muzzle. The same thing would be apparent if you were to go to something like a 223 without a brake. You should get the same tight groups. Some of the breaks that i have played with have been indexed so that there is a larger number of vent holes on the 12 o'clock position. This gave me 6 o'clock low shots in the group and the butt had a tendency to lift out of the rear bag. I was a real piece of garbage to shoot with and strung shots in a 10 inch vertical straight line at 200 yds because of forend bounce. The clam shell brakes are in a world of there own as they can actually pull the rifle forward out of the bags and because of their muzzle stabilising properties accuracy can be greatly improved. The drawback is that noone will shoot beside you and the firer has to wear eye protection at all times. It is no wonder they are banned worldwide from competition excepting in .50 cal BR.
I suspect that the vertical induced into the above mentioned exercise had moe to do with something other than the way of recoil as the bullet is out before the gasses do their thing, so iam suspecting that early gas was forcing the brake down before the bullet left the brake and coming into contact with the inside. I only ran an internal bullet to brake clearance of .001" radially.
Tony Z.