DaveMc wrote:My thoughts are - there is no right and wrong here and it really depends on how the whole package acts together with the shooter.
Light stiff stocks can work very well if they are on the right platform and allowed to move backward/track correctly and consistently without imparting a significant recoil "reaction" on the action and barrel (like a rail gun). The downside is more felt recoil if you aren't free recoiling. Of course your shoulder force can then impart a recoil impulse back through the stock and action. Whether or not this impulse affects the muzzle before the bullet leaves is very much dependent on the whole interaction, barrel time and recoil speed etc. Bench rest rifles (esp 6ppc) with short barrels and higher speed, lighter projectiles are a different kettle of fish to a larger, heavier calibre, slower, longer barrel etc.
The long and short of it is we see many very accurate, heavy wooden stocks but you can also build very accurate rifles with light stocks and more weight in barrel and action. All of the above are interesting to experiment with.
What is hard to control and will definitely throw in a lot of vertical barrel whip is a heavy stiff stock and no room to move in rest.
Thanks DaveMc !!!
My stock is bloody low at both ends and when I added the extra weight I could to the package I first put it right on the guns centre of mass, which was close to the bore centre line. It shot VERY well like that but of course that's no good to an innovator to have it going so well so I became unhappy with it mostly as it was disconcerting to see it torquing so much in the bags !
So I moved that weight/s to positions further away from the bore axis to lessen the torque reaction, which it did. And it still shot well and by this time I'd changed the media/hardness of the bags so by now I'd moved a ways from where I'd started.
BUT I still often think I should have left it how I first had it and just not gotten worried about seeing it torque so much ? In fact I've now pretty much convinced myself it did shoot better then. I can easily return it to that place though.
As you say it's how the whole package works together and ya just gotta do the hard yards to work all that stuff out. I've been doing this only 9 years.