I watched the view count go up, so I'll toss out some more questions and ideas to confront the paradigms of rifle balance.
Not carrying in the woods, or offhand shooting but from a front rest and bag, F-Open style.
The new trend in front bags is THIN. Big 'ol puffy bags are out. Tie down to compress the center of the channel, Rail shaped stocks and riders.
Narrow side contact so that the bag can be clamped down to shape to the rails, then loosened so the rifle will still free recoil.
Enough clamping to add some resistance to rise but not enough to
Partially Lift a 30+ pound front rest.
Lowering the rifle CG (mostly barrel bore center) to the front and rear contact points.
The 3 inch wide rule was put there for a purpose and most try and get the most of out the rule limitations as possible.
The bore centerline ends up being 1.5 inches from the edge of the rider and 1.5 inches or more up from the sliding contact. Top heavy.
Since Free Recoil (or almost free) is popular in rested shooting, how about this:
A heavy front rest, a thin front bag, a center channel of no contact, slight clamping of the rider in rise but not recoil, front rest loading of 90%of the rifle weight (10% on the rear). Contact shooter/rifle limited to wild nose hairs on the cheek rest, trigger pinching, and the off hand index finger pushing straight down on the stock with about 20% of the rifle weight (about 5 pounds or so)
Static load is about 20 pounds on the front rest, 2 on the rear.
Dynamic load up front is 20 pounds dead weight, plus maybe 5 pounds vertical restraining force from the front bag, minus any vertical firing lift.
At the rear is 2 pounds dead weight, maybe some downward firing reaction, and maybe 5 pounds of downward finger pressure. Effectively a heavier rifle.
Pinch the trigger and see what happens
The barrel centerline is ALWAYS centered between the two rider rails up front, 3 inches apart. Static load on each side is pretty equally divided between the two rails and the rifle looks pretty when viewed from the right or the left (important).
What happens to the load on the front bag when fired. Does the load shift? Maybe the left side (with a right hand twist) sees a higher dynamic load when free recoil is actually taking place? The rider tries to twist in the bag when fired. Would there be a better place to put the barrel centerline in the front bag?
Just a thought but would low as possible and a little to the right in the bag?
Nope, that would look Plain Stupid
