Counterbalancing The Stock

The counterpoised riflestock has particular application in the benchrest rifle where the rifle rests on special supports, usually consisting of sand filled bags as an interface. The front support is positioned along the forend of the rifle and the rear sandbag support immediately forward of the buttplate. As a heavier barrel is installed on the rifle there is an increased uplifting of the buttstock with some loss of rifle stability and control. Adding some form of weight here does the trick.

Some use clay as a filler in those composite stocks which are hollow. Wood stocks allow a different choice in counterpoised weight control. In this case, more dense weight like lead or tungsten area good choice. Here is how I did it with an excellent outcome. Lead Shot As Stock Weight The rifle I worked on was a Savage Model 112 single-shot with a walnut stock. I had gone over the bedding and, as it was a switch barrel, I had chambered calibers .25-06, .257 Improved and .243 Winchester with a 1:8 twist.

While still testing the .243 1:8 twist Douglas barrel (douglasbarrels. net), which was still in the break-in stage, I was experiencing 50-yard quarter-inch, five shot groups. This is exemplary accuracy in any circle, but it would get even better. As the rifle was still in the breakin period, I had it in a padded vise with the buttplate looking right at me. I decided to remove the buttplate and drill a pair of deep, 9/16th inch holes for installation of lead shot as counterbalance weight.

I would install a half-pound of lead shot into Two drilled holes hold the shot. A small funnel is used to pour the lead shot into the gunstock holes.

Thin tape will hold the shot in place until the butt plate is replaced. Using lead shot is much less complicated and does the same job. two holes under the buttplate. I calculated the required half-inch hole depth to be five inches, which is a quarter pound per hole. A full 35mm film container holds a half pound of lead shot, which was divided out between the two holes. The simple formula for volume (V = pi (r)2 x depth) showed that the volume of the film canister to be equal to two 9/16th inch holes.

I used a sharp wood bit with a lead hole to make the holes. A small funnel was used to pour the lead shot into the holes and thin tape used to hold the shot in place. The screw-on buttplate was put on and the rifle was ready to shoot. While shooting, a noticeably improved balance was felt as a heavier The balance point of this Model 112 Savage target rifle with 26.5 inch heavy barrel has been moved back to two inches forward of the receiver with the added half-pound of lead shot.

With the rifle balanced with lead shot in the buttstock, accuracy of this .243 Winchester rifle is little short of perfection. buttstock in the rear sandbag. It really doesn’t take much to help. I always lift and tap the stock gently into the rear-bag from shot-to-shot, which helps prevent vertical grouping errors. Added weight in the buttstock helps here too.

The new balance point on the Savage Model 112 rifle with medium length action, 26.5-inch, number 7 Douglas barrel was now two inches forward of the receiver ring with a 6- 24X Bausch & Lomb 4000 Elite scope and Talley Scope (talleymanufacturing.com) mounting system. Conclusions In shooting for extreme accuracy, sometimes the least obvious things can make the difference. Proper gun balance should always be considered with any changes we make in the stock, barrel or scope mounting system.

Cost is low to get the job done and it can work wonders in your shooting. AG