Rifle Weight and Fundamentals

[DocRDS]

So I've been a cheating lil bitch and shooting 6GT braked and suppressed in a 25 lb race gun.

Today I took my backup rifle in 6.5 Creed--basically a Howa + KRG Bravo--super light more of a hunting rifle and I REALLY had to grip that SOB to get it to shoot well. I know some PRS and F-Class guys do free recoil, and I can see that with these light cartridges. 6.5 Creed is hardly a magnum but I saw a HUGE difference today . So how is free recoil working on this "big" cartridges like a 6.5 PRC and 284 Win. It seems so counter intuitive to what I just experienced. Is it really the rifle weight having that much of an impact?

Otherwise, got some fundamentals practice in and a new load. (Good practice for stepping up to magnums--can't hide from recoil)..took me a bit and I forgot how loud an unsupressed rifle is.

 

[diggler1833]

Shooting free recoil with the larger cartridges usually involves a pretty good front and rear rest setup, otherwise your rifle isn't going to track the same every time and consistency downrange will suffer. Or, you'll have to weight/brake that rifle down to the point where recoil is negligible... easier for a GT, not so much for a PRC.

I definitely get my weight behind my magnums and shoulder them with purpose when I shoot off of stuff like fence posts. It is the best way for me to keep my impacts more predictable and prevent fliers.

 

[JR1200W3]

Usually the consequence of free recoil on a competition gun is decreased recoil management which costs the ability to see impact or splash. (I think everyone knows this). But in a competition rifle with a small enough cartridge the bullet is still exiting the barrel before the rifle moves. So you're only worried about seeing through the optic while the gun is in movement from recoil. But the bullet is gone, so initial accuracy and precision remain intact. I think there's a point where recoil happens before the bullet exits the barrel when its a big enough cartridge and light enough gun. And then the barrel gets pointed all over the place during recoil when the bullet is still leaving. And that's the cut off of when free recoil costs you not just seeing effects on target, but also base accuracy and precision. 5lb hunting rifles are a great example.

Shooting a 16lb 6.5CM for NRLH, I need to be more diligent about how I line up behind the gun but in weird uncomfortable positions on the clock, I can still reduce shoulder and cheek pressure ( come off the gun a little) to reduce wobble in a pinch and still maintain initial accuracy. I may just struggle to see where on the plate the hit was or which way a hanger turned. I have a 11lb 7WSM that's surprisingly tolerant of a little bit of light grip and handing some center of gravity and mechanical natural point of aim over to the gun. It shoots off a tripod really well, even suppressed.

The way I think about free recoil is that you as a shooter are handing some fundamentals over to the gun. With a traditional, light weight rifle you are the anchor and you define the natural point of aim. You bring the rifle to your shoulder and it conforms to your COG. It's an appendage or branch and you're the tree. But with a 23lb comp gun you can sit it on a bag, on a barricade, and point it at a target and it will remain there. Completely on it's own. No wobble. In it's own NPOA. A mechanical NPOA because you aren't involved in it at all. It becomes increasingly more important how you conform to it and line up on the gun so you impart as little wobble as possible and when it recoils into you you're not causing it to change direction in recoil because you didn't conform to it. A barricade is supporting more of the rifles weight than you are so that contact point on the bag is the COG, not you. You're essentially an AR buffer, lined up directly behind the gun, waiting to absorb recoil, but not supporting the gun on target. So, to the point you're making in the question... when does a rifle get so light (or unbalanced) that it can't be it's own COG. And when does recoil reach the epoch of moving the gun before the bullet exits(minus the shooters effect of holding the gun)?

Last paragraph was a complete tangent and very much at risk of over-thinking something everyone else already knows. Not meant to be a lecture.

 

[DocRDS]

I will not claim to be a pro. I really liked your explanation. I think I need to ADD weight to get to 16Lbs on mine! That does explain what I saw. More Fundamentals for me! Ty both.