Short vs Long Guns

[kdj]

IMO, the shorty's require more finesse than heaver guns.

Are we confusing two things in this thread? Light vs heavy and short vs long.

In my case, for the observation that started this thread, both the long and the short gun were almost exactly the same weight (the short gun had a lot more tungstun!).

So, my observation was that the shorter gun was faster for me even though the weights were the same. Maybe that's why I didn't notice much difference in controlability too since that's weight dependent rather than length dependent (to a first approximation)?

I've been experimenting a little more and I get better index and pointability, especially on transitions, with less length hanging out the front and that might be the essential difference.

I have no thoughts on light vs heavy since I have no data from which to extrapolate

Kevin

[kdj]

In the interests of full disclosure, I should point out that the long gun in question is very long and it was pointed out to me that I could shorten that gun quite a bit and still have a long gun and it would have more of the properties I was claiming for the shortie.

Would that be a middie

Kevin

[shred]

That is a cool thing about the shorties-- you can play a lot with the weight and balance. I have mine heavied-up at the moment for IPSC, but swap out the magwell and guide rod and I can knock what seems like half a pound off and be good to go for steel.

[kdj]

Poking around, I found an article on the Brazos Custom web site relating to this topic (http://www.brazoscustom.com/light_vs_heavy.htm). As seems to be the norm given other articles there and notes in this forum, Bob has given a very clear description of the issues involved.

I can now say that, despite being nowhere near "the top levels of competition" (yet ), I seem to be very sensitive to swing weight.

Having terminology is so helpful to most discussions!

Thanks, Bob.

Kevin

[L9X25]

Just to follow up on my previous posts...

I got the Long/Heavy gun out of retirement and shot the match on Sunday. Just as anticipated, despite not shooting the gun in a year, my hits were consistently better than what I expected by calling the dot. Within one stage I was confortable with the feel of the gun.

I cannot say how much (if any) it slowed me down but it did make me comfortable "running loose" when the situations arose. I'm planning to stick with this gun for a while and see how I feel about it after several matches.

Leo