Weight; Add or Loose?

[Squirrel45]

Hi Guys, 

 

Iv tossed this ball out there before, but thought I would ask again for the fun of it. When running Rimfire (either rifle or pistol) what is your opinion on how heavy? The reason I ask this again a few months latter is that in PCCO i'm a 92 and in RFPO a 93. I know this is an apple to pumpkin comparison but I can run faster with 8lb brick PC then a 30oz +/- handgun. Is there such a think where some do better overall with a heavier gun overall no matter the platform? 

 

thanks 

Squirrel 

[JM_]

Pistol weight doesn't mean much. Any MKIV/CWA/S&W etc with normal additions is a perfectly fine weight to be competing with. Where it gets tricky is weights for rifles. An ultra light rifle can be as low as 3lbs or as heavy as 10lbs. Myself (being 25 years old, so easy to swing heavy guns) prefer a rifle to be right at 5lbs or heavier. Any lighter and it becomes hard to settle the gun down. In my eyes a pistol will always be slightly slower because managing dot movement is a bigger deal. Rifles are point and shoot with minimal dot movement.

[GigG]

There's a balance point between stability and target transition out there and it doesn't matter if it is a pistol or rifle RF or CF. And it is going to be different for every shooter and every gun/load.

[bigdawgbeav]

On 8/13/2022 at 4:05 PM, Squirrel45 said:

Hi Guys, 

 

Iv tossed this ball out there before, but thought I would ask again for the fun of it. When running Rimfire (either rifle or pistol) what is your opinion on how heavy? The reason I ask this again a few months latter is that in PCCO i'm a 92 and in RFPO a 93. I know this is an apple to pumpkin comparison but I can run faster with 8lb brick PC then a 30oz +/- handgun. Is there such a think where some do better overall with a heavier gun overall no matter the platform? 

 

thanks 

Squirrel 

It's all a matter of what works best for you.  I know some folks that went uber light on their rifles and found they were over-swinging the plates.  They went a little heavier and that worked for them.  My RFRs are at 3.5lbs and my PCCs are 5.75lbs.  They work for me (well, when I can actually shoot well that is)

 

I will say that maybe if someone named "Squirrel" was a little bit slower in PCCO at A7 then I wouldn't have finished 1.61s behind for 2nd place Master... (Just sayin')

 

[Squirrel45]

On 8/15/2022 at 10:05 AM, JM_ said:

Pistol weight doesn't mean much. Any MKIV/CWA/S&W etc with normal additions is a perfectly fine weight to be competing with. Where it gets tricky is weights for rifles. An ultra light rifle can be as low as 3lbs or as heavy as 10lbs. Myself (being 25 years old, so easy to swing heavy guns) prefer a rifle to be right at 5lbs or heavier. Any lighter and it becomes hard to settle the gun down. In my eyes a pistol will always be slightly slower because managing dot movement is a bigger deal. Rifles are point and shoot with minimal dot movement.

I am in this same thought process. Currently I am running 5lb 4oz RFRO and a 7lb 9oz PCCO. I have come to realize that 8lbs is more then likely to heavy, the 5lb range seems about right. I have seem and picked up some of these 3.5lb guns and yikes I feel like holding nothing. I feel that running something that light I would never get it settle. I picture the dot making circles.

 

The pistol is the harder one for me to understand really, really light seems the trend. At matches all one sees it these feather light pistols, so this must be the answer? I have run my mkiv w Volq 6" upper stripped, transitions are fast it seems on target might  be .05 faster, maybe ? What I tried a few days ago was adding a full oz to the rear of the rail. While the pistol is very noticeably heavier the dot seems to settle faster and seems more controlled. My overall times were more constant with less misses and better grouping if this makes sense.

 

thanks for the help

Squirrel  

[Squirrel45]

On 8/15/2022 at 11:42 AM, bigdawgbeav said:

It's all a matter of what works best for you.  I know some folks that went uber light on their rifles and found they were over-swinging the plates.  They went a little heavier and that worked for them.  My RFRs are at 3.5lbs and my PCCs are 5.75lbs.  They work for me (well, when I can actually shoot well that is)

 

I will say that maybe if someone named "Squirrel" was a little bit slower in PCCO at A7 then I wouldn't have finished 1.61s behind for 2nd place Master... (Just sayin')

 

Over swing seems like my greatest issue with pistol. I feel like the PCCO is a bit heavy but runs stable loosing a lb would be great. I ran pretty good in NH except for S&H!  Are you going to NJ state SC? 

[bigdawgbeav]

15 hours ago, Squirrel45 said:

Over swing seems like my greatest issue with pistol. I feel like the PCCO is a bit heavy but runs stable loosing a lb would be great. I ran pretty good in NH except for S&H!  Are you going to NJ state SC? 

Roundabout was my downfall at A7... that pavilion really messes with my head.  I refuse to shoot NJ State after my 1 and only experience in 2018.  Although part of me does consider it each year.  But then I remember it's New Jersey...

[Squirrel45]

Shooting under that roof sure does throw things off, very loud at the least.

[Scrounger]

I’m curious to see other responses as well. My RFRO is 3.5 and I was running that exclusively and fairly well. Recently built a 6.5 PCCO and I’m shooting that out if the gate better than my RFRO. It’s got me rethinking weight myself.