[rbernie]

I used to hack around building road racer motorcycles - TZ250s and such, back in the day. Weight centralization was always the key to building a good handling bike. Move weight in toward the roll/pitch/yaw center, and the bike would handle better. Allow the weight to stray from these centers, and the handling invariably got funky and in a bad way....

Funny, but I'm finding that the opposite is true for me in shotguns. I have several guns (Remington 1100s, for example) that are heavy in the receiver and light of stock and barrel - and I don't care for them as much as I might. On the other hand, I have shotguns that have light receivers and relatively heavy barrels and buttstocks (my Franchi 48ALs, as an example), and I find them far more joyful to shoot. They simply shoulder faster for me, swing better, and feel livelier.

Give me two different six and a half pound shotguns, and I'll take the one with less centralized mass every time.. Weird.

[oneounceload]

One of the reasons that Perazzis are so well thought of in the world of bunker, Int'l Skeet, pigeons, etc., is that they are VERY well-balanced - not butt or muzzle heavy, but perfectly and centrally balanced between the hands allowing immediate and swift movement to the target as the gun is mounted. Most American shooters of American clay games tend to favor guns slightly muzzle heavy to help in keeping their swing moving on targets that tend to stay on a decent target line. Europeans, who shoot more dynamic games like FITASC, Bunker, etc. tend to favor the balanced guns where speed is essential.

One should try both to see what one likes.

[ArmedBear]

The O/U is a design that's far more likely to give you what you want than a receiver gun, rbernie. Well, not a 12 Gauge Citori unless it has 30" or longer barrels, but most O/Us, anyway.

I have a 28" Beretta that is very neutral. For more "swing" I just bought some super-extended choke tubes for it, to add 2" and some muzzle weight. It works, without going overboard, and I can change the gun up, depending on what I like.

[earlthegoat2]

Small bore game guns tend to put the weight between the hands as well. Thin walled barrels coupled with hollowed out buttstocks makes for what some would call a whippy gun. I like them though and find that they are perfectly balanced if not a bit too light.

The 12 gauges tend to be a little more muzzle heavy if it is not specailly designed and built. I have always shot low with these guns when point shooting.

[Fred Fuller]

Different shotguns- or at least shotguns with different weight distribution- seem to me to work better for different purposes. For a shotgun used in pass shooting, for example, I like a little weight forward of the support hand to help smooth out and sustain the swing.

For a defensive gun, or an upland gun, I like the weight more between the hands- that seems to me to make a gun quick to point. 'Dabbing' a handy SxS onto the exact spot a fast-departing bob white will get to at the same time the shot charge arrives has always been one of my favorite exercises- and it's far easier to manage with a going-away target that's either rising slightly or falling slightly.

And that exercise is a very close cousin to slapping a sight picture on a bobbing, weaving target prior to pressing off a slug or a tight-patterning charge of buckshot into a precise spot on a target among a crowd of no-shoots. ( http://www.yfainc.com/mirage.html )

I've never found a butt-heavy shotgun that I liked for any use whatsoever. Worst offender of that persuasion I ever shot- Winchester's fiberglass-barreled Model 59 semiauto.

fwiw, ymmv,

lpl