muzzle climb

[Sharps-shooter]

Can someone really smart please explain to me about muzzle climb? How does it happen? My sharps rifle (which is 4 feet long and weighs ten pounds) doesn't have muzzle climb, that I can tell. Even if I fire it one handed. Just pushes straight back. same with the shotgun.

But then the ar15, which is a lot smaller and lighter, kind of jumps a little when it is fired. Just a bit.

The other weekend I fired something called a Norelco 9mm handgun. It tried to do a somersault in my hand. I can completely understand why the gun travels in the opposite direction of the bullet. But why does it also try to point up in the air? Is it just because of the fact that it's meeting resistance from the handgrip that is not perpendicular to its direction of travel, or is it something to do with the muzzle as well?

 

[Taurus 66]

But why does it also try to point up in the air?

It has to do with your hand being lower than center and the barrel being above center. Now add force (AKA gunshot) and presto. If you hold the gun upsidedown and shoot, the barrel will jump down. Hold the gun sideways and the gun will jump sideways, not up.

 

[ceetee]

Yep. The recoil force is directed in a straight line down the center of the barrel. Your hand is an anchor point a couple inches below that line. The pistol tries to rotate around that point.

Your ar15 does the same thing, but it tries to rotate around your shoulder. Since the rifle is heavier than the pistol, the recoil doesn't push it so far off line. Your Sharps (being somewhat heavier than the ar15 and the pistol put together!) climbs the least.

Another factor that would affect muzle rise in a rifle is the amount of weight at the muzzle, rather than at the receiver. The Sharps would have a much greater proportion of weight at the muzzle, compared to the ar15.

 

[nomadboi]

Think of it as a leverage question: The important elements are:

*Force. In this case, the weight of the bullet and the speed with which it's being expelled from the barrel

*Leverage. Two parts here: How far above the pivot point (your center of grip, or your wrist, depending on how you're holding it I guess) the force is being applied. This is where having a low bore axis, like my Steyr M40 does, works to your advantage. Leverage part two, which also effects the angle of push is how long the barrel is; a longer barrel means it's not pushing as perpendicular to your grip.

Granted, it's a bit more complicated than that, because you also have the mass of the object being moved (thus the heavy barrel helping), the angle of the grip itself, the type of stock you're using and how it's braced, special devices like the Knoxx CopStock for a Remington 870, compensators, and then I suppose the other moving parts (slide or bolt) might come into play as well.