Effectiveness of an innovative damping device in reducing shotgun recoil

riccardomonzoni 30 Settembre 2017

Riccardo Monzoni1 ,Francesco Lucertini1, Barbara Lonzi2, Michele Aluigi2, Francesco Mari2, Loredana Banci2, Marco Vignaroli2, Ario Federici1

1Department of Biomolecular Sciences – Division of Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy.
2 Department of Testing and Prototyping, Benelli Armi S.p.a., Urbino, Italy.

Aim:
Clay shooting exposes the shooter to a great number of fires and recoils that could induce to feel pain in the chest. Pain has the potential to affect shooting performance as long as the competition proceeds. The effectiveness of the “Progressive Comfort System”1 in reducing shotgun recoil was assessed using skin temperature responses and overall shooting performance comparisons.

Methods:
A ‘Compak Sporting’ simulated competition was carried out using two over/under shotguns (model 828U, Benelli Armi S.p.a., Urbino, Italy) differing in the presence or absence of the Progressive Comfort System. 6 male subjects (age 26.8±4.6 yrs; BMI 22.9±1.5 kg/m2) with a minimum of 4 years of shooting experience were recruited. Each shooter fired with both shotguns and was blinded to which one was firing with. Shooting sessions were separated by 30 days of rest.
Since injuries are related to blood flow variations that reflect to the skin2, infrared thermography images of the upper trunk were used to compare temperature variation between before and after two shooting series (72 shots at all).
Performance was evaluated as the percentage of the shots that hit the 50 cm wide (diameter) target, placed at a distance of 30 meters from the shooter.
A one-way ANOVA was used to compare temperature variations within the region of interest (the interface area between the shotgun and the shooter was prior identified inside the infrared images).

Results:
Using the damping device yielded a significantly (p<0.001) lower temperature increase (0.43±0.26°C) than using the other shotgun (0.82±0.5°C). Performance did not change significantly when shooting with or without the damping device.

Conclusion:
The Progressive Comfort System reduces the temperature increase of the anatomical area in contact with the recoil pad and does not influence overall shooting performance.

References:

1.
Benelli Armi S p. A. Structural Optimization of the Benelli Progressive Comfort. EnginSoft. 2015;12(2):31-33.
2.
Hildebrandt C, Raschner C, Ammer K. An Overview of Recent Application of Medical Infrared Thermography in Sports Medicine in Austria. Sensors. 2010;10(5):4700-4715.

 

LINK: 

Citation: Monzoni R., Lucertini F., Lonzi B., Aluigi M.,  Mari F., Banci L., Vignaroli M., Federici A. (2017). Effectiveness of an innovative damping device in reducing shotgun recoil. Sport Sci Health; 13(Suppl1):88.