A senior citizen with a real bad back who wants to continue shooting offhand with a single shot rifle, looking for suggestions . My ability to shoot is limited somewhat by the weight of a rifle AND especially where the weight is located. I’m able to shoot my lever action silhouette rifles weighing 7-8lbs without a problem. I am unable to shoot my 11lb CPA offhand due to its weight forward balance, despite having shortened the barrel to 24”.  My next move is to drill a hole in the stock, try different weights to see if that would help
I’m looking for a single shot rifle in the 7-9lb range with a balance point ideally located over where the fingers of my left hand (I shoot off the fingers of my left hand). Would a Martini Model 12 accomplish what I’m looking for and/or are there other rifles I should consider?  Thanks, Tom

Since you've already shortened the barrel, my suggestion would be to turn the barrel down to the weight you need.

You have a PM

I have not tried shooting with a palm rest and need to do so.  Need to check the length of pull on both rifles. I also shoot .22 bpcr, hence the need to be able to shoot offhand. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. Tom

I'm in sort of the same boat. I'm inflicted with ankylosing spondilitis (sort of a weird auto-immune/arthritis kind of thing) that is slowly locking the vertebrae in my lower back and neck. It is what it is, doesn't slow me down much. But, it makes offhand shooting difficult to impossible. I'm working on a solution involving a canted palm rest, and will probably end up creating a mildly weird butt stock to help compensate for my inability to turn my head very much. Building upper body strength is key also, to help compensate for poor shooting posture. I'll not be a top offhand competitor but I would at least like to get back into the offhand game to a degree!

Regardless, in the meantime bench shooting certainly has its own rewards. Main thing is to keep pulling triggers and burning powder.