The stock of the shotgun used by Peter Wilson, who won the gold medal in Thursday’s Olympic men’s Double Trap Shooting final, was fitted with a ‘green pad’ shock absorbing pad supplied by Ace Controls International’s customer, Essex-based Recoil Systems.
The green pad is made from Ace’s SL-100 SLAB visco-elastic PUR material which is specially designed and manufactured to absorb shock loads. When the material is manufactured, vast quantities of tiny air pockets are formed. Due to the molecular structure of the material, these air pockets take the shape of tiny dodecahedrons.
Any impact causes the cells to compress, forcing the webs of material outwards against each other, thus slowing the impact down. After the impact, the material returns to its original shape at a steady rate and does not bounce which would create a return force to the shoulder.
Ace has been working with Recoil Systems for over ten years, supplying its SLAB damping material and MC 150 self-compensating miniature shock absorbers.
Excessive recoil when a gun is fired can cause a severe flinch from pulling the trigger, neck and shoulder problems and, in the most severe cases, can result in the shooter giving up the sport he enjoys.
