Mid Bead...Rhyme or Reason

[Chuck Heald]

It seems to me that the figure 8 picture and POI would be a product of the height of the front bead and mid bead, along with the angle of the rib vs barrel centerline.

[Austin W Hogan]

It always seemed to me that the Parker/King like way to install beads would be to have a jig that dropped over the rib and located the holes. I have an SC and a 32 inch PH that have beads separated by 18 inches precisely. Two obvious competition guns measure 16 1/2 and 14 1/2. Field guns are in the same range.
I think that the proper spacing for a mid bead is at the distance that it appears to be the same size as the front bead. This allows the "figure 8 " line up to work relative to the mount and also helps the dominant eye problem as Francis suggested.

Hope to see many of you at Baltimore

Best, Austin