Barrel tuners a substitute for load development

[mikor]

Two questions...

1) If you get your seating depth right to be off the lands does using a barrel tuner to match to the load for accuracy work and mean you don't have to do the load development (staying within safe data range of course)?

2) If a more accurate load was a lower velocity one, could you use max load cartridges for the velocity and use the tuner instead of the load for accuracy?

[Jack V]

I'm not sure how good they work on a centrefire . I can't see that they are a substitute for good load development .
I would tend to think you set the tuner in the middle and get the load to shoot as good as possible then tune it in .
Not sure what you are asking in Q2 but theoretically you could tune in two different loads to two different settings on the tuner then just move the tuner to the correct setting for the respective loads.

[Westy]

Anyone who knows about Rim fire Barrel tuners will tell you to look up the Purdie theory

http://wwaccuracy.com/showthread.php?18 ... experiment

It truly works as we at TEAM 1043 can attest to this

[Warrigul]

I've seen them do some great things on centerfires at distance, mind you there is no point until you are well under 1/2" MOA (both load and ability) to start with.

[Tiiger]

Two questions...

1) If you get your seating depth right to be off the lands does using a barrel tuner to match to the load for accuracy work and mean you don't have to do the load development (staying within safe data range of course)?

2) If a more accurate load was a lower velocity one, could you use max load cartridges for the velocity and use the tuner instead of the load for accuracy?

The point of a barrel tuner really is for .22 competitions where you can't tune your load. You find the best factory ammo you can and can hopefully tighten your groups even further by using a barrel tuner. That's the point.

Not because you can't be stuffed or just for the sake of more velocity.

In theory they would work the same for centrefire. If you were really seeking accuracy though you would still develop a proper load and fine tune that. The tuner can only do so much and the more accurate load you start with the more you could tune out of it.

[mikor]

The point of a barrel tuner really is for .22 competitions where you can't tune your load. You find the best factory ammo you can and can hopefully tighten your groups even further by using a barrel tuner. That's the point.

I see. Thanks.

Thanks other guys too for the info on CF even though I was off

Who knows, might experiment in the future with one for fun.

[huccl]

Interesting result from ingunowners.com website.

Group sizes plotted here as he went through the tuner settings, you can see a downward trend from about 0.8MOA average to the sweet spot of around 0.4MOA then starting to go up again.

barrel-tuner-results.jpg (151.88 KiB) Viewed 5112 times

[Harper]

Not because you can't be stuffed or just for the sake of more velocity.

I know some shooters who'd argue there's no such thing as too much velocity

[Khan]

It's those .243 shooters I tell you.

All obsessed with staying above 4,000fps

[AusC]

Hey now... Let's not knock the trusty .243.

Personally I don't might a little less velocity from one. Easier on the ears

[Matt Irvine]

I've made many barrel tuners at work, more so for rimfire however.
I can tell you the for then you already want a good group, that is preferably round, not elongated, this is when they really shine.
Generally speaking, tuners only make a good round better, they don't make a s**t round good

[Pom]

Generally speaking, tuners only make a good round better, they don't make a s**t round good

Invent something for that and you'll be a millionaire

[Sender]

Put me down for one when you crack it

[Chronos]

It late on this topic but do you understand what they do?

Say you have a F class rifle you shoot out yonder. You work up a load that shoots 1/4moa at 200y. Now you take it to 400y. Expecting it to group the same, but you're getting more vertical dispersion.

What could be happening is with barrel harmonics the bullet is exiting the muzzle during the part of the cycle which has a lower velocity round impacting low and the faster velocity round impacting high.

What a tuner allows you to do is adjust the way the barrel flexes and adjust barrel harmonics so that velocity changes see less vertical dispersion with velocity changes.

This tuning would be different at different ranges so you would need to have different settings for different distances. On a rimfire BR rifle this wouldn't be an issue but on an f class gun it would be another thing that could go wrong.

I imagine the effectiveness of a tuner would depend on many factors, its quite a technical subject and I think a lot of shooters would struggle to get it right at first.

I'd suggest anyone interested have a read of some of "Williada"s posts over on Ozfclass. Just search for topics on tuners and you'll find lots of info.

Chronos

[mikor]

No worries about the late reply Chronos

I got the basics of it but I'm no expert, hence my questions. Thanks for the additional info.

I found Williada profile on the Ozfclass site too