22 Tuners and High-Velocity Ammo?

[Syncrowave]

I recently bought a Harrell's tuner for my Savage Mark II and am shooting match ammo out of it, but I was curious:

Has anyone had any success getting High-Velocity 22LR ammo to shoot accurately with a tuner?

And if you did, did you find that the same approximate setting worked for both subsonic match ammo and the HV stuff?

I'm hoping that the tuner will allow me to shoot the cheaper HV ammo accurately for squirrel and varmint hunting.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Fotheringill]

Unless you are shooting at a gazillion yards, you shouldn't even need a tuner for varmints. We are talking about very small improvements in accuracy here with a tuner.

Wind is going to affect your hunting more than a tuner and so will using mid or low quality ammo. With a stable benchrest set up with a good rear bag at 50 yards, I see a 1/8" improvement in groups @50 yards with a properly dialed in Harrel's tuner and an Anschutz 1913a.

 

[Syncrowave]

Unless you are shooting at a gazillion yards, you shouldn't even need a tuner for varmints. We are talking about very small improvements in accuracy here with a tuner.

Well, off a rest, the gun shoots groups of maybe 6" at 50 yds with HV ammo. Not good enough for squirrels. With match ammo it shoots maybe .75" or less off a rest with CCI Standard Velocity (1070 f/s.)

I haven't messed with the tuner much yet. I don't care about benchrest (except to tune the tuner).

So I guess what you're saying is that if I get groups of 6" using HV ammo without a tuner, the best I can expect with a tuner using HV ammo is 5-7/8". Not good enough.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[1Merlin]

I see a difference from match and HV ammo but have never seen anything remotely like a 6" group with any (undamaged) 22 I have ever owned.
I suggest you try a different HV ammo......

 

[swynn]

X2 on a different hv ammo....personally I prefer subsonic to hunt squirrel

swynn

 

['Freak]

Unless something was already real wrong with whatever HV that is as it came out the box then that Savage must be chewing on ‘em pretty good somewhere between the mag and chambered if best it can do is pattern the things 6” at 50 yards.

 

[searcher]

I doubt the tuner will get those 6" groups to a manageable size (or even close).

 

[HiggsBoson]

Seriously, if I could only get 6 inch groups at 50 yards I would be looking to trade up in rifles rather than messing with tuners.

 

[Syncrowave]

Maybe it was 4" ... I'm estimating from memory. Whatever it was, it was nogo with Winchester Wildcats for squirrel hunting.

It shoots the CCI Standard Velocity just fine.

 

[1Merlin]

Try several different brands of ammo and I'll bet your Savage will shoot most all of them inside an inch at 50....I am guessing that the huge gropu was an exception rather than the rule. Your Mark II should do hell of a lot better than that.

Just my .02....

 

[Shynloco]

Guys,
A tuner will help an accurate shooting rifle shoot even better. Amongst the rimfire rifles I have owned, two are Savage MKII's (each like different ammos) and both shoot groups in the 3's at 50 yds (no tuner). But you must find the ammo she likes best BEFORE even adding a tuner. If you have a Savage MKII that is shooting 6" groups, something is MAJORLY wrong as Savage MKII's are fine and very accurate shooting rifles (using the right ammo) especially at 50 yds. Tuners do nothing more than fine tune the harmonics of a good barrel. They will not correct any deficiency in a junk barrel. And cheap ammo does the rifle no justice which is why Match ammo is needed to get ultimate accuracy out of a rimfire rifle. I recommend getting on the phone with Savage and have them weigh in because from what is written, that barrel is way out or something else is amiss with that particular rifle.

Alex

P.S. My Harrel Tuner is on my Anschutz and my grandsons love their MKII's.

 

[Fotheringill]

Shynloco is 100% correct. Something is radically wrong.

1. Are the mounts properly attached and torqued? Same question with rings.

2. Have you swapped out scopes, mounts and rings to eliminate chance of bad ones?

3. Are your action screws torqued to factory specs? Not to much and not too little.

4. Savage FAQ's state (or did) that its acceptable accuracy is 1"@100 yards. It did not say with which ammo.

AND, certainly call Savage. Even Remington or Winchester bulk should not spread that much.

 

[grillzilla]

I had a Mark II bsev that had a wide spot in the barrel about 5 inches from the muzzle. Try running a .22 slug thru the barrel and see if that is the case. I sent mine back to Savage with targets shot at 50 yards and they sent me a completely new rifle.

 

['Freak]

It’s shooting CCI’s Standard Velocity into ~ ¾”, he says. While ¾” is still not all that well, what’s really wrong is the 4” to 6” mess it’s making out of whatever flavor of high velocity it was that he’s tried. The SV ought to be going into less than half an inch but it doesn’t, so already reason enough to wonder if the why has something to do with that particular Savage. Then it shoots whoever’s HV stuff five to eight times worse than the SV which really has me wondering about the fitness of that gun.

I’d be cycling that stuff through ejecting without firing and looking for damaged case and/or especially projectile which would be cause for the things to not wanna fly right, and the root cause of it needs fixin’. If all is looking good then I’d try a few different flavors of both standard and high velocity. If there’s not an awful lot of improvement in the groups when shooting at least some of the different ammo flavors then that there Savage definitely needs to go back to from whence it was born.

 

[flatlander]

I've got Pro-X tuners on a V-22S BR rifle, and a V-22 repeater comp rifle, and the improvement in groups out of both rifles with lot-tested Lapua Center-X & SK Rifle Match was very noticeable once I got the tuners dialed in. But I've never shot any copper washed hi vel ammo through any of the custom barrels I've fitted & chambered for any of several 40X, Vudoo, RimX, or CZ457 actions that I currently own & shoot. Honestly, it never occurred to me to try any hi vel ammo in these rifles. Part of the reason is that I don't have a lot of quantity of that hunting/plinking ammo on hand - but I'm still curious enough to look forward to the OP posting his results with the Harrell's tuner on his Mk II Savage. Who knows? It might make a worthwhile difference.