• This Forum is for adults 18 years of age or over. By continuing to use this Forum you are confirming that you are 18 or older. No content shall be viewed by any person under 18 in California.

Barrel tuners

46490

Any recommendations for a barrel tuner for a 6BR? What are you people using and what are the expected results? Is it worth it to use one or in the 6BR accurate enough?
 
Another vote for Ezell. Here’s MY take on them ... As far as expectations, you still need to tune your load to the best of your abilities before touching the tuner. Don’t go into it expecting the tuner to be “magic” and find the load for you (as some YouTube videos show). The tuner should be used to keep you in tune in the event that you miss your mark on your load, or an unaccounted for temperature change. With that being said, they do work if you learn them and you just don’t go to twisting after every bad group. If you purchase a Ezell, Mike (@gunsandgunsmithing) will take the time to go over everything with you over the phone.
 
sdean said:
I like this tuner. Don't need to take much off a 1.250 barrel to install..
Click to expand...
I've never seen it hurt a cf bbl. If you think about it a bit, it's pretty easy to understand why. Muzzle pressures on a cf can be from 5,000-8000 psi, at the muzzle. So the bore grows anyway and at those pressures, the bullet obturates to fit the bore. That's even it it does grow after machining which is a pretty big IF. In virtually every case, any growth has been immeasurable going to .875ish for a tuner. Cut barrels are less likely to show growth, even going far smaller due to less stress in the bbl from making it. And then you have stress relief process, that in theory, should relieve those stresses anyway.
I believe this is one of those things that, if you think it matters, it might..but the results speak clearly. Rimfire is a different animal as most are smaller, most are button bbls and the muzzle pressures are in the hundreds of psi, not several thousand psi.

Use what you're comfortable with but I wouldn't let "possible" bore growth override real world results of both measuring and testing. Lots of reasons for using whatever we use but this one would be way down the list, imho. Lots of records and national championships support my position and my position comes from lots of testing and measuring stuff. Either way, we have to be confident in our equipment and if this lessens your confidence then you should use what you think gives you the best chance of winning. There is far more to be gained in properly using any tuner than in worrying about if the bore grows or not. I'm always here to help with very detailed instruction on using my tuners. That seems to be where there is a ton of misinformation and misuse of tuners and where there is the most to be gained.
 
gunsandgunsmithing said:
I've never seen it hurt a cf bbl. If you think about it a bit, it's pretty easy to understand why. Muzzle pressures on a cf can be from 5,000-8000 psi, at the muzzle. So the bore grows anyway and at those pressures, the bullet obturates to fit the bore. That's even it it does grow after machining which is a pretty big IF. In virtually every case, any growth has been immeasurable going to .875ish for a tuner. Cut barrels are less likely to show growth, even going far smaller due to less stress in the bbl from making it. And then you have stress relief process, that in theory, should relieve those stresses anyway.
I believe this is one of those things that, if you think it matters, it might..but the results speak clearly. Rimfire is a different animal as most are smaller, most are button bbls and the muzzle pressures are in the hundreds of psi, not several thousand psi.

Use what you're comfortable with but I wouldn't let "possible" bore growth override real world results of both measuring and testing. Lots of reasons for using whatever we use but this one would be way down the list, imho. Lots of records and national championships support my position and my position comes from lots of testing and measuring stuff. Either way, we have to be confident in our equipment and if this lessens your confidence then you should use what you think gives you the best chance of winning. There is far more to be gained in properly using any tuner than in worrying about if the bore grows or not. I'm always here to help with very detailed instruction on using my tuners. That seems to be where there is a ton of misinformation and misuse of tuners and where there is the most to be gained.
Click to expand...
Didn't mention anything about hurting the barrel.
 
sdean said:
Didn't mention anything about hurting the barrel.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you did. Am I mistaken that you are saying that the bore grows, though? That's what I was referring to. I hope I explained my point well enough. IME, turning a 1.250 pluss bbl to .875ish has never shown growth at the muzzle that I could detect with gauge pins and that even if it did, well, did the accuracy go away because of it? Again, speaking from experience, I have never seen it in a centerfire turned to .875 is for lots of different tuners. That's all I'm saying. Now what are you saying, please? It's not a big deal to take a little more off once set up to take any off and thread it. You're right, though. You didn't say it would hurt it but there is a common belief along those lines that gets repeated commonly on the internet. Testing is how we know stuff.
 
gunsandgunsmithing said:
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you did. Am I mistaken that you are saying that the bore grows, though? That's what I was referring to. I hope I explained my point well enough. IME, turning a 1.250 pluss bbl to .875ish has never shown growth at the muzzle that I could detect with gauge pins and that even if it did, well, did the accuracy go away because of it? Again, speaking from experience, I have never seen it in a centerfire turned to .875 is for lots of different tuners. That's all I'm saying. Now what are you saying, please? It's not a big deal to take a little more off once set up to take any off and thread it. You're right, though. You didn't say it would hurt it but there is a common belief along those lines that gets repeated commonly on the internet. Testing is how we know stuff.
Click to expand...
One could open the bore if he got it hot enough maybe. I just think it looks funky cut down that much and takes a little less time. Cosmetics mostly.
 
46490 said:
Any recommendations for a barrel tuner for a 6BR? What are you people using and what are the expected results? Is it worth it to use one or in the 6BR accurate enough?
Click to expand...

Shout out to Mike Ezell

I was at a 600 yard IBS match yesterday and my first two targets were not what I was expecting. I had spent time at the range the two weekends prior and had a load nailed down. I was going to the range early expecting the temps for the Jan match to be a bit cooler. My first two targets were all...
forum.accurateshooter.com
Check out this thread.

I have several brands of tuners, most are just ugly paper weights. I have several PDT tuners on my bench guns and F-class rigs, Mike's tuners work and he is there to help.
CW
 
There's a lot of value in vibration analysis. I know that I've learned a tremendous amount from that testing. Without that, testing individual tuners is all you can fall back on. In my case, vibration analysis confirmed most of what I'd already seen on target but it did in fact explain a lot of what is actually occurring and makes it much easier to explain, if nothing else. Either way and regardless of tuner design, you have to quantify on target, the value of each adjustment. Otherwise, you're guessing. Stay with makers that can explain what and why you should see on target. Frankly, everything else is guessing, even with the very best tuner design. This is exactly why I only do tuner orders by phone. I have a system that I do my best to explain but when done, becomes apparent on the target. It really simplifies to process and I try to break every aspect down to the why's and what for during my time with you on the phone. It's about timing. If the maker can't break everything down into easily understandable terminology, keep looking. The old say about truly understanding something and being able to explain it to virtually anyone is very true. It proves a real understanding of pretty much anything. So, if the maker takes your money and say good luck, you made a poor choice. If they understand what they make well, then explaining it in detail that a layman can understand should be welcome by the maker. Unfortunately, there are people that make products simply because they can, regardless of understanding how the product works. With tuners, this is far too common of an occurrence.
 
For center fires I prefer an EC. Zero issues with mine.
Exactly what Danley said. “As far as expectations, you still need to tune your load to the best of your abilities before touching the tuner. Don’t go into it expecting the tuner to be “magic” and find the load for you (as some YouTube videos show). The tuner should be used to keep you in tune in the event that you miss your mark on your load, or an unaccounted for temperature change. With that being said, they do work if you learn them and you just don’t go to twisting after every bad group”.

Now for my 22 bench rest rigs I prefer Ezell. I run an ATS on my 22 trainer rig and its pretty nifty thus far.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Upgrades & Donations

This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.


Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.

You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.


To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.

Classified Ads

Forum statistics

Threads
164,948
Messages
2,187,007
Members
78,605
Latest member
Jonathan99

Share This Page

Back
Top