Centerfire tuners
- Thread starter Rockchuck
- Start date
In my experience the Ezell tuner is the easiest to use. This tuner has clear marks that make it easy to adjust with multiple set screws to hold it in place. I have one of Mike’s Tuners on every barrel.
Ben
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I just put an Ezell tuner on my 6BR Improved yesterday. Anxious to test it out. Mike has been very helpful and told me to call with any questions.
Dave.
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I put a Harrells Tuner & brake on my new 6BR. Not expensive and work great. Beware that some competitions don't allow use of brakes.
The Harrells uses a jamb nut so adjustments can be made quickly and easily without use of additional tools.
Next trip to the range I plan on tuning at 300 yds to really get a feel for and understand just how small of an adjustment can make a significant difference in group size.
The Harrells uses a jamb nut so adjustments can be made quickly and easily without use of additional tools.
Next trip to the range I plan on tuning at 300 yds to really get a feel for and understand just how small of an adjustment can make a significant difference in group size.
Mulligan
Silver $$ Contributor
I have three Ezell tuners. If I needed another, I would buy an Ezell PDT tuner.
Super easy! Three times at matches, I have reached up during the sighter period and gave the tuner a nudge. All three times my groups were reduced significantly. At the last IBS match, I did this with my 300 WSM, groups shrank in half. Two shooters who witnessed it, have them on order. Dan Dowling ordered a handful, just to have some in stock. These tuners just plain work.
CW
I have at least a half dozen each of Mike Ezell and Sid Goodling's tuners, one Jackie Schmidt, use to have a Borden, have 1 Gene Beggs and just received one of Dave Short's tuners 2 days ago. Without a doubt the Ezell tuner is by far the easiest to use in a match. The Ezell, Schmidt and Short tuners all use some form of dampening system while the other 3 do not. Mike's uses powdered Tungsten Disulfide and the Schmidt and Short use rubber. Mike's is the heaviest of the 6 at usually around 7.oz. and Dave Short's was the lightest weighing in at 3.9oz. Sid's tuners usually run 4.2 oz. In the disciple of shooting that I compete in SR score, more people have Goodling's tuner than any of them, BUT when I was at the 1-200 meter Nationals in Orangeburg, SC in October, I noticed a lot more of Mike Ezell's tuner's showing up on rifles. The Begg's and Borden tuners are the only 2 that I have that do not extend past the muzzle. Gene's is basically 2 discs and Borden's is a little over 4 oz piece of brass. They work but I like tuners that extend past the muzzle. I swear by them. I would not go to the line without one and they are so easy to use. Some people over complicate them buy moving them too much. If they moved it 1/4 revolution they probably went in and out of tune close to 3 times. I've gone back in tune by moving the thing as little as a 1/16 of an inch. I am going to order two more, a Woolum and an RAS and try those 2. If I had to recommend one and one only it would be Mike Ezell's because all you have to do is turn it. There is no clockwise-counterclockwise unlocking of the 2 pieces when u have to make an adjustment.
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I am new to tuners, but have watched other benchrest shooters use them for a few years. I have now purchased Loker tuners made by Darrel Loker. They are a popular tuner for short range benchrest. Darrel and Richard Brensing have won a lot of matches shooting the Loker tuner. Loker tuners are now available through PMA Tool.
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Stay tuned for a lighter version of my tuner soon. Working on them now.
That said, I still recommend a bit more weight at the tuner whenever possible. But making weight and gun balance are more important for obvious reasons.
--Mike Ezell
That said, I still recommend a bit more weight at the tuner whenever possible. But making weight and gun balance are more important for obvious reasons.
--Mike Ezell
For clarification...the Ezell tuner does not require tools to adjust it. The set screws are nylon tipped and are set with just enough torque to keep the tuner from moving during firing/incidental contact but will allow rotation by hand when adjusting. I back off my screws 1/2 turn only when removing it for barrel cleaning.
Tim Singleton
Gold $$ Contributor
I’m gonna go just a little bit against the grain in so much as to the going in and out of tune 3x in a small movement
If yours is doing that you may not be in the best spot
Ok I exaggerated a little. On Mike's turner if you moved it 1/4 turn, (8 hash marks) it will go out of tune 2 times.
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Tuner weight should be 10% of barrel weight. If that puts you over weight shorten and lighten the stock. The measurement from the bolt handle relief to the front of the stock should not be more than 500mm. Stock weight of less than 1.4kgs work very well as do 1kg.
Tim, I have to agree with Jim here and it has little if anything to do where you are tuned, be it powder charge or tuner setting. Moving the tuner a given value will have a given result in terms of vibrational frequency. Moving it a mark in will raise the frequency and a mark out will lower it, respectively. If tuning is as I believe, about timing bullet exit to occur while the barrel is at a spot that gives best accuracy along a sine wave pattern(in simple terms), the results are predictable and no setting is wider than the next, per se. I will say that you will typically have two sweet spots on a typical sr br rifle withing about 8 marks and that the one that prints slightly higher is where I tune for, because of being more forgiving to velocity variations between rounds in a given condition. Yes, that can well mean a very slightly wider tune window but it's a subject for another thread.
Now..and this is where you have to keep powder tuning separate from tuner tuning..Some loads will plateau and give very low es, which will give a window where tune isn't affected as much. Still, moving the tuner in a given condition and by a set amount will always have the same vibrational affect.
No bad intentions in this post to you or anyone else, seems to be a needed disclaimer for some.
Bottom line, a mark should be worth a mark, always.
Just weighed of my 1.250 ST fluted barrels @ 7 lbs & 15 oz
My slightly modified Ezell tuner weighs 6.8 oz. You do the math.
Ben
My slightly modified Ezell tuner weighs 6.8 oz. You do the math.
Ben
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Ok. I won't disagree but what science do you have to support those numbers? And yes, I like a heavier tuner BECAUSE it lowers the frequency of vibration, which does in turn, widen the sweet spot. Everything is just slower.
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