Litz and Cortina - follow up on barrel tuner discussion

[Ccrider]

I understand your sentiment regarding a lower accuracy priority when it comes to hunting rifles. I don't entirely disagree with it but....

We may not need .1" groups to kill an animal at 100 yards, however there is a much wider variance in field conditions when hunting than in competition. If your gun shoots 2" at 100 in the best conditions at the range that 2" @ 100 turns into 12" or more very quickly in the worst circumstances. What's more, a gut shot animal could run forever before finally dying somewhere in the next county.

I believe a hunting rifle should not be fielded if it isn't shooting 1" or less @ 100.

Didn't Browning have a "tuner" of sorts on their rifles for a time?

Edit: Found the Browning tuner. The BOSS tuner. https://www.browning.com/news/tech-terms/boss-rifle-accuracy-system.html

Snip from the website: "

How does the BOSS work?​

The BOSS simply tunes the vibrations of your barrel. This allows the bullet to leave the barrel the split second it is stationary. Your BOSS manual has a list of settings for each caliber and bullet weight. Adjusting your BOSS to these "Sweet Spot" settings allows you to find the instant your barrel is stationary. The result is accuracy never achieved before by an out-of-the-box rifle."

The BOSS system worked to improve accuracy. Their explanation of it was oversimplified.

 

[BoydAllen]

Dealing with the economics of barrel life and cost of components, I have found that observing what winners and consistent high placers in large matches are doing is a pretty good starting point. To my knowledge, none of these fellows have things on or a part of their rifles that the have not shown some advantage in their own testing. I take their observations and practices a lot more seriously than just about anything else. Certainly, one does not have to use a tuner to win, but the mere fact that so many have reported that they widen nodes is enough for me. Anything beyond that is a bonus. Regarding the BOSS system, back when it first came out, I knew fellows who were able to improve accuracy by following the directions that came with it. All in all, the one thing that tends to wear me out is people dissing anecdotal information. When a bullet goes through a target sideways, and we know that the twist rate is probably marginal, we do not need to do a five group study. There are a lot of things like that. The first time that we learned not to touch things that had the potential for burning us, that was undoubtedly the result of anecdotal information. Most of what we know comes from anecdotal information. Let us not forget that.

 

[RegionRat]

I have found that observing what winners and consistent high placers in large matches are doing is a pretty good starting point.

+1
This advice is priceless for rookies and folks who want to start down the path of learning to shoot better.

Get to a club or range where there are well attended matches of the type of shooting you are interested in learning and get a mentor.

Don't be a pest during a serious match, but get yourself adopted.

It should be obvious when it is okay to ask questions and when to allow them to focus on their shooting.

Be willing to put in some skin in the form of club chores and maintenance work and it is more likely they will adopt you for their trouble.

If they see you are serious, you will be shown the golden secrets. If they see a greedy or lazy slob, you will probably get shown the door.

The combined experience and state of the art knowledge of these experienced folks is something that would take many barrels and time to discover on your own.

Make starting with the right hardware and recipe a priority and get rolling with what they give you. There is plenty of time later to fill in your curiosity and background but use their advice to get a good start first. Make it a point to visit with more than just the type of shooting that will be your focus. For example, serious rimfire shooters and rimfire benchrest shooters can also teach you a lot. So can airgunners.

Bottom line, is to go watch and see what is working for the folks that do what you aspire to become. You will climb much faster with their advice in person than you will at your keyboards.

 

[seymour fish]

If I was in this “conversation”, and mentioned using my tuner to induce about a bullet hole worth of vertical in my 30BR VFS Rifle to get out of a horizontal tune, I bet both of these guys would look at me like I was nuts.

And the notion of adding say 0.1 grains powder to a 308 load with a flat waterline at 1000, but inordinately wind sensitive, to cure that problem by adding a touch of vertical, would render them apoplectic.