Seeing is Believing

[Pete Wass]

I watched a gentleman this past weekend tune his Heavy Varmint 30 Cal barrel EASILY with two stainless steel rings held together by friction, threaded onto the barrel. EASILY tuned that thick, heavy barrel with 4 Oz. This confirmed what I have suspected for a long time, most tuners do not need to be nearly as heavy as they are and there doesn't need to be anything exotic about them. A simple weight with a good graduated scale so that one knows where they are and where they are going and it doesn't take much movement to tune rifle barrels. Gene Beggs has it right, I believe.

I have noticed over the past couple of years lighter and lighter tuners appearing on Rimfire Rifles also. Harrels tuners turned down to what appears to be half their original weight. I have observed the same with Air Rifle barrels. It only takes an ounce to tune them, from my experience.

Pete

 

[FBecigneul]

These are the Gene Beggs with the rubber washer between them. I electo-etched the clock face on these. And, these are on an HV .30BR. They’ve worked for me for years.
I might add that when Gene started professing the merits of using a tuner, I was his biggest and loudest critic. Then Hal Drake showed me the merits with his win at the IBS Score National at Chippewa, Ohio and I was convinced.

 

[FBecigneul]

I might add that the disc facing the shooter is also etched. I don’t walk in front of the line to make a change. With these 4 ounces, a twist of 1/12 of a revolution, or one hour, is adequate to resolve tuning problems accompanied with 250 on the DA scale. We move as little as 15 minutes on the tuners. Yes, you have to do a little fidgeting with the tuner but the alternative is to fidget with the powder measure and there is no powder measure on the shooting bench when the DA is changing.
Some years back Bill Calfee, a critic of the barrel threaded method, tuned a rim fire rifle with ammo and then went home and threaded that barrel. When he returned to the range with the threaded barrel and no tuner, the tune went all to hell and back. He avered that the threading process took him out of tune. My response was that in the process of the threading he had removed more than an ounce of weight from the barrel. I don’t think he was ever convince that threading was every bit as good as clamping the tuner on the barrel.

 

[glp]

There is

I might add that the disc facing the shooter is also etched. I don’t walk in front of the line to make a change. With these 4 ounces, a twist of 1/12 of a revolution, or one hour, is adequate to resolve tuning problems accompanied with 250 on the DA scale. We move as little as 15 minutes on the tuners. Yes, you have to do a little fidgeting with the tuner but the alternative is to fidget with the powder measure and there is no powder measure on the shooting bench when the DA is changing.
Some years back Bill Calfee, a critic of the barrel threaded method, tuned a rim fire rifle with ammo and then went home and threaded that barrel. When he returned to the range with the threaded barrel and no tuner, the tune went all to hell and back. He avered that the threading process took him out of tune. My response was that in the process of the threading he had removed more than an ounce of weight from the barrel. I don’t think he was ever convince that threading was every bit as good as clamping the tuner on the barrel.

somewhere in the archives a thread on threading a barrel started by Frank Green. The gist is that he measured distinct bore expansion in the threaded barrel area on button rifled barrels but not cut rifled ones. He did not opine one way or the other on the effect nor did he test for effect. Just interesting and may or may not be significant.

 

[hayscott]

Tuner magic

I've had the pleasure to spend some time with Gene in his tunnel working with tuners. What you have seen is absolutely correct. Gene now has the rear plate on his tuner etched and one mark equals .001 movement of the tuner. I was astounded by the changes in the groups with only that little bit of change. We started out with a group that was forming a diagonal line from top left to bottom right. We moved it one way and it got worse, we went the other way three marks and shot three different groups in the zeros just to prove it wasn't a fluke!

Guess that explains why Gene always does so well at the Cactus the last couple years. He keeps everything with his load the same and just makes tiny movements with his tuner to keep the groups in check.

Thanks
Scott

 

[Pete Wass]

Is the rubba washa

These are the Gene Beggs with the rubber washer between them. I electo-etched the clock face on these. And, these are on an HV .30BR. They’ve worked for me for years.
I might add that when Gene started professing the merits of using a tuner, I was his biggest and loudest critic. Then Hal Drake showed me the merits with his win at the IBS Score National at Chippewa, Ohio and I was convinced.

a "Snubbah" or just a friction devise? I noticed John just turned the device by hand, ergo no tommy bars.

Pete

 

[FBecigneul]

I got this washer and a few more from Gene. They are basically the same size as the tuner and 1/16 inch thick. That’s not hardly thick enough to be a snubber but create friction and eliminate the need for the crow bars.

 

[Pete Wass]

Thanks F

I got this washer and a few more from Gene. They are basically the same size as the tuner and 1/16 inch thick. That’s not hardly thick enough to be a snubber but create friction and eliminate the need for the crow bars.

the same thing I have. The problem I have is the hole is too big for my barrel. Mine has a 3/4 X 32 thread on it. The Beggs tuners I have are all .900".

I had emailed Gene about it but he and I have been having email reception problems and I'm not sure he go t my message.The difference in sizes is too small to fool with making a bushing for, a nightmarish endeavor, to say the least.

Pete

 

[Gene Beggs]

Heart warming to say the least !

Pete Waas, FBecigneul, Hayscott, et al. Guys thank you so much for the kind words about the Beggs barrel tuners.
The past sixteen years of development, testing and shooting matches with my tuners have been the most interesting and rewarding of anything in benchrest.

For years, there was a great deal of misinformation about barrel tuners and I myself have been guilty of some of it before I discovered what I've learned during the past couple of years, thanks to Mike Ezell, Rodney Brown, Richard Brensing, and others. I'm so glad to see the truth rising to the top and the centerfire benchresters beginning to take tuners seriously. It's been a long road but several of us have refused to give up on something we knew all along, was very significant for keeping our rifles in tune.

Later,

Gene Beggs

 

[Gene Beggs]

a "Snubbah" or just a friction devise? I noticed John just turned the device by hand, ergo no tommy bars.

Pete

Pete, the 1/16" rubber gasket I added to the Beggs tuner is, in no way, a snubber. It does two things:

1. Removes all backlash from the threads and provides friction to hold the tuner in position.

2. Eliminates the use of tools to make adjustments.


Yep, it's hard to believe what an improvement that simple addition made.

Later,

Gene Beggs

 

[Richard]

Yes Sir Gene!!

Pete Waas, FBecigneul, Hayscott, et al. Guys thank you so much for the kind words about the Beggs barrel tuners.
The past sixteen years of development, testing and shooting matches with my tuners have been the most interesting and rewarding of anything in benchrest.

For years, there was a great deal of misinformation about barrel tuners and I myself have been guilty of some of it before I discovered what I've learned during the past couple of years, thanks to Mike Ezell, Rodney Brown, Richard Brensing, and others. I'm so glad to see the truth rising to the top and the centerfire benchresters beginning to take tuners seriously. It's been a long road but several of us have refused to give up on something we knew all along, was very significant for keeping our rifles in tune.

Later,

Gene Beggs

approx 4 oz behind the crown, threads under tension, no POI change when turning the tuner. It's totally repeatable and it doesn't get any better than this!!

Richard Brensing

 

[glp]

Gene

Pete, the 1/16" rubber gasket I added to the Beggs tuner is, in no way, a snubber. It does two things:

1. Removes all backlash from the threads and provides friction to hold the tuner in position.

2. Eliminates the use of tools to make adjustments.


Yep, it's hard to believe what an improvement that simple addition made.

Later,

Gene Beggs

what is the tuner thread? .900"x30?

 

[Gene Beggs]

what is the tuner thread? .900"x30?

The Beggs tuners are all .900 x 28 tpi.