Bob Kingsbury
New member
Can anyone post a picture of a Calfee muzzle devise ?
Which doe s Calfee use on current builds ?
Can someone provide a precise date when Mr Calfee invented the muzzle device/tuner? Any documentation?
Don
If you go to the patent office online, and search around, some 'devices' even predate those you listed.
I think you can find some patents from the '20's. We've been through this before. It's difficult to read what the design is unless you have drawings but the intent was the same.
In the early 90's Bill started showing up with these tuners, the ones in the early nineties pictures, at matches. They no doubt did something but were hard to tune. As far as I remember, Bill did not make them for anybody else but would freely give you the design (of course it's hard to hide the design of a big old blob of steel). The reason given for not making and selling them (it should have been lucrative) was threats from Browning but I can't confirm or deny that.
Hard to tune was the key, because you had to loosen them and move them slightly to change anything, thus evolved the Hoehn 4000+. For those who never shot it, the 4000+ reference was to BR-50 where a 4000 target on 50 bulls was a benchmark that seldom happened and would almost always win. I never say one advertised and the way I got it was because of the same Browning issue. I think Browning finally decided it was not a threat and was not intended to do what the BOSS did (hunting versus BR). But really, they're still kind of an underground thing. You can buy one, but there are few ads. I don't remember any ads until Dan Killough started advertising them. The Browning litigation group probably has him in their sights.
I saw copper pipe fittings on rifles that predate the first Calfee tuner I ever saw and I guess they worked and they were adjustable. But I don't think anybody can deny that where ever the first patent was, or who just tried it or whatever else, Calfee made it widespread. There's little doubt of that because you can trace the beginnings of the use of them across the country and they all come back to that "bull' tuner. But I'm sure their will be disagreement to that and that's good.
Finally, in 2009, after approx 20 years of use we find Martin Hammond to tell us how to use them. How lucky is that?
I know Wilbur, I didn't need that last part.