experience with tuner

[Hal D.]

OK, I've been dying to get the tuner rule passed through IBS for a while now so I could start to mess with them a little. I built one last year to play with, but it had to conform to IBS rules as 90% of the matches I attend are IBS. Anyway, I was never very happy with the design and put it on the back burner for the day when we got the new rule passed. I put together my tuner so that I could add weight until I had what I wanted. The main body weighs in at 3oz, and the only weight added to this point is 4oz, for a grand total of 7ozs. Its a very simple design with the tuner itself and a lock ring to hold it in place. I threaded it at 36tpi for no particular reason other than I've seen others use the same or something real close to it. The barrel had to lose some weight to allow for the tuner, so I stepped it back in several sections, the same as I'd seen Jerry Sharrett's barrels done. I turned the last 2" of the barrel down to .890" and threaded the entire section. This was so that I would be able to keep the tuner weight all behind the muzzle or all past it, or something in between. On my first trip to the range to test things out, I shot it with the tuner set behind the muzzle as well as past the muzzle. I shot some very small groups both ways, but past the muzzle seemed to be more consistent. On my second trip, I set the tuner up with all but probably 1.5oz past the muzzle and seemed to find a real sweet spot, adjusting as Gene Beggs is adjusting his tuners, no more than one revolution. Matter of fact, on the second trip, as well as my third test session, the tuner worked at 12 o'clock and 9 o'clock, didn't need to go anywhere else with it. Yesterday was my third trip with the tuner and the gun was shooting very well so I decided to shoot an agg with it, don't remember the exact numbers, but a general idea should do. Once I had the tuner set where I wanted it(9 o'clock), I shot the first group, a .150, the second went into .190, with one shot leaking out the bottom to kill a really small one. I should have set the tuner right then to the 12 o'clock position, but I didn't, still shot a .220, all vertical. Now I change to 12 o'clock with the tuner and and shoot the 4th group, a .210, no vertical, just got caught. Fifth group was a .230, no vertical, just got caught again. Now I'd take an agg like that anytime, but I really screwed it up with two wind reading mistakes and one mental mistake, not changing the tuner setting when I knew I should have. I've tested 8208 as well as N133 and 4198 in these three sessions, and all three shot well, the agg yesterday was with 4198. BTW, no sighters were fired, just 25 "record" shots, after I got the load figured out for the 4198. I just finished building the rifle, so I don't have any way to compare it versus without a tuner, but in its limited testing, it seems far more consistent than my other light gun. I hope to not have to mess with tuner settings much in the future as the temp rises, I'd guess it won't be much if any. I do believe that one day not too far in the future, it will be an oddity to see a rifle on the line without a tuner. Once people realize that they can go to the line with the wrong load, and still shoot a small group, they will flock to the tuner.