Nashville to Midland is a scheduled 3 hours. If you travel on "storm day" it takes about 7 hours, all inside the envelope of security and good health. I smoked in my pants just short of Austin. A nights sleep and a couple of phone calls got me to Gene's place Wednesday morning. Gene's tunnel is nicely done. A spacious loading room sits aside the "shooting room" offering 24/7 capability with little effect of external ballistics. The term "little effect" is necessarily stated as a bit of mirage is seen - about half a bullet worth in all directions.
Gene's purpose was to show me how his tuner worked (see attached picture). My purpose was to determine if tuners work on centerfire benchrest rifles period. As it turned out we both got most of what we wanted. Keep in mind that the stated concept is to tune the vertical dispersion of shots and vertical only. Gene can straighten me out on his purpose and the concept as necessary. Moreover, if I got it wrong somewhere, I hope Gene corrects the matter.
My plan was to shoot groups with the tuner installed, adjusting as Gene recommended, and shoot groups with the tuner not installed in the hope that a difference would be seen. In the case of the first rifle, we started with the tuner installed. The groups fired at the initial tuner setting would measure vertically offering an opportunity right off the bat. Gene gave me the skinny on how much to turn the tuner and I played by the numbers. The groups at the new setting were still vertical but smaller. Another 1/8th turn and the vertical vanished for practical purposes. We then removed the tuner and the rifle fired three groups straight without vertical. The best group of all was with the tuner installed but the better consistency was without. Based on what we had observed to this point, a conclusion could be drawn that the tuner can create and remove vertical. Remaining to be seen was whether or not the rifle would fall from tune without the tuner. The day became long and Gene wanted to retreat to the shop where he could make up some parts for trying out the alternate method of adding weight to "stop" the muzzle....so we left the tunnel and headed for the shop.
Gene gathered up some pieces of projects past and we compared them to what we thought we needed. Somewhere along the line I came up with the idea to use his rimfire tuner and tap out some holes for adding washers. Not really my idea at all, but rather one I have seen used on rimfire tuners - some more sophisticated than others but the same concept. Gene bought in and suggested we hit that mexican restaurant after which he would cobble up the stuff. Day over for me - more work for Gene.
One missed turn and another phone call brought us together at the tunnel the following morning. Gene had the "add weight till it works" tuner on the rifle with one of six washers installed. The washers weighed about 2.6 ounces each (see attached picture). We shot groups and added washers along the way. The rifle grouped poorly across the entire effort. The best was with one washer so we went back to that and turned the tuner to and fro looking for a sweet spot but found no sunshine. We then removed the tuner and the rifle performed similarly to the day before - just as good without as it did with the best tuner setting. Submitting that we might not understand all we know, we gave up on this one. Apologies to proponents of this method. We just didn't get close enough to anything good to justify keeping on for the moment. Of interest to me, and I didn't mention it at the time, was the tremendous effect 2.6 ounces had on group size. I'm thinking.....gee whiz, what's going on here?!?! I know that folks have cut off barrels little at the time to see what happens but don't recall reports of this magnitude. Go figure!
I explained to Gene that I really needed to see the rifle fall from tune without the tuner to satisfy my suspicion. Since it was shooting well sans tuner at the moment we turned to another rifle. To make a long story short, this rifle performed best with the tuner installed. Further, it was clear (as before) that the tuner was capable of minimizing vertical shot dispersion. When the tuner was removed, the groups were vertical. Gene stated, and I agreed, that the vertical could be tuned out with the load. Right there I made an assumption that I didn't need to see the other rifle fall from tune to conclude that a tuner can be useful. That assumption may or may not be flawed but I think for now that "not flawed" is the case. To be flawed, it would have to be true that rifles do not fall from tune and I don't think that is credible. Rifles do exist that refuse to drop out of tune but we have all seen rifles setting the world on fire just before they hit the wall - out of tune for the lack of an alternate explanation.
Somewhere along there we called it quits, ate a steak and bid farewell.
Soooooo.....here's what I learned......A tuner can indeed minimize vertical shot dispersion.
This rambling wouldn't be complete (as if it ever had a chance) without comments concerning function. A tuner could easily be adjusted and a group fired within the allowed time. My experience leaves me with the opinion that an actual on the clock adjustment would be a distraction of significance as would/could thinking about making an adjustment. A mental discipline derived from experience would have to be developed. When, where and why would be critical considerations to avoid a crash....not at all unlike that knob on our powder drops. The difference in the two being the availability between the commence and cease fire commands. Using the powder drop for tuning, it's a done deal when you seat the bullets. With a tuner, it's not a done deal until the cease fire command. Could be good, could be bad, depending on too many factors to weigh for now. Gene's method of using DA sounds promising. If it proves out, life will be simpler and the top 20 will be tighter.
Gene's purpose was to show me how his tuner worked (see attached picture). My purpose was to determine if tuners work on centerfire benchrest rifles period. As it turned out we both got most of what we wanted. Keep in mind that the stated concept is to tune the vertical dispersion of shots and vertical only. Gene can straighten me out on his purpose and the concept as necessary. Moreover, if I got it wrong somewhere, I hope Gene corrects the matter.
My plan was to shoot groups with the tuner installed, adjusting as Gene recommended, and shoot groups with the tuner not installed in the hope that a difference would be seen. In the case of the first rifle, we started with the tuner installed. The groups fired at the initial tuner setting would measure vertically offering an opportunity right off the bat. Gene gave me the skinny on how much to turn the tuner and I played by the numbers. The groups at the new setting were still vertical but smaller. Another 1/8th turn and the vertical vanished for practical purposes. We then removed the tuner and the rifle fired three groups straight without vertical. The best group of all was with the tuner installed but the better consistency was without. Based on what we had observed to this point, a conclusion could be drawn that the tuner can create and remove vertical. Remaining to be seen was whether or not the rifle would fall from tune without the tuner. The day became long and Gene wanted to retreat to the shop where he could make up some parts for trying out the alternate method of adding weight to "stop" the muzzle....so we left the tunnel and headed for the shop.
Gene gathered up some pieces of projects past and we compared them to what we thought we needed. Somewhere along the line I came up with the idea to use his rimfire tuner and tap out some holes for adding washers. Not really my idea at all, but rather one I have seen used on rimfire tuners - some more sophisticated than others but the same concept. Gene bought in and suggested we hit that mexican restaurant after which he would cobble up the stuff. Day over for me - more work for Gene.
One missed turn and another phone call brought us together at the tunnel the following morning. Gene had the "add weight till it works" tuner on the rifle with one of six washers installed. The washers weighed about 2.6 ounces each (see attached picture). We shot groups and added washers along the way. The rifle grouped poorly across the entire effort. The best was with one washer so we went back to that and turned the tuner to and fro looking for a sweet spot but found no sunshine. We then removed the tuner and the rifle performed similarly to the day before - just as good without as it did with the best tuner setting. Submitting that we might not understand all we know, we gave up on this one. Apologies to proponents of this method. We just didn't get close enough to anything good to justify keeping on for the moment. Of interest to me, and I didn't mention it at the time, was the tremendous effect 2.6 ounces had on group size. I'm thinking.....gee whiz, what's going on here?!?! I know that folks have cut off barrels little at the time to see what happens but don't recall reports of this magnitude. Go figure!
I explained to Gene that I really needed to see the rifle fall from tune without the tuner to satisfy my suspicion. Since it was shooting well sans tuner at the moment we turned to another rifle. To make a long story short, this rifle performed best with the tuner installed. Further, it was clear (as before) that the tuner was capable of minimizing vertical shot dispersion. When the tuner was removed, the groups were vertical. Gene stated, and I agreed, that the vertical could be tuned out with the load. Right there I made an assumption that I didn't need to see the other rifle fall from tune to conclude that a tuner can be useful. That assumption may or may not be flawed but I think for now that "not flawed" is the case. To be flawed, it would have to be true that rifles do not fall from tune and I don't think that is credible. Rifles do exist that refuse to drop out of tune but we have all seen rifles setting the world on fire just before they hit the wall - out of tune for the lack of an alternate explanation.
Somewhere along there we called it quits, ate a steak and bid farewell.
Soooooo.....here's what I learned......A tuner can indeed minimize vertical shot dispersion.
This rambling wouldn't be complete (as if it ever had a chance) without comments concerning function. A tuner could easily be adjusted and a group fired within the allowed time. My experience leaves me with the opinion that an actual on the clock adjustment would be a distraction of significance as would/could thinking about making an adjustment. A mental discipline derived from experience would have to be developed. When, where and why would be critical considerations to avoid a crash....not at all unlike that knob on our powder drops. The difference in the two being the availability between the commence and cease fire commands. Using the powder drop for tuning, it's a done deal when you seat the bullets. With a tuner, it's not a done deal until the cease fire command. Could be good, could be bad, depending on too many factors to weigh for now. Gene's method of using DA sounds promising. If it proves out, life will be simpler and the top 20 will be tighter.
