TUNNER WEIGHTS ??? how do you know

C

captin

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How do you know when you have enough weight on a tunner ??

What setting do you set the tunner when adding weight or what method do you use to go about finding how much weight is needed??

Using a hohen tunner on a 64 MPR.

Thanks for help.
 
This might sound crazy, but you are going to have to get out of the house and go to the range.
Best weight shoots the smallest group.
 
Thanks, I have been shooting since I got the VonArens weights. and have shot with different adjustments on the tunner.

I was just thinking there must be some signs that will tell you like a place to put the tunner and then starting weight till it stops stringing up and down od some words of wisdom like what to look for to tell you more weight was needed, or that you had too much weight on it and need to take some off.

Do you all do the Hopewell method after every time you add of take away weight??
 
I would set the tuner at zero or some other permanent setting and add weights 1/2 ounce at the time to see which one seems best. After determining a range of the best weight addition, I might then go to the Hopewell method.

Funny thing. I kept adding weight and adding weight and shooting worse. I finally took all the extra weight off the tuners and have been happy ever since.
 
Thanks Beau, That is the kind of things I need to hear to start with, this is the first tunner I ever owned and just wanted to hear some advice.
 
I heard somewhere along the line to set the tuner at 250 that way it is in the middle instead of the weight all the way at the barrel or at the end. Then start adding the weights to the end of the tuner.
 
it is all trial and error ,as near as i can tell
and it takes good consistant ammo to tune
 
I'll try and give you some help on a good starting point that should lead you in hopefully the right direction. If your going to start with no weight screwed on the plain jane Hoehn 8oz tuner, I would suggest starting at 180. That will be a good starting point since your barrel should be close to the same length and diameter as a factory Suhl barrel which is .868 at the end and a barrel length of 26". The length and diameter of a barrel is what will determine the actual tuner weight needed for the most part and the setting will have to be played with. If you add a 5oz weight to the Hoehn tuner, try setting 265. My Benchmark barrel which was made to the exact same dimensions as the Suhl barrel seems to prefer a 7oz weight weight screwed in the end of the Hoehn tuner with a setting of 360. 330 also seems to shoot with that weight. Now that's with a mid barrel tuner I bought from Gene Davis that is placed 1/4" above the tip of the top of the the forearm of the stock.

Try those. I think they will start you in the right direction. Then I just play with the setting up or down 5 or 10 clicks and see if the groups get tighter. Just keep going up or down once you determine what is a good setting to see if you can find a better sweet spot by going up or down some in the clicks. If going up seems to shoot even better then go say 5 more up and continue to see if you notice even further improvement. You may have to go back and go just a few at a time to fine tune a particular setting. You should just keep playing until your gun seems to find that magical setting and keep experimenting with various known ammo that seems to shoot well in most guns.
 
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I'll go along with what Brad541thb said.. I started my tuners at 170 and went up 5 clicks at a time.. My Suhl and my 52-C ended up liking the tuner set at 197 -200, and my 40X likes the tuner at 215 +/- 2 clicks..
Maybe this will give you a starting place. None of my tuners have any added weights..

Dave
 
Dave,

When I bought my Suhl, it came on setting 198 with no weights. ;) I ended up putting it on 180.
 
That is the best advice and explained better than any one has ever told me.

Thanks to all of you for the help and I will try it starting soon as tha rain stops .
 
Does anyone know if tuners have multiple sweetspots?

What I mean by that is suppose you find 180 and no weights works much better than +/- 5 more clicks. What if you jumped up 15 or 50 more clicks? Could there be another sweetspot up higher? And if you added a weight, could you find yet another sweetspot?

Given that this is supposed to be all about harmonics, it seems reasonable to me that there may be multiple "local" sweet spots, not all of which may be equally sweet.

This is an interesting topic and one where I think it would take a tremendous amount of shooting to validate even one sweet spot, much less the sweetest sweet spot.
Brent
 
Brent, I have found two spots on my gun that shoot better than others, one with and one without weights, but don't think either in the sweetiest spot there is. I ordered the Von Arens weights so I could add a little at a time.

I have heard there are some guys that can figure out where to set and how much weight to add or take away in one session or two with less ammo than I ever could.

I think there is a sweet spot no matter how much weight is used, BUT the key is finding how much weight will let you find the sweetest spot on any given gun, tunner and set up.

Just wish I had someone to show me. There has been some good advice given to me in this thread.
 
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captin,
Thanks for that example. Sounds like a be of hunt and peck and then I suppose the next batch of ammo starts it all over again. :(

Someone mentioned the "Hopewell method". Can someone give a brief description of that?

Brent
 
BrentD

You should be able to find multiple settings with your tuner. You just have to be able to have the time and ammo to find the one that works best for you. Once found, you shouldn't have to retune to different ammo. Once found at the best setting, lock it down and forget about it. My guns have used the same setting for the last couple of seasons with great success.
 
Brent,

I would say so. I am no tuner expert, but I have played with one enough to know that you will find multiple sweet spots on a particular weight tuner. You will also find a particular weight tuner to shoot better than others. The question I have always wondered is this. Is it more important to find the best particular sweet spot on a particular weight tuner than it is to find the best particular weight on a maybe not as a precise sweet spot? Well I think the weight of the tuner in my honest opinion is more crucial to allowing you to tune the barrel to shoot to the best of its potential. Now some may disagree with that, but I believe the actual weight itself is the most crucial than finding the best particular sweet spot on say not the right tuner weight for the particular length and diameter of the actual barrel being used.

My findings on my Suhl after talking to Kent Owens about tuner weights and what seems to work for a lot of guys who know a lot more than I do is that a 15oz or 16oz total tuner weight(depending on what the biggest weight actually does weigh 7oz or 8oz) is just about ideal. Now Kent isn't saying nor am I that every barrel is going to shoot the best on this particular tuner weight vs say a lighter or maybe even a little heavier weight. But I agree with Kent that this seems to work at least for him and others and very well on my Benchmark barrel on my Suhl. I'm more a group shooter than I am a true benchrest shooter for one, I don't read the wind like these guys can. I think that reading the wind is probably one of the toughest things to consistently do if the truth be told, and I think also that the best wind readers even still scratch their head on some shots that just don't seem to go where they should. But I will show you a good group from my Suhl shot with the 16oz total tuner weight on setting 360 that really is pretty dang small. Now if you subtract .224 for bullet diameter this group would actually be about .056. It might even be smaller than that. But it will let you see the point about finding the right weight and pretty close to a very good tuner setting. That's a single bull on a USBR target. The 10 ring is .100 and the 9 ring is .300 in diameter. That group from outside to outside is smaller than the 9 ring that much I do know. I also had the mid barrel tuner that I bought from Gene Davis on my barrel when I shot this group.

100_0128_Small_Custom_.JPG
 
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I have also played with going heavier than the 16oz total tuner weight. One particular day I decided to play around with this. I ended up shooting my Suhl/Benchmark on a 8oz weight screwed into the regular Hoehn tuner and screwing in an additional 5oz weight giving me a total tuner weight of 21oz. What I discovered is that when going this heavy, you will have to go down in the setting. By that I mean way down and close to the zero setting. I ended up finding a sweet spot at setting 22 that shot the SK Pistol Match ammo real well. Now that was with I believe a mid barrel tuner right above the tip of the forearm on my Edge stock. Now this ammo at the time was only $3 a box, but this particular weight and tuner setting seemed to shoot very well. Here's the group.

IMGP1994_Custom_.JPG
 
And I have experimented with mid barrel tuners to now say that I am pretty dang sure that a mid barrel tuner will in fact help a barrel to shoot even better. I doubted them for awhile, and I took it off of my Suhl barrel because I didn't think that it for sure was doing the barrel any good. I was having trouble getting the Benchmark barrel to shoot the last couple of times out with the gun. So I threw the mid barrel tuner that I bought from Gene Davis back on the barrel right about where I had it before and went back to a previous known good setting(330) and with the 16oz total tuner weight, and shooting the old Federal 900, I turned in a low .1 5 shot group that could of been smaller I do believe the last time out with the gun. It's back to shooting tiny holes again. I like Gene's midbarrel tuner about the best that I have tried.

Here's that group. 4 shots I believe was in the exact same hole. That's not bad for the faster Federal ammo.

100_0141_Custom_.JPG
 
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