Poor mans barrel tuner

[Dave 101]

I spotted this idea on an American forum during the week , addmitedly it was for .22rf but the idea is to place a couple of rubber "O" rings near the muzzle to affect the barrel harmonics then tune it to suit the ammo by sliding them to the sweet spot . As I shall be at the range in the morning .22 rf BR I bought a cheap pack of "O" rings off eblag to give it a go .
Last week I shot a lot of 5 shot groups with 3 different ammo brands so I have a good idea of group sizes to improve upon this week .
Another point of interest , my shooting buddy , an ex sniper so he knows his stuff , always uses RWS Geco but you get the odd squib round or flyer , so he has been waying and batching the rounds to eliminate the differences . It seemed to work for him .

Dave

[ovenpaa]

What an interesting idea, I will be very interested to hear how much difference the O rings make, you can easily stack half a dozen in a row and then slide them up and down to get them where you want them as well and then make a pencil mark as a reference in case they move.

[Dave 101]

Yes that was something I thought of when sliding the rifle in and out of the slip as to wether they would move or not . Its worth a go but the guy who came up with the idea certainly tested a lot of brands of ammo and had before and after photos which showed improvements .

Dave

[whoowhoop]

I think Midway used to stock something similar. It was quite popular a good few years back. It was also supposed to reduce muzzle flip. if I remember rightly

Just checked an old catalogue - Limb Saver barrel De-Resonator. Damps barrel vibration.

[Dougan]

I spotted this idea on an American forum during the week , addmitedly it was for .22rf but the idea is to place a couple of rubber "O" rings near the muzzle to affect the barrel harmonics then tune it to suit the ammo by sliding them to the sweet spot . As I shall be at the range in the morning .22 rf BR I bought a cheap pack of "O" rings off eblag to give it a go .
Last week I shot a lot of 5 shot groups with 3 different ammo brands so I have a good idea of group sizes to improve upon this week .
Another point of interest , my shooting buddy , an ex sniper so he knows his stuff , always uses RWS Geco but you get the odd squib round or flyer , so he has been waying and batching the rounds to eliminate the differences . It seemed to work for him .

Dave

Interesting - have had a quick read about barrel tuners, and can see how a significant weight would affect the harmonics...would the light weight of 'O rings' work? Let us know...If it works...I'll try it :)

My club was selling 'Eley club' at the range. The bullets were very loose, and many people were reporting misfires and jams (especially with semi auto) - about 6 months ago we switched to RWS Geco (same price) ...everyone noticed the improvement, and they go through my Voere nicely . I even used them through my Anschutz TR (would normally use Eley Match) , and didn't notice any difference...Although that could be down to my shooting

When you say, 'he was weighing and batching them' - what would I be looking for?....some that are a 'bit light' and exclude them, or just for different batches?

[Dave 101]

Hes batching them by weight , so if theres just a difference in the amount of powder then all the ones of the same weight should perform in the same way .

Dave

[Dougan]

Hes batching them by weight , so if theres just a difference in the amount of powder then all the ones of the same weight should perform in the same way .

Dave

Cheers Dave - Next time I'm shooting '10 bull', I'll try it (misfires don't matter with single shot...)

[Dave 101]

Went to the range today with the Anschutz 54 in a BR stock I converted from the original stock I had .

Heres the targets


Heres the notes I made
17.7.11 25 yds indoors . Free Recoil . Eley Team 5 shot groups
Target 1 fouling shots
......... 2 No rings
.........3 1 ring pushed up to dovetail
........ 4 .......................................
..........5........................................
..........6.......................................
..........7 No ring
..........8.2 rings POI changed , group opened up
Boresnake barrel twice . RWS Target rifle . More recoil POI up
Target 9 No ring , fouling shots
......... 10 1 ring
.......... 11 .......
..........12 2 rings group opened up
Boresnake barrel twice .
Target 13 14 15 one ring RWS Geco

Thats all I had time for today , my conclusion 1 ring didnt seem to have a great deal of effect , but 2 rings seemed to be detrimental to group size . Then to follow on from this you would need to try slididng the ring up and down the barrel . Maybe shooting at 50 yards would show improvements . Then theres one or two fliers so maybe batch weighing all the ammo would be better , who knows .
If I was seriously into BR comps yes I would have to put the leg work in , I know the Eley team would be ammo of choice as theres less recoil with it which is noticeable , I was just using the pinch method for trigger pull , thumb on trigger guard and index finger to squeeze the trigger and no other contact with the rifle .

Dave

[Dave 101]

I also had a play around with this BRNO ZKM 468 , I just put the Weaver 4x scope on it , the targets weren't shot in any order , which I should have done , I had bore sighted it before hand in the garden using a CD to look at , Ist shot T5 then 4 3 . Tried out a couple of different brands of ammo , but put 2 rings on it T18 best 3 shot group , also 19 20 24 25 with the Eley Team .


Heres the rifles



Dave

[ovenpaa]

Some interesting results Dave, quite impressive that just two O rings makes a noticeable difference even though it was the wrong sort of difference. Are you going to continue testing?