• Watch Out for Scammers!

    We've now added a color code for all accounts. Orange accounts are new members, Blue are full members, and Green are Supporters. If you get a message about a sale from an orange account, make sure you pay attention before sending any money!

Good video showing effectiveness of a tuner

Video unavailable .. Maybe it's because I don't have fbook
 
Well that sounds like what I need to try on proof carbon 308 barrel that's been the bane of my reloading existence
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bender
I’d much rather have a tuner than a brake.

But I much prefer my can so until something gets developed to go with that...

The 419 hellfire system should adopt a tuner aspect to theirs. Maybe a new universal barrel adaptor that has the tuner disk hang off the back towards the shooter but you can still screw the can or brake on the front.
 
I’d much rather have a tuner than a brake.

But I much prefer my can so until something gets developed to go with that...

The 419 hellfire system should adopt a tuner aspect to theirs. Maybe a new universal adaptor that has the tuner disk hang back back towards the shooter but you can still screw the can or brake on the front.

That's my biggest hangup I only shoot suppressed too
 
Isn't this the same idea behind the Browning BOSS?



Guess that's off-patent now?


1: BOSS is an integrated brake

2: I’m pretty sure browning doesn’t and never had a patent on tuners. They all work roughly the same moving a weight back and forth. Pretty hard to patent that
 
I’d much rather have a tuner than a brake.

But I much prefer my can so until something gets developed to go with that...

The 419 hellfire system should adopt a tuner aspect to theirs. Maybe a new universal barrel adaptor that has the tuner disk hang off the back towards the shooter but you can still screw the can or brake on the front.

I don’t see why this wouldn’t work with a suppressor. The tuner and brake are independent (you use whatever brake you want). Here’s what muzzle looks like without either:


3BD74386-74F0-4CC1-B6BF-74B4171BBED6.jpeg
 
I thought this was going to be a gimmicky product, then I saw that the video was put out by Paul Reid and now I have have to change my perspective on tuners. Paul is a hell of shooter and an all around great person.
 
I thought this was going to be a gimmicky product, then I saw that the video was put out by Paul Reid and now I have have to change my perspective on tuners. Paul is a hell of shooter and an all around great person.

If you think Paul is good, google the guy who makes the tuners.
 
Tuners have been around forever, just not so much in PRS.

I believe David Tubb was the first to bring it to PRS (I could be wrong, I'm not a tuner historian). His muzzle brake that came out a year or two ago is designed to also act as a tuner, I know a few people that run those.

Tuners are popular in sports where you shoot at a set distance - say 1,000 yard benchrest and F-class, where the popular method of load development is positive compensation, which is if not mistaken essentially what a tuner does.

I disagree with Paul Reid in him saying that they are useful for new reloaders struggling with their reloads - to add another variable to an already seemingly complex process to a new reloader will only muddy the waters further. You need to be taking out variables for them, not introducing more.

For factory ammo, I can maybe see it if you didn't optimize your chambering for your factory of ammo of choice from the get-go, or maybe decided on a different route. This EC tuner needs more gunsmithing work it appears, with a second set of threads and profiling the barrel down from their to the muzzle, which is a big cost increase on a consumable portion of the rifle.

From my experience, I've never had issues getting ammo to shoot well, from factory to reloads, and I have pretty high standards. Of course, that requires appropriate chambers cut by top notch gunsmiths. For going for world record 1,000 yard shots I could see it, but I think in most cases for our discipline I don't think it would add much value.

If you want to play around with tuners, check out David Tubbs brake, so you don't have to get more gunsmithing work done before jumping head in. I would be curious to others thoughts on this subject, but have to admit I'm barely feeling luke warm on them for PRS/NRL shooting.
 
I will say it was neat to see how quickly he got the groups dialed in with a tuner.

Curious to see how many people actually use/play with these.
 
Tuners have been around forever, just not so much in PRS.

I believe David Tubb was the first to bring it to PRS (I could be wrong, I'm not a tuner historian). His muzzle brake that came out a year or two ago is designed to also act as a tuner, I know a few people that run those.

Tuners are popular in sports where you shoot at a set distance - say 1,000 yard benchrest and F-class, where the popular method of load development is positive compensation, which is if not mistaken essentially what a tuner does.

I disagree with Paul Reid in him saying that they are useful for new reloaders struggling with their reloads - to add another variable to an already seemingly complex process to a new reloader will only muddy the waters further. You need to be taking out variables for them, not introducing more.

For factory ammo, I can maybe see it if you didn't optimize your chambering for your factory of ammo of choice from the get-go, or maybe decided on a different route. This EC tuner needs more gunsmithing work it appears, with a second set of threads and profiling the barrel down from their to the muzzle, which is a big cost increase on a consumable portion of the rifle.

From my experience, I've never had issues getting ammo to shoot well, from factory to reloads, and I have pretty high standards. Of course, that requires appropriate chambers cut by top notch gunsmiths. For going for world record 1,000 yard shots I could see it, but I think in most cases for our discipline I don't think it would add much value.

If you want to play around with tuners, check out David Tubbs brake, so you don't have to get more gunsmithing work done before jumping head in. I would be curious to others thoughts on this subject, but have to admit I'm barely feeling luke warm on them for PRS/NRL shooting.

Most people running factory ammo are running saami chambers. Many of them have to “figure out what ammo my rifle likes.”

This eliminates that. Buy the ammo, tune rifle.
 
I will say it was neat to see how quickly he got the groups dialed in with a tuner.

Curious to see how many people actually use/play with these.

I use them and they tune pretty much that way every time. Sometimes you end up shooting 6-10 groups to find the setting. But it dials in to an obvious setting just like he did.

So much so that for PRS, I don’t even do much jump testing anymore. Find stable powder node via chrono, them either do jump test to see what the “long jump” node is that keeps the POI the same for a jump span long enough to account for throat erosion for barrel life. Or just set it to .020, tune it, then measure chamber after each match and load next batch of ammo to .020.

Definitely cuts down on PRS load development. It will dial into .3 hardly trying.
 
I use them and they tune pretty much that way every time. Sometimes you end up shooting 6-10 groups to find the setting. But it dials in to an obvious setting just like he did.

So much so that for PRS, I don’t even do much jump testing anymore. Find stable powder node via chrono, them either do jump test to see what the “long jump” node is that keeps the POI the same for a jump span long enough to account for throat erosion for barrel life. Or just set it to .020, tune it, then measure chamber after each match and load next batch of ammo to .020.

Definitely cuts down on PRS load development. It will dial into .3 hardly trying.

I will say that's interesting, I can definitely see some of the merits.

I can't say I spend much time on load development, I only shoot Berger's and I usually just set them to 10 or 20 thou off the lands, and I never chase the lands. Shoots really good throughout the life of the barrel.

I will say I'm warming up to the idea of tuners.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dthomas3523
Short answer is by moving a weight near the muzzle you are changing he whip and harmonics of barrel. When you get them in “tune” then the barrel is acting the exact same way every shot and thusly the poi becomes more consistent (smaller groups).

Interesting. I'm guessing then different muzzle devices would have a similar effect or even simply unscrewing a self timing brake. Might be something to play around with.

Are there breaks that you can add weights to?
 
Interesting. I'm guessing then different muzzle devices would have a similar effect or even simply unscrewing a self timing brake. Might be something to play around with.

Are there breaks that you can add weights to?

Check out David Tubbs muzzle brake. It's a muzzle brake that also acts as a tuner.
 
Check out David Tubbs muzzle brake. It's a muzzle brake that also acts as a tuner.

I saw that, its basically a self timing brake. Whats the difference if you do that with any symmetrical brake in 180 or 360 rotations out?
 
Interesting. I'm guessing then different muzzle devices would have a similar effect or even simply unscrewing a self timing brake. Might be something to play around with.

Are there breaks that you can add weights to?

Issue with a brake is you are locked into a 180 or 360 depending on how the ports are cut. Tubb’s brake is basically a “semi” tuner. Gives you tuner like ability but stops just short of an actual tuner. Which there’s nothing wrong with.

Regular tuner allows you to finely adjust.
 
I had a browning boss on a 300 win mag. It works exactly the same. It was simply to use and allowed me to have a nice deer or elk bullet weight. I think for a lot of people it was a bit confusing and the muzzle blast was new back then and so it went into the history books
 
I think for a lot of people it was a bit confusing and the muzzle blast was new back then and so it went into the history books

Hi,

Muzzle blast from compensators/brakes was common well before the BOSS came about.
Here is article in Popular Mechanics from 1932 I think....


The BOSS went away because it was on a Browning.....

Edited To Add:
Another trick some of the RF guys were doing back in the mid 90s with their sporter class rifles (could not have tuner) was to recess the crown a thou at a time until they had their rifle "tuned".

Sincerely,
Theis
 
Last edited:
Hi,

Muzzle blast from compensators/brakes was common well before the BOSS came about.
Here is article in Popular Mechanics from 1932 I think....


The BOSS went away because it was on a Browning.....

Edited To Add:
Another trick some of the RF guys were doing back in the mid 90s with their sporter class rifles (could not have tuner) was to recess the crown a thou at a time until they had their rifle "tuned".

Sincerely,
Theis
Lol
 
so how do you adjust it?

You just turn it. It has its own set of threads. It’s usually tight enough on threads (if cut properly) that it won’t move on its own. But it also has 3 set screws.

It’s basically just a weight with .050” of movement to adjust through to desired setting.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sniperwannabee
If you overlay all of the shots on that cardboard (38gr) you have a group. Otherwise you have a bunch of group fetuses (or however that word is plural). :)

Capture.JPG


Seriously, not trying to dog it. I'd like to test one out myself, but I'm sure you know my opinion of 3-5 shot groups.
 
$135 is steep for a glorified barrel weight.

... but if it decreases the amount of time and range trips spent on LD, sign me up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bender
Seriously, not trying to dog it. I'd like to test one out myself, but I'm sure you know my opinion of 3-5 shot groups.

I don't disagree with you in theory... but in practice, if the gun is working and the nut between the Peltors is tight, it *is* repeatable.

I've been using Erik's tuners for a while now on my FTR rigs, and they work.

I will admit, the first time I tested mine I had the groups tighten up... then go to one hole - as in I thought I missed the paper, because even at 42x I couldn't tell there was more than one shot in the group - and then open back up. Wasn't *quite* sure I believed that (frankly, the shot didn't break that good), so I fudged the setting towards the other small groups just before and went to a local 3x600 practice. First couple strings were good, but felt like something was being left on the table. Third string, I twisted the tuner back down one mark and bingo, the group flattened right out.

Now I generally do a test one day... and a follow up test another day, just to make sure, or in the event that there are more than one spots that look promising.

The way I do my test is I fire one shot at '0', move the tuner to '2', fire at the next aiming point, etc. all the way past 25... then I turn it all the way back to the beginning and repeat.
 
Last edited:
$135 is steep for a glorified barrel weight.

... but if it decreases the amount of time and range trips spent on LD, sign me up.


The good news is that’s it’s not a perishable item. When barrel is done, keep tuner for the next barrel.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jafo96
These require some additional machining. Scroll up, someone posted a pic.


I didn’t know what I was looking at, but I figured it out the weight slides and threads over a machined barrel. Definitely I would buy one if one is developed for use with a suppressor since I don’t reload.
thanks
 
Last edited:
I never saw it but the range master said one of the members uses a similar device and has dope/adjustment for different conditions/temps and uses it for competition. It could have been the same device, I never saw or met the man but the range master was commenting on one of those slide on rubber style ones my brother had stuck on one of his rifles
 
I got one from Erik and I’ll also get one from Hipp to try once they’re available. I like the idea of not having to modify a barrel specifically for a tuner, but I’d be lying if I think they will be equally as effective.
 
I got one from Erik and I’ll also get one from Hipp to try once they’re available. I like the idea of not having to modify a barrel specifically for a tuner, but I’d be lying if I think they will be equally as effective.

I will say the one from Eric looks like a pretty effective design. I would also think it would be more effective then other designs.

It's interesting to see this gear/technique creep into PRS/NRL. I can't say the results I have without a tuner makes me feel like I'm missing out on anything.
 
It's an interesting design... but a couple threads and a few set screws seems like a pale comparison for the length of threads and the alignment pad of the EC tuner. The TPI looks a little coarse, too. The proof is in the pudding, though, so we'll see how it compares once a few more of them get out in the wild. I do like the idea of being able to use it with an existing threaded muzzle without an additional machining step, though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kthomas