Yo Dude, great question and this is a topic I now have no issue speaking to openly. But first, I'll issue an apology (
@grauhanen and others) to those that really wanted me to discuss data, and I refused as it was during the "course of battle," so to speak.
So, I'll start by saying, the fast twist project, in total, was never about just the barrels. The project in total was about the overall system, which is what the V-22 platform was designed to be. The V-22 was never just the action (
@David Lott and
@jelrod1 get this).
When faster twist rates came up in the beginning, Bryan Litz and I discussed it while at an event in TX. As you can imagine, it was a great conversation and Bryan said, as he always has, a number of things I was intrigued by. The majority of it I agreed with and some of it I didn't. But, anyway, the path started. Unfortunately, a parallel path started by the sales guy in St. George, one thing led to another, and they built a couple rifles using Bartlein blanks, but they had no idea what the math said and no way to even do the math. The rifles were typical 18", threaded muzzle builds and of course, they shot horribly. So, there was an immediate turn off in St. George with no ability to envision what it meant to seize an incredible opportunity.
However, I stayed on the path, developed initial data and built a rifle in my lab with a nine twist, 22" finished length with a non-threaded muzzle. Aside from the nine twist, I also had blanks made at twist rates between nine and 16, all Ace blanks. Not that it's an Ace vs Bartlein debate, as the brand isn't relevant, but I could get the Ace blanks pretty quickly and personally, it was my favorite of the blanks we were using at the time.
Anyway, my initial thoughts on the nine twist performance using the parameters that the math said should be optimal; I was highly pleased. So, I took rifles down to another NRA World Championship and the nine twist was one of them. I told no one that there were prototype parts in the nine twist gun (more than just the barrel and I said nothing about the faster twist rate), including Paul. However, I sat behind a spotting scope over the course of the entire event (I wouldn't let anyone else sit behind the scope) and called impacts on target at 200 yards and beyond and plotted data between the nine twist gun and 16 twist guns. The collective group sizes were starkly different over the course of more than 5000 rounds down range.
Following that event, I handed the rifle to Daniel Horner and he used it in classes to further the collection of data. His findings agreed with mine. However, I noted some interesting characteristics....the greater variable was a combination of ambient temperature and increased angular velocity of the projectile (remember, the projectile hardness is pretty low on the BHN scale). But, this variation validated the need for system focus, not a barrel focus. And just so everyone understands, the characteristics I noted were weird deviations in group size at distance, but based on noting conditions, one could easily detect repeatability. Perfect!
So, now, next steps were planned to focus on measures that would bring the entirety of the system into alignment, which Paul had no capacity to understand and its why I started sharing with the community. As far as Paul was concerned, the project was a failure after the wrong length barrels with threaded muzzles (I think most know how I feel about threaded muzzles on a 22LR using a 1/2-28 thread) were used.
Anyway, I made a trip down to a test range to gather more data, mostly to compare TOF between the nine twist and other twist rates. Two guys from Lothar Walther met me there, as they were part of the plan and brought rifles with them with 12 twist barrels. And, Ivan Wells met me there, as this project had Custom Shop all over it (I still have the pictures of the shooting somewhere.). We did a TOF comparison using nine, 12 and 16 twist barrels and, from a system focus perspective, the nine twist was far more promising as it related to truly advancing what it meant to shoot 22LR. The 12 twist was marginally better than 16, as was the 13 I tested prior. Using a 12, 13 etc., is nothing more than maintaining status quo and accepting things related to construed conventional wisdom.
But, based on what my highly calibrated crystal ball was saying, I started clamming up and further disengaging from a group that had obviously forgotten who and what we said we were. In the beginning, it was "Envision And Create The Exceptional," but what it turned into was a real drag and it was obvious to this community.
I'll close with this. In thinking about all this stuff, I'm not sour or angry. Instead, I'm thankful and at peace that things happened to me and for me that separated me from what was dangerous and unhealthy. What was meant to be, will be.
I hope this answers your questions and clears up any confusion.
MB
www.snipershide.com
