Muzzle Weight Specs?

[williada]

Brad,

I can see the humour in this. I entirely agree that no barrel weight can make up for poor load development, a tuner has to compliment that. Perhaps that is really the problem, when one tight group is selected for the tuner, it’s like picking a teaser group for your rifle in normal load development and just as silly because you haven’t applied the same principles of load development with your tuner on and the concept is so new to many as to how to set them up, I can understand the frustration.

The point is, with a variable tuner it is not usually touched when set. It is just the same as any weight on your barrel that dampens but because if you set its reference point has to duplicate your best tune position before the tuner was put on, it can track the same load development pattern and be equivalent to an incremental powder change or free flight adjustment or neck tension adjustment that you do in normal load development with tiny movements. It is only moved when you fall into negative slope when conditions are really different to your normal tune.

To me the benefits would be completely the opposite over the long course of a Queens. How often have people experienced their pet loads opening up at a different venue. From comments about the last world titles which said this calibre or that team had rifles that did not perform. I bet they were performing before they left. So load development must match the venue conditions.

We know in heavy barrels that only a slight increment change with charge can move you along the sine wave. As such only a subtle change in a variable tuner which mimics the change will do that too.

All of us recognise when we fall of the node due to abnormal conditions, and we would like to have another load for the day, a variable tuner can meet that challenge more quickly. I suppose I mean a light tuner is about 600-800 grams compared to the best much heavier weight or fundamental weight for the barrel tune and certainly not as light as tuners made by Frank P in SA. The latter can be still used for the lighter barrels as you say. All it means is the variable tuner can fall in the weight range you specify. Let’s face it, the weight you pick is really dominated by weight limitations of the class as you suggest, and really between six hundred and eight hundred grams is a huge range of weight to choose from and definitely not optimal, and if you select tuners from a range of weights available you are in fact performing a rough variable tune.

If you understand the concept of a lever, you can increase or decrease the force of that lever by its length, so a variable tuner is like that. Its beauty is changing the shape of the group, using a decent weight to lengthen the node or dampen about a load which has been developed using correct principles of load development.

It cannot make up for crook gear, and is not the panacea and even is compensation for everything. The problem you face with a heavy weight up front in places like Sydney is you are shooting downhill and that adds to bag handling problems and mound angle changes the whip. I am not surprised Alan may have had problems.

Finally I would say, in doing preliminary load development and I found I had a hummer and I extrapolated on the elevation plots out to 1000, I would not be introducing a tuner either. That’s common sense. David.

[BATattack]

How wide do you think your current node is in gr or fps Alan?

[AlanF]

Adam,

Typical with N165 is about 0.6 to 0.7gn and about 30 fps between nodes.

Alan