Barrel tuner/weight?

[The Miner '49er]

The recent discussion about weighing RB's prompts me to ask if anyone has gone far enough down the ML rabbit hole to experiment with barrel weights. I have an unmentionable smallbore German made target rifle whose accuracy has been improved by the use of a barrel weight. The improvement is slight, but it's measurable. Anybody ever experimented with reducing barrel harmonics on a ML? It'd be ugly as sin, and so un PC, but would it yield some extra points?

 

[Rifleman1776]

I never experiment reducing weight. But, at one time during my obsessive 'X' hunting days using my half-breed TC not-really-a-hawken-hawken rifle with a Douglas barrel and Lyman target peep sights I added a couple one pound lead ingots using a pipe strap clamp to hold them right in front of the stock. I can't say they helped improve accuracy. But that trick did catch the attention of range officers who had to weigh the monstrosity. It was still legal for 'light rifle' bench matches at under 14 pounds. One old saw/myth about barrels says that swamping reduces harmonics and steadies the muzzle to where the ball exits the muzzle at the same point in vibration each time to make the rifle very accurate. Dunno if that is correct but some hold to that theory and others dispute it.

 

[Robert Losekamp]

If the barrel were free floating I could see a weight maybe helping with harmonics but I'm also not sure if BP is creating the same kind of instantaneous shock (if that's the right word) to make the barrel whip very much in comparison to smokeless. I'm also a complete novice so... Who knows haha.

 

[The Miner '49er]

Great thought provoking answers. Hooray, my post has the wheels turning in some noggins!

 

[The Crisco Kid]

The fellow who developed the barrel weights was (or is) Bill Calfee. He built 22 rf match rifles at least into the 90's. He called them tuners since he could tune a barrel for different lots and brands of ammunition. He found that slim, whippy barrels responded better to a tuner than did the heavy barrels. I suppose that the same may apply to ML barrels. Since they tend to be heavier the tuner or weights may not have much effect on the harmonics but would influence the "hang" that could help offhand shooting.

 

[Greg Y]

I can't shoot the potential of my current barrel
.....and I'm a pretty good shot.

Not sure how I'd validate my results.

 

[bpd303]

Like Rifleman1776, I experimented with weights, also used a couple of magnets at various distances. No improvement in my opinion, but some times accuracy went south.

 

[ronaldrothb49]

Don't know if this is what you are looking for but I seem to shoot better offhand with a barrel that is nose heavy. My first cross stick rifle was a 1 inch barrel weighed about 12 pounds. the second one was 1 1/8 inch that weighed 13 pounds 12 ounces. Can't say one shot better than the other. Both were very accurate match winners. As the exact opposite of what Rifleman1776 was told an old shooter told me many years ago that straight barrels have better harmonics and that pins shot better than keys. Can't personally prove or disprove either way. I just do what works for me, Always have said there's more than one way to skin a cat.