CENTRA ‘Starik’ Barrel Tuner by Ray C
I’m a committed shooter of both fullbore and of 22 target rifle and, whilst I wouldn’t call myself an ‘accuracy nut’ I do take a keen interest in such things. Barrel tuners have been around for a few years - mainly in the States and in Europe, as they shoot benchrest rifles far more than us.
It’s interesting to read some of the accuracy articles in the on-line forums and, time and again, tuners pop into the chat but not for 22 target shooting – could we be missing a trick? It was with some surprise then that looking on Donald Makintosh’s site www.
edinkillie.co.uk I found the Centra ‘Starik’ Tuner specifically made to suit 22 target rifles - Anschutz and the like. I couldn’t resist, I had to have one and so duly placed my order.
As each is specifically made to a close tolerance to fit your barrel, you have to measure the barrel with a micrometer. It took just over a month for it to arrive, partially held up by the severe snow storms the country was experiencing.
packaging revealed the tuner tube, a couple of spanners and a second set of weights but no instructions.
Fitting wasn’t a problem, it was quite straight forward - slip on the location-ring, slide on the tube until it hits home on the muzzle, hand-tighten its locking- collar after first checking that the sight rail lines up as closely as possible with the rifles rail. Then, slide the location ring forward so that the gap in the base fits over the protruding lug on the underside of the tuner. Once tightened, it will ensure that each time you fit the tuner it will locate to the same position.
In practice this works well, zero at 50m is maintained. As I had never previously used a tube let alone a tuner with its extra weight, I thought it best to fit the lighter set of weights just to get used to it and make any fine adjustments to maintain my ‘balance’ in the shooting position. Immediately
66 Target Shooter
obvious was the need for a larger foresight so, I took the opportunity to step up to a 22mm set which gives a better overall sight-picture.
Over the following weeks I used the tuner and got used to handling my extended rifle, then switched to the heavier weights. With no instructions to help, I found by a little trial and error what I considered to be a good position for the weights - certainly my group sizes had consistently diminished. But, small group sizes could be down to other factors - the improved sight-base or the damping effect of having a weight stuck on the front of the barrel perhaps, or even a trick of the mind - inner self persuading me it’s better!
Eventually my inbuilt curiosity prevailed, I just had to find out, but how? I needed to remove the human factor. The only way I knew for certain how to do that was to use the test facility at Eley, something I have done in recent years when batch-testing.
Opening the
I gave Martin Buttery at Eley a call and explained what I would like to do. I felt a little cheeky in asking, as I had no intention of doing a batch-test or buying any ammunition but, without hesitation, Martin said ‘yes’ and gave me a date.
During the intervening time, I gave some thought as to how I would test the tuner. I would use my own batch-tested Tenex - for the tuner to be of any value it had to bring group sizes down and improve on just the barrel. As the main weight-carrier can be moved in 10mm increments, I decided to position the weights fully back, shoot a 10 shot group, then wind forward 5 turns - 2.5mm - then again 5 turns to 5mm and again to 7.5mm forwards. Then I would move the carrier forward by 10mm and start the process again.
Effectively, I would shoot a ten-shot group every 2.5mm down the useable length of the tuner.
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