New Centerfire Tuner from ShadeTree Engineering
Butch Lambert of ShadeTree Engineering sent us these photos of his new barrel tuner for centerfire Benchrest guns. Developed with the aid of Shelley Davidson, the new tuner weighs 6.4 ounces and should work for both Heavy Varmint and Light Varmint Rifle. A special barrel contour has been developed so that even a 10.5-pound-class rifle can make weight with the tuner installed.
Butch tells us: “We were given a two-week delivery date by the CNC shop and an additional week for the laser engraving. Shilen and Bartlein barrels have agreed to to do a barrel contour of our design to be able to make weight with a 6.4 ounce tuner. Esten Spears, a Florida-based vibration engineer, did the basic design work and Varmint Al did the FEA analysis to prove the design. Ten prototypes are out there and the initial tests are looking real good. Esten’s studies have shown that the beyond the muzzle tuner will move the node out to the muzzle. Conversely, weights behind the muzzle will change the harmonics, but not move the node out to where it needs to be. The weights behind the muzzle need constant attention, much the same as changing your powder tune. We have found that the weight beyond the muzzle tuner has a much wider range of tune and takes very little tweeking during the day.”
