#82 - Barrel Tuning with Erik Cortina
01:55:38 | Bryan interviews Erik Cortina, Champion F-Class shooter and owner of Cortina Precision. This incredible discussion showcases how both Erik and Bryan are working to improve rifle precision for shooters around the world. The pair pick up where they left off on Erik’s podcast and go full dive into barrel tuning from start to finish. Follow the discussion between Bryan and Erik as they narrow in on myths and facts about tuning, best practices, the nature of dispersion, sample sizes and much more. The full length interview is free for all listeners! Enjoy!
Let me summarise this: mike says they work but can’t share how and doesn’t have anything else than than “trust me” to back up his belief because he shoots 5-10 shots and make up his mind
Erik*
Erik provides a lot of information in his videos on how to use them. The stuff he keeps secret is how he adjusts for environmental conditions.
As much as I like Erik, I will not purchase a product where the best way to use it is kept secret.
With this said, there are people that swear by them, and I really do hope Brian and Erik get some good results from the upcoming tests.
Great podcast Brian & Erik!
I agree to an extent. Good comment! I have a Kreiger barrel that was then treated at TacomHQ with the full structured barrel
Treatment knowing that theory was more likely the strongest element behind the structured barrels effect and outcomes…. That said…. I wouldn’t hesitate to experiment with the tuner from EC…. As like I did with the TacomHQ barrel….. it was for fun and it was an experiment . Also it shoots really well
I would like to hear more about your experience with your barrel. Multiple shooters have noted an ease of finding a load, wider range of ladder test exceptence, the ability to shoot a very wide range of bullet weights …. I would like to see the science building the data noting harmonics have no real effects on precision. I would propose that a player in group variation would be changing copper and carbon layer values. Solids show this rapidly. As a note- a tuner has little to no effect on our barrels. Perhaps a heavier unit might. Vibration goes somewhere , does something, creates heat… and heat changes vibration -Fact. Plus – how do we explain the difference in felt recoil? An MRAD shooting the same 300Norma does not shoot the same as ours… A 338EnABLER in a CADEX chassis are two different guns -stock barrel to our barrel- per a person very familiar with the 338EnABLER. I know it is an uphill climb but our data keeps moving forward.
To be clear- I believe a tuner is a must for the standard barrel.
One thing that was interesting in the book on one hand it claimed no notable benefit , and couple of lines further it said more weight on the end of the barrel made groups smaller, be that weight suppressor or tuner or muzzle brake . So its kinda contradictory what was stated. It seemed more like the tuners used were not heavy enough, which has always been the case with most market offerings including original EC truner,
The statements are not mutually exclusive: we were not able to achieve smaller groups (higher precision) with any tuner settings in the long run. That can be true while also finding that adding more weight to muzzle seemed to lower our group size. We did see a correlation between muzzle weight and precision in this test, however, it requires further testing. The original question of the chapter was whether we could find a repeatable improvement between a “good” and “bad” tuner setting, because this would demonstrate that tuners work (using rotational mass fore/aft on tuner). Adding additional weights to muzzle/tuner is a different test (tuning by muzzle weight) and it requires more testing to see if it was a fluke or is a genuine result.
Really appreciated this open minded not finished business reality. Def did not have my mind made up pre hearing this not from reading the book….. just opened up more doors. Good on both of you to have a discussion.
Not at all convinced by the “I know how they work but it’s a secret” defence. Would be really interested in more research on this as I know plenty of folk that are very sure that they work..