Pete:
You and I must be about the same age with similar experiences...I think exactly as you do!
I am shooting a Shilen Ratchet .177 Barrel that Ed personally did some years back, this is a barrel I tested on a lab gun very successfully, and after some years in storage I fitted it to my Steyr because the barrel Steyr provides good for .250" groups at 50 meters which is good for Field Target shooting, but this accuracy is not enough for competitive BR...At the time I fitted this barrel I had one of those Fiasco Scmidt and Bender 12.5 -50 x 56 FT scopes that were supposed to be the cream of the crop for Field Target but that ended up being discontinued for the many problems and warranty issues...My gun had a scope/mounts/elevation issue and I tested the gun (indexed) for finding the highest point along the vertical axis tor maximum reach without having to modify my scope mounts.
The gun was shot from a vise (indoors) with 7.9, 8.4 and 10.34 gr. pellets, there were no Monster pellets at this time...I used 8 indexing points to start with thinking that I could fine tune my findings later on...The POI for these indexing points didn't vary much for the same weigh pellets and it was interesting to discover that the avg. group size for all points did not change significantly for selecting one point over the other...For measuring the groups I used ASUS electronic targetting systems as used in the Olympics and at the Eley & Lapua testing centers for .22 RF. If I don't remember wrong this barrel is about .002-.003" max. from breech to crown and given the fact that it doesn't improve by indexing and that I have had similar experiences with other .22 RF benchrest barrels, this is why I say that a good straight barrel most likely will not improve when indexed (in terms of accuracy).
Last year I tested a set of regular 3 W.L. Polygons with standard twist and other 2 MI barrels, but was not able to improve what I have, nevertheless I haven't tested slower twists and Hammer Forged for a better comparison, I will do it next spring-summer. You mention a very good point: The same barrel responds very differently under different conditions, and swaping barrels for this matter is a good solution. It definitely is, my problem and yours too is that we don't have that much time left for experimenting...Nevertheless, my search for the "Best in the World Barrel" continues and is endless even though I have an outstanding barrel that only needs a better finger to pull the trigger for winning any competition...
Learning and having fun for as long as it lasts I guess...
Best regards,
AZ
You and I must be about the same age with similar experiences...I think exactly as you do!
I am shooting a Shilen Ratchet .177 Barrel that Ed personally did some years back, this is a barrel I tested on a lab gun very successfully, and after some years in storage I fitted it to my Steyr because the barrel Steyr provides good for .250" groups at 50 meters which is good for Field Target shooting, but this accuracy is not enough for competitive BR...At the time I fitted this barrel I had one of those Fiasco Scmidt and Bender 12.5 -50 x 56 FT scopes that were supposed to be the cream of the crop for Field Target but that ended up being discontinued for the many problems and warranty issues...My gun had a scope/mounts/elevation issue and I tested the gun (indexed) for finding the highest point along the vertical axis tor maximum reach without having to modify my scope mounts.
The gun was shot from a vise (indoors) with 7.9, 8.4 and 10.34 gr. pellets, there were no Monster pellets at this time...I used 8 indexing points to start with thinking that I could fine tune my findings later on...The POI for these indexing points didn't vary much for the same weigh pellets and it was interesting to discover that the avg. group size for all points did not change significantly for selecting one point over the other...For measuring the groups I used ASUS electronic targetting systems as used in the Olympics and at the Eley & Lapua testing centers for .22 RF. If I don't remember wrong this barrel is about .002-.003" max. from breech to crown and given the fact that it doesn't improve by indexing and that I have had similar experiences with other .22 RF benchrest barrels, this is why I say that a good straight barrel most likely will not improve when indexed (in terms of accuracy).
Last year I tested a set of regular 3 W.L. Polygons with standard twist and other 2 MI barrels, but was not able to improve what I have, nevertheless I haven't tested slower twists and Hammer Forged for a better comparison, I will do it next spring-summer. You mention a very good point: The same barrel responds very differently under different conditions, and swaping barrels for this matter is a good solution. It definitely is, my problem and yours too is that we don't have that much time left for experimenting...Nevertheless, my search for the "Best in the World Barrel" continues and is endless even though I have an outstanding barrel that only needs a better finger to pull the trigger for winning any competition...
Learning and having fun for as long as it lasts I guess...
Best regards,
AZ
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