SmallCaliberCentral

Does anyone have some infor regarding the Limb Saver barrel de-resonator? Does it really work well on bull barrel rifles?

I"m shooting good with my savage, but was curious for some other wad shooters I have.

Any help would be great.

I read a test couple years ago where it helped 3 out of 4 light barrels that they tested. two were helped significantly. The test also tried a couple varmint barrels with no change. It takes some testing and fiddling around, but it might help and it doesn't cost much except the time. The darn thing is ugly though.

The barrel de-resonators work by dampening the barrel harmonics. They will have a minimal effect with a bull barrel, because the greater diameter of the barrel puts the fiber stress further out, and the added mass makes them less susceptible to vibration in frequencies that will effect accuracy. Think about the strings on a guitar, there are two "E" strings, the skinny one vibrates at 329.6-hz, and the thick one vibrates at 82.4-hz. Both strings are the same length; the big difference is in the thickness, and weight. Barrel harmonics have the most effect on accuracy on light barreled guns.

I'm thinking of trying one on my light barreled Ruger No. 1, because barrel / action rigidity and harmonics are huge issue with all No. 1s, and on it in particular.

It shoots the Hornaday factory 32-gr. loads really well, (1/2 inch and less groups at 100). But the 40-gr. spreads out to about 1-1/2-inch, good for windage but the elevation spreads out. The 45-gr. groups in at about an inch, but is six inches high. The only thing that explains it is the barrel is whipping up and down.

A guy i know has one on a 308 thin barrel. And he said it help to shoot smaller group with it. He only shoots factory ammo with the gun.

First of all, a question like that opens a BIG A$$ can of worms .

Here's my 2 cents

Don't bother with the Sims. Honestly.
#1. Yep, you might improve your group 0.1" if your lucky. For all the messing around with the cheap $17.99 Sims Limb Saver it's not worth it, especially when you knock it out of place in the field, like climbing in or out of your tree stand, or pulling your gun out of the case .

#2. My personal belief is that they are most successful with low recoil, low resonance rimfire rifles (I'm talking here about high-end muzzle mounted rorary tuners - NOT Sims). A couple ounce rubber donut "somewhere" along your highpower rifle barrel is a shot in the dark "pun intendend" .

#3. Most of us, including myself, are not good enough shooters to notice a difference. Being slighly off with a load, misreading the wind, misreading the yardage, a badly bedded action (or not at all), shooting off a poor rest, or shooting bullets out of a crappy barrel are all much worse than a possible miniscule increase in accuracy due to a rubber donut. Don't buy into the gimick! In the world of benchrest shooting, almost all people laugh at the idea of a tuner. And those that do shoot them (usually under financial incentive) have proved that they are not the answer, they don't always win (far from it).

Here is some great background info (must reads):

Barrel Tuner Vibration Analysis

How do Rifle Barrels Vibrate and Why do Barrel Tuners Work?

Don't get me wrong. Our countries top rimfire shooters swear buy them. But, they shoot $3000.00+ guns, built buy top gunsmiths (Bill Myers) with custom matched top dollar Eley ammo, off $1000.00 rests, and $2100.00 March scopes. Here is just one of them shooting a muzzle-mounted rotary tuner. http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek078.html

Here is a photo of a new Hoehn tuner with the screw on weights (highpower / benchrest).


Here's a rimfire tuner. Photo courtesy 6mmBR

I work in the electrical industry. We encounter resonance problems every day with some of our large million dollar substation transformers. At certain frequencies we encounter a phenomenon with harmonics set up in the core of these transformers. These harmonics can damage transformers. Damping certain frequencies is the way we resolve the problem because we can’t just open them up and install a shot like we can with generators. Changing the frequency will eliminate harmful harmonics.

Changing the frequency of a barrel with a deresonator is a viable solution to a harmonics problem. With that said, this would be the last resort after working out other variables. Variances in loads will cause variances in barrel resonance defeating the purpose of a de-resonator. I wouldn’t worry about a barrel de-resonator until I got my Extreme Spread down into the low teens and had a load that was capable of shooting in the .1s. Then I would consider working with barrel resonance to further reduce the group size. You have to understand that you need to be to the point of shooting bug holes just to be able to notice any significant improvement. It’s more of a fine tuning device and it’s also another variable to work out when load developing.

If you have your load worked out to the point where your spread is really low and you can read and shoot wind conditions and control the trigger you might reduce your scores with a de-resonator or barrel button. A de-resonator isn’t going to make a bad load shoot well.

Just my two cents worth.

I purchased one when they first hit the market for my Savage sporter weight barrel that was already shooting 1/2" groups, hoping to tighten them a little,,,

I wore out the finish on the barrel attempting to find the "Sweet Spot" with no real change in POI...

When I was at the NRA meeting in St. Louis, I talked to the factory rep at their booth and he informed me that the biggest improvement would show up on barrels that were shooting 2" groups, or larger, at 100yds...The tighter the group, the less effect I would see....

Why didn't the literature on the package indicate this to begin with ???

I recently saw one on the barrel of a Kimber sporterweight, which told me two things.

A. I didn't want that rifle, someone was having problems with the accuracy.
B. Those things put the "UGH" in ugly.



And maybe a third thing, too, it didn't work, and the guy had given up on getting that otherwise pretty little Kimber to shoot.