Steve B. Bloop Tube Part II

[atomicbrh]

There is too much on bloop tubes on the other topic. Time to start another one. We shot next to Steve B. and the Bloop Tube pictured in the other topic at 2010 Winnsboro in Match 2 on Saturday afternoon. Steve B.'s bloop tube makes a sound that is a little different from other bloop tubes. I have not been around a bloop tube exactly like that one and it makes such a wonderful, pleasant sound it was actually distracting me because I began to want to hear that sound. I would like to go to a Smallbore prone Match like Camp Perry at least one time to see the variety of bloop tubes out there.

Now the following is what I perceived happened at Winnsboro but I may be totally wrong. I did not catch exactly what went on but I think Steve's spotter made like a 15 second decision by the rifle rack to shoot that same rifle. His spotter dry fired the rifle one time during the ready command and shot a really good Master class score without having practiced or fired the rifle before. I think I heard his spotter ask Steve what the trigger weight was just before the realy was called to the line. This last minute decision and resulting good Master class score gives merit to what others are saying that it is the shooter and not the equipment. The guy picked up a rifle he had never shot before and shot a Master class score.

Steve B. If you are able can you flesh out the details of that last minute rifle switch?

Thanks,
Bobby R. Huddleston

[steve b.]

Bobby,

My spotter was Mark Pharr, who as many know is a excellent shooter. Mark had been wanting to try the rifle, and at the last minute it was a "what the heck, why not" kind of decision. The rifle is much easier to shoot than a hunter rifle, and Mark and I are pretty close in build, so it fit him well.

Many of us teased him that he was shooting a rifle I built better than his own rifle. Then the next day I used his hunter rifle and shot a better score with it than I did the day before with my rifle, beating Mark in the process. Go figure.

What is weird with that tube is you don't hear the sound when you shoot the rifle, it just goes bang and sounds like any other rifle. Only on the side do you hear the difference.

The rifle ain't half bad in terms of accuracy.

s.

[BCloninger]

You guys confirm my suspicion that Master class shooters are mutants.

There's a certain red head in our group that won a 10/22 barrel, dropped it in his otherwise stock 10/22, and ran a bank of chickens with, I believe, Federal 510. It really is the shooter, not the rifle.

[shakes]

OK OK OK. It's all about how long the bullet takes to get out of barrel and to the target after pulling the trigger right!! The main reason for "bloop tubes" is not about acurracy in silhouette shooting, after all how accurate can you be while shooting offhand. Somewhere along the way I read that a 16 or 18 inch barrel is the most accurate for rimfire (maybe Steve B. can interject on the subject). The longer the barrel the longer the bullet is in the barrel and the more you move off target the farther off target you'll be. Short barrel, fast lock time equals high scores, but with a short barrel its hard to steady the rifle on target therefore a "bloop tube" is used for the needed weight to keep the gun steady. The added weights make the gun more easily steadied on the target. Eric, Dennis, Steve, and myself all have standard barrels with about a 18 or 20 inch length (so we have no probleme getting across the boarder) and have an exentension with home made weights. I bouught my weights at Fastnall and there aluminium. I tried steel and they get to be to heavy after awhile. Its all about locktime and follow through. This was the knowledge passed down from 3 master level shooters who many more years of experience under their hats than me and have mulitple national titles and records. Every peice of advise they give me I treat like its coming from the man above. These gentelmen have never lead me down the wrong path.

[steve b.]

Shakes,

Ya got a few oranges in the apple cart. For the most part you are right, but there are some assumptions that could use some work.

1. Barrel length and accuracy have nothing to do with eachother. Zero. There are some overlapping traits, but their roots are not in a direct relationship, more like kissin' 2nd cousins.

2. Lock time is not related to bullet time in barrel. Lock time is based on the time the trigger releases it's internal mechanism to the time the cartridge is ignited.

3. Follow through and barrel length are good bed fellows. Shorter barrels give you more "value" to your follow through.

[shakes]

thanks Steve. I understand that lock time time is not related to bullet time in the barrel. I may have worded it incorrectly, my thinking was shorter barrel combinded with a fast lock time is optimal

It must have been on that rimfire central website where i was reading posts on the optimal barrel lenght for a .22 rimfire.

[Dee]

The way I look at it is lock time is the trigger breaking to primer igniting. Once the bullet is in motion it changes over to dwell time of the bullet inside the barrel. Lock time + Dwell time= Shot cycle time. This is really noticable if you shoot a lot of different airguns much more so than .22 LR although you can tell the 54 action is quicker than most others in lock time.

Of course the shorter the barrel the less the dwell time but by how much really? A few thousandths second at the most. 1080 fps is 12960 inches a second so 2 inches is nothing. Reading in the past about length of .22 barrels for ideal performance it seemed to be concensus that 16" was about the perfect length for getting maximum velocity. The accuracy seemed to be as always related to the ammo and the twist of the rifle, rifling type etc. Longer barrels just help stabilize the bullet a little more IMO.

Dee

[steve b.]

Ha, sorry for gettin all techy on ya Shakes, I see now what you meant.

When considering all the options, I think the short barrel + long bloop tube is the way to go. Taking the bloop tube to the next level and making it into a tuner just enhances overall accuracy, eventhough we give much of that tuning up by shooting for the offhand position.

When I built my rifle, I went after those ideas, along with a rifle that felt very comfortable in my hands. What I did notice is that I felt the weight of the rifle after my second day of shooting, so I'm going to change out the barrel from a 0.905" dia to a 0.890" dia, and make it shorter to 16 1/2". I want to get the rifle around 9 lbs, 12 oz. I'm also switching from a Shilen 4R to a Shilen Octo 8. We are also using a new proto reamer from PT&G for this setup.

From there, I'm switching tube systems and going to retest the complete system in a BR stock and see what shakes out.

From the bench in the BR stock, I want the rifle shooting back to back in the high 0.1"s to very low 0.2"s That's do-able in my opinion.

[Hawk-1]

steve, from your benchrest stock will you test it at 100m.? What would you expect from there? A while back I read you say that all barrels have goods and bads etc. I was wondering what the downside to the octo. as you see it now. Thanks, david

[Hawk-1]

steve, sorry I forgot to ask another question. Would it be possible if you shoot at 100m to shoot some ccisv just to see what a primo barrel will do with it ? thanks again

[steve b.]

Hawk,

As for the Octo barrel from shilen, they can be easily harmed by improper cleaning. Jamming a bronze brush down the barrel with a cleap cleaning rod can prevent the brush from rotating, thus running across the top of the grooves rather than with them. It's just something you have to watch for.

As for testing, yes the rifle will be testing at 50 and 100m.

As for the CCI SV ammunition, I may test it depending on how it fits in the new chamber. It may be too large to easily chamber, but I wll give it a look when the rifle is complete.

s.

[Jerry G]

At 1100 fps in a 20" bbl, the bbl time is 1.52 to the -03 seconds. For a 16" bbl it is 1.21 to the -03 seconds. Ain't no way anyone will ever notice the difference.

[steve b.]

Well,

We all have our opinions on that issue I guess. I bet that if all shooters were perfectly still during shot release and follow through it wouldn't matter.

Given how that difference in barrel time when considering the shooter is moving slightly, the bullet flight to 100 meters, and the inconsistency of shooter's movement, it may be a more noticeable difference in terms of bullets grouping on a target than one would expect.

The graph of that is more like a triangle than a straight line.

But in the end that's just how I like to setup my rifle.

[Hawk-1]

steve b. thanks for the response. Will be waiting for the results with the cheaper ammo (cci sv etc.) I have a 54.18 repeater that will shoot the high price ammo into nickle size groups (100m@10shots), but won't shoot the cheap stuff very good. (1.5") Maybe I'm to picky, but I think I may take it off and sell it and try something else that will shoot the cheap stuff. I am paying for 4 (wife and 2 boys) every trip to the range. If it were just me, I wouldn't care. My wife's rifle shoots the cheap stuff like a house on fire (1712). Thanks in advance, david

[steve b.]

Hawk,

I will let you know, but since it's a custom barrel with a rather tight custom chamber, it's gonna be pretty unique onto itself.

You may want to look at the SK Standard Plus ammunition. It's about the same price as the SV and much more accurate.

s.