Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters MD & All... Round Rubber Blob for accuracy slips on rifle barrel

Has anyone tried a round rubber blob that slides up and down the barrel for accuracy? This dohickeymagigger(can't remember the name) was purchased at Wal-Mart. I had noticed advertisements some time ago and decided to try one. All of your experiences are welcome to learn from.

I have a 25-06 Sendero that will not give me accuracy above 3225 with Barnes 100s. Tried everything and all the powders that might be decent above that. Out of desperation I put a black donut on the barrel and tried everything again, and never saw the least improvement. Not that I really was hoping for improvement, I mean who wants to go hunting with something like that on your barrel? I figured if it worked I could hide it in my pocket until I got into my stand and then put it on the barrel when nobody could see it and if I shot a deer with it on there I could put it back in my pocket before anyone saw it. They are about as appealing as having a potato on a Model 12.

Have never tried one, but did run into a guy on a private-land elk hunt in Colorado quite a while ago who used one. He was one of those guys who always combined the the score of the antlers with the range of the shot, as in "I got a 302 bull at 521." He'd hunted with the outfitter before, and the outfitter told me privately the guy was far from the best shot he'd guided....

Might also mention I have my doubts that a rubber donut would have as much effect on "tuning" a barrel as a steel cylinder screwed onto the muzzle....

I am always surprised when I see one sitting on a used rifle for sale…might as well say “this rifle shot like crap so out of desperation I tried this thing before finally deciding to sell”.

I've never been tempted to try one, but can see where they might, by experimenting with various placements, affect barrel harmonics and perhaps give some improvement.

However, I think it much more likely that they are an answer in search of a question.

There's SOMETHING to the damping effect of a blob. I had a "problem child" barrel once (still have it but on another rifle after set back and rechamber). Among many experiments on that pipe was floating it and putting "pads" of various stuff in the fore-end gap. By far the best result was a strip of old computer-mouse pad wiggled in two inches back of the stock tip. Wow!

But then the pad flubber got a little hard from the heat, and the good shooting came to an end. Silicone and other caulks at various spots had good or bad effects but never as good as that mouse pad.

I guess you could TRY the blob and see if you can't improve your patterns.....if there's a massive improvement, however, then what? Do you put on an adjustable muzzle stabilizer/brake? I've never gone there and probably won't in the future. It seems to me that barrels either shoot or they don't, and sometimes you just can't find a recipe that barrel likes.

Tried the large and small (different rifles) couldn’t tell any difference.

My buddy keeps one on his heavy barreled blued REM 700 with laminate stock 300 RUM. Not sure if he ever bothered to test before and after. It’s had work but is still factory throated and shoots excellent with factory bear claw ballistic tip Barnes ammo.

Dave,

The first experimenting I did with an adjustable stabilizer/brake was with the Browning BOSS, when it was introduced over 20 years ago. Once again, that was because I felt the need to for whatever resemblance gun writing has to "objective journalism."

Found out several things:
Yes, the Boss worked to "tune" the barrel to specific ammo, whether factory or handload. But it often went "out of tune" at different temperatures, because so many powders were temperature-sensitive, so muzzle velocities varied. The results could also vary with the amount of barrel fouling, whether due to powder or copper or both.

I also found the BOSS to be one of the loudest "brakes" ever devised....

But adjustable steel "muzzle devices' definitely work to tune accuracy (or "precision" of you prefer that term," one reason they're used considerably on target rifles, even rimfires.

I used one for a short time many years ago on my Weatherby Ultra Lightweight 338-06. It actually did tighten the average groups somewhat after experimenting with where to place it on the barrel. I just could not get past the looks of that ugly thing.

Bedding the rifle and correcting the uneven pressure points that the factory stock had I was able to get even better accuracy out of the gun, so I threw the donut away. Rifle will now shoot 5-shot groups at or less than 1 1/4" with many different loads.

So I would say they could help a rifle somewhat for someone wanting a quick easy option to try.

Bill Calfee,a very well known rimfire gunsmith,was experimenting with "tuners" back in the late 80's. I shot a lot of BR 50 and ARA with him and others in Borden Indiana. Bill said he got the idea ,and he mentions it in his book"The Art of Rimfire Accuracy",that he came up with the idea while watching the antenna on his old Ford truck.He said that however much the antenna whipped around,there was always a "dead" spot where it wasn't moving. The idea is to stop the whip of the muzzle ,making it "dead" when the bullet exits. Probably pretty useless on all but rifles that have the potential to be super accurate-not gonna notice much on a Henry .22 or a single shot H&R 30-30...

roanmtn;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the runup to Easter has treated you acceptably and you're well.

A few years back I did some work for a friend's rifle and in return he gave me most of an 8lb of WW748. Somewhere around then I was fooling with a RAR 1:8 .223 and had picked up a bag of 500 FMJ Canadian made bullets, then shortly after as these things go, came home with another 500.

Somehow the rifle shot "okay" with the 748 and the bulk 55gr FMJ, but just that.

Since the Kickease Barrel Dampener was about $15Cdn, I thought - why not?

With that load, it does shoot groups smaller than before after I figured out where to put the thing.

Then I wrapped the barrel with camo tape to hide it....

But, since I'd gone down the rabbit hole already, after watching an Ultimate Reloader video on barrel tuning on rimfires, I picked up a half dozen rubber O-rings for a Tikka T1X 16" and played with it. So help me, I think it shoots a wee bit better with the O-rings on when they're bunched up at one spot.

The O-rings are not hideous, that Kickease Dampener even wrapped in camo tape is still a little bit ugly.

Lastly, buddy stuck an Eric Cortina tunable brake on a Sako S20 and again it did shoot better with the Hornady factory ammo once we'd played with it.

Hope that helped you or someone out there tonight.

Happy Easter to you all.

Dwayne

I’d be embarrassed to be seen using one of those contraptions

I recommend 'Kong' brand chew-toys as donut tuners.....

Got a buddy (Tinman knows him too) in ID that has one on his Win 70 300 WSM. He is FAR from a rifle looney. In fact, I can't imagine he's used a different rifle over the past 20yrs. Loads whatever his dad reloads for him. That said, very few here could match him for the amount and quality of game taken. It works for him I guess...

I have one on a Remington in .223. I can't say that it helped the accuracy but it does keep the scope off of the wall of the safe. I slid the ball up to the level of the stanchion. I push the ball into the slot and it holds it there keeping the elevation knob from touching the inside wall. So, it's not like it is totally worthless.

I did put one on the barrel of a skinny barrel Mini 14. It actually helped the accuracy. I had to slice off a bit to see the front sight. It looked bad so I cut it off. The accuracy went back to where it was before.

kwg

I shot rimfire benchrest for years, with considerable success. A

I shot rimfire benchrest for years, with considerable success. A TUNER IS A MUST in order to win in rimfire competition. Of course knowing how to use the tuner is another story !!

I haven't tried the limb Saver Deresonator yet. I hope to get good results. Only time will tell. From all the replies a good number of of you all have not had exceptionally good luck. Perhaps I should have just spent the money at McDonalds for a close to $10 fast food meal.

Not for me. 😁

I played briefly with one at a customers request, I think it was a Sako AV 300 Win. It definitely helped after I found the 'sweet spot'. But I was disgusted with the looks and cumbersome handling...and ended up with a 6 pound pressure pad near the forend tip which worked just as well...without 40 rounds being fired to find the "spot'. Customer was happy anyway.