Opinions on a tuner on a precision .22, BR level accuracy. Worth it?

YES THEY WORK!!!!!!

You are probably better off, figuring out what your rifle likes. Ammo selection has the greatest effect on precision. It also entirely depends on what you intend to do with the rifle. Top level bench rest competition, and you may want to consider getting a good tuner. Check out that challenge I posted in this forum, and you’ll see what some decent shooters are running.

I shoot against several guys using a tuner and they have certainly made a difference in their scores.

Depends on what they are asking for them I suppose. They do work. I've got a small lathe and made one for my 9mm Bergara - the rifle barrel was already threaded:





200yards on a better than average wind day:

Few, very few competition RF benchrest shooters are seen without them. The centerfire bunch are starting to use them as well.

Here's an example of an EC tuner on my Bergara B14R with cheap TAC22 Practice ammo, distance is 50yds:



Here's another pic of a tuning session with Lapua LR, 3 shot groups at 50 as per Cortina's instructions. This is just the initial tuning to find a rough setting:




You can see that as I "tune" or adjust the tuner, the POI shifts as well as group size. The flyers (again TAC22) don't disappear, but they are subdued a bit. Using Lapua LR and SK LR match, the results are similar, just not as dramatic.

With the Lapua LR I retested the 40 and 1R10 settings and settled on 40 which produced .25-.3" 10 shot groups at 50 yds pretty reliably. It has an ES of 22.1 and an SD of 6.08 from my rifle. This ammo lot is what I'll use in NRL22 matches this year.

Bottom line is when I find .22LR ammo with decent chrono stats I can utilize the tuner to tighten the group. At distance the stuff with double digit SD is still going to shoot poorly, but it works OK for practice off of props.

Another plus, with the tuner on I finally got the rifle to balance better:

Yeah, the arguement with centrefire is that you can adjust the loads to improve accuracy but tuners still provide some extra help.

I understand who's asking and I understand those asked realized who's asking...but, they're on record.

You will not go to a serious RF meet and find a rifle without a tuner.

Thanks for all the responses, gents. Lots of useful info.

And not a single "I don't need no stinkin' tuner, I kin kill critters all season long with my trusty_____".

That's true, so it didn't need to be said. Besides, a tuner really needs to be used on a target rifle (typically). I was watching a video the other day, and a guy tried one on his Bergara BMR, and it looks like it really helped:



Your question was specifically for "benchrest" accuracy. What kind of benchrest competitions are you going to be shooting? USBR? One thing about those guys, is they are going to use everything to their advantage. They are going to be playing with all the new gadgets, and if it helps, they are going to be using them. For an every day joe, that shoots in his club rimfire matches once a month, he may not be so inclined to buy one.