Only if your barrel has problems and shoots poor patterns. Otherwise, its a waste of money.

I believe barrel smiths can make a bad barrel good. I don't believe they can make a good barrel better.

Read this before you decide.

Pattern Testing Results - Four Guns, One with a Wilkinson Barrel

 

I believe barrel smiths can make a bad barrel good. I don't believe they can make a good barrel better.

:above3:

 

I have mined tuned to C sharp, or is it B flat?

 

It's C Sharp - all of my barrels are tuned to C Sharp and the patterns are nothing less than incredible! ! !

Perazzi barrels from the factory are all tuned during production. Sometimes the finishing disturbs that but it never takes more than a few passes with a stone on the muzzle to restore. Few are off more than a couple cents and usually not even worth bothering with.

 

The best barrel tuning is to keep you cheek down and watch the target. But only after you know where your gun shoots.

 

SRP41

It would be best (as stated above) to verify that your barrel actually is the problem by eliminating all other probable causes.
For a start I think using a shot shell laser bore light to determine if the bore light coincides with your view when you mount the gun and sight down
the rib at a target. Another possible problem could be a choke tube that is not concentric.

 

It works, but don't expect miracles -- meaning if you're hoping for "1 or 2 more targets per 100," you'll likely be disappointed. (Though admittedly I feel it may deliver 1 extra target per 200 if I'm doing my job ) What it absolutely will do is two or three things: 1) it will remove a little weight from the barrel since tuners tend to overbore to get bores and chokes truly concentric; and 2) the improved patterning should eliminate "barrel issues" as a reason (excuse) for missing. IMO both can be significantly beneficial depending on your present shooting style and mindset. A third reason is depending on gun make, if you also have the barrel thinwall choked at the same time, you tend to get chokes that have acme threads, and these tend to stay tight and spin in and out easier than most factory threaded choke designs -- a useful 3rd benefit for a sporting clays shooter that may desire to change chokes more frequently than a trap or skeet shooter.

FWIW I am primarily a sporting clays shooter and now shoot a tuned barrel on my main gun. I like it enough I'm prepping to have a second one done soon too, but my primary reason is weight savings -- taking it from .733 to .740 will remove about 2 ounces. Second reason is the more convenient choke swapping, and then I view the improved patterning as icing on the cake.

Hope this helps,

Jack

 

Back in the 40's in Bellingham, WA there was a guy named Lyman Banks. Bellingham is on a flyway for snow geese, Canada geese and lots of ducks. Lyman worked on shotgun barrels to make them better high pass shooting guns using large shot 4's, 3's 2's.
I have a Model 12 3" Heavy duck gun with a Bank's bore in it. I'm not familiar with what the process was. I don't know if he full length bored them or just did choke work. I can tell you that the Model 12 I have was heavily sought after by one guy who borrowed it for a goose hunt. He tried to purchase this gun for years and the man who owned it wouldn't sell to him. I purchased it from him very late in his life, we were friends and partners in a hunting trailer in Eastern, WA.
This barrel on my Model 12 will take a dime through it without touching the inside of the barrel, Current day gun chokes do the same on there overbore barrels.
The guy who started me shooting shotgun when I was 20 used to shoot patterns for Lyman. His name was Terry Cassidy, he used to tell me Lyman would talk him up on how good he was shooting those patterns LOL. Terry in later life said Lyman didn't want to shoot all those patterns with the 3" magnum loads at 1 7/8 oz of 3's and 2's. The guns were patterned at 55 yards and the best pattern we seen in the 80's was with Federal Premium Magnum loads, lead shot with 1 5/8 oz 3" copper plated shot. We later found 1 1/2 oz 2 3/4" same shells shot better than the 3" did, put more pellets in the 30" circle. The highest percentage we ever saw was 55% at 55 yards. It was shot with my Dads Browning Belgium 3" Auto 5 with a Federal Premium lead 1 1/2 oz. of 4's.

PD

 

Tom Roster wrote a small book about this very subject. He said that many shotgun owners waste a lot of money doing unnecessary barrel work. He describes various situations where barrel work might help and other situations where it is a waste of time and money.
Look up Tom on the internet and you can find the book. Very informative

John

 

One other thing: you'll definitely see less difference from tuned barrels if using F chokes -- the improved pattern benefits show more readily at Skeet through Mod. Just sayin...

 

What benefits? I haven't seen any. Citation is needed.

 

That's excellent work by timb99, particularly since it all had to be done in Beijing. :15a:

Thanks. It was done last spring, when I was in Kansas.

 

Is this barrel tuning?

... sending a used set of barrels to a guy asking for:

1. boring to get barrels to specific weight: 1.5x KG
2. choke tubes installed: Briley thinwalls
3. confirmed POI of both barrels. 13yrd Winston rule

and getting exactly all of that impeccably performed.

If so, tuning works mighty fine.

 

Is this barrel tuning?

No.

 

Thank you every one who replied to my question , at this point I’ll leave it alone

 

Smart move.

 

In the UK some fixed choke shooters who only shoot one brand of shells will often send their gun to Teague to have the chokes regulated to shoot the pattern they require at a certain distance. Other have Briley or Teague thin wall chokes fitted to their guns instead of buying a gun with screw in chokes as they consider this a better option and have a barrel with more feel due to less weight.
Devonian.

 

Love a barrel that hits em hard.
I have had tuned barrels and factory barrels that really made smoke.
I still wonder why I parted with some of these over the years.

Its All Good.
West