Tuners... hell of a thing.
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Disclaimer: to my knowledge, this can NOT be "proven" (theorum -> peer reviewed -> accepted proof) as the maths involved is beyond the average human. (Paging Richard Feynman ?) The variables are just too random and immense to create a formula, or physical standard (datum or reference example). In saying that..
Im no artist (autist ?), so ill try to break it down.
We have
amplitude,
frequency, and
duration.
We also need to understand the difference between waves, frequency, nodes, antinodes, and a few others. Heres a
9min video which will help you get up to speed, try not to go cross eyed, and pay attention.
Here is a VERY (overly simplified, so its actually incorrect, but we can build on it).
"As the bullet travels down the barrel, we can tune the barrels node to give us better accuracy".
Ok, so whats wrong with that, and what the hell does it actually mean ?
We cant "tune" a node, we observe its position and duration and amplitude.
Lets observe multiple at the same time.
As you can see, different strings vibrate differently.
BuT WaiT!! I hear you screech, THe SecONd VidEO DoESNt LooK liKE ThE FiRSt !
Yes, well spotted.
Camera shutters are taking a "snap shot" of its position, and you need to look up how
shutters work. (amazingly easy video to watch, its worth it.. then come back here, and this is the 'duration' part in the formula).
While the 2 strings appear to be
different, (for our example) they are actually the same.
In the slow motion video, it introduces a new term,
osillation. (This will be important later).
Now lets get back to shooting.
You barrel moves when shooting. Thats not disputed. Does it oscillate, resonate, or vibrate ? I hope you said all 3.
Within this barrel movement, the bullet is travelling down the barrel and will eventually be spat into the world, to meet its quick demise on animal, steel or paper. Or in
@308pirate 's life,.. dirt, becuse he missed (sorry, i couldnt resist a quick jab).
Imagine your finger on a guitar, or a
capo which changes the pitch or tune.
A weight on the end of your barrel will change the frequency, and thus the nodes / antinodes at which your barrel can vibrate in. As you move your finger up and down a guitar string, you change its tone (note) and can hear it. Moving a tuner forward and backwards does exactly that.
As the bullet travels down the barrel, exit the muzzle and does its thing, you need it to exit on an antinode when its velocity (muzzle movement) is as near to zero as possible. For a few reasons this is potentially IMPOSSIBLE (bonus points if you know why) So... you want the best combination of amplitude X frequency X duration.
Look at the slow motion guitar string again. It has an oscillation. You may tune you bullet / barrel combo to a "node" and it shoots, but the next day (weather, temp, whatever) its slightly off. You are not in an optimum duration zone. See the string move hard one side, pause, come back again ? Thats what we want to exploit.
Not to completely screw everyone over but, barrels go all wibbly wobbly. They DONT do their thing in just one axis, and have
harmonics too ! Then add in
Pendulum geometry. Your muzzle does this, but while it does it, its vibrating, not smooth.
I think ive covered enough so most people get the idea of whats happening.
Now to really make it hard to understand. Know the phrase "energy in, energy out" ? Some is lost by heat, some sound, and other motion. We are talking about gun powder boom here.
Different powder charge is different energy, thus how the barrel moves, which also effects bullet speed. Im not going to theorise if they are connected or try to prove one way or the other, but at this point id say they are not connected. Meaning a soft load can produce a higher frequency node condition, and a marginally lower charge will completely change it, its NOT linear. Bullet will go in preportionally slower, but frequency can be higher. (Just an idea, not a theory !! But its got a sound basic in physics
)
Ill summarise it all like this. There is too much going on to reliably say how a tuner works. What CAN be stated is that if the muzzle is moving from the peak of one antinode point to another antinode point, you will get a "flier".
There is so much here i could do in a 30min video with a white board and still not fully cover everything, its scary.
Also, barrel contour effects its ability to tune easily.. some contours are better than others. fight me.