Monthly Archives: July 2025

Gear, Weapons

Limbsaver Barrel De-Resonator

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Limbsaver has been well known in the archery community for making vibration-absorbing products that work very well.  Recently, they came into the firearms industry with some very effective recoil pads.  So effective that they are now standard on many new rifles, and just about everything from Remington.

Limbsaver has come out with something new for rifles, called a Barrel De-Resonator.  This is a soft rubber grommet that slips over the barrel and gives the weapon a very George Jetson, almost Flash Gordon kind of look.  The idea behind it is pretty simple, to pull the vibrations out of the barrel during firing to make each shot more consistent. 

How it works is the same way these things work on bow limbs… it reduces vibration and shock by transferring the energy and motion into the soft rubber which resists the motion at first, then captures it and contains it.   In a bow, it makes the bow smoother and quieter during the shot. 

This should theoretically work on the barrel of a rifle.  During firing the barrel of a rifle acts as a tuning fork.  Vibrations travel back and forth across the length of the barrel and this can make shots inconsistent.  To battle this, barrels are made free floating, where nothing touches the barrel.  Or they are made heavy and fat, thus reducing these vibrations by shear mass and rigidity.  Or they are full bedded or bedded with a pressure point near the end of the stock’s fore end.  The idea is to let the barrel resonate as free as possible with the hope that it will resonate the same way every time.

The problem with barrel resonation is that it is effected by just about everything.  Heat, humidity, air pressure, the way you are holding the rifle, where your sling is mounted and if you are pulling on it, the bullet weight and shot velocity will also play an important roll in resonation.  So being able to pull some of that vibration out of the barrel would be a huge help in shooting.          

The question is, does it work?

The test platform is my trusty Remington 700 Stainless BDL in 7MM Remington Magnum.  For testing, I picked up a couple of boxes of some cheap 160 grain PMC ammo.  Each box was only twelve bucks, so I thought, what the heck.  It beats blowing through my good stuff that I use for killing things that cost more than twice that.  The scope in a Nikon Buckmaster BDC which is zeroed for 300 yards.  The target is 200 yards.

I first fired a clean group without the de-resonator on the gun.  In the group above, you can see the three shots and at the top is a hole made by splintered wood, not a bullet hole.  This is not a bad group for 200 yards for a guy who is on some pretty heavy painkillers and shooting through heat waves.  I’ll take this sort of accuracy any day.

To start out testing the de-resonator, I slipped it on all the way back to within an inch of the stock.  The shot group is actually slightly bigger.  So far, I’m not impressed.   If this was it, I would want my money back.  But they say that you have to tune the de-resonator by putting it in different positions to find the sweet spot where it works the best.  So we will do that.

Oh for the love of… I’m so not impressed.  This is with the de-resonator placed roughly in the middle.  Again, I’m about to ask for my money back.  After this one I fire a couple more groups just to verify that this is what the gun is doing.  I’d be better off having not have tried this out at all at this point.

Then I moved the de-resonator out further, to within 4 inches of the muzzle.  And this is when something happened.  Now, understand this… this is with cheap ammo that I have always considered to be crappy…

I shot several other groups after this to verify it… This is it.  The Limbsaver Barrel De-Resonator actually works.  In the above photo that is a three shot group with two shots through the same hole.. other groups were nice clover leaf patterns. 

I’m pleased as can be.  For a rifle to shoot this good with crappy ammo… I am not just pleased, but I am thrilled.

So, to answer the question… Yes, it works. 

Weapons

I need to get a Grip

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I love my Ruger SP101. I really do. My only issue with it though, has been the grips. I’ve gone through no less than 5 different sets of grips. I’m looking for a Unicorn. I want some nice, tight, compact grips that both conceal well and doesn’t punish me for pulling the trigger. Shown above are my current grips. They shoot well. While being a “Boot Grip” they don’t hurt my hand because they be THICC. This Shorty is FAT. So it fills the hand and distributes recoil very well. The problem is because of that girth, it prints like I’m pulling a billboard with me. And the grips are very grabby and any covering garment over it is going to start climbing. I’ve decided that these are terrible. I need new grips. I need to find that Unicorn. Leading Suggestion has been VZ Grips.

Uncategorized, Weapons

The Forgotten .35 Remington

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In 1895 Winchester shocked the world with the introduction of the Model 1894 in a new cartridge called the .30 Winchester Smokeless. It was later called the .30 WCF, and also known as the .30-30 Winchester. “Thuddy Thuddy” was using the then new Smokeless Powder, hence the original name, and offered wicked fast Velocity for the time. It took the shooting world by storm. It was commonly loaded with 150 grain and 170 grains, and it was used to hunt EVERYTHING in North America and most of the rest of the world. And for the guys hunting things a bit bigger and nastier than White Tails, Elk, and Outlaws… It did have some limitations. Enter Remington with something of an Upgrade to that caliber… The .35 Remington.

Remington loaded a Rimless case with a .35 caliber bullet with weights common in 200 and 220 grain loads, and while just a bit slower, offered more Energy and Momentum on Stubborn Targets. It became rather popular and has been known as a Brush Gun Cartridge, thanks to the heavier bullet’s ability to crash through the brush and still hit the target with enough grunt to put it down. Does a number on Bear Bones too. And remarkably, it does so with a similar ballistic trajectory as the .30-30 out to 300 yards. I’ve only done one hunt with a .35 Remington Marlin 336. But it was a successful hunt that did not require tracking of a wounded animal… It anchored it where it was standing. And that was with a Federal semi-jacketed Soft Point.

Below, we’ll compare the two cartridges in question with the same Hornady loading. The .35 Remington’s muzzle velocity of 2225, versus the .30-30’s of 2400 FPS. Now, this is with Hornady’s wonderful new powders and consistent loadings and high quality control… So these velocities might be a bit quicker than some older loadings… But they are safe to use in any lever action that’s in good condition.

Thirty Five Remington might be a bit old fashioned now, and out of favor with the Trade Publications these days. But for those that have used it, have all done so with great satisfaction when used within it’s envelope. More modern cartridges do surpass it, just as the .350 Legend… And Remington’s own .35 Magnum. But when you have a Winchester 94 or Marlin 336 loaded up with some good .35 Remington ammo… You don’t feel outdated. You feel like a Classic.