Who is a really good tuner?

Cricket or Vulcan > Ernest Rowe or
Taipan Mutant > Brian M at EdgunWest [email protected]
Done.

Mac1 does a phenomenal job on mrods1 

Ive heard amazing things about an AZ guy Alan Z or something and he works on high end PCPs like RAW, Steyr, stuff like that

Ernest.

Travis at War is plain brilliant so is Scott aka Motorhead and Ive never used Earnest but I hear good things. I will say this there are plenty of self proclaimed tuners but If I were you Id stick to guys who do this for a living. I wouldnt have brain surgery in Tijuana if you get what Im puting down,

AZ or Ernest Rowe are the 2 names that I have always heard great things come from them. I know that ernest does great work on FX, but AZ will do excellent work on steyr, thomas, etc...

Marksman, You just got rid of it!, your RAW. I had a conversation with Alan Zasadny this time last year ,and he believes the most accurate pcp rifle today is the 25 or 30 cal RAW. 

Ernest is the only guy I have used in the past,
The guy puts up videos up so you can do a lot of work yourself,
Puts up a web site to help out your gun adjustments,
You want something tuned send it to this guy, Or just watch his videos and try yourself,
Call the guy and see what he would do,
Or send it to the secret guy that can tune it up for a lot of money with secret sauce on the o rings.
Use common since people
Mike

Alan Zasadney did my RAW and 2 other rifles. I would feel comfortable sending him any airgun, car, blender, fish-tank pump, flux capacitor...
Very knowledgeable and a good guy to boot.

Ernest... nuff said.

Different tuners-dealers seem to gravitate towards a particular brand. Ernest is a wealth of info and is happy to share his talent via the internet. Bryan from Edgun West, along with Ed himself have supplied a lot of info. Others have made a reputation with their ability, yet don't showcase their talents via video's. You can't really blame them, there are some dealers that air up and test shoot their products. Charlie Frear comes to mind, and he has demonstrated his tuning abilities. I've been fortunate I have always been able to trade home improvement for mechanical services, not so now with air guns. Now video support and magazine prices influence my gun choices.

And don't forget that BWalton has a good reputation among the Hatsan crowd.

I guess the Answer is it depends on what rifle you own as it seems each tuner specializes in a certain brand. this got me thinking about how few full time tuners there are and I mean guys who do it as a job not a hobby, I bet in the USA there maybe only 5-6 full time professional tuners if that.

What I would like to know is, what exactly does a Tuner do?! Is tuning a gun simply following protocol, taking notes, being patient, having the right tools and being "meticulous"? I believe so. I never tuned a gun, but I tuned many other things and 99% of the time, pretty much anyone could have done it.

Please understand that I am not trying to take anything away from Tuners, or insult them! I am just saying that in my experience, people that perform "certain" tasks, often do it because others do not have the time, the tools, the patience, or what not. "Skill" has "nothing" to do with it. 

Again, I never tuned an air rifle, but I can take an educated guess on how to do it. 

- You take a gun.
- You put it on a bench.
- You take a Chrono.
- You start shooting it using different pellets.
- You check your results.
- You make adjustments by either using different pellets and/or change the pressure on the regulator. How do you do that? By turning a screw. How hard can that be?

That said. I know I am coming across as a jackass, ha ha, but I am doing it on purpose to dramatize and get my point across. : )

Thanks,

Kmd

It's more to that, here's a list for a Vulcan tune. It's a wast of time taking a pre-cony before a tune, I will inspect while totally disassembles usually I can find the cause whlle doing that. 

Vulcan tune;

1. Install tight fitting delrine hammer spring guide 
2. Polish hammer and spring.
3. Polish barrel rifling and smooth bore 
4. Smooth out barrel transfer port inlet and outlet
5. Smooth out cocking linkage and rod
6. Trigger tune---remove slack, polish moving parts adjust to customer request.
7. Inspect all metal sealing, Reseal regulator and the whole air tube and clean air tube bore. Set reg pressure to max out at a given speed. Polish contact point on the D-washer, install HQ orings. 
8. Install depinger if required 
9. Inspect shroud for clipping,bore if so
10. Test shot constancy at request speed, shoot a mag every 3-4 hours a day, check for leak
11. Test 1st shot of the day to insure its within the ES for 3 bays, if not resurface the valve stem. 

Interesting... I guess I never thought of all the other moving parts in an air rifle that can be tuned. Duh! Anyhow. Sounds like a PITA, which is exactly what I was talking about. Tuning looks more like a time consuming task, rather than a highly technical task. Would you agree with that?

Thanks for the input,

Kmd

EDIT: Don't get me wrong. I get it. It is never as simple as saying, "Just polish this, and smooth out that." Some people look at a barrel and say, "It looks great to me!", whereas others might have a better eye for it and say, "This barrel looks like sh*t!"... At the end of the day that will be the difference between a good and a not so good tuner. 

Kmd