Muzzle brake

[pontiac428]

I am with the both of you on that. I think brakes are downright rude. Like I said before, accurate rifles have an 11 degree crown, full stop. But, I shoot 12-lb target rifles and build to class rules, so I can't account for all combinations and desires by saying that nobody needs one. Someone who hunts may want to offset the recoil increase of a lightweight rifle, that makes sense. But do your zeroing and drop plotting on the far end of the firing line, please. Meanwhile, I'll be doing my thing over here in the prone, hitting x-ring all morning at the same range with just 29 grains of Varget.

 

[woodchucker]

Why are they rude?

 

[mac1911]

Why are they rude?

Most send the blast rearward horizontally at about 30-45 degrees. I know a few that run the small compensator style which sends the blast up reducing muzzle rise.

 

[mac1911]

I am with the both of you on that. I think brakes are downright rude. Like I said before, accurate rifles have an 11 degree crown, full stop. But, I shoot 12-lb target rifles and build to class rules, so I can't account for all combinations and desires by saying that nobody needs one. Someone who hunts may want to offset the recoil increase of a lightweight rifle, that makes sense. But do your zeroing and drop plotting on the far end of the firing line, please. Meanwhile, I'll be doing my thing over here in the prone, hitting x-ring all morning at the same range with just 29 grains of Varget.

You can still have 11’ crown and have a muzzle device. The crown does not extend all the way yo out dia of the barrel? In not sure how this may or may not put a influence on any accuracy.

 

[pontiac428]

Why are they rude?

The extra 30 decibels hammering everyone else on the firing line is the difference between wearing muffs and wearing plugs with muffs. Brakes send the sound pressure sideways, where plain muzzles send it forward. Brakes aren't allowed in Highpower, F-class, or NBRSA for that reason, they're not ruled out for having any kind of accuracy advantage. They're trendy in new style jump and run comp, but that's done with one shooter on the line at a time, so it's not affecting others who are trying to focus.

 

[wnchstrtnfldvlle]

For the OP, is the rifle new, or just new to you? My Cross came with a tapered piece that fit the shoulder of the barrel while creating the 90 degree shoulder for my AAC 51T muzzle device. It's fired fine after the switch.

 

[pontiac428]

You can still have 11’ crown and have a muzzle device. The crown does not extend all the way yo out dia of the barrel? In not sure how this may or may not put a influence on any accuracy.

I want to agree, it makes sense in my mind that the gas follows the projectile for the most part, but POI shift with and without a brake is easy to demonstrate and test on your own rig. They do affect POI, that's not nothing, especially when looked at over distance.

 

[epanzella]

My son's 300 Win Mag had a brake and it was just obnoxious at the range. Despite wearing muffs and plugs, I could feel it in my ribcage and even in the soles of my feet. It was a blessed day when my son asked me to cut off the brake and recrown that blaster.

 

[oogenshire]

For the OP, is the rifle new, or just new to you? My Cross came with a tapered piece that fit the shoulder of the barrel while creating the 90 degree shoulder for my AAC 51T muzzle device. It's fired fine after the switch.

its new all it came with is a thread protector.
as for why a brake, i want the front end to stay on target better while shooting targets, it kicks the front of the rifle to the right about 4 feet at 300 yards when it fires.
a properly set up muzzle brake should not blast everyone at the range, but add a layer of control to the rifle.

 

[pontiac428]

Brakes, or more specifically compensators, do work to reduce recoil. No argument there. Also the more gas your cartridge produces, the more effective they are. Some even project noise forward (blast forward devices) and manage to disrupt enough of the gaseous mass moving forward at the muzzle to still have an effect on recoil. So it's not all bad.

The addition of mass to the muzzle can have an influence on accuracy, like a barrel tuner, by creating or disrupting a resonant node. If you're very lucky, it can tighten groups given the right load. Or, it can work the other way. It gets more difficult when you look at how a brake interacts with the gases at the same instant the projectile clears the muzzle. Things like air density and temperature come into play, so cold shot vs warm shot can affect the interaction. These are degrees of freedom, which have a factorial input on the probability cloud over the point of impact, and adding DoF always broadens the range of outcomes in that probability plot. So the added variables introduced by the brake are shied away from in certain types of competition. But if you're looking at poking a deer once a year or shooting a box of packaged ammo at the range once in a while, putting on a brake won't make much difference to you and you'll appreciate the noticeable reduction in recoil. Just give the nerdy looking guys with the notepad and chronograph a little extra room when you set up on the range.