Holland QD Muzzle Brake - 2 Shot Review

[Fiftydriver]

Roy,

This is a simple job to get the vertical ports where they need to be.

I have done a little experimenting with this as well. What I did was I had a customer that had me build him a 375 RUM and he gave me the specs for the muzzle threads he wanted machined onto the muzzle as he was going to use a brake he was getting from a friend for the rifle which was a Vias style brake.

Well, I always bench test my rifles and as the threads were the same 3/4x28 tpi as the holland 3/4" brake I screwed one on for range testing the rifle. As this brake was an instock brake and would be fitted to another customers rifle down the road sometime I did not index the brake at all. I would say the brake was positioned so the top port holes were at a 10:00 position, no where near indexed properly.

Basically I just wanted to avoid getting the hell kicked out of me as my customer wanted me to develop a full tilt load using a 300 gr bullet.

The only thing I noticed on the range with the rifle having the brake out of index was that the rifle did jump slightly to the right as the vertical ports were on the left side of TDC.

Not dramatic but it was noticable. Accuracy averged .488" ctc for three, three shot groups with a 300 gr Nosler loaded to 2880 fps.

Again, while this may have an effect on rifle movement we need to realize that once the rifle is effected by the muzzle brake, the bullet is down range. Again if the bore hole is true to axis this is not a problem as far as accuracy goes.

Looks like HELL but I have not found it to effect accuracy at all.

That said, again, it is an easy process to index one of these brakes perfectly so do not be concerned about that.

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[Fiftydriver]

Dave,

I will walk through the steps I use to fit a Holland brake.

1. Determine the diameter of the barrel where the brake shoulder will bare.

2. Take this diameter and with a set of calipers transpose a line at this diameter on the tapered shank of the brake. Then take a rough measurement from this transposed line to the location where the muzzle will be at the beginning of the first port. (This is a very rough measurement, we just want to get an idea here of how long the threaded portion of the muzzle will need to be)

3. I generally add 0.050" to this rough measurement to make sure I have more threaded length then I need. Will explain this more later.

4. Cut the barrel muzzle to dimension and thread it to fit with a high quality class 3 thread fit. On a side note I have seen many brakes that are fitted with a class 2 thread fit work loose when fired. With a quality class three fit you can put a break on by hand just until the brake and barrel shoulders bare and it will now unscrew when fired. Thread fit is very important in my opinion for keeping a brake where it should be, tight on the muzzle!

5. Once the muzzle is threaded and has a proper fit with the brake, It is now time to cut the tapered section of the brake back until its diameter matches up with that of the barrel diameter. This takes a bit of time to do but if you are careful you can generally get the brake to index perfectly as it comes into matching diameter with the barrel diameter.

6. Sometimes however this does not happen. Just simply will not meet up correctly so you cut the brake back until its diameter matches or is very slightly larger then that of the barrel.

7. Then the barrel is placed back in the lathe and the barrel shoulder is set back very slightly until the brake indexes perfectly vertical. IF we simply set the brake back more, the steep taper on the brake would result in a poor matching fit. Since the barrel is tapered to a dramatically smaller degree the increase in barrel diameter is generally not enough to be concerned about.

8. Once the brake is fitted and indexed properly so that the diameter of the brake and barrel match up properly you would notice that the muzzle extends into the first port of the brake to far. This is by design.

9. The muzzle is now crowned with the proper live piloted 11 degree crown cutter until muzzle is set back to perfectly match the beginning of the first port on the brake.

There is certainly more time involved in fitting a Holland brake or any other brake that needs to be indexed but it is not dramatically more. They are more difficult then just threading a barrel and screwing on a vias type brake.

Good Shooting!!

Kirby Allen(50)

This is what we are after, a properly indexed brake with proper fit.

 

[Fiftydriver]

Hey,

I got SEVERAL hours of sleep last night /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif!!!

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[kregg slack]

instead of cutting your brake you can set your compound up to cut that angle. so index brake then cut the angle down to match barrel.

 

[tdv75098]

Kregg, does your super brake blow up dust when fired from the prone position?

 

[kregg slack]

all brakes that have holes on the bottem would kick up some dust if the ground you are shooting on is like powder. as far as drit thats hard it will work just fine. even the brakes that vent from the sides if you are on real powder dirt they are going to kick up dust.

 

[Fiftydriver]

Kregg,

Yes you are correct in that you can do this and in fact with the latest 5/8" Hollands they are left full diameter with no tapered section so this is very easy to index and then just taper the brake to the barrel.

Still with the tapered brakes, It is just as fast to cut the brake back as to mess with my compound rest and then have to set it back up for threading again.

I have used your method and found that I prefer mine, different ways to skin the same cat /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif!!

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[Mysticplayer]

I think many forget how and why a muzzle brake works. It is simply a device to divert exiting gases from going straight ahead. It does not affect rifle accuracy at all (proper install required of course).

The bullet is in front of the gas front so acts as a stopper/cork. This helps force the gases to travel sideways. This is why you want the brake bore to be as close to bullet diameter as possible. However, it must still be large enough so that the bullet does not hit the brake during its travel. 0.020" over bullet diameter seems to be a good compromise. The longer the brake, the larger the bore the ports furthest from the muzzle should be.

How it does affect accuracy is that it changes the barrel harmonics. Some will test using a muzzle brake then take it off for hunting. Bad idea unless additional testing is done to confirm the load in the 'new' barrel and POI.

Have yet to find a rifle that would tolerate removing a muzzle brake without some adjustments.

Like Kirby, I prefer the partition or fish gill type brake. Bigger is better at reducing recoil. The multiport singe expansion chamber brakes are not as effective. Anytime you allow gases to travel forward, you reduce its affectiveness. The more effective a brake is, the louder it will be perceived. Simple a relation to amount of gas diverted and direction of diverted muzzle blast.

As they say, no free lunch. Unfortunately, we are not blessed with being able to shoot silencers. If we were, we would have the best of both worlds - recoil reduction with quiet shooting.

I have had very good luck with a Micaluk (sp?) AR15 brake. Very similar to the Holland in style and equally effective..

As to indexing, it has no effect on accuracy. It simply causes the rifle to not recoil straight. But that can have it uses too...

Jerry

 

[royinidaho]

Re: Holland QD Muzzle Brake - 2 Shot Review + 35 More Shots

The game plan today was load up some Sierra 250s to ensure POI after brake was installed. Then switch to the WC 252s and see what they'd do.

I had previously shot 3 consecutive 0.5MOA 200 yd groups then things went south, way south.

I figured that recoil was getting to me. Wrong. Rifle shot 250gr sierras, 252gr WCs and 225gr Hornady's for squat. Best group which was probably 50% smaller than the average of the rest of the groups and was right at 1MOA or 2 inches (I do all my shooting @ 200yds when not at the range.. Pretty much exactly the way it was before the brake installation.

Bottom line, brake seems to have no impact on accuracy, one way or the other.

About an inch and a half of the bbl was bedded just ahead of the action. Today was warm and bbl heat was a problem and I wasn't patient enough to wait until it was cool, though I did wait a bit between shots. So I free floated the entire barrel. Groups more than doubled in size. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Quit shooting, shined myself up a bit and went to my wife's highschool class reunion. It was great. Came home and took the stock off and would ya believe it there in the bottom of the recoil lug channel were two chips that I had neglected to remove when I hogged out the bbl channel. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif Sierra/WC/Alliant love me today.

Anyway the Brake is wonderful. 35 shots, last six prone. I'm ready to rock and roll (When I get the rifle shooting again). Most loads were 252gr bullets at 2860 or so.

Video shows 3 gas releases. Two out the side and one to the front. Prone shots raised only a bit of dust ahead of me. Don't think this installation will pass Kregg's paper test. The upper holes release a smaller amount of gasses. Had an umbrella for shade as the sun was bright and hot. It only wiggled a bit with each shot.

All in all the Holland is definitely a keeper as far as I'm concerned. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Also all shooting was done in a tee shirt.

 

[Darrell Holland]

Gentlemen,

Greetings once again.

First off, there is NO QUIET MUZZLE brake!!!! Do not be beguiled by anyone saying there is... ALWAYS wear ear protection. Brakes claiming to be quiet are less efficient as most of them direct the gases forward away from the shooter and this lessens efficiency.

Brakes with blank areas on the bottom are not less accurate that full 360 degree hole patterns. Our design affords better dfownward pressure eliminating muzzle rise, but most importantly when shooting in the field they do not blow debris up around the shooter. Imagine being several miles from the truck and shooting your 360 degree hole patterned brake in a sandy/dusty environment and getting something in your eye???? Doing the Helen Keller back to the truck can be quite difficult.

The OPS inc brake is a good design, but I feel ours is superior as we have considerably more exhaust/baffle area for the gases to work against. It would be an interesting test should someone entertain the idea?

Hopefully I've shed some light on the above topic????

Be safe, shoot straight and beware of your backstop!

Respectfully,


Darrell Holland

 

[GeorgeD]

Hello all,
I recently purchased a Holland QD muzzle brake for my Ruger 480 SRH. My question is, does anybody know if the barrel on this revolver is removable?

I also am planning on shortening the barrel from 9 1/2" to 6 1/2" to make it more manageable. I have a friend who is a machinist that has offered to help me with the installation. As every one knows, money is tight all around. But I do wish to do it right.

I would appreciate any help on this project. You can email me direct at: [email protected]


Thanks.