Muzzle Brakes....

[Rich Coyle]

Muzzle brakes to me are more of a fad rather than a necessity. I have never seen where a muzzle brake makes much of a difference on muzzle flip and as far as reduced recoil I can see that on a 50 cal on maybe even a 338 or a 300 RUM but for most of

Several years ago I was shooting my .375-8Rem Mag at the range. Of course it has a brake. A guy came over and ignorantly said,
"That thing only works because you want it to."
"OK, for you I will fire one with the brake and then one without it."
I normally hold my rifles like I would a BB gun. I fired the first one without a problem. After removing the brake I foolishly held the rifle like I always do and fired it. Of course the shaper folks already know what I'm going to write. The scope cut my forehead and my hearing muffler went forward. I was as surprised as the spectator. He excitedly exclaimed,
"I would weld that suckered on!"

 

[ATH]

When I got into centerfire (growing up in a shotgun-only zone for deer), planning to hunt elk, I went with a relatively weighty 300WM as I felt that was the max I could enjoyably shoot without a brake. At the time I was shooting on public ranges and people with brakes annoyed the hell out of me.

Up until very recently, the only guns I put a brake on was my 338 Edge, my wife's 223 AR (very recoil sensitive), and my 10yo son's 6.5 Grendel AR (again, very recoil sensitive). I never liked the tradeoff of giving up some recoil for concussion and noise.

In December I got my first suppressor. My whole attitude on brakes changed. All but one centerfire wears a brake that doubles as a suppressor mount. My 20 Practical is braked. The suppressor reduces the brake efficiency just a bit, but when you are shooting at prairie dogs with 20s, 22s, and 6mm's, it's super nice to be able to spot your own hits.

Waiting to burn the last out of my 243AI barrel so I can brake that last one.