How Effective Are Muzzle Brakes & Flash Hiders

[Grumpy]

Muzzle brakes reduce recoil by diverting part of these gasses to the side so that they do not add to the rearward recoil. A properly designed muzzle brake can significantly reduce recoil. ... Weatherby, who claims that their Accubrake is the most effective on the market, claims recoil reduction of up to 53%.

https://www.chuckhawks.com/muzzle_brakes.htm

https://precisionrifleblog.com/2015/08/12/muzzle-brake-blast-ground-signature/

https://precisionrifleblog.com/2015/07/13/308-muzzle-brake/

 

[Johnatthebox]

With .308 or smaller(depending on the quality of rifle AND the muzzle device in any caliber goes without saying) I only use em for muzzle climb and to keep the flash down. Recoil is not an issue. On big stuff, like .300 win mag on up, it makes a huge difference in recoil. Especially at the range when sighting in a hunting rifle. 20 plus rounds of .416 ruger with no brake? No thanks

 

[Grumpy]

yeah, Id tend to agree ,that the sub 30 cal rifles don,t really benefit as much
but their use does allow you to keep the target in the cross hairs for longer ranges,
like a 257 wby rifle for use on deer, or a 6mm for varmints,
I'd also point out that you don,t want to be shooting off a bench rest ,
with some guy with a effective muzzle brake on the next bench over,
as the propellant gases and increased noise exiting the muzzle brake are very annoying,
if your not seated well to the rear

 

[Johnatthebox]

What state are you in? What do you hunt?

 

[Grumpy]

I live in FL, where I hunt mostly whitetail deer,
but for about 40 years . most years, from 1969-and up,
I spent 10-14 days in colorado,or california,or wyoming
hunting ELK and mule deer....
it used to be easy to get over the counter licences or draw in many areas..
now you need to accumulate points , put in months in advance,
and pay absurdly high licence and permit fees to hunt out of state

 

[Grumpy]

shop carefully as many of the muzzle brakes work, but there are some that work better than others,
and increased cost is not always reflecting a better brake design
on most brakes you'll need a shim washer set, and loc-tite epoxy to get the perfect port alignment,


know the difference and understand what your trying to accomplish
compensators reduce RECOIL
flash hiders reduce MUZZLE FLASH
make sure
the thread type/size and caliber you select and install,
match your application exactly

you don,t need to spend a great deal of cash to get a decent muzzle brake
there are dozens that work reasonably well for under $50

I would suggest stainless steel and ones with no ports that face down,

https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Stainle...209234?hash=item2ae5fd4d12:g:VQ0AAOSwt3tekAX9

https://www.amazon.com/Barrel-Muzzle-Brake-Alignment-indexing/dp/B01FZLM2A4

https://www.jprifles.com/buy.php?item=JPFH-556L

AR-15 Muzzle Brake Shootout #2 -- TheTruthAboutGuns

The second installment of TTAG's .223/5.56 AR-15 Muzzle Brake Shootout! Another 29 brakes & comps are tested for recoil reduction. Plus stats, quality, etc

www.thetruthaboutguns.com

5.56 Muzzle Brake / Comp / Flash Hider Shootout!

Testing 35 muzzle devices for the AR-15. A recoil-measuring test rig was created, and a recoil reduction winner has been declared! TTAG muzzle brake comparo

www.thetruthaboutguns.com

AR-15 Muzzle Brake Shootout #3 - The Truth About Guns

&#9664Previous Post Next Post▶ Welcome to the third installment of our 5.56 muzzle brake testing series. This time around we’ve put 42 new muzzle devices to the test, measuring the recoil reduction performance of each. Recoil Testing The procedure for this test was the same as the previous brake...

www.thetruthaboutguns.com

 

[Grumpy]

 

[Johnatthebox]

The only thing I have a flash hider on now is a sporterized Mosin nagant .
I made kinda like a guide gun out of it. Short barrel, iron safari sights, safari poly stock, and i threaded on an A2 flash hider. Looks cool, and the 7.62x54R is a real flamethrower with a short barrel.....

 

[Johnatthebox]

Also, in Ca. you can't have flash hiders on semi auto rifles, but you can on bolt action rifles. Huh? How does that even make sense? What is the downside of lowering muzzle flash? That's like a key part of the ATF "assault rifle" definition is a flash hider. Thats ridiculous.

 

[rlphvac]

I have a few 22 rifles 2 of them are AR type a Mossburg and a Colt I also have a Ruger 10/22 the ARs do have flash hiders and the Ruger doesntthe 2 ARs are on the Liberal hit list but if you told me to pick one that does the job the best the Ruger wins hands down but because it is not the evil AR black rifle it is not a mean evil bad rifle but does the exact same job as the other 2 only better so make sense out of that liberal idiot logic

 

[Johnatthebox]

Just out of curiosity, why the .22 conversion and not .223? I mean, for all three.....

 

[rlphvac]

All are 22 models no conversions and the 10/22 isnt an AR type but thats the funny part if I had to grab a 22 because of whatever I would without a doubt grab the 10/22 I can hit anything with it and thats not talking crap on the Mossburg its a shooter also and the Colt well 2 out of 3 aint bad LOL but the point I'm trying to make is the evil black rifle thing all are semi auto all have 25 round mags the only difference is the 10/22 looks like a regular rifle not an evil black gun

 

[rlphvac]

I do have a few 223 models a 308 an AR pistol and some AKs and prey to God enough ammo

 

[Johnatthebox]

I'm not a huge fan of .223 except it is cheap enough to make a day of shooting with it. I miss the days when ammo was affordable. I have a 10/22 also(everyone should have st least one .22)
When I lived in Illinois I had a Calico .22 w/100 rd spiral magazine. Looked like something fron Star Wars. Im sure those are on the shit list now. So stupid...

 

[rlphvac]

There was a time not too long ago that waisting ammo was fun some weekends we would go nuts and drop all kinds of rounds shooting an AR with a bumpfire and a 100 round mag was a blast but those days are gone I don't know if the ammo will ever return but if it comes back I won't abuse it like before and always keep a better stock this shortage hasn't got me yet but the supplys getting low I ran into 30,000 rounds of 9mm before the bottom fell out and now I wished I'd have conserved a little more but I'm not going to run out any time soon but I will really stock up on primers and bullets

 

[Johnatthebox]

There was a time not too long ago that waisting ammo was fun some weekends we would go nuts and drop all kinds of rounds shooting an AR with a bumpfire and a 100 round mag was a blast but those days are gone I don't know if the ammo will ever return but if it comes back I won't abuse it like before and always keep a better stock this shortage hasn't got me yet but the supplys getting low I ran into 30,000 rounds of 9mm before the bottom fell out and now I wished I'd have conserved a little more but I'm not going to run out any time soon but I will really stock up on primers and bullets

Tell me about it! Many many years ago I cut down an old phone pole with a MAC11.380. It must have taken damn near 1000 rounds. I remember my fingers bleeding from getting pinched loading 30 round mags over and over. Cant get any of that anymore- the MAC, the magazines, or the ammo. I narrowed my shooting down to calibers I know will be easy to find and affordable to shoot. 12g, .223, .22, etc. Ive become a big fan of 7.62x54R. Russians made so much of it for so long its in no short supply. I wish I would of had the foresight back in the "Shotgun News" days to buy a bunch of everything when it was so cheeeeap! I remember ads for M1 Garands for $199 and 10,000round ammo crates sent to your door.

 

[Grumpy]

yeah hindsight for us older guys is a bit depressing
surplus WWII lugers for sale at $88 and SMLES for $35 and 1917 enfields for $39

 

[Grumpy]

I have had several different muzzle brakes on various rifles and I've found shims or stacks of shims and thread locker paste,
tend to work better than various crush washers I've tried, but I would like advise on the best thread locker paste, to use,
as obviously barrels tend to heat up and that's not always good for keeping the thread locker paste on the barrel threads holding the muzzle brake in proper alignment
I've used this (link below) and it works but I'm open to suggestions?
https://www.amazon.com/Vibra-TITE-1...t=&hvlocphy=9026987&hvtargid=pla-835112182535
shims

https://www.amazon.com/Barrel-Muzzl...4R76T53/ref=pd_lpo_1?pd_rd_i=B084R76T53&psc=1