My ignorance........

W

William Suter

Well-known member
raised its ugly head. I was reading a post about a guy wanting a scope for a hard kicking rifle and he said he was going to have to have a muzzle break installed. He said he knew muzzle breaks were hard on scopes. I can honestly say that in all my years of shooting, with and with out breaks, I have never heard this. But a Google search confirmed his comment and a break can damage a rifle scope as it redirects the muzzle gas. I guess its kinda like a reverse recoil possibly like a springer air rifle. I have several breaks and have never had a scope fail due to one but I don't shoot the heavy magnums either. Guess you can learn something new everyday.
 
suppose anything is possible. I've shot a .338 Win Mag and .300 Weatherby since the 80's and never heard of this. I do know the recoil will relocate the crosshairs so to speak on a lesser priced scope. From my experience with muzzle brakes, they "can" direct the blast about everywhere except back at the shooter.
 
The way I understand it is it acts similar to a magnum air rifle (reverse recoil) and some of them will wreck a rifle scope. Personally I've never had this issue or even heard of it until today.
 
It's the 'shock' between forward and reverse 'recoil'. Goes one way at a couple Gs, then the other way with a couple Gs, fast. Could double the G force. Guy told me years ago that tapping fingernail on table was about 3Gs.
 
Like @William Suter
Use brakes as well when I'm running non-suppressed on several calibers (yeah non-magnum here as well). Not all mind you, as not every rifle I have is threaded.

Never had a issue /failure attributed to the brake. Got one in the shop for mag ring not adjusting between power settings (VX-I 1980's vintage, about time for the grease to dry up in the shop now). The other one VX-III i that when new the erector and reticle wasn't installed properly (now fixed) . Out of twenty scopes from that same vendor, not a bad record.

Although I do know that certain air rifles can tear up a scope not rated for them. I can see where the concept would work against a scope.
 
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Reverse thrust phobia strikes again Batman !
Springer air rifles do subject a scope to double recoil because of the movement of the spring when it's going back into it's uncoiled state after it's stretched and released.
SJC
 
hunt0168 said:
I think I see the problem, Bill… per your initial post…

A muzzle BREAK will break a scope, while a muzzle BRAKE is far less likely to cause damage to anything but your hearing. 🤣
Click to expand...
I had my doubts to until I did a Google search and it did confirm that a break can cause scope damage. I'd never heard it before and have breaks on several rifles with no issues.........as of yet.
 
@William Suter
Yeahhhhh about google and AI ......
I've not ran into it yet in practical applications, but doesn't mean some scopes don't struggle with it. Which could explain why some fail early, not being a scope repair tech I can't say one way or the other. I do see the theory but suspect it's just that theory. Which if it was more than theory, one would think there would be a disclaimer from the scope vendors saying don't use with a Muzzle Brake, or warranty is void. Just my thoughts.
Not to disclaim your post as your simply stating what Google / AI is reporting as a interesting statement.
 


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