To brake or not to brake?

P

pyscodog

Active member
I was talking to a gunsmith last nite, one that I hav'nt used before. I've seen his work, and I've seen the groups his guns shoot. His work is fabulous and it looks first class. Here's the deal, He says a muzzle break will effect accuracy and if I want to shoot bug holes, the break will effect the accuracy. I dont think it will be terrible but bug holes will be harder to shoot. He said it could effect the way the bullet leaves the muzzel. The guy writes articles for a B.R. mag and has built lots of B.R. rifles. I feel this may be just the way he thinks and not necessarily true. What do you think?

Pysco-dog /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
It might effect accuracy in a good way, because I have some friends that do lots of prarie dog shooting out to seven hundred yards and they put about ten thousand dollars into their rifles with a scope and all of them have brakes on them.
 
You didn't mention what type of rifle he builds that you are interested in? If it's a full blown Br 6ppc wouldn't need one same with a 30Br etc and alot of varmit shooters have brakes so they can see the hits.

I have brakes on some of my rifles and I must be pretty lucky with my gunsmith as those rifles shoot some pretty small groups for their intended use.

Well good luck
 
Anything that impacts the way the bullet leaves the muzzzl will affect the accuracy of that projectile. A brake by it's design is venting gasses behind the bullet as it leaves the barrel the break is after all a tube attached to the muzzel with vent holes in it at differant angles and at differant spaceings around the cercumfrence of the bullet path that venting of propulsive gasses would have to have some effect on the bullets flight either to help stabilize it or not I could not say that is way out of my field of expertise but it stands to reason that it would.
 
I have a brake on both of my custom 6 PPC's.

I also have 7 different kinds of muzzle breaks. If your gunsmith says that a muzzle break mades accuracy worse, you need to change gunsmiths.
 
From what I can see if a rifle is inherently accurate a brake won't change that very much if at all. It does make some of the big boomers very pleasant to shoot and makes seeing your hits with some of the varmint rifles that recoil enough so you can't possible.
 
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I have a brake on both of my custom 6 PPC's.

I also have 7 different kinds of muzzle breaks. If your gunsmith says that a muzzle break mades accuracy worse, you need to change gunsmiths.



Don't mind me asking but are you shooting those 6ppc in a BR match? If you are can you post a picture
 
This was once a concern of mine, also. However, I've had muzzlebrakes installed on 5 different pdog rifles/barrels. It did not affect grouping ability on any of them in the slightest.

POI may change a bit from your "non-braked" zero, but that's easily corrected by a sight adjustment. Of the 5, one rifles POI changed by 1.5", and that was the worst. One, OTOH, required no scope adjustment at all.

Groups, however, remained exactly the same before and after.

Mike

edit: Sorry, Jack....I was responding to psychodog, but clicked on the wrong post.
 
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Thanks folks,

I feel the same way as most of you. I did'nt feel as if it would change the accuracy either. The smitty talked about the gas's coming out at an 11 degree angle and that you need an 11 degree crown bla,bla, bla, It got a little over my head, which is'nt to hard to do, but it sounded good. I have a 243 ackley with a break and it has'nt seem to hurt it any. Just thought I would get a few opnions.

Pysco-dog
 
I have a 220 Swift with a Krieger barrel on it with a Vais muzzle brake on it. It shoots the same itty bitty groups with or without the brake. Only diff is I can see the holes go in the paper if I got the brake on it.

Count me another +1 for a brake. Aside from a bit louder gun, it worth it to me.
 
Roper, I quit shooting competition in '93 and put breaks on the rigs and started shooting p. dogs and ground squirrels with them.

A break will cut the recoil by 60% on a 6PPC, I shot more zero's and small 1's once the break was installed.

In my opinion, installing a break on a Light Varmint rig is the equal of a rail gun.
 
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Roper, I quit shooting competition in '93 and put breaks on the rigs and started shooting p. dogs and ground squirrels with them.

A break will cut the recoil by 60% on a 6PPC, I shot more zero's and small 1's once the break was installed.

In my opinion, installing a break on a Light Varmint rig is the equal of a rail gun.



I'd sure like to see a picture of them rifles and groups
give a us all or at least me something to think about adding.
 
Psycodog,
Brakes won't make the gun any less accurate, and they make it a lot more enjoyable to shoot. With the exception of sporter weight truck guns, mine are all braked and that includes heavy barrelled .223's. It's awfully nice to have the gun not even move. It means you can use a more powerful scope and not lose any sight picture when it's cranked way up. But .243 and larger can still use some weight in the stock to make it sit really calm.


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Quote:
Roper, I quit shooting competition in '93 and put breaks on the rigs and started shooting p. dogs and ground squirrels with them.

A break will cut the recoil by 60% on a 6PPC, I shot more zero's and small 1's once the break was installed.

In my opinion, installing a break on a Light Varmint rig is the equal of a rail gun.



I'd sure like to see a picture of them rifles and groups
give a us all or at least me something to think about adding.



Roper,
My guess is that the last thing ackleyman would even care about doing is take pictures of this stuff. He has nothing to prove. But if you're doubting what he says, don't.
 
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Psycodog,
Brakes won't make the gun any less accurate, and they make it a lot more enjoyable to shoot. With the exception of sporter weight truck guns, mine are all braked and that includes heavy barrelled .223's. It's awfully nice to have the gun not even move. It means you can use a more powerful scope and not lose any sight picture when it's cranked way up. But .243 and larger can still use some weight in the stock to make it sit really calm.


Quote:
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Roper, I quit shooting competition in '93 and put breaks on the rigs and started shooting p. dogs and ground squirrels with them.

A break will cut the recoil by 60% on a 6PPC, I shot more zero's and small 1's once the break was installed.

In my opinion, installing a break on a Light Varmint rig is the equal of a rail gun.



I'd sure like to see a picture of them rifles and groups
give a us all or at least me something to think about adding.



Roper,
My guess is that the last thing ackleyman would even care about doing is take pictures of this stuff. He has nothing to prove. But if you're doubting what he says, don't.



If your offended that I may ask certain question you might want to contact the moderator's and have rules put into place to your liking. I figured ackleyman would enjoy showing off his rifles and groups so that we or I may sort of put a face to his name.
 
i would personally like to keep my hearing without wearing earmuffs to shoot a pasture poodle or a dog verus the little felt recoil over a varmint gun i put a brake on my 264 eabco barrel for my encore i would love to take it off some cases brakes are a must for recoil shy people like myself i have a 7mmstw that to me was horrific to shoot without the brake, im just a little fella that has the big gun theory going on
 
Quote:
I was talking to a gunsmith last nite, one that I hav'nt used before. I've seen his work, and I've seen the groups his guns shoot. His work is fabulous and it looks first class. Here's the deal, He says a muzzle break will effect accuracy and if I want to shoot bug holes, the break will effect the accuracy. I dont think it will be terrible but bug holes will be harder to shoot. He said it could effect the way the bullet leaves the muzzel. The guy writes articles for a B.R. mag and has built lots of B.R. rifles. I feel this may be just the way he thinks and not necessarily true. What do you think?

Pysco-dog /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif



The gunsmith is exactly right on a couple of points.

1. A muzzle brake will affect accuracy.
2. A muzzle brake will affect the way a bullet leaves the muzzle.

It's simple physics. You are disrupting or distorting the flow of propellant gas behind the projectile.

It could affect muzzle velocity which contributes to accuracy on many bullets.

It could also affect the barrel harmonics. Maybe better. Maybe worse.

It may not have an adverse affect on accuracy but a poorly designed brake could. There are many accurate rifles out there with brakes.
 
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i would personally like to keep my hearing without wearing earmuffs to shoot a pasture poodle or a dog verus the little felt recoil over a varmint gun i put a brake on my 264 eabco barrel for my encore i would love to take it off some cases brakes are a must for recoil shy people like myself i have a 7mmstw that to me was horrific to shoot without the brake, im just a little fella that has the big gun theory going on




Shoot anything .221 size case or bigger for very long without ear protection and your hearing will suffer. The brake is louder but so what? About the largest thing I'll shoot without muffs is a 17AH.
 
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Psycodog,
Brakes won't make the gun any less accurate, and they make it a lot more enjoyable to shoot. With the exception of sporter weight truck guns, mine are all braked and that includes heavy barrelled .223's. It's awfully nice to have the gun not even move. It means you can use a more powerful scope and not lose any sight picture when it's cranked way up. But .243 and larger can still use some weight in the stock to make it sit really calm.


Quote:
Quote:
Roper, I quit shooting competition in '93 and put breaks on the rigs and started shooting p. dogs and ground squirrels with them.

A break will cut the recoil by 60% on a 6PPC, I shot more zero's and small 1's once the break was installed.

In my opinion, installing a break on a Light Varmint rig is the equal of a rail gun.



I'd sure like to see a picture of them rifles and groups
give a us all or at least me something to think about adding.



Roper,
My guess is that the last thing ackleyman would even care about doing is take pictures of this stuff. He has nothing to prove. But if you're doubting what he says, don't.



If your offended that I may ask certain question you might want to contact the moderator's and have rules put into place to your liking. I figured ackleyman would enjoy showing off his rifles and groups so that we or I may sort of put a face to his name.



Why on earth would I need to contact the moderator? I'm not offended but you seem to be. Your post seemed more like veiled skepticism than curiosity. Maybe you really are curious about those rifles and groups, but you didn't answer his email.
 
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