Muzzle brake on a 300 Win Mag?

[IdahoCTD]

The reason most muzzle brakes are loud is because of the direction of the ports. The further they angle forward, like the muzzle master, the quieter they are but also the less effective they are. The brakes with the ports angled back towards the shooter are by far the most effective but at the cost of noise. The larger the port or holes usually the more effective as well. One of the reasons I bought my lathe and mill 20 years ago was to build muzzle brakes, in addition to building my own rifles, and I've played with probably 50+ designs with drilled holes and numerous milled holes designs. For pure recoil reduction the angled back slotted hole brakes are the best. That is why so many companies sell them now. I'd rather wear ear plugs or buy the walkers game ears rather then have the recoil especially if I was paying for a muzzle brake. That's my .02.

[ken snyder]

IdahoCTD brought up a good point about angles and noise. Except the Muzzle Masters that I have do not have angled ports at all. My wife is a little under 5 feet tall and has one on an ultra light weight 300 wsm. Her favorite hunting round for that rifle is a 220 grain Hornady with close to max loads ( reloading data not Rifle max) and as she says "what recoil" I would honestly have to say that the 300WSM recoil is less than her 6mm Varmint with a 22 inch #4 contour. But with the muzzle that close to my nose on her WSM midget rifle it is still loud but feel absolutely no bounce back to my face, and consider them as next bench over friendly as any short barrel high pressure rifle.

[IdahoCTD]

I searched it and it took me to a Gentry brake the first time and I thought that is what you were referring to. I actually found the website you are talking about now. Straight drilled holes are more effective but louder. If you've never tried a ported brake you ought to try one. The recoil reduction over a drilled brake is impressive especially with heavy recoiling rifles.

With just about any muzzle brake the larger the case capacity the better the brake works because they work at redirecting gases. At the same time the smaller the bore the better a brake works. When the bore get's larger it allows for more of the gases to escape behind the bullet.

[ken snyder]

IdahoCTD that is why I choose the muzzle master. I would not even consider a conventional ported Brake. I have tested quite a few of them on a recoil sled. There are numerous ways to measure recoil reduction, but it is very easy to tell noise reduction. The ported Brakes bounce a SPL of a bout 150 Db back into a shooters face which means that there is no hearing protection available that will protect a shooters ears. At about 120 Db the human head will no longer insulate against noise with hearing protection and that is with the mouth tightly shut. Hearing loss starts occurring at about 85 Db. We can double up on hearing protection by using both Plugs and Muffs for a total noise reduction of perhaps 30 Db at best because that is all our anatomy will reduce the noise by. We worry about high Cholesterol and Sodium diets wear Safety glasses and take our Vitamins to stay healthy and it really does not make any sense to damage our hearing with a ported brake no matter what its angle is because. They are simply an antique primate design that any one can make and sell!

[IdahoCTD]

Straight ports act much like straight drilled holes only better. While your certainly entitled to your own opinion there is little doubt a ported brake is more effective at reducing recoil. With ear plugs in I haven't noticed any more noise shooting a ported brake over a drilled hole brake even with the ports angled back. Most ports aren't angled back enough for the gases and noise to directly impact the shooter unless it's on a extremely short barrel. Ported brakes have been around for years primarily because they work and work well.

[Nomosendero]

Thanks Ken for the info, I will look into that Muzzle Master brake.

Idaho, what you have said about the ports I have heard for awhile, with styles like the Holland.

It seems if you have a big round like the big 338's and bigger or maybe big 30's that are really light, you need the big ports angled to maximize the reduction.

Maybe, with a rifle like my Sendero 300WM, where a smaller reduction is fine, you could go with a MM & not really give up anything but a little length. Really, with 180's I don't care as the recoil is minimal with this weight rifle, but with 200-230 gr. bullets I think it would be nice for prone shooting.

Idaho, could you provide that MM link?

Thanks to both of you!

[IdahoCTD]

I'm pretty sure it was just muzzlemaster.com