Holland Brake-Is This Right?

Joined
May 23, 2007
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OK so I went to pick up my Sendero rifle today from the gunsmith after he installed a Holland Muzzle Brake. The quaulity of the work looked great until I noticed that the top ports of the brake did not line up vertically with the barrel. I asked why it was not lined up vertically and his reply was that it was impossible to get the threads cut exactly so that it would line up. He told me that as long as it was close to verticle it was fine. I call BS on that. I could understand if it was off by a hair and you really had to look to see that it was not perfect, but it is obvious that it is off from verticle by atleast a eighth inch if not more. Do I just live with it or is there a way that I can get this fixed.
 
Is it really gonna hurt anything.....probably not. Should work o.k.

Should it be that way.....no way. It should have been indexed correctly and the top ports should be at exactly the top.

Sounds like a smith that either doesn't have the skills he should, or else he just doesn't care.

If he won't fixt it, you can have a "good" smith index it properly by facing it off properly until the top ports are actually on top.

I had a local smith install a brake for me many years back and it too was not indexed properly. He thought it was o.k.:rolleyes:, he never touched another gun of mine.;);)
 
Holland put one on my buddies Sendero last year. It was off as well. One thing you can do is put some blue loctight in the threads and then tighten it up until it indexed correctly. That's what we had to do. If it needs to go on some more put a round screwdriver through the big side ports and just tighten it up some more. Ours was over clocked so we needed to loosen it a little.
 
There is a formula that can be used to determine how much material needs to be removed from the abutment for it to index correctly.

I cant recall the exact formula but I think that is the rotation desired in degrees times threads per inch or something like that. Maybe someone here knows the formula and will pass it along. Maybe you can figure how many thousanths of material needs to be removed so your smith can fix it for ya. Good Luck. ( I saw this formula over on benchrest centrals gunsmithing section but cant find it now)
 
Not sure who did it but some guys (doesn't seem this is the case though on this one) while put it on a little off center (under-clocked), since in repeated use of taking off and on it will have the tendency to index/turn further.
 
I had a smith install a Holland brake on mine and it is off a little too. But I don't care. It still works fine.
 
To index correctly simply screw on the brake, note the amount of turn it needs to line up (1/4 turn is .25). Take the thread pitch say a 5/8-24 tpi and divide 1 by the number of threads (1 divide 24 = .0416) this is the amount of material to take off the face to make 1 full revolution. Multiply this by the amount of turn say .25 for a 1/4 turn (.0416 x .25= .0104"). i loctite them in place and never remove them. Getting a brake to line up correctly is not a big trick.

Shawn
 
Yes, there is a formula that I use and a few tricks. The formula that I use is 1 inch divided by threads per inch such as 24tpi. divided by degrees. I use a six jaw chuck so I actually use my chuck jaws as my dividing head instead of an angle finder. My other trick is set your compound at 30 degrees such as it would be for threading, then when you move your compound 1 thou. you are actually only moving 1/2 thou. into your barrel shoulder. This gives you a little finer adjustment as you don't have to take a lot off the shoulder to change degrees rapidly. I like my brakes to index hand tight at about 11:50 on the clock when looking at the muzzle and then torque the top of brake to the 12 o'clock position.

308nate
 
Shawn and Nate are correct ,their is no big deal to indexing the brake and their is no excuse for letting a bad one out of the shop. What makes me worry is if he diden't care or doesen't know enought ot install the brake properly then what else did he do inproperly?? Is the crown concentric with the bore? , are the threads a good fit?

Somthing thats not that big of a deal to fix and is VERY easy to see the problem , like indexing the brake doesen't get looked at and fixed what kind of poor work is done that can be hidden ???
 
Holland put one on my buddies Sendero last year. It was off as well. One thing you can do is put some blue loctight in the threads and then tighten it up until it indexed correctly. That's what we had to do. If it needs to go on some more put a round screwdriver through the big side ports and just tighten it up some more. Ours was over clocked so we needed to loosen it a little.

Wow!!! Are you saying Darrel Holland put one of his brakes on your buddies rifle, and it wasn't index right and he let it out the door that way?????
 
I used the same method when fitting a brake on my 338 Edge recently....unfortunately I cut about .001" too much off the shoulder and my brake screwed on just a bit too far. I just cut a .002" thick washer out of brass shim stock and used that to take up the gap...problem solved. We'll see if over time any bore solvents start to get their way in there and turn stuff green, but by then I may be due a new barrel anyway!.
 
Thanks for posting that formula Shawn and Nate. I had said I was going to commit it to memory when I saw it the first time. Apparently my memory isnt what it used to be. Its funny I can still remember 18436572 even though I havent worked on a small block chevy in at least 18 years. All that extranous stuff I learned in school turned my brain to mush.
 
Wow!!! Are you saying Darrel Holland put one of his brakes on your buddies rifle, and it wasn't index right and he let it out the door that way?????

Joe,
The muzzle brake to my understanding was not installed by Darrel Holland, but it was one of his brakes installed by a local gunsmith. The improper indexing was not the fault of the brake but of the smith installing the brake.
Just thought I would clarify that.
308Nate
 
Joe,
The muzzle brake to my understanding was not installed by Darrel Holland, but it was one of his brakes installed by a local gunsmith. The improper indexing was not the fault of the brake but of the smith installing the brake.
Just thought I would clarify that.
308Nate

Nate


Holland put one on my buddies Sendero last year. It was off as well.

Not the way I'm reading it…. Maybe Hired Gun can clarify
who did the in installation for us…
 
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