This past week I dis-assembled both 338's I have been testing and made one simply modification in the brake for my heavy hitting handguns.
The bolt action Striker which weighs 6.7 pounds on my postal scale was shot with 180 grain Accubonds across my Chrony at 2900+fps. Also fired and you will see a slight difference in recoil was the 225grain Accubond at 2780. The Encore 338 with 15" barrel showed some torque. The longer barrel Striker has no felt torque at all. Zero back blast and NO noticable felt recoil.
Accuracy: Cloverleaf at 100 yards, clay birds at 300 every shot. 8 of 10 birds at 500 yards. My plan was buying factory takeoff barrels, cutting them off to 17" because they are cheap. Running tests for recoil and velocity against the SHort Mags and then purchasing a premium barrel in like contour to get the accuracy I need. I would not take $2000.00 for the gun without the 3-12 Burris target dot scope.
YouTube - Ultralight 338 Win Mag (Hammertime)
In watching the video Jim_ Note that a rifle shooter many times has a grip on the forend. AT the very least the location of the bi-pod and leverage of the length of stock and barrel help in controling muzzle rise.
These handguns are setting all by themselves and the only thing I have to hold onto is the grip. SO as the gun sets there without any physical help from the shooter it reacts to the dynamics of three things.
1. The violent twist of the bullet going through the barrel- torque
2. The shock wave in front of the bullet displacing air while going down the barrel and then out the end of the barrel.
3. Then the gas following the bullet. Prior to making this last modification everything had been controled except the torque. AFter 30 rounds the previous weekend through the bolt gun my wrist was incredibly sore just holding onto the torque of the gun. Your comparison to the 38 special actually is a sound one as yesterday Lisa and I shot up some old and outdate 38's and 357 magnums from my old duty model 19 4".
The factory 158 grain 357's had more muzzle lift and felt recoil(hand) than the 338!
Referring to the attached picture, that one little port took 90+% of the torque away in the break open and 100% felt torque in the Savage. SInce you,I and Len are the only one's I am aware of that have physically seen that brake design, the port does not cut into the bullet path. it measures .200 X .400. Since I disassembled the two guns for machining I can not reference POI. I can say that this barrel is extremely accurate. The action is glass bedded and the screw torque is 30inch pounds on both screws so the screw orientation has been the same through the entire test.
To date I have said the Vais brake by Ron Bartlett was my favorite brake because of recoil reduction and the forward porting kept the blast away from the shooter. Unless the wind is in your face. The wind is irrelevant with this brake as the blast is well on each side of the shooters face when the wind catchs the blast.
Total price $625.00
Neal
