Hired Gun,
I have not asked if they could make the Holland brakes and leave off the top ports. I would suspect he would not be willing to do this as for most rounds they work very well as is, just the really large capacity small to medium bores that produce alot of down thrust.
You can turn the Holland down a bit, the only problem is that the Holland brakes come with the taper machined into them except for a couple models I think.
As such, the proper size brake for a certain barrel diameter will always be larger then the muzzle diameter. Just the design of the round. You simply can not turn them down enough to match the diameter of most barrels.
As far as your opinion of the Defensive Edge brake is concerned. This is only the smaller version of the three sizes Shawn offers. The two larger designs are very similiar in appearance to the Holland. Main differences are that the ports are taller on the DE brake offering more surface area and of course no top ports.
I do not know exactly why Shawn went with the round ports on the smaller diameter brakes. I have my own theory which is that the radius concentrates the muzzle gases to the forward center of each port with the round ports. This give the gases a more directional force against the recoil of the rifle compared to simply hitting a flat surface with the larger diameter partition style brakes such as Shawns larger diameter brakes and the Holland QD.
With the larger brakes, there is enough shear surface area for the brakes to work extremely well. In the small diameter brake, it is my theory that the amount of possible surface area would not be enough to show significant recoil reduction.
As such, the round ports were used to give the escaping gas a more direct, directional impact against the recoil of the rifle. That being the escaping muzzle gases are collected in a way that they produce a more focused force due to the round design of the ports.
I personally really like the looks of these round ports. In fact this is the exact brake that is on my lightweight 7mm AM so as soon as it gets back from being teflon coated and I get it bedded I will let you know how she performs on a 7 1/2 lb rifle capable of driving a 200 gr ULD RBBT to 3200 fps. SHould be a good test.
I think your impression that the brake looks home made is interesting. I think the reason for this is because the brake is unfinished. Put a matte finish on this brake and if would look totally different.
I personally like the homemade look over the mass produced look. Just my opinion though. THats why its good to have alot of different options to choose from.
Kirby Allen(50)
