Muzzle brake weight savings

[livetohunt]

A lot of people like to build lightweight to mid weight long range rifles on here. Carbon barrels, Ti actions, Ti brakes, carbon stocks... there are lots of ways that you can cut weight on your rifle.

One of these ways, I hardly ever see anyone do even though Its is an easy way to cut weight off your barrel.

Take, for example, an OMR 1" carbon barrel; commonly, on a small diameter barrel someone would thread it to 1/2-28 but on a 1" barrel its probably threaded 3/4-24. If you are trying to cut weight, and go with a titanium muzzle brake, that thread option doesn't make sense. If it was my gun build I would do 1/2-28 threads. Your removing that amount of steel, and replacing it with titanium that is 45% lighter.

Easy concept, although it seems counter intuitive to someone who is making "ultralight muzzle brakes" (ya, like I do) as the brake itself would be heavier than it would be with a larger thread size.

 

[bigngreen]

Not the place to save weight IMO, that's a wonderful place and way to screw up accuracy!!
I'll cut a shorter tenon to save that weight but I want to maximize the he bore support.

 

[livetohunt]

Not the place to save weight IMO, that's a wonderful place and way to screw up accuracy!!

On a new build, what's the difference? I don't claim to know anything about gunsmithing.

 

[Axl]

You won't save 45%. A 1/2" break weighs more than a 5/8". In the Christensen Ti side baffle the 1/2" weighs 2.4 oz vs. 1.6 oz. for the 5/8". Also as bigngreen said accuracy will suffer- you want as much "meat" on the end of your barrel as possible. All in all you are talking about fractions of an ounce. On another note a friend of mine just had a new rifle built and the smith used a break made of 7075 Aluminium.

 

[livetohunt]

if you have a cubic ounce of steel, and remove it and replace it with titanium, that's a 45% weight savings. It's not nearly that much material, but that is the weight difference between titanium and steel

 

[clark33]

I started running these, weigh 1.37oz and work very well.

Ultralight "Jet Blast" Muzzle Brake

The lightest precision muzzle brakes available for precision rifles. No machining required! Extreme accuracy and precision. At PVA we engineer repeatability downrange. 100% Made in USA

patriotvalleyarms.com

 

[Axl]

if you have a cubic ounce of steel, and remove it and replace it with titanium, that's a 45% weight savings. It's not nearly that much material, but that is the weight difference between titanium and steel

What is a cubic ounce? I see what you are saying but your net weight savings won't be 45% if you replace a Ti break with a Ti break that weighs more. All my non .22 cal barrels are threaded 5/8.

 

[livetohunt]

I'm saying on a new barrel, removing more steel off of your barrel and replacing it with titanium when you go with a smaller thread diameter.

 

[L.Sherm]

I will leave as much steel around my crown as possible of course depending on dia and bore size.
I won't risk accuracy potential over 1 or 2 oz's

 

[bigngreen]

Ya, it would be lighter but 1/2-28 leaves to little wall thickness to support many light weight type builds which tend to also be shorter increasing the exit pressure, I'd be comfortable with something like a Creedmore but a magnum is pretty much a good way to swell the muzzle. I've cut many 1/2-28 threads of!!

 

[bigngreen]

If you want to reduce weight make a one or two baffle brake of the right design.

 

[livetohunt]

Good to know Rhian, thanks!

 

[bigngreen]

My brother wrote me a program when I started gunsmithing that I could plug in the bore, thread, material and exit pressure and it would give me how much the bore would move and there was a plastic deformation threshold, at least I think that's what he called it.

 

[Mram10us]

The big savings is in the carbon fiber bolt handle I can go weigh a couple different styles of muzzle brakes if that helps you. Let me know