Brakes on a hunting gun

[Canhunter35]

I think you need to read the thread again. The guys posting for ear muffs are pushing electronic hearing enhancer/protection. Some guys are suggesting electronic ear plugs.

This thread reminds me of thirty years ago when I introduced mandatory eye protection in a wood working plant. They didn't care enough about their sight to cooperate without the ultimatum: I'm boss and you will do it or you don't work here. Chips in the eye trips to the emergency room just didn't happen any more. One man's sight was saved when a piece of wood came out of a machine and literally ripped a hole in his polycarbonate lens directly in line with his pupil. I went home and brought back a ten pump pellet gun and tried to make a hole in the other side. Never happened. The salesman took the goggles on tour to all his customers.

Gentlemen, save your hearing.

I agree, sometimes by ppls opinions it's hard to believe it's 2018 lol

 

[Rich Coyle]

I had the same problem with guys who sharpened the knives when I wanted them to use Kevlar gloves. But no one went to the emergency room with ten or twelve stitch cut anymore. I guess folks generally don't like change; even for the better.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

 

[johnlittletree]

I would recommend these braked rifle or not. I also have some hearing loss from shooting as tests have shown left ear worse than right being right handed. I'm a Veteran of five years followed by 20 years as a state trooper so many rounds down range. I use a Walkers Game ear, one of the old original ones and it has helped. I have never owed a rifle with a "for real " break but have owned a couple of Browning Abolts with BOSS systems. The game ear works but these look waaaayyyy more comfy and user friendly.

Ya well do you think would have made it home alive from Vietnam had you worn hearing protection on patrols? Doubt it. You can not wear hearing protection all the time life just does not work that way. If you never did anything around machinery, guns, loud noises you still lose hearing as you age.

Why do you think the Army made hearing protection part of the uniform? Because they got tired of paying disability claims for hearing loss that is why!

Why do you think a lot of states have laws on the books that prevent people from wearing headphones when driving, operating heavy machinery, riding a bike or running? Because you can not hear things coming up on you from traffic to emergency sounds like sirens on a police car or fire truck or ambulance.

No one is going to go hunting 2-3 times a year for Bambi an elk and some caribou or bear and lose their hearing from that even if they did that for 40+ years. It is not just intensity of the sound but the duration and freq of exposure.

You can take an antibiotic and have it dimish your hearing. You can take glucocorticosteroids and lose your hearing. You can have an idiot on a motorcycle with drag pipes go by and have your hearing ringing for 3 days. Life has some risk associated with everything from sex to using butter and gravy on your food.

On the range or target shooting and plinking sure but out hunting not just no but heck no. You will not catch me hunting with anyone wearing hearing protection that is too much of a safety issue. You might as well blindfold them and then stand down range and let them spin ut the average personhbaround and take pot shots at you. If they are that neurotic about it while out hunting maybe they need to buy their meat at a store. It would be like trying to fly fish with hockey gloves on or operating a 1911 with hockey gloves on to make sure you do not get slide bite.

I was not going to mention this but human hearing is not at all linear and is very logarithmic like the Richter Scale. In fact DB are not at all linear either. On top of that the hear and the brain does not process sound in anything remotely logical or accurate. Volume, pitch, and timbre are intertwined a high pitch sound at 108db will sound much louder to a human than a low freq. at that same 108db. If you take the exact same note and vary the volume it will appear to the listener as if the freq. is changing when in reality only the volume has changed. We have large notches in our hearing were some freq. have a HUGE bump in our ability to perceive them.

Musicians and loudspeaker designers get this but few other's do. We hear more with our brain than we do with the ear itself.

Another thing most people do not know is that your peripheral eyesight is a function of the brain not the eye where a disease is not involved. The decline that most see in this with age can be restored with very specific brain training tool. It is not theory it has been repeatedly demonstrated. 99% of people have no clue.

In the case of sound redirecting, sound or interference of any kind can and does have a huge effect. Splitting up part of the sound spectrum and redirecting parts of the full spectrum back at the shooter and bystanders will alter the freq's people hear and how they perceive the sound itself. Just like the duration changes what we think we hear as well. Similar things are seen in recoil the duration of the power pulse and how quickly it builds to peak force have a greater impact on perception than the actual amount of peak force generated.

Life is never as simple as people want to make it. If something seems simple than it is usually a lie, half-truth or just completely wrong on every level! Sadly people like simple even if it is 100% wrong if they have something to parrot back when someone asks they are normally happy as a lark. That is why ignorance is bliss and really 70% of the population do not want the truth or want any understanding lies and ignorance works better for them! If you dig any deeper than superficially in psychology, sociology, group dynamic, advertising all of this is very clear and it is used on the population daily. Most people think they understand their senses but really most are clueless.

 

[David Lindler]

I have T-3 Terminator brakes on my 338Lm and 338 edge.
Both kick less than a 30-06.
My 338 edge weighs only 8lbs
Little pricy, but worth it.

 

[tank]

This is not directed at any one individual. Earplugs? Earphones? In hunting? Come on. How many shots do you fire hunting? For big game, I only fired once except for one occasion when the animal (deer) was running. I don't wear hearing protection while hunting. I want to hear what is around/behind me. Example: I laid down between two boulders to watch what looked like Grand Central Station of converging deer trails. I heard a shot behind me to the west. I laid there and about 10-15 seconds later, I heard a big animal come down hard behind me. I rolled over quickly in time to give a buck time to veer away from the path between the two boulders. I avoided having a story that few would have of the buck that tap danced on my back and tore up my hunter orange vest before running on to safety. Will one, well-placed shot a year cause premature deafness? Come on, gun owners. That and suppressors for those who hunt just tells me that maybe you should go Robin Hood style.

 

[tank]

This is not directed at any one individual. Earplugs? Earphones? In hunting? Come on. How many shots do you fire hunting? For big game, I only fired once except for one occasion when the animal (deer) was running. I don't wear hearing protection while hunting. I want to hear what is around/behind me. Example: I laid down between two boulders to watch what looked like Grand Central Station of converging deer trails. I heard a shot behind me to the west. I laid there and about 10-15 seconds later, I heard a big animal come down hard behind me. I rolled over quickly in time to give a buck time to veer away from the path between the two boulders. I avoided having a story that few would have of the buck that tap danced on my back and tore up my hunter orange vest before running on to safety. Will one, well-placed shot a year cause premature deafness? Come on, gun owners. That and suppressors for those who hunt just tells me that maybe you should go Robin Hood style.

In reference to the brake, the M1A has what amounts to a brake on its muzzle, at least the original ones did. It takes a lot of kick out, so if recoil is excessive for a shoulder-fired artillery piece some of you carry, go for it. Talk to a gunsmith about effects on accuracy. My experience is there are very few.

 

[Swiftkill]

This is not directed at any one individual. Earplugs? Earphones? In hunting? Come on. How many shots do you fire hunting? For big game, I only fired once except for one occasion when the animal (deer) was running. I don't wear hearing protection while hunting. I want to hear what is around/behind me. Example: I laid down between two boulders to watch what looked like Grand Central Station of converging deer trails. I heard a shot behind me to the west. I laid there and about 10-15 seconds later, I heard a big animal come down hard behind me. I rolled over quickly in time to give a buck time to veer away from the path between the two boulders. I avoided having a story that few would have of the buck that tap danced on my back and tore up my hunter orange vest before running on to safety. Will one, well-placed shot a year cause premature deafness? Come on, gun owners. That and suppressors for those who hunt just tells me that maybe you should go Robin Hood style.

Hi Tank, I am guessing you never shot a rifle with a muzzle brake. I would suggest that you shoot one without hearing protection once and see what you think but that would be mean. Yes one shot can break the bones or eardrum and cause permanent hearing loss.
"NIHL (noise-induced hearing loss) can also be caused by extremely loud bursts of sound, such as gunshots or explosions, which can rupture the eardrum or damage the bones in the middle ear. This kind of NIHL can be immediate and permanent. Loud noise exposure can also cause tinnitus—a ringing, buzzing, or roaring in the ears or head."
That' SCIENCE!
I urge you to try a pair of decent electronic hearing protectors because they actually amplify the surrounding sounds and you'll hear that deer coming even sooner than before.!

 

[Rich Coyle]

T-3 is my favorite factory brake.

 

[Laelkhunter]

Talk to a gunsmith about effects on accuracy. My experience is there are very few.

I would think the muzzle brake would not affect the accuracy one way or the other. Many braked rifles shoot 1/2 moa. My .340 Weatherby built by Rich Reilly in Colorado Springs is one. Maybe the brake allows the shooter to shoot more accurately?

 

[Swiftkill]

Absolutely hit or miss on accuracy! However, it can help the shooter with repeatability! Which is what most Shooters refer to as accuracy. Repeatability is the ability to shoot small groups. If you Flinch less it lets you concentrate and Hold On Target for better follow through and Trigger control. Muzzle brakes will change the harmonics of the barrel. That's why they invented the boss system. Basically are a muzzle brake you can screw in and out and you can affect the node in the harmonic wave where the bullet leaves the barrel the same time every time. Rather than have a tuning device hand loaders will change the velocity & pressure up or down to affect the vibration in the barrel. That's what they are really doing.

 

[Rich Coyle]

This is not directed at any one individual. Earplugs? Earphones? In hunting?

Of course!

 

[wboregon]

Of course!

I once shot a 40s&w which was ported with out ear plugs, my **** rang for DAYS, its never worth it, even if most of us have done it.

Electronic ears help not hurt and they are cheap compared to a lot of hunting gear

 

[J E Custom]

I would think the muzzle brake would not affect the accuracy one way or the other. Many braked rifles shoot 1/2 moa. My .340 Weatherby built by Rich Reilly in Colorado Springs is one. Maybe the brake allows the shooter to shoot more accurately?

Actually, A properly installed muzzle brake can Improve the accuracy
for several reasons. One is the fact that they add weight to muzzle which improves the harmonics of the barrel. The other Is that they help the shooter concentrate on trigger control instead of worrying about the recoil.

I have never seen a PROPERLY installed muzzle brake hurt accuracy. Mainly because the bullet has left the barrel before the muzzle brake starts to do its job. the only time i have found that accuracy was hurt was with rifles with improperly installed brakes that caused bullet strike.

As far as ear damage, if you fire a rifle/firearm with or without a brake only once a year, you do damage to your ears. if you shoot many times it is accumulative so your hearing loss is accelerated.
don't kid your self that one or two shots don't do damage. every time you lose a small amount of hearing, you don't get it back and the more you shoot without ear protection, the more you lose.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Swiftkill]

Actually, A properly installed muzzle brake can Improve the accuracy
for several reasons. One is the fact that they add weight to muzzle which improves the harmonics of the barrel. The other Is that they help the shooter concentrate on trigger control instead of worrying about the recoil.

I have never seen a PROPERLY installed muzzle brake hurt accuracy. Mainly because the bullet has left the barrel before the muzzle brake starts to do its job. the only time i have found that accuracy was hurt was with rifles with improperly installed brakes that caused bullet strike.

As far as ear damage, if you fire a rifle/firearm with or without a brake only once a year, you do damage to your ears. if you shoot many times it is accumulative so your hearing loss is accelerated.
don't kid your self that one or two shots don't do damage. every time you lose a small amount of hearing, you don't get it back and the more you shoot without ear protection, the more you lose.

J E CUSTOM

I agree with this statement. Thank you.