Muzzle Brake Inaccuracy

[stevotary]

Gunsmiths. Is there any way that a muzzle brake could be improperly installed and cause accuracy issues. What could be the causes?

 

[EricL]

I am not a smith but yes, if the brake not quite strait the bullet could hit the inside and cause problems. And by not quite strait I mean you may not be able to see it with the naked eye. One would think this may cause rather large problems (like blowing the brake off) but it really doesn't... it just doesn't shoot worth a hoot. The reason I say all this is I had one installed on a 270 and I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't shoot strait till I was looking at the brake and noticed copper colored rub marks on one side inside the brake. Got it fixed and problem went away.

 

[bigngreen]

I fix a number of poor shooting rifles a year by fixing or replacing poorly installed brakes. There are a number of ways to jack one up, getting stupid with cutting the tenon or threading and the bore opens up, install it based on the OD of the barrel not the bore, just drill a crooked hole through it, leave a big bur from poor cutting tools which turns in, and the grand daddy of them all, don't open up the hole at all or to only bullet diameter not .020+ over. In short there are a number of ways to screw one up!!

 

[Willys46]

I have also seen if you have to cut to much off the barrel to get threads, the muzzle end can swell a little. making your muzzle end bigger than the rest of the barrel bore. So at the very last 1/2 the surface tension get less. and can cause accuracy issues.

My smith always wants to put the largest threads possible to maximize the meat left on the barrel. I have always used 5/8X24 threads and have had one barrel open up at least one pin gauge size. That dun never shot as well after the break was installed.

With that said, I put a break on EVERYTHING!

 

[Lefty38-55]

Even over-torquing them can cause the accuracy to drop off ...