Muzzle Break Question?

[JJD]

Ok, I've done a search on muzzle breaks effecting accuracy due to harmonics, etc. and have read what I could find. Thinking of putting a side port Break on a 700 BDL in 300 win mag. Noise is not an issue as I have my own range and do not shoot on public ranges. I do shoot prone at times so am interested in a side port only break. With modest modifications, the rifle is shooting sub-MOA group, I'd hate to mess that up or have to put a bunch of $$ into getting it back..
I am wondering how many of you guys have seen a decrease in accuracy as a result of adding a break?

 

[J E Custom]

Ok, I've done a search on muzzle breaks effecting accuracy due to harmonics, etc. and have read what I could find. Thinking of putting a side port Break on a 700 BDL in 300 win mag. Noise is not an issue as I have my own range and do not shoot on public ranges. I do shoot prone at times so am interested in a side port only break. With modest modifications, the rifle is shooting sub-MOA group, I'd hate to mess that up or have to put a bunch of $$ into getting it back..
I am wondering how many of you guys have seen a decrease in accuracy as a result of adding a break?

I have never seen a good muzzle brake make accuracy worse as long as the brake was installed correctly. Most of the time a good brake will improve the accuracy.

Normally the reduction in recoil lowers the harmonics level and so does the added weight.

When I was building brakes, We did a lot of testing and most are on Video. if you watch all of the test videos It will answer all if not most of your questions.

www.jecustom.com - Home of the Assassin Muzzle Brake

We did test on ported brakes, radial brakes, Factory Brakes, brakes with top ports and flash hiders.

J E CUSTOM

 

[JJD]

J E Custom,
Very informative, thanks.
If you are no longer making breaks yourself, whose would you recommend considering my above stated needs?

 

[IdahoCTD]

I've never witnessed a brake, properly installed, cause accuracy problems. I have had customers with accuracy issues but it all was a result of improper installation.

 

[Zen Archery]

Running JP Breaks on 3 of my guns. Never had a problem with any of them.

 

[FEENIX]

Like most LRH members, most of my rifles sports an effective and properly installed muzzle brakes. There's a slight change in POI (on and off) but all of my rifles have any negative effect on accuracy.

 

[Clay Target Guy]

After watching the video links, I have a question. I know what timing a brake is, but what is tuning a brake?

 

[J E Custom]

After watching the video links, I have a question. I know what timing a brake is, but what is tuning a brake?

Tuning a brake is changing the volume inside the brake in order to squeeze every poubd of recoil out of it.

All commercial brakes are identical based on there design inside with only a different size bore for different calibers.

We found that each design worked better on one cartridge size than others.

Muzzle brakes are effected by the amount of gas they have to handle. for an example= (A 308 win
would have a totally different tune because of the gas volume compared to a 300 RUM with more than twice the amount of powder.

A well tuned brake can reduce recoil by 10 to 20% more. the best recoil reduction we found on any non-tuned brake was 55 to 57% a tuned brake can get 75% on the big over bored cartridges.

In order to properly tune a brake you must know 3 or 4 things and know what to do with that information.

J E CUSTOM

On really hard kicking cartridges this can be a big difference.

 

[tbrice23]

Tuning a brake is changing the volume inside

A well tuned brake can reduce recoil by 10 to 20% more. the best recoil reduction we found on any non-tuned brake was 55 to 57% a tuned brake can get 75% on the big over bored cartridges.

In order to properly tune a brake you must know 3 or 4 things and know what to do with that information.

J E CUSTOM

On really hard kicking cartridges this can be a big difference.

Outstanding.
So, if you get the information/ parameters from a customer do you...

recommend the correct brake they need to buy or

is it a custom built brake per individual basis/case ?

 

[J E Custom]

Outstanding.
So, if you get the information/ parameters from a customer do you...

recommend the correct brake they need to buy or

is it a custom built brake per individual basis/case ?

To properly tune a brake It has to be custom made. other wise it is just another brake.

There is nothing wrong with the top brakes on the market and the good ones will reduce recoil by
45 to 55% which is a lot. but if you want everything you can get out of a brake, it has to be tuned.

While testing the M82A1 Barrett we found that with no brake it produced 107 to 115 ft/lbs of recoil depending on the ammo without a brake.

With a non tuned ported brake it produced 62.1 ft/lbs of recoil. with the factory brake it produced 76.4 ft/lbs of recoil.

With a full tune the Barrett produced 43.7 ft/lbs of recoil. still stiff but very manageable.

We did another test on the 338/378 and without a brake it produced 50.0 ft/lbs of recoil.
Aftermarket brake produced 34.7 ft/lbs of recoil.
A partially tuned (Not to full specification)brake dropped it to 18.5 .No recoil test was done with a fully tuned brake (Because the rifle owner was very happy and did not want to mess with it)

There is a science to tuning a brake and certain rules have to be followed to get the most performance from a brake.

J E CUSTOM

 

[JJD]

J E Custom
You are a wealth of information, thanks

 

[FEENIX]

J E Custom
You are a wealth of information, thanks

Yep, and most of us here can attest to that ... and an overall nice guy that is always willing and able to help!

 

[Rich Coyle]

To properly tune a brake It has to be custom made. other wise it is just another brake.

There is nothing wrong with the top brakes on the market and the good ones will reduce recoil by
45 to 55% which is a lot. but if you want everything you can get out of a brake, it has to be tuned.

While testing the M82A1 Barrett we found that with no brake it produced 107 to 115 ft/lbs of recoil depending on the ammo without a brake.

With a non tuned ported brake it produced 62.1 ft/lbs of recoil. with the factory brake it produced 76.4 ft/lbs of recoil.

With a full tune the Barrett produced 43.7 ft/lbs of recoil. still stiff but very manageable.

We did another test on the 338/378 and without a brake it produced 50.0 ft/lbs of recoil.
Aftermarket brake produced 34.7 ft/lbs of recoil.
A partially tuned (Not to full specification)brake dropped it to 18.5 .No recoil test was done with a fully tuned brake (Because the rifle owner was very happy and did not want to mess with it)

There is a science to tuning a brake and certain rules have to be followed to get the most performance from a brake.

J E CUSTOM

J E CUSTOM,

Where's the book or articles on proper tuning of brakes?!

 

[IdahoCTD]

While I totally agree that a custom built brake can be optimized to a caliber I'm not sure I believe your percentages. Here is a video I did on my test sled using a 300 Weatherby with 208 Amax's at only about 2650fps. Anybody that's been around muzzle brakes very long knows that the more overbore the case is the higher percentage of recoil reduction the brake will accomplish. So if you were to shoot those same 208 Amax's at 3300fps in a 30-378 the percentage of travel would be even higher as would a larger diameter brake with 5 or 6 ports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlgmxDp114A

If you just look at percentages based on travel it would be around 70% less compared to a rifle without a brake. This is using a small diameter 4 port brake.

A 338 Lapua has a ton of primary recoil due to the heavy bullet weights and it still has over 69% less travel in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0TU1JDspnE

It slammed the end of the sled so the percentage would actually be higher if the sled had more travel and it could be measured.

Different brakes work different and have different percentages of efficiency so I can believe some have numbers as low as you quoted but I don't believe a custom built brake is going to be upwards of 20% less recoil compared to the top recoil reducing brakes.

BTW I tested a 6.5saum shooting 60grs of powder versus a 6.5x47L shooting 40grs of powder and the overall travel was less than a inch of difference with the same brake. So it proves that the more overbore the case the higher percentage of recoil reduction you get with a good brake.