[marklbucla]

If I shoot .22LR through my .223 AR Upper with a muzzle brake on it, is the brake going to have the same effect- reduced recoil and increased noise?

Yeah, I know it's not really significant in the first place, but I'd still like to know.

[AirForceShooter]

a .22 recoils?

AFS

[GarrettJ]

any effective brake on an AR works because of gas volume and pressure. Relative to a .223, a .22 LR has next to none of either of these.

Really, the only actual benefit (other than looking cool) would be the added weight.

[Coltdriver]

A muzzle break optomized for a .223 will probably not have as much effect on a .22lr.

There are muzzle breaks for target class .22lr's and they do reduce what muzzle rise there is.

I had one a a target .22 but the holes were very small compared to the break on my AR.

[hksw]

...reduced recoil and increased noise...

Well, that is what the brake does. Will it do the same for a .22 lr? Yes. (The is, it cannot not work if it is in place.)

Will you notice (as compared to the exact same upper without the brake)? IMO, barely on the recoil. Yes on the noise.

[Fumbler]

The 22lr doesn't produce enough gas pressure and volume for muzzle brakes to work, unless by "working" you mean keeping the muzzle from moving half an inch.

It will be louder, but just like the recoil reduction, it won't be a whole lot louder.

[BulletFan]

Let's just throw in some numbers here...
Let's say that a well designed and good fitted muzzle break will reduce felt recoil by 15%.
With the .22LR, 15% of zero is still zero.
Let's say it will increase the noise by 15%
15% added to a .22LR MIGHT make as loud as a .17HMR or .22 MAG

My two cents

:rolleyes:

[hksw]

..of zero is still zero

The recoil of a .22 lr is not zero. It may be almost negligable to a shooter, but it is not zero.

[benEzra]

A typical .22LR produces so little gas that after 16" or so of barrel, the bullet actually starts slowing down in the barrel (e.g., the gas pressure pushing the bullet forward drops below the force of friction). A .22 pistol might give you enough gas pressure for a brake to work with, but I doubt you'd have enough gas pressure at the end of a .22 rifle barrel for a brake to make any measurable difference.

Adding a bit of muzzle weight would probably do more to reduce recoil, IMHO.

[ChiefPilot]

The recoil of a .22 lr is not zero. It may be almost negligable to a shooter, but it is not zero.

+1. I can feel the recoil on all of my .22 rifles. It's a little less than a .308, but it's still noticeable.

[g1726]

This is a slight side topic, but informative nonetheless. I know the conventional wisdom is that a 16" barrel will be faster than a longer in .22, but that may not always be the case.

I recently chronographed some .22's and the results were interesting to say the least. The two relevant firearms were a Marlin 880 with a 22" barrel and an old Sears pump action rifle with the barrel cut to 16.5". Velocities are the average of 10 rounds, with the chrono position ~10 ft. from the muzzle. The two loads were the Federal 36 gr. bulk pack load from Wal-mart, Winchester T22 and Winchester Wildcat 40 gr. The Federal velocities were 1247 (53 e.s.) and 1215 (76 e.s.) for the Marlin and Sears respectively, the T22 were 1209 (86 e.s.) and 1162 (121 e.s.), and the Wildcat were 1168 (81 e.s.) and 1170 (63 e.s.). So the Marlin was 35 fps faster with the Federal and 47 fps faster with the T22 but 2 fps slower with the Wildcat. Certainly not conclusive, but enough to pique my interest to do extensive additional testing. When I get the chance it'll be 50 round strings with these and other loads, but I don't know when I'll have the time in the near future.

Additional factors may be Marlin's Microgroove rifling vs. the more standard in the Sears. But 2 out of 3 loads is starting to say something against the conventional wisdom.

The other surprise was the high extreme spread on the T22. For a "target" round, even a budget one, this is rather surprising. It had a higher e.s. than the Indian surplus .308 which is generally considered to be absolute junk!

[benEzra]

The Microgroove rifling may have something to do with it, since it would stand to reason that it would produce less friction since it doesn't swage the bullet as much, and hence would cause the friction-dominant transition to occur further out in the barrel. (Just a hunch.)