Muzzle brake or not?

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Hugger-4641

Hugger-4641

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So, I've done quite a bit of load development and shooting this week with my 300wm's, 30-06's, and Sil's 308. I've finally found a good sub MOA load for my Howa 30-06 but it is on the heavy side and I've realized that it has much more recoil than the 308, my 700CDL 30-06 or my 300wm's . I may let my daughter hunt with it this year, so I'm considering having the barrel threaded and adding a muzzle break.
Opinions on this and/or recommendations for a good break?
20210906_195046.jpg
 
With a muzzle brake, you will not make friends with shooters next to you on the firing line.

Besides the reduction in felt recoil, the brake will direct the noise back towards the firing line.

I’ve played with muzzle brakes on 22 caliber rifles and while the effect is noticable, the need for reduced recoil does not offset the incesse in noise for the firing line.

As you go up in caliber and power, the reduction in recoil may off set the additive noise discomfort for the firing line.
 
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Not worried about the effect on the firing line. This gun won't see any range time other than zeroing and load development at my private range.
Good point about the harmonics. I know taking the breaks off my 300wm's makes them unpleasant to shoot, but I haven't compared accuracy with and without. They came from factory with them, so I'm sure Browning and Rem did some harmonics design with them.
 
My son had an AR with a muzzle brake.
He also had an AR M4gery with just a conventional flash hider.
I felt no appreciable reduction in recoil from the muzzle brake, but the muzzle blast noise was unpleasant to me the shooter. The side and back deflection of gas made it unpleasant to be seated to the side of the shooter at the range.
 
I had a good size chunk of bark from a shagg bark hickey wrap me in the face one time shooting a deer. It was a big tree and I used it to rest against, it was a 300 rum that was magna ported and I don't think it would have happened if it wasn't. Had dirt one time from shooting on top of a rock wall blown in my face with a Browning with the boss break, lucky I had water.

The biggest thing, I can't have ear plugs in when hunting, for one I can't wear them long without ear problems and a huge majority of deer I hear before there seen.
 
None of my primary hunting rifles have brakes, pretty much all of my "toys" have brakes. I have a set of electronic ear plugs I can use when running guns with brakes while hunting, but the folks I hunt with don't have the same advantage.......

If all your shooting is from a fixed position, and you're using your eyes as opposed to your ears to find targets, then I dont think it would be an issue having brakes on hunting guns and just wearing electronic ear muffs or something....

Ive also found those hogue stocks pretty poor at recoil attenuation, especially since they tend to tug on my cheek.....putting a sleeve on the but and a better recoil pad might be all thats needed.
 
A better solution is a small step or two down to a comfortable rifle for the shooter. My 14 and 15 year old daughters love shooting .243, 350 Legend, .44 Mag, and yes, even 6.5 Creedmoor. Some have linear comps, one has a Seekins brake, and both will shoot till we run out of ammo.

A good pad can definitely help if you opt to go that way. If not, carry corded earplugs while hunting. I keep one loosely inserted with the other dangling which leaves my hearing intact before the shot.
 
Skylerbone said:
A better solution is a small step or two down to a comfortable rifle for the shooter. My 14 and 15 year old daughters love shooting .243, 350 Legend, .44 Mag, and yes, even 6.5 Creedmoor.
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Exactly, the OP writer is in TN, if shooting deer or hogs all of the above are enough gun. Have taken several cow elk with a 6.5x55.

If you do plan on using a muzzle break, make sure you're saving up for hearing aids too.
 
I'm not sure you have enough meat in those barrels to thread them anyway. For what it would cost to have 3 rifles outfitted with brakes it would probably be cheaper to just buy a rifle that recoils less. My 30-06's with my loads recoil in the 20ish ft lb range. My 308's are in the 17ish range, the 6.5CM closer to 14 ft lbs and it will kill any animal in North America. The 243 might just be the perfect deer round and is in the 12 ft lb range. Almost 1/2 of 30-06 recoil.
 
jmr40 said:
I'm not sure you have enough meat in those barrels to thread them anyway. For what it would cost to have 3 rifles outfitted with brakes it would probably be cheaper to just buy a rifle that recoils less. My 30-06's with my loads recoil in the 20ish ft lb range. My 308's are in the 17ish range, the 6.5CM closer to 14 ft lbs and it will kill any animal in North America. The 243 might just be the perfect deer round and is in the 12 ft lb range. Almost 1/2 of 30-06 recoil.
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No, I'm not touching that SS Remington, Its just in the pic for comparison. Only considering the Howa for a brake because the recoil on it is worse. I do have a 6.5 Savage 110, but she likes the Hogue on the Howa.
 
troy fairweather said:
Leave it alone, sometimes the break can be worse then bad recoil. Plus your barrel is pretty thin, it may need a shoulder added and the extra weight may mess with your barrel harmonics.
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I'd avoid a muzzle break, on 30 cal. I've removed them from some 30s, in the past. If you are considering it, try somebody else's 30 cal with a muzzle break, first. With something larger, like 50 cal, a muzzle break may be preferable.
 
I would never put a brake on any rifle I own. I would learn the techniques needed to shoot a .30-06 or .308 without one since I'm convinced those techniques can be learned by anyone who wants to learn them, and the increased noise levels a brake creates are hazardous to health of everyone nearby, including the shooter. Just learn to shoot them well, or get something with less recoil.
 
Brake them.

Area419 Hellfire or APA Fat Bastard for a sporter weight 30-06 or 308. Scrub off as much recoil as you can.

Any .30-06 or .308win has muzzle blast beyond any hearing-safe threshold, both to the extent of requiring dual solution hearing protection, and braking the rifle does not change any of that. Neither of the above brakes increase “concussion” to the shooter, but both significantly reduce recoil.

The fact “nobody on the firing line likes a guy with a brake,” comes up so often in this kind of thread is indicative of how narrow the scope of shooting is for so many unfortunate folks. Most of the literally hundreds of rifles I have owned and fired in my life have never been on a public or shared firing line. There are contexts in the shooting world which don’t involve snuggling with a 60yr old Luddite with fragile sensibilities who might think less of me for shooting a rifle with mitigated recoil...
 
I wouldn't want a broken muzzle on any of my guns. The accuracy would probably be terrible. :D

I am not crazy about brakes either except for lightweight 22 rimfire pistols. Those are a little annoying too but certainly help with muzzle flip which allows me to shoot them enough better to put up with them.
 
I have a 30-06 with the BOSS system. It has two muzzle fixtures, one ported as a muzzle brake, and the other with no porting, for accuracy tuning only.

I have fired exactly one round through the muzzle brake version.

The nasty blast from it immediately drove me to the unported version.
 
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