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do muzzle brakes hurt accuracy?
5mmgunguy
Member Posts: 3,092 ✭✭
Does a muzzle brake hurt your accuracy? My friend is telling me not to put a muzzle break on my varmint rifle. I want to put it on so I can see my hits better. The rifle is a 22 PPC.
Comments
Brakes work best with cartridges that burn large amounts of powder, so on a case that small the recoil reduction won't be very much. Now if your shooting in low light conditions, the vertical flash from the brake will make it harder to see your hits.
22PPC shouldn't have enough recoil to interfere with your view of the impact.
A muzzle brake should not affect the accuracy of a rifle although it could hurt accuracy IF it was not installed correctly.
Muzzle brakes work by diverting the high speed plasma gases at diverging angles to the bore line. They also increase the noise level that impinge on the shooter which is an indication that you need to be wearing more efficient ear protection.
Muzzle brakes do get used in some benchrest competitions but not all. The answer is simple; point blank benchrest rifles don't need a brake by design and with the close proximity of one shooter to the next, they would be a noise problem and distraction. The long range target shooters get to use them in some instances because of the event design and the need to have a better control over the rifles using the much larger cartridges.
It may not be that you need a muzzle brake for your application in that you might be able to have it Mag-na-port'ed:
"Mag-na-port cuts a total of four slots into the barrel. The first pair of these are 180 degrees apart on opposite sides of the barrel, starting about 1.5" back from the muzzle. The other pair are 50 degrees apart on the upper surface of the barrel and closer to the muzzle. Mag-na-port claims an average recoil reduction of 15% with their porting system. Other porting systems are said to deliver about a 20% reduction in recoil. Clearly, porting systems are less effective than muzzle brakes attached to the end of the rifle barrel."
I use a .22PPC for varminting and I intentionally made it muzzle heavy so that I didn't have to use a muzzle brake. I can see every shot and every hit.
Brownells lists a large number of muzzle brakes in their catalog and on their website. Some are designed to specifically handle your problem by having the ports on the top of the barrel rather than the sides or all around the circumference.
Best.
for concentricity with the rifle bore and trued if necessary.
"I expect the expanding gas, being faster than the bullet, will overtake it and maybe deflect it unless the clearance around the bullet as it exits the barrel is concentric with the muzzle brake bore."
Every installation of a muzzle brake necessarily requires the bores all be in line and all of the holes to be concentric. It's also required that the surfaces that contain the exit holes be perpendicular to the bores.
"That means a precision installation using lathe cut, class 3 threads. After installation, the brake bore should be dial indicated
for concentricity with the rifle bore and trued if necessary."
Actually, it takes more words to explain it than it does to get it done.
The barrel is indicated in on the lathe.
The crown is recut to perpendicularity.
The thread diameter is turned.
The threads are cut in and fitted. I use gauges.
Barrel is removed.
Brake is turned and faced for perpendicularity.
Brake is indicated in and thread hole is drilled. (I also ream...)
Threads are single point cut to gauge value of barrel.
Exit hole is overcut by 0.010" to 0.015" for clearance.
That's the rough description and no fancy details.
This is a barrel with no brake. Notice the engulfing of the bullet and the greater potential for upsetting the bullet at both the base and shank.
This is a fairly efficient brake which allows for the plasma dump quickly so the bullet doesn't suffer from as much potential upset. The best brakes will dump virtually all of the plasma immediately or as close to immediately as a design allows.
Best.
The Cutts style brake shown on that German photo shows a symmetrical
blast pattern whereas I expect a brake with vents on top wouldn't. The result being more bullet yaw, some deflection and possibly some reduction in velocity due to the yawing.
Keep in mind that much artillery uses muzzle brakes and can put a shell in your pocket at proportionately much greater distances.
Actual tests would be needed to quantify any effect on accuracy of the various designs and precision of installation.