Question about ranges and muzzle brakes

[headspace]

The problem with brakes is that apart from the noise these the additional muzzle blast to content with.

This can be a bit wearing on a lot of people, in fact a lot of hunting guides these days don't allow brakes either.

I've shot all sorts of things and it never occurred to me that I should fit a brake. I don't mind the recoil, it's all part of shooting centre fire.

Most of the ranges these days are covered and there's a lot of concrete.

This tends to amplify muzzle blast anyway so a MB would only accelerate the "problem".

Mind you, people who want to shoot rimfire and complain about centre fire noise should have joined a smallbore club.

JD

[AussieTimmeh]

I've shot all sorts of things and it never occurred to me that I should fit a brake. I don't mind the recoil, it's all part of shooting centre fire.

Thanks for your reply and for the most part I agree with your stance, although my brother and I enjoy the tactical style rifles with all their extra bits.

My problem is that the rifle came with it fitted from factory - I did not fit it myself to reduce recoil - and working out what my options are from here to avoid damaging the rifle.

I am hopefully getting a custom thread protector made up shortly and will be looking to get the factory brake removed by someone with a barrel vice initially.

I'll see how we go without the brake at the ranges but I'm interested to try both with and without at long range (~1km) to see the effect it has on us, if any.

Cheers.

[Farmjer]

I dunno what all the fuss is about with brakes TBH.

(This isn't aimed at JD or anyone here, just generally) There's this tough guy thing floating round that whenever anyone asks about a brake people have to jump in and say you don't need one, recoil X is mild, blah blah and not answer anything to do with the persons question.

Bragging on the internet. Yay.

The muzzle blast is a totally valid point of course. But if that doesn't bother you and the recoil does, use a brake.

[scrolllock]

Mind you, people who want to shoot rimfire and complain about centre fire noise should have joined a smallbore club.

That's my shooting pet peeve.

Blokes that turn up to the range and getting annoyed that your shooting gets in the way of their conversations.

God forbid they have to wear some earmuffs at a shooting range...

If you want to talk all day go to the effing cafe.

[Norton]

I've shot all sorts of things and it never occurred to me that I should fit a brake. I don't mind the recoil, it's all part of shooting centre fire.

To be fair there is shooting and then there is shooting.

Anyone can fire 2 or 3 big calibre rounds on a hunt. Firing 200-300 during a day at the range is another thing.

Timmeh's obviously looking at doing more of the later...

I can shoot my .416 through the course of a day as much as I need with no problems. Might be 3 shots, might be 10, might be 20 in a day and it's no problem.

I would not be singing the same tune after a couple of hundred shots at the range though.

[Wobble]

'The old shoulder injury' is another one where guys might really need a brake too.

I know a few fellas that downsized calibres or got a brake due to this.

Or yeah, if you just want one

[AussieTimmeh]

A bit of an update.

We took our rifle to one of the local gunsmiths to make up a thread protector, and after 3 months of not having our rifle, we finally got it back and the quality was less than awesome.

We needed to get our .308 trigger looked at anyway so we took it to another local gunsmith, Ralf Dauner. He quickly whipped up a neat little thread protector that looks factory.





Pretty happy with the result. It's definitely not as nice to fire without the muzzle brake but whatareyougonnado. At least it's sorted now.

[sneaker]

Looks good.

Bummer about the first guy but at least it's sorted

[Lyam]

after 3 months of not having our rifle, we finally got it back and the quality was less than awesome.

3 months to make a thread protector

[AussieTimmeh]

Looks good.

Bummer about the first guy but at least it's sorted

Yeah it's a shame it didn't work out the way we wanted it to but happy now.

3 months to make a thread protector

To be fair we said we weren't in a rush but I probably didn't expect that long. All good now!

[loopal]

Protector looks good, Timmeh.

Is it just the photo? Your crown looks all banged up or something there? Or is it just crap on the muzzle...

[Monty]

It's definitely not as nice to fire without the muzzle brake but whatareyougonnado.

Nicer for your neighbours

[Lyam]

To be fair we said we weren't in a rush but I probably didn't expect that long. All good now!

There's your mistake

[AussieTimmeh]

Protector looks good, Timmeh.

Is it just the photo? Your crown looks all banged up or something there? Or is it just crap on the muzzle...

The white speck at the top was a bit of dust or something, but the face has a pattern of some sort cut into it. I'd need to get a macro photo in good light to really see it properly. Normally with the muzzle brake on you don't see the crown so I've never really inspected it closely until you mentioned it.

Nicer for your neighbours

Ha! I wish they allowed us to use a brake at the range when it's quiet and there are 5 or so empty lanes next to us but oh well.

There's your mistake

I know, right.

[loopal]

I'd need to get a macro photo in good light to really see it properly.

No stress. Just mentioned it but just due to funny photo I guess.

[Blobel]

Hi guys, im new to the forum and have run into a similar but slightly different issue and was hoping for some guidance. I recently got my license and my father was kind enough to give me a .308 Remington 700 VTR (picture below) ... the only problem is the barrel comes with a small muzzle break.. would i be able to shoot this at an SSAA range? Im unsure as its slightly different to an attatched muzzle break and the barrel is triangular in shape and i would assume this would help redirect the blast... can anyone help me out with this?

Thanks in advance for your help

[AussieTimmeh]

It will probably depend on your local range officer. Some may say use the letter of their laws and say no, some may see some common sense and let you. I would take it down and ask them.

Nice rifle btw.

[AusC]

Brakes are not banned at all SSAA ranges. My local allows as do most as far as I know.

Call the range your going to visit to double check, but you should be fine.

[ArmaliteGerard]

Hi Tim,
I read this thread with much interest as im currently facing the same dilemma.
Most ranges either outright refuse to let me shoot my 300 Win Mag with Muzzle brake, or tell me that if someone complains I will need to stop shooting.
Extremely disappointing from fellow shooters. Especially as I spent a lot of cash on my rifle and scope and am paying the same SSAA and range fees.
Im my case my rifle is a Armalite AR30 A1 Target model and the manual specifically instructs against removing the factory fitted brake as it both voids warrantee and impacts accuracy. (Presumably due to harmonics and also the highly effective muzzle brake design helps stabilize the bullet as it leaves the muzzle).
Wouldn't it be an idea to see if like minded folk can encourage a change in mentality (acceptance) at the ranges and if not, then agree a muzzle brake day or something! ??

Anyway.. what I wanted to ask was if you noticed any accuracy reduction on your Savage 10BA after removing the brake?
Im considering looking for a secondhand one in 308 to accommodate local rules regarding the above and also muzzle energy limitations on ranges close to me.
So, what kind of accuracy have you been able to achieve with yours? It sounds like we share an interest in long range shooting. Im hoping to push my 300win mag beyond 1000m and perhaps eventually to 1mile! ...my quarry? a Coke can lol.

Happy shooting!
G.

[Norton]

This "no muzzle brakes" s**t does my head in, I swear.

Who are these idiots who chose shooting as their hobby but want things to be quiet?

Don't like loud noises, don't become a range officer or work at a shooting range. Rocket science, huh?

FFS.

[AussieTimmeh]

Hi Tim,
I read this thread with much interest as im currently facing the same dilemma.
Most ranges either outright refuse to let me shoot my 300 Win Mag with Muzzle brake, or tell me that if someone complains I will need to stop shooting.
Extremely disappointing from fellow shooters. Especially as I spent a lot of cash on my rifle and scope and am paying the same SSAA and range fees.
Im my case my rifle is a Armalite AR30 A1 Target model and the manual specifically instructs against removing the factory fitted brake as it both voids warrantee and impacts accuracy. (Presumably due to harmonics and also the highly effective muzzle brake design helps stabilize the bullet as it leaves the muzzle).
Wouldn't it be an idea to see if like minded folk can encourage a change in mentality (acceptance) at the ranges and if not, then agree a muzzle brake day or something! ??

Anyway.. what I wanted to ask was if you noticed any accuracy reduction on your Savage 10BA after removing the brake?
Im considering looking for a secondhand one in 308 to accommodate local rules regarding the above and also muzzle energy limitations on ranges close to me.
So, what kind of accuracy have you been able to achieve with yours? It sounds like we share an interest in long range shooting. Im hoping to push my 300win mag beyond 1000m and perhaps eventually to 1mile! ...my quarry? a Coke can lol.

Happy shooting!
G.

Hi Gerard,

Yeah I have had no luck with convincing anyone to let me shoot by myself down the end of the range or anything. I've pretty much given up and I leave the muzzle brake off the 308 permanently now, regardless of whether I am shooting at a range or private property, for consistency's sake. At least the rifle is really heavy which helps keep the rifle stable, and compared to the 500 Nitro the recoil is very tame. Whether we lost any accuracy is a good question - we took it off early on when we were still trying different types of factory ammo so it's hard to know as we hadn't really established a baseline by that stage.

We sort of got sidetracked with our 500 Nitro project and renovating our house, but we're just starting to get back into long range with the 308. We're currently in the process of working up a load for it to fine tune the accuracy as best we can.

With factory ammo, we're able to get 1MOA groups consistently at the ranges we've taken it to (<500yds so far) but I am hoping to improve on this with custom loads and practice. We're still new-ish to shooting and learning our technique so there are improvements to be had there as well.

The Savage 308 has the most beautiful action we've ever used, it's silky smooth like butter and yet has no slop or play. It's the best action we've ever used and we've tried a lot of rifles so we're pretty grateful for that. We bought ours second hand and we just love it to bits. It's a heavy rifle so it's a really stable platform for target shooting. We're really happy with it.

Keep me updated with how you go! I'll post our progress as well.

This "no muzzle brakes" s**t does my head in, I swear.

Who are these idiots who chose shooting as their hobby but want things to be quiet?

Don't like loud noises, don't become a range officer or work at a shooting range. Rocket science, huh?

FFS.

The explanation I got was the blast of air in the face was the distracting part, more than the noise, although they made sure to note that also. Oh well. Now we get to deal with the fact that they don't like the look of 'tacticool' rifles. Gimme a break. I don't like the look of bench rifles mounted to a vice with screw adjustments for aim either but you get that.

[Blobel]

Hi Tim,
I read this thread with much interest as im currently facing the same dilemma.
Most ranges either outright refuse to let me shoot my 300 Win Mag with Muzzle brake, or tell me that if someone complains I will need to stop shooting.
Extremely disappointing from fellow shooters. Especially as I spent a lot of cash on my rifle and scope and am paying the same SSAA and range fees.
Im my case my rifle is a Armalite AR30 A1 Target model and the manual specifically instructs against removing the factory fitted brake as it both voids warrantee and impacts accuracy. (Presumably due to harmonics and also the highly effective muzzle brake design helps stabilize the bullet as it leaves the muzzle).
Wouldn't it be an idea to see if like minded folk can encourage a change in mentality (acceptance) at the ranges and if not, then agree a muzzle brake day or something! ??

Anyway.. what I wanted to ask was if you noticed any accuracy reduction on your Savage 10BA after removing the brake?
Im considering looking for a secondhand one in 308 to accommodate local rules regarding the above and also muzzle energy limitations on ranges close to me.
So, what kind of accuracy have you been able to achieve with yours? It sounds like we share an interest in long range shooting. Im hoping to push my 300win mag beyond 1000m and perhaps eventually to 1mile! ...my quarry? a Coke can lol.

Happy shooting!
G.

Just to let you know the only place between Sydney and Newcastle I've found that will allow me to use my muzzle brake has been St Marys. Ironically they're an indoor range. But the max distance you can shoot at is 50m i believe

[Harper]

The explanation I got was the blast of air in the face was the distracting part, more than the noise, although they made sure to note that also. Oh well. Now we get to deal with the fact that they don't like the look of 'tacticool' rifles. Gimme a break. I don't like the look of bench rifles mounted to a vice with screw adjustments for aim either but you get that.

I don't like sitting next to a brake rifle but I'm with Norton. It's shooting... there is muzzle blast. If you want a gentle breeze take up sailing.

Stick people with brakes down one end or something, it isn't that hard.

for the ranges that give shooters trouble over this.