by Monty » 02 Aug 2013, 3:44 pm
They do make some .17lmr rifles with factory brakes. I've been wracking my brain but for the life of me I can't remember which rifles they were.
RE: your original question though...
If you think technically about it, muzzle brakes don't reduce recoil - they redirect energy.
Without a brake, 100% of the energy is expelled forward, pushing the rifle back. With a brake, a percentage of the energy is expelled backwards/sidewards as it reaches the brake and the projectile is temporarily blocking the tip of the muzzle which forces the energy to go elsewhere, i.e. out the brake. Less forward moving energy = less recoil directed at the shooter.
For the sake of example, lets say a brake vents the energy sidewards at a 90 angle. For there to be absolutely no reward recoil, 100% of the energy would have have to be released sidewards, there could be no forward moving energy which means the projectile would have to have stopped moving completely and not cleared the muzzle. Obviously you don't want that...
A brake can only ever reduce a percentage of the recoil, never eliminate it completely, regardless of little recoil there was to start with. e.g. You couldn't balance a braked .22 on a pin and fire it expecting it to not fall off, there would still be a some tiny amount of recoil.
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