To Brake or Not To Brake

[lazyengineer]

As noted above, a brake makes things louder, in addition to a cuncussion blast. For this reason I never ever shoot or hunt without hearing protection. I find the modern electronic muff's do a nice job of enhancing my hearing, and are better than hunting without, while still protecting the ears. Others, who's habbits don't include that option, are indeed going to have a louder blast with a brake. But it's a non-item for me. When i shoot at the range, I use plugs, under the muff's, for the doubled protection.

Also, while my 14.5" Grendel is running a Gamma Break (the .300 BO version, which is smaller)

Which is exceptionally effective, in general, I do advise the one from Bravo Company, which has notably less blast, noise and concussion:


which is an A2 FH mostly, but with a little cone at the end, that deflects the blast a lot more laterally than most. The .30 cal version has a couple bleed holes horizontal to the ground on both sides, which create a small curtain to help dampen the blast-back even more. I love this one. Only reason I'm not using it on my 14.5 is my 14.5 is really closer to 15", and I'd be chagrined pin and welding a 15" to equal the length of a standard 16" with a small FH, so I went for shorter and handier (it was a project, not everyone is going to see the value to that, but hey, my spec was short-as-legally-possible, so 1/2" mattered to that project )