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Joined: Feb 2018
I am getting to the point of hating compensators/muzzle brakes. They are loud, can affect accuracy in a negative way, and make cleaning a pain. I just pulled one off a .223 JP barrel and even though I had tried to clean inside it every time I cleaned the barrel I must have not been doing a good enough job. There was all kind of nasty junk around the muzzle. The main reason I like comps or birdcages are for protecting the crown on rifle I might be rougher with. On larger calibers I do like a recoil reduction type brake. I guess it depends on the type you have on how hard they are to keep stuff from building up around the muzzle. I put a threaded cap back on the JP barrel. My new Grendel build has a linear comp that I am just putting on hand tight so I can remove it when I clean the barrel. If any of you have a comp that makes it hard to clean around the muzzle I would suggest you spin it off and take a look especially if you ever clean with harsher type solvents.
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03-25-2018, 04:26 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-25-2018, 08:00 PM by rabiddawg.)
No way I’m taking the brake off my Lilja or Bartlein barrels. On others I have removed flash hiders and replaced them with thread protectors.
Keep in mind, I don’t obsess over cleaning my rifles.
I wear hearing protection for the noise
Just looked at mine, they are Precision Firearms brakes. Little to nothing inside. Certainly nothing I’m going to remove them for.
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I put a Kaw Valley Precision Linear Comp on my 18" Grendel and it keeps the muzzle rise to nothing and does lessen or redistribute the recoil to feel less than my 20" Grendel that is heaver and just has a birdcage flash hider on it which I am going to replace with a linear comp very soon. Best of all it projects the sound and muzzle blast forward so as to not bust your ears if you are hunting and need to take a shot before you can get ear protection on. joeboboutdoors.com has them for $39.95 My first experience many years ago with muzzle breaks was my buddies rifle that was in 7mm STW which was a wildcat at the time. We were doing crop damage control at the time and he wanted me to shoot a deer with it so I could see the bullet impact it. I took the rifle one evening down to my shooting house and even though he had given me ear plugs I forgot to put them in. No I did not see the bullet hit the deer because I almost dropped the rifle out of the stand grabbing my ears they hurt so much. My ears rang so bad for about a week I could hardly hear.
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The purpose is the driver here, or should be. Looks are all too often the deciding factor when making these purchases and I find myself cringing but think - well, it's their choice. Some brakes are really loud, but not for the shooter. Some work really well for taming recoil, while another that looks exactly the same only works half as well. Grendel doesn't require recoil taming. 308 in a carbine however... If you're not noticing a change in accuracy, I wouldn't remove the brake either. Any brake or MD that's causing issues with accuracy in a negative way should be reported to the maker, and to the world; obviously, something's wrong with it.
So, what do you want your device for? Making follow-ups faster, smoother? Reducing muzzle jump? Tacticool? Suppressor connection? In some cases, brakes are a necessity and well worth the money invested. In some cases, they're a fancy slip-sinker. But in all cases, they make your weapon your own, and should at least make you glad to have it attached.
Personal rant: Guys, Tankers on Grendel? Really?
Nothing kills the incentive of men faster than a healthy sense of entitlement. Nothing kills entitlement faster than a healthy sense of achievement.
