Did some more shooting recently to compare the Heathen (6.5), Area 419 Hellfire (6mm) and Area 419 Sidewinder (6.5mm). Was shooting light recoiling 6BRA loads on a pretty heavy gun, so any differences are subtle. I spent about an hour shooting all three brakes off a barricade and from seated offhand positions. Would send 5 rounds, swap brake, send 5 rounds, swap brake, etc. Shot 85 rounds across all three so got a pretty good sense of them.
Definitely less back pressure with the Heathen, but also had a touch sharper recoil impulse and moved the gun off target a tiny bit more. However, I seemed a bit less likely to blink so it was pretty easy to watch impact despite slightly more gun movement.
Hellfire had less recoil and less muzzle jump, more back pressure, and felt louder from the shooters perspective.
Sidewinder was very slightly less recoil than Hellfire, also louder still. Recoil between Sidewinder and Hellfire are much closer than recoil between Heathen and Hellfire, not much extra benefit from a 4 port on such a small cartridge like the BRA. It was perceptible, but not a large difference.
Was less of a fan of the mounting system of the Heathen, I can see how people might use a strap wrench to lock it on. Not sure I can run it, since I need to take the brake off to fit in the Pelican case for air travel and it's not secure when just hand tight. Don't want to travel with a strap wrench either and not sure how repeatable the zero is with brake going on/off. My 419 Hellfire has been super solid for holding zero.
Ultimately I think any of these are just on a sliding scale of recoil vs noise vs back pressure. More ports and more angle reduces recoil at the expense of the others.
I think I'm going to run the Hellfire at the PRS finale, seems to be the sweet spot for me and has been what I've gotten used to.
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