I was window-shopping for a brake for my .308 bolt gun and decided to give this one a try. I have been doing the usual net research in trying to find which one might be good for my particular application. I bought this one direct from GoGuns for about 40 bucks including shipping. Although they advise you to get a gunsmith to install it, I'm a mechanically-minded individual with years of experience as a precision machinist so I thought I would give it a whirl. I took my time and followed the advice of several YouTube gurus when I installed it, and I had no problems keeping the crush washer straight, etc. I fabricated a barrel alignment gauge out of a brass dowel and, by all my measurements, the brake appeared to install perfectly straight. The exit hole of the brake measures .350 so there is plenty of clearance had the brake not installed perfectly straight. The instructions say to clock the brake to align the bottom flats without holes to the six o'clock position. In screwing the brake on, it snugged up against the barrel at the four o'clock position, so that only left clocking it to the six o'clock position which didn't compress the crush washer very much. But, according to many internet gurus, this was not such a bad thing as it was definitely not too tight. After several shots, it was still tight and in position.
The fun came in the shooting. I'm fortunate enough to own a lot of acreage, so I have a few places to shoot some distance. I didn't have much daylight left in the day, so I went down to where I have a 12" gong set up at 500 yds. There was no wind, so I was looking forward to getting a good accuracy test on this brake. The gun is a Savage 110 Tactical in .308 Win with a 24" fluted heavy barrel. The scope is a Nikon FX1000. I set the turrets for 500 yds and let the first round fly.
As far as recoil reduction, this brake works really good. It felt like a .223 or light-load .243. I didn't notice any extra noise, but I was directly behind the gun. The only problem was I missed the gong completely. I thought it was just a fluke, so I took another shot. It was another clean miss. This was a head-scratching moment as I don't miss at this range with this gun, and I have plenty of coyote carcasses buried on these utility right-of-ways to prove it. I decided to drive up to about 100 yds from the gong and shoot again. I did, and it was another clean miss. Out of frustration, I decided to shoot at the dirt in front of the gong, which was hanging about 6" from the ground. To my surprise, it hit the gong! Lesson learned. Even though the manufacturer stated the brake "doesn't affect accuracy" it certainly did on this gun. The point of impact was about 8" high at 100 yards from where it was without the brake. I quickly raised the elevation on the turret to match the center of the gong and took another shot which went dead center on the gong. I didn't change the windage.
Time was against me and the light was fading. I decided to take a chance, so I put a new high-visibility orange bullseye sticky in the center of the gong and drove back to the 500 yd mark. I put the bags and gun across the hood of the truck, and adjusted the turrets for a 500 yd shot. The gong was getting hard to see in the fading light, but I could still see the hi-vis bullseye sticky really good. I squeezed off a shot and the recoil didn't even take me off sight of the target. I heard the bullet smack the gong and watched the sticky disappear from the center of the gong and a shiny spot took its place.
We are expecting rainy weather here tonight and tomorrow, but I intend to take a few more shots with this new brake ASAP to verify everything is repeating OK again. I'll post again if I have any more problems. The short of it is that yes, a muzzle brake can affect accuracy. I was told it might, but I certainly didn't expect it to be 8" high at 100 yds. Oddly, it didn't seem to affect the windage at all.
I posted this tonight in case someone else got a muzzle brake for Christmas, and was headed to the range this weekend to try it out. Don't be surprised if your point-of-impact changes after you install the brake.
The fun came in the shooting. I'm fortunate enough to own a lot of acreage, so I have a few places to shoot some distance. I didn't have much daylight left in the day, so I went down to where I have a 12" gong set up at 500 yds. There was no wind, so I was looking forward to getting a good accuracy test on this brake. The gun is a Savage 110 Tactical in .308 Win with a 24" fluted heavy barrel. The scope is a Nikon FX1000. I set the turrets for 500 yds and let the first round fly.
As far as recoil reduction, this brake works really good. It felt like a .223 or light-load .243. I didn't notice any extra noise, but I was directly behind the gun. The only problem was I missed the gong completely. I thought it was just a fluke, so I took another shot. It was another clean miss. This was a head-scratching moment as I don't miss at this range with this gun, and I have plenty of coyote carcasses buried on these utility right-of-ways to prove it. I decided to drive up to about 100 yds from the gong and shoot again. I did, and it was another clean miss. Out of frustration, I decided to shoot at the dirt in front of the gong, which was hanging about 6" from the ground. To my surprise, it hit the gong! Lesson learned. Even though the manufacturer stated the brake "doesn't affect accuracy" it certainly did on this gun. The point of impact was about 8" high at 100 yards from where it was without the brake. I quickly raised the elevation on the turret to match the center of the gong and took another shot which went dead center on the gong. I didn't change the windage.
Time was against me and the light was fading. I decided to take a chance, so I put a new high-visibility orange bullseye sticky in the center of the gong and drove back to the 500 yd mark. I put the bags and gun across the hood of the truck, and adjusted the turrets for a 500 yd shot. The gong was getting hard to see in the fading light, but I could still see the hi-vis bullseye sticky really good. I squeezed off a shot and the recoil didn't even take me off sight of the target. I heard the bullet smack the gong and watched the sticky disappear from the center of the gong and a shiny spot took its place.
We are expecting rainy weather here tonight and tomorrow, but I intend to take a few more shots with this new brake ASAP to verify everything is repeating OK again. I'll post again if I have any more problems. The short of it is that yes, a muzzle brake can affect accuracy. I was told it might, but I certainly didn't expect it to be 8" high at 100 yds. Oddly, it didn't seem to affect the windage at all.
I posted this tonight in case someone else got a muzzle brake for Christmas, and was headed to the range this weekend to try it out. Don't be surprised if your point-of-impact changes after you install the brake.
