Both of the Alamo Four Star and American Precision Arms (APA) muzzle brakes seemed to outpace the others when it came to recoil reduction.

That was the Alamo Four Star Cowl Induction Muzzle Brake for all but the 308 Win, where the APA Fat B* did slightly better. The numbers in bold indicate the top performer for each cartridge. The percentage shown is the average of the reduction in overall momentum and the reduction in peak force. The heat map below shows the average % reduction for each muzzle brake and rifle tested. Now let’s get to the results of the individual muzzle brakes. I can confirm that your shoulder feels the difference! Results & Overall Ratings for Individual Brakes We were able to cut the recoil on a featherweight 308 Win to be much less than a hefty 6XC (roughly the same cartridge as a 243 Win). Cartridgeīy using a muzzle brake, we were able to tame the monster 300 Norma Mag so that it felt more like a bare muzzle 308 or 6.5 Creedmoor. Here is a summary of the underlying numbers behind the recoil signatures shown above. I explained those two aspects to recoil in more detail in the recoil post, including why some people believe one or the other to be more important. Not only was the peak of the force reduced, but the total impulse or momentum coming back at the shooter was also reduced (represented by the total “area under the curve”). It’s clear that muzzle brakes significantly reduced the recoil of the each rifle. This isn’t a stock field test, but I thought that was interesting to note … and maybe an idea for a future project! 😉 Just as a reminder, the 6XC was a Manner’s Carbon Fiber Stock, the 6.5 Creedmoor was a McMillan A5 Stock, the 308 was a standard Savage stock (not their AccuStock, but their cheapest stock), and the 300 Norma Mag was an Accuracy International AX chassis. I did test other rifles chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor and 308, and while the % of recoil reduction for the muzzle brakes were very similar within the same cartridge … the recoil signatures seemed to vary based on the stock. In fact, you can see echoes of the same patterns of peaks and valleys in the bare muzzle and best muzzle brake signatures shown above, within the same rifle. Those unique quirks in the recoil signatures were consistent for a given rifle, even when using different muzzle brakes. I believe much of that is correlated to stock design. You may be wondering why some of the recoil signatures are smooth and others are more irregular.

rifle without any muzzle device), as well as the recoil signature for the muzzle brake that did the best job at reducing recoil for each of the rifles. That is over 10 times faster than the blink of an eye! The graphic shows recoil signatures for the rifles with a bare muzzle (i.e.

Each line represents almost 1000 data points, which were recorded in about 1/100th of a second.

The graphic below shows the amount of recoil force over time for each rifle, which was directly measured at the butt of the rifle. To recap, here is a look at the 4 cartridges and rifles used for the recoil tests:įirst, let’s look at how the recoil signature of each rifle was affected. You can dive deeper into the recoil data in these posts: This post provides a comprehensive view of the muzzle brake recoil reduction data gathered on all 4 rifles.

Best ak47 muzzle brake comtrol recoil