muzzle brake

[Beekeeper]

I have a mosin/nagant M44 that I want to take the bayonet off of.
Saw an article some time ago where a guy did it and fixed the barrel with a pipe that he had made into a muzzle brake by drilling holes in it and silver soldering it on .

My Question : is it legal to do something like that in Kalifornication?




Jim

[John Taylor]

A piece of pipe does not make a muzzle brake. As far as I know as long as the barrel is over 16" or more it is legal. Muzzle brakes need to be lined up with the bore and most are threaded on.

[deltaenterprizes]

That would function as a flash hider more than a muzzle brake. A muzzle brake has restriction a little larger than the bullet diameter that forces gasses through the holes.It also needs to beconcentric to the bore. That guy has been watching too many movies.

[Beekeeper]

I don't know any more than I posted but here are 2 pics of the muzzle brake as he calls it on a mosin M44


Jim

[yondering]

That's a flash hider, not a brake. Recoil reduction will be minimal.

A good muzzle brake will reduce recoil quite a bit, if that's what you're after. A good brake needs lots of surface area perpendicular to the bore for the escaping gasses to act on.

[largom]

I make the bore of my brakes .040 over bore Dia. of the gun and drill the gas ports on a 7 Deg. angle. Recoil is reduced 40 to 60% but they are LOUD.

Larry

[yondering]

I make the bore of my brakes .040 over bore Dia. of the gun and drill the gas ports on a 7 Deg. angle. Recoil is reduced 40 to 60% but they are LOUD.

Larry

Larry, just curious, is that a 7 degree angle forward or to the rear? How many gas ports and what size generally?

[deltaenterprizes]

To the rear , forward would cause more recoil. Look at the brake on a Barrett , it is steeper than that.

[yondering]

To the rear , forward would cause more recoil. Look at the brake on a Barrett , it is steeper than that.

I've seen a number of brakes with ports leaning forward, that work very well. I have one.

[largom]

Larry, just curious, is that a 7 degree angle forward or to the rear? How many gas ports and what size generally?

The holes are angled to the rear. I drill the holes 3/16 in Dia., 5 holes to a row and 6 rows evenly spaced. I have also made some with holes only on top and sides to reduce muzzle jump and for varmint shooters shooting with a bipod so as not to blow dirt up. Muzzle brakes also help to retain sight picture in scope after fireing. I have one on my 220 Swift.

Larry

[Beekeeper]

OK,
I don't know one from the other but I am going to redo a m44 mosin and do not want the bayonet and all of the metal that goes with it.
My idea was to replace it all with the "Flash hider/Muzzle brake".
Before I waste the money and have to destroy the weapon I was wanting to know the legalities as far as California is concerned.
Are there any Ca. gun owners that know? Or know where to go look?


Jim

[largom]

OK,
I don't know one from the other but I am going to redo a m44 mosin and do not want the bayonet and all of the metal that goes with it.
My idea was to replace it all with the "Flash hider/Muzzle brake".
Before I waste the money and have to destroy the weapon I was wanting to know the legalities as far as California is concerned.
Are there any Ca. gun owners that know? Or know where to go look?


Jim


I would call a gunsmith and ask if he installs muzzle brakes. If it's illegal he should tell you so. Ca. can have some weird laws but you can buy a Browning with the Boss system which is basically a muzzle brake.

Larry

[John Taylor]

I'm probably the only one here who has actually tested brakes. Tried many stiles before I settled on one that I like. The testing was done using a 308 with a 22" barrel. Three brakes were used to test angle of gas ports. The first had the holes at 60 degree from the bore slanting forward. next was at 90 degrees to the bore, strait out and third at 120 degrees, slanting back. The first brake reduced recoil 25%. The second and third brake were equal at 50% reduction. The third was noticeably louder. The idea of slanting the holes back was in the hope that the gas would pull the barrel forward, therefor reduce the recoil more. It didn't prove out in testing. Brake testing set up. Measurement were taken in the amount of travel caused during recoil
http://johntaylormachine.com/typo3temp/pics/559ad73c8c.jpg

[Nobade]

You're not the only one here who has done that. We did it years ago when coming up with a design for our brakes. An interesting thing to do is shoot them at night and take pictures with an open shutter, letting the light from the shot expose the film. You can easily see where the fireball is, and it directly relates to the effectiveness of the brake. Fire all around the brake equals much better performance compared to fire out past the muzzle. Our conclusions were the same as yours - the holes perpendicular to the bore worked the best and are much easier to manufacture.

[deltaenterprizes]

Interesting,thanks for the info!

[jbunny]

many years ago when muzzle brake were just getting popular, i had one installed
on my bruno ZKK 458 mag. i drive out to a gravel pit and fireda round. i thought
the rifle had blown up. my left cheek was all num from the muzzle blast. all the holes
were at 90 degs. i marched that thing right back and they fixed it. the first set of holes
closest to the shooter were angled foward 15 deg or so and that kept the other 90 deg
holes from blasting back at u. it was still loud but it did not sting u anymore
jb