QUALITY
The quality of this bolt-on muzzle brake is excellent. It's machined from 6061-T6511 aluminum, and MIL-A-8625 Type III hardcoat anodized. Additionally I'm told the screws are aircraft grade screws. This is not a one size fits all product the way your first suit was, or that pair of shoes you had that always rubbed you the wrong way. To start the sizing on the muzzle brake is custom based on your rifle's barrel. What?!?! A bespoke muzzle brake at a decent price(more on that later) in this age of mass production and one size fits all rifle accessories. You measure the diameter of your barrel at the crown and an inch and a half in so that they send you a muzzle brake that will fit your barrels taper properly.
This brake is offered in 5 different finishes from natural aluminum, matte black, machined black, matte grey and machined grey. I went with the machined black, which in normal lighting conditions matches the blued barrel pretty well.
Overall the quality seems very good, and about 100 rounds in has held up perfectly.
INSTALLATION
The installation would generally be quick and easy. You simply slide the muzzle brake onto your barrel make sure it's lined up properly and screw in the included hex screws to 18inch/lbs (which is roughly hand tight on an allen wrench for most people). Under normal circumstances the muzzle brake is easy to remove so if you're going hunting and don't want it on no problem.
When I installed the brake there was a snafu and I ended up torquing it to around 18ft/lbs or 12 times as much as what's recommended. If I realized it was 18inch/lbs I would have just torqued it by hand...since I typically torque things beyond that torque by hand with nothing more than an allen wrench (yes I have, and do tend to bend allen wrenches often...what do you want? As a hobby I bend nails for fun with my hands). Even with all that extra torque the screws did not strip the threading, which is really a testament to the quality of the materials used in this brake.
EFFECTIVENESS
I'm pretty skeptical about a muzzle brake that can be bolted on to a smooth barrel. I'm always concerned that either the brake isn't going to work or perhaps worse the brake my end up flying down the range after I take a few shots. Previously I tried a different bolt-on muzzle brake and it ended up 15 yards down range. The last thing you want is to see your brake marring your barrel and flying down range.
With the Kahntrol I didn't have that problem, as I previously mentioned the screws were torqued pretty tight so there wasn't really any chance that the brake would come off unless the sizing or design were flawed. As expected the brake stayed on and was rock solid. I have no reason to believe it wouldn't be just as solid if torqued to the correct specifications, because clearly if it needed more torque the manufacturer would just increase the specification
To my pleasant surprise the brake worked great! It dramatically reduced the recoil. Not that .308 is a recoil beast but you'd be surprised how much recoil a Howa 1500 sporter has given the thin barrel profile...it's a lot more than you would think. As a result of the reduced recoil I was able to keep my reticle on target almost as if I was shooting a off the rack .223 AR-15. Even when I fired the rifle from it's bipod and off my shoulder the recoil was minimal and moved the rifle maybe an inch.
I was concerned that it would be loud, perhaps really loud. From the shooter's perspective I didn't really find it much louder than running the rifle without the muzzle brake. Additionally to test the noise I let people shoot the rifle and I stood in different positions. First I stood behind the shooter and the sound was not noticeably louder than running the barrel bare. Second I stood approximately 45 degrees off center and about 6 feet right of the shooter, it wasn't much louder than a normal .308.
It probably was a bit louder but not by much in those positions. While standing behind the shooter I noticed fairly big fireballs/smoke shoot out the sides of the muzzlebrake, it was more impressive looking than shooting the barrel bare, but clearly if you're a wannabe sniper you may not want a muzzle signature like this. Based on the muzzle flash and gasses being blown to the side, I would imagine that it would be somewhat louder than a normal barrel to the shooter in the next lane. I wouldn't expect it to be unbearable as it's not like you're shooting a braked 50 BMG.
I found this to be a very effective muzzle brake. Every shooter, including myself, that tried it was impressed by the reduction in recoil.
POI SHIFT/ACCURACY
When shooting the rifle with this muzzle brake I used 7.62x51 Nato Plastic Training ammo, 7.62x51 Australian F4 surplus ammo, Nato Surplus 7.62x51 ammo, Hornady SST .308 ammo and my favorite factory ammo Federal Gold Medal Match .308. I found there was a slight point of impact shift, my gun was shooting high after putting the muzzle brake on.
I adjusted the zero on my scope to match the point of impact. I found there was no degradation in accuracy what so ever, the gun was printing the same size groups that it typically shoots with each type of ammo respectively. I found myself able to get followup shots on target much faster than I was able to before installing this muzzle brake. In this way it sort of increased the practical accuracy(what i'm capable of with this rifle) on followup shots.
That being said I can't say that it increased the actual accuracy of the rifle, only that the rifle maintained the same level of accuracy that it already had prior to the muzzle brake.
VALUE
When determining the value, I like to weigh the effectiveness of the product versus the price of the product. There are some products out there that are cheap and crappy and a low value, while there are other products out there that are really expensive but amazing and a high value. This muzzle brake is a good value...It's not the cheapest brake you can find but performance outweighs the price.
It's really geared for someone that doesn't have a threaded muzzle on their rifle. If you have a threaded muzzle it probably doesn't make sense to get this brake, although I would imagine it's probably just as effective at reducing recoil as the threaded brakes on the market.
It's an extremely effective, install it yourself, muzzle brake. At a price tag of $150, it may or may not seem a little pricey for you. For a top good muzzle brake, such as this, the price isn't bad...I wouldn't want to pay that much if I had a threaded barrel but if you don't it's reasonable. Additionally when you consider the money you save by not having your muzzle threaded it's pretty significant value. Not only does it work well, it also saves you money over the option of having your barrel threaded and a traditional muzzle brake installed.
For example, let's say your going to have your muzzle threaded by a popular shop like ADCO, if it's a bolt action it's going to cost you $140 just for the threading service. Also you've got to ship your barreled action/rifle to them what does that cost about $15 or $20 and they charge another $4 to return it. So right now let's say you're up to $159 and you don't even have a muzzle brake just a threaded barrel.
Now you've got to add a muzzle brake let's say that's between $60(.308 Claymore Brake) to $200(.308 BattleComp). I would say on average you're probably looking at about $100 for a decent muzzle brake that will really reduce recoil. That brings you up to $259, and you may or may not be able to easily remove and reinstall the brake whenever you'd like.
In conclusion at $150, for a muzzle brake that drastically reduces recoil and can be installed on a non-threaded barrel by anyone it is a good value. Would I like to see this at a smooth $100, of course...it would be a steal at $100, but even at $150 it's a high value muzzle brake that I would recommend to anyone looking to add a muzzle brake that doesn't have a threaded barrel.
On a side note as far as muzzle brakes go it looks pretty bad ass, which is always a plus. When I was at a range guy came over to me asked what I was shooting, I told him it was a Howa 1500 .308 he was like "It looks like a freaking sniper rifle"... not really but it does look pretty cool with it.
Available at http://kahntrol.com/
I'm going to post a video review of this in the near future, so you can see the recoil from the rifle before adding the muzzle brake, and after installing this muzzle brake.
I've had one of these on my Howa 1500 .308 heavy barrel for a while now. Put about 700 rounds down the pipe with the brake on. Totally agree with this review -- great product, great price, and never moved a thou.
ReplyDeleteMick