Hello AR15.com!

I believe my I/O Beryl Archer's muzzle brake is upside down and need advice on how to rectify it. The Archer is my first AK and indeed my first semi-auto firearm, so I welcome the vast knowledge of the users here on what the recommended course of action is. Below are some pics of the affected area.

My questions are: (Updated with answers)

• Is the brake upside down? -YES


• Is the brake threaded onto the barrel? -NO


• What is the procedure for removing the pins on the brake? Could I do this at home without special tools? -Drill them out


• Could a gunsmith without experience with a Beryl rifle remove the brake and reattach it right side up without much trouble?

Imgur Gallery Link

http://i.imgur.com/uFQfTGK.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rh8qicNh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/9Bui9ONh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Or6U1dDh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DhQT7kSh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/UYNYyUIh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/5kDVBE9h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/AWD7c3Bh.jpg

I really appreciate your advice with this. The Beryl is an absolutely fantastic shooter and might be a 1-1.5 MOA rifle. I don't know because I'm not yet good enough with it to tell! It's a shame that such a great rifle has this dumb brake problem and I really want to get it right.

Gee willikers, I think it is upside down.

You could try driving the pins out and see if it is then free to remove but I would try to find replacement pins before I destroyed the originals.

A reasonably competent 'smith should be able to rotate it for you.

I would contact whomever you purchased it from and see it they'll compensate (pun) you for the fix.

Thanks for the advice, but I don't think I can drive the pins out because they do not pass clear through the brake. Rather, they only go in on the left side: compare Brake left side with Brake right side. Hammering it wouldn't seem to do the trick. Would a gunsmith be able to do something special with this setup? The only thing I can think of without some unknown-to-me gunsmith tool is to drill the pins out and replace them.

I got the rifle from I/O, so I'm unenthusiastic about trying to get compensation from them To their credit, however, the gun came with only one mag even though I ordered it during a promo for two mags with every purchase, and I/O shipped me a Polish-made green mag instead of the expected TapCo version.

You could drill them out.

I would have thought that the barrel was grooved (like an AR-15 FSB) to accept the pins.  That newer brake doesn't seem to have the material to be threaded (like the old/original Archer brake which was retained by the "classic" locking pin and groove method).

So either there are no grooves at all or the grooves were reversed as well (upper forward, lower aft instead of the other way around).

I can check mine when I get home. It may be right though. I would IM Montrala to be sure. He is in Poland and will know.

Thanks, I just IMed Montrala. Hope he won't mind a random person bugging him with an I/O screwup.

I'd really appreciate it if you could check yours when you can. Thanks!

Are these the grooves that you're referring to?

http://i.imgur.com/I2CabT8l.jpg

That's bad news if the barrel is drilled wrongly, but you're right; it would have to be drilled wrongly to pin the upside down muzzle device to the barrel. The muzzle device can't be rotated by hand, so it appears to be a very solid fit. I guess the only way to know is to drill out the pins and remove the device.

I hope that since it's a FB-manufactured barrel that they drilled it correctly at the factory to accept the muzzle device. But maybe I.O. Inc. imports them without the drill holes because it is the one who installs the muzzle device. We'll see.



Montrala confirms that the muzzle devices are just pressed onto the barrel and pinned, so no threading. Therefore, the pins must be drilled out and replaced. He recommended I contact Ted Marshall from FB Radom USA to obtain replacement pins, so that's what I'm doing now.

I've also emailed Royal Tiger Imports (the dealer alter-ego of I.O. Inc.) to see if they can help me out. They were very good about sending me a forgotten magazine when I first bought the rifle from them, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

I don't know anything about the Archer, but I do know that ports on a muzzle brake go on the top to help reduce muzzle rise.

Yours actually looks like it was pinned, mine ser# 3xx is also pressed on but looks like it has not been pinned.

If yours was pinned, I would machine the brake off (not drill the pins on blind holes) & contact Ted Marshall for a replacement.

I hear you about the ports on the top, but I'm pretty convinced it's upside down. Take a look at this pic from when Atlantic Firearms carried the I/O Beryl Archer. Note the cutout is on the bottom of the muzzle device in the pic, whereas mine is on the top. I've read that this cutout allows the grenade launcher to attach properly.

http://i.imgur.com/D1YaP43.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/UYNYyUIl.jpg

This indicates to me that there's a discrepancy here. Moreover, MAC in his review of the first generation Beryl shows that the holes on his rifle's muzzle device more or less match those on the Atlantic Firearms rifle. Here are the relevant screen grabs I'm looking at:

http://i.imgur.com/fYGu1TEh.png

So it looks like the holes are supposed to be at about 1:00, 4:00, and 8:00 on the compensator. Mine, however, are at 10:00, 2:00, and 7:00, leading me to suspect that my compensator was just put on upside down.

I fixed it by RMAing the rifle for a replacement. The new rifle has a muzzle device that is affixed the right way up. Ironically, while the rifle was being RMAed with I.O. Inc. (a process which ended up taking more than a month) I purchased an authentic Polish Beryl muzzle device which I want to put on the rifle. Holding the two side by side, it's clear that the Polish device has a much nicer finish and just looks better, and it appears that the holes on the two are in identical positions so it should just be a matter of finding some pins that will fit. Anyone know where I can find Fabryka Broni pins?

User Stupit at theakforum.com experienced the same issue on his I.O. Beryl, but his muzzle device was not pinned on. He managed to press it off and documented the process in this thread.

I'm thinking about doing the same to my rifle, but am dissuaded by the extreme amount of force that it took to get his off. Does anyone know if Beryl muzzle devices typically are pressed on with huge amounts of force, or did this particular I.O. muzzle device just require that much?

Picked up A archer today and the muzzle brake is pined with a hollow roll pin that does not go all the way through The slot on the muzzle brake is to the bottom. This rifle was manufactured in 2013 and sn# is AR005xx