Is it better to have a Muzzle brake on the AR, have nothing or something else???

Plus i think i have to have one since I am in New York.

What are the Pro's and Con's of the Muzzle Brake........and is there anything better then a Muzzle Brake???

Thanks,

Eycee*                    

*I think you can't have one if you're in New York, thought it was kept as a banned state.

In any event I would say you don't need one, unless you're going to be doing rapid-fire shooting at night, as they can get bright (flashes) especially from the carbines!  Other than that in my opinion they just make the gun louder, especially bushmaster's versions of muzzlebreaks!

Quoted: *I think you can't have one if you're in New York, thought it was kept as a banned state. In any event I would say you don't need one, unless you're going to be doing rapid-fire shooting at night, as they can get bright (flashes) especially from the carbines!  Other than that in my opinion they just make the gun louder, especially bushmaster's versions of muzzlebreaks!

The ban banned the use of flash suppressors, and I believe NY still does.  I do not think NY requires one be installed, I am not even sure what the laws are in NY regarding AR ownership in general.

Muzzle brakes do not suppress the flash from the muzzle, they do make the report louder.  They are meant to control muzzle flip which I think is minor in the AR.  Some like them for the way they look, or to bring a less than 16" barrel up to legal length.

What you "need" depends on alot of things, but you do not need anything on the end of your barrel for it to function properly.

Not sure what "something else" might be.

Seydou

I live in the PRONY.

We are ALLOWED to have muzzle brakes and NOT ALLOWED to have flash supressors.

And yes, I am shouting the words "allowed" and "Not allowed" because I want my evil commie oppressors in Albany to hear me!  

Well , with the right muzzle brake,  you can  PRETEND it's a Flash hider  

The only purpose I see for a muzzle brake on a 223 is a varmint upper.  With a brake you will be able to do follow-up shots on targets and never lose sight picture.

I think brakes belong on magnum rifles and not a whole lot else.

Recoil has never been an issue with any of my AR's.

so a muzzle brake is more so to lesson the recoil i'm guessing...........pretty much every AR i have seen at shops that i look around to buy one in New York all have a muzzle brake on it.

So its not a neccessity?

thanx,

Eycee*                

It is not a necessity. It is confused by some as being something they were forced to relate to by the industry during the ban due to its physical appearance and restriction of the flash hider. It is a term covering a spectrum of designs.  All of which are meant to reduce muzzle movement allowing follow up shots/constant target acquasition. The physical trade off is redirected muzzle blast which, on effecient brakes will cause the opperator to need appropriate hearing protection.  I like brakes which vent to the sides. Armalite style. Miculic offers a similar one. MSTN adds top oriented angled vents. The list goes on. Keep your ears on for sure.

The one place a muzzle brake really comes into its own is when you have to do rapid follow-up shots, especially with any type of magnified optic. While .223s have very manageable recoil, with a good muzzle brake they have literally no recoil.

You will usually see muzzle brakes being used at almost any competition where speed is a factor - either that or suppressors which have all the advantages of a muzzle brake but are quieter to boot.

Recoil has never been an issue with any of my AR's.

And it won't be unless you are shooting IPSC where a double tap at 100 yards with a red dot scope is the difference in winning or losing. In the real world it would be "living or dieing."
The muzzle brake looks better to some than a naked or plain barrel, I am in that party. They are loud, but......so is the naked barrel. I don't shoot anything with out hearing protection so the "loud thing" is a bit lost on me as I wear hearing protection and I shoot in an outdoor range.

YMMV
Bill
Free State of Louisiana

Etcee,

Where are you located in the Empire State? I live in the southern tier, south of Buffalo in the sticks. If you are close we could get together sometime.

For all listening in on this post, NY has an exact mirror of the now defunct federal AWB EXCEPT there is no sunset provision and hell will freeze over before Albany would ever vote to rescind this ban.

As stated soem brakes are better than others and some are louder than others, also there is a difference between a brake (meant to check recoil impulse) and a compensator (primarily for reducing or mitigating muzzle climb, but may be designed to act as a brake as well). I like Cav comps personally, they are great for muzzle flip and do act as a brake to a certain extent but are not obnoxiously loud, to my ears they sound no different than an A2 FH/Comp. Now, I have a 20" SP1 upper with a Smith Enterprise brake/comp that is quite efficient but unfortunately is ver good at directing muzzle blast reward and is painful to shoot with foam plugs and barely tolerable with muffs, I also have this type of muzzle device for my tanker Garand but interestingly it is not as loud out of an 18" .30-06 barrel as the 20" 5.56mm barrel

I would say that for casual shooting or hunting that you would encounter here that a bare muzzle is fine, if you hunt woodchuks you typically wont get a follow up shot anyway unless you catch him away from the hole then you can chase him back (which I have done) but even then with a varminter you dont need a muzzle device, really the only time one would be truly necessary is during competition as BR stated. I hunt chucks with a 24" fluted Bushy V-Match upper on a Cav Arms MKII lower (very light) using a Russian POSP weaver based 8X scope, it has a bare muzzle and I have never lost my sight picture on a chuck out to 500 yards and have made follow up shots for the kill out to 400 or so, even my 20" SP1 with the Smith brake/comp removed alows for very quick follow ups.

If your close I can let you play with some of my rifles in different configurations so you can see the difference, mostly it is cosmetic and if you buy a rifle already equipped that is dandy, otherwise living here in NY its really not worth spending money to have a barrel threaded especially when you just have to have the damn thing welded/pinned inplace anyway and if you end up not liking it, well you just wasted hard earned cash. Now if you want to get a pre-ban then you can have anything you want with a flick of the wrench.

Jeff

I've been near people shooting bushmaster with the dreaded min-y-comp.  It has an actual concussion effect,  that kind of pulses through your body.  I didn't know an AR could do that,  untill that day. It was under a roof,  I don't know what it's like in the open.

Muzzle brake on an AR15?

Hell No.

I had one of those monstrousities during the ban, what a pain in the ass.

Loud, Heavy, unnecessary.
Did I mention loud?
If you want to annoy your fellow shooters to no end, then maybe.

Otherwise go with a bare muzzle or fake flash hider if you can't have a flash hider.

Brakes make too much noise & too much side blast. If you want the look of a Flash hider on a post ban AR put a Fake Flash Hider on like the KKF Fake Flash Hider.  It has to be silver soldered or pinned/welded to be NY compliant (No threads allowed on barrel). Since I am also in NY I installed one on my AR10 in place of that noise making brake.  

The reason there are so many muzzle brakes installed is/was to cover the muzzle threads with something rather than machine off the threads or cut off the threaded portion of the barrel.  A bare, threaded muzzle was an evil AWB feature.  Brakes were cheap and easy to install and we can thank the AWB for them being on so many rifles.  I've got a nice Colt HBAR with a pinned muzzle brake that I'll probably have to remove for it sell at any reasonable price.  

At the last three gun match I shot there was one stage that required you shoot from a low port that simulated shooting from underneath a car. One guy on my squad that had a muzzle break was blowing dirt and rocks all over himself and his rifle. The people with the flash hiders and bare muzzles didn't have that problem.

Quoted: Etcee, Where are you located in the Empire State? I live in the southern tier, south of Buffalo in the sticks. If you are close we could get together sometime. For all listening in on this post, NY has an exact mirror of the now defunct federal AWB EXCEPT there is no sunset provision and hell will freeze over before Albany would ever vote to rescind this ban. As stated soem brakes are better than others and some are louder than others, also there is a difference between a brake (meant to check recoil impulse) and a compensator (primarily for reducing or mitigating muzzle climb, but may be designed to act as a brake as well). I like Cav comps personally, they are great for muzzle flip and do act as a brake to a certain extent but are not obnoxiously loud, to my ears they sound no different than an A2 FH/Comp. Now, I have a 20" SP1 upper with a Smith Enterprise brake/comp that is quite efficient but unfortunately is ver good at directing muzzle blast reward and is painful to shoot with foam plugs and barely tolerable with muffs, I also have this type of muzzle device for my tanker Garand but interestingly it is not as loud out of an 18" .30-06 barrel as the 20" 5.56mm barrelhat) but even then with a varminter you dont need a muzzle device, really the only time one would be truly necessary is during competition as BR stated. I hunt chucks with a 24" fluted Bushy V-Match upper on a Cav Arms MKII lower (very light) using a Russian POSP weaver based 8X scope, it has a bare muzzle and I have never lost my sight picture on a chuck out to 500 yards and have made follow up shots for the kill out to 400 or so, even my 20" SP1 with the Smith brake/comp removed alows for very quick follow ups. If your close I can let you play with some of my rifles in different configurations so you can see the difference, mostly it is cosmetic and if you buy a rifle already equipped that is dandy, otherwise living here in NY its really not worth spending money to have a barrel threaded especially when you just have to have the damn thing welded/pinned inplace anyway and if you end up not liking it, well you just wasted hard earned cash. Now if you want to get a pre-ban then you can have anything you want with a flick of the wrench. Jeffhr

Jeff,

I'm located on Long Island N.Y.,  I thought that we had to have a muzzle brake on our AR's since we are in N.Y.....i'm all confused with this dam ban and muzzle brakes, and flash / fake flash hiders ......why cant they just have one thing that is standard on all guns lol. It would make life soo much easier.

By the way.....hold old are you jeff??   But yeh i would def. like to test out different set ups of the AR before i go out and buy one myself......i'm in the proccess of looking for one now, but out here on the island they are very expensive......I'm thinking about just getting a kit and a stripped lower and attempting to build one myself but i dont wanna screw it up so i'm still leading toward just gettin a complete. And if i get a complete i'll prob just go with a post-ban since that is all that is really sold at the guns shops here in N.Y.


talk to you soon,

Eycee*                    

I live on long island too, you dont need a brake...you just cant have a threaded barrel or flash-hider....well you can have a threaded barrel, but you need to permantly attach a brake to it. Also if you dont know you also cant have bayo lugs or collapsible stocks. Id say buy a upper and a lower online and just put the two together, if you want get a pre-ban upper and shave off the bayo lug this way you have a threaded barrel because if you do want a brake then you wont have to use the crappy pinned ones.

Quoted: I live on long island too, you dont need a brake...you just cant have a threaded barrel or flash-hider....well you can have a threaded barrel, but you need to permantly attach a brake to it. Also if you dont know you also cant have bayo lugs or collapsible stocks. Id say buy a upper and a lower online and just put the two together, if you want get a pre-ban upper and shave off the bayo lug this way you have a threaded barrel because if you do want a brake then you wont have to use the crappy pinned ones. hr

Yeh i was thinking about building one but like i said i dont want to screw it up lol. So do u recommend me getting a brake or not??  j/w

Where on Long Island are you located?


thanx,

Eycee*              

Quoted: Quoted: I live on long island too, you dont need a brake...you just cant have a threaded barrel or flash-hider....well you can have a threaded barrel, but you need to permantly attach a brake to it. Also if you dont know you also cant have bayo lugs or collapsible stocks. Id say buy a upper and a lower online and just put the two together, if you want get a pre-ban upper and shave off the bayo lug this way you have a threaded barrel because if you do want a brake then you wont have to use the crappy pinned ones. hr Yeh i was thinking about building one but like i said i dont want to screw it up lol. So do u recommend me getting a brake or not??  j/w Where on Long Island are you located? thanx, Eycee*               hr

Well i dont like a AR without somthing on the barrel..it just looks naked, i would get a CAV comp, and if you get a complete lower and upper you really cant screw anything up because the 2 pin together and then its ready to shoot. Oh, and i live in Coram.

D.P.M.S. sells an excellent muzzel brake made by fabrio . It's not a "sideblaster" , vents out the top and forward. Very effective and has a clean look to it.  

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I live on long island too, you dont need a brake...you just cant have a threaded barrel or flash-hider....well you can have a threaded barrel, but you need to permantly attach a brake to it. Also if you dont know you also cant have bayo lugs or collapsible stocks. Id say buy a upper and a lower online and just put the two together, if you want get a pre-ban upper and shave off the bayo lug this way you have a threaded barrel because if you do want a brake then you wont have to use the crappy pinned ones. hr Yeh i was thinking about building one but like i said i dont want to screw it up lol. So do u recommend me getting a brake or not??  j/w Where on Long Island are you located? thanx, Eycee*               hr Well i dont like a AR without somthing on the barrel..it just looks naked, i would get a CAV comp, and if you get a complete lower and upper you really cant screw anything up because the 2 pin together and then its ready to shoot. Oh, and i live on Coram. hr

you live on Coram??........you must play alot of paintball then considering the place is right in your area. Do you mean you live on Coram as in the paintball feild or the area near it?? lol. Oh what i meant that i may screw up was if i get a kit and a stripped lower receiver lol.

thanx,

Eycee*                        

Nope dont play paintball lol, i play around with Airsoft though. Woops the "on" was a type-o i ment in*