Posted: 12/23/2007 3:33:24 PM EDT
| What does a muzzle beak do? Is it for appearance only? Is there a difference between a muzzle break an a compesator? Do either change the noise level? |
Yes, the blast IS REDIRECTED to the sides or back toward the shooter, making the noise seem much louder. If you just like the look or want to protect the muzzle threads You can install a Fake flash hider. |
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The muzzle brake is a device that is used to reduce muzzle climb, and this may result in an increase of perceived blast and recoil. This is typified by the AK-47 slant muzzle brake, which does nothing to conceal the flash. A sound supressor, (a.k.a. silencer, or compensator) contains the flash entirely and as such can also be termed a flash hider. The term compensator can refer to a similar device, but it can also be used to refer to a noise abatement fixture as well, (the misused term "silencer" is more often encountered.) The famous muzzle brake used on a Thompson sub-machine gun is known as a Cutt's Compensator, and is meant to reduce muzzle climb during fully automatic firing as the slots cut in it direct the gas straight up, thus forcing the muzzle downward against the recoil. In technically correct use, a compensator, or supressor, is designed to contain the blast of gas that follows the projectile out of the muzzle, directing it through a set of baffles to slow the expanding gas, and by doing so reduces the explosive report of the shot, (this is of course moot if you are not using ammunition loaded to sub-sonic velocity as the projectile will otherwise provide its own sonic crack when it achieves sufficient velocity.). Some refer to muzzle brakes as compensators and this, especially in reference to pistol applications, is accepted useage. A flash hider is a device that conceals or breaks up the muzzle flash either by mechanically concealing the muzzle as in the case of the flash hiders seen on many Enfield Jungle Carbines or the US M1 Carbine. These are both conical shaped devices that extend beyond the muzzle crown and confine the stream of gas and flash directly toward the target, instead of allowing the flash to bloom in a spherical shape as it would from an un-shielded barrel. The other method to accomplish the "hiding" is to break up the gas stream by attachment of a device that has vents that direct the gas, such as in the example of the "bird cage" or three prong used on the M-16/AR-15. Many variants of these are seen such as in the Vortex, where there is a rotation applied to the gas as it expands, thus causing dissipation of the bloom of the muzzle flash. The original application of muzzle brakes was on artillery pieces, in an effort to reduce the violent forces that accompany the firing of a field gun. It was found that much less effort needed to be expended by gun crews on follow up shots if the gun didn't move so much. These are not used in the case of naval guns mainly due to the effect of the water in absorbing the recoil. Whether you call it a muzzle brake or a recoil compensator you are referring to the same family of devices. Hiram Maxim, of Maxim machine gun fame, is credited with the invention of the sound compensator or supressor, and he designed models to be fitted on everything from howitzers to rifles to handguns. Around the time of World War One there were artillery fitted with Maxim "Silencers", (hence the term - blame Hiram...), and the idea was it would be more difficult to target a "silenced" gun. Of course, these were large and mostly ineffective devices, but they did muffle the gun somewhat. Where Maxim's compensator came into it's own was in rifle applications and the advantages to snipers are obvious. Rifle compensators are used today, but they are seldom used with sub-sonic ammunition by snipers as they need the range and velocity of supersonic loads. The real effect of using a compensator in this way is that it makes it difficult to directionalize the report of the weapon, and in this way provides an additional level of concealment. Hope this helps ...  |
Can you cite a source that states a compensator and suppressor are the same thing? I believe you are getting terms confused. Generally:
Edited to Add: To address the Original Poster's question: a brake/compensator will generally increase the sound and blast noticed by people behind and to the side of the firearm. |
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My point is that there is a lot of confusion out there regarding these terms. I was not intending to cite anything, merely point out that a lot of folks use these terms in conflicting ways to define different muzzle applied devices. There are a lot of authorities on the subject, but I would avoid using wiki-anything as a sole source of information. Most of what I know and have said is from personal experience, and from reading books published on the subject by people like Ian Hogg. I know that wikipedia is out there and it is fairly reliable as a source of information, but I do not use it to support definition of technical subjects because it is open source - read "user defined", and as such is subject to the author's interpretation of the subject. I have been an armorer for military weapons since 1972, and a gunsmith since 1990 and that is what I base my knowledge on. I know that isn't much to go on, but I seem to understand what I'm talking about and that is what matters to me. %^) I believe that there are many who use the term of compensator to refer to a supressor, as I personally have heard special ops personnel refer to supressors as compensators. This may not be technically correct, but it all depends on who you ask. I just wanted to let the guy know that his question had a lot more than a simple answer. I am certainly not claiming to be an authority, however, I will refer to my personal experience when I know the facts and have been witness to events that have proven to be factual by the evidence. |
I have seen the single word "suppressor" being used in reference to both flash suppressors and sound suppressors; I have seen tons of wrong information on sound suppressors, including calling them "silencers". I have never seen a phrase with "compensator" being used describe a sound suppressor. I'm not saying that doesn't happen, I am just stating that is outside of my experience. I also keep a disclaimer in my .sig :-) -WhyTanFox |