Yes indeed *****, I gave it about 50 rounds Sunday night after filming for my muzzle brake test 2.0. Ideally, I would have run it at a range session with drills, but for reasons stated below I decided to nix that idea.
The Good
+ Good recoil reduction
+ Compact
+ Looks good!
The Bad
- The brightest and longest muzzle flash; Perhaps exacerbated by the fact that it was filmed in an indoor range (you wouldn't see any flash outdoors in daylight), the muzzle blast was very bright, and did not dissipate as quickly as some of the other devices. Normally not a problem, but in this instance the flash was large/long enough that I completely lost sight of the target at 15 yards. As you'll see in the video, it ended up being worse than having no muzzle device at all. During the 5 round speed string, the flash was so overwhelming I could only guesstimate where my POA was in relation to the target. I would have had to slow down in order to visually reacquire my target.
- Overcompensation; My point of aim was pushed completely below the target paper. I would estimate it dropped my POA by 2 feet at 15yds. Observers said the muzzle drop was very noticeable, and they agreed with my findings when they fired it as well. Unlikely a problem with a bench gun, but those who run and gun (like myself) would find it a hindrance in target acquisition. I would actually go so far as to say that the reduction in recoil offered by the brake are negated by the overcompensation, resulting in only a negligible net speed gain in target engagements.
*It also has the side effect that I couldn't properly judge how much recoil reduction the brake provided, as it did not really move like I would have expected a rifle to.
- Concussion; The most 'blasty' of all the brakes I tested in this panel. One observer standing approx. 15 feet to the right of the gun mentioned it was the only brake he could feel in his chest from that position.
Unfortunately not the best of news, but I'm only providing all the data I could scavenge in those 100ish rounds experience with your device.
Two things that I think may help with the flash problem;
-Increasing the diameter of the ports
-Increasing the inner diameter of the brake
I'd also suggest machining an additional row of ports at 10o'clock and 4o'clock to reduce the overall compensation, while possibly providing increase braking. It shouldn't increase the dust signature much, if at all.
Lastly, thanks for taking the time and effort to design and machine a brake and sending it to me for testing. I look forward to new revisions of the brake! Let me know if you have any other cool things you'd like me to test
I'll also let you know when the editing of the video is complete (might be awhile, now that I have 3 times as much video to cut!).
Regards,
CarbineOne