The point of a brake is to lessen recoil and reduce muzzle rise, ie keep you on target. Some achieve that with less blowback than others. I have no experience with the Cadex but I have numerous Heathens and they do a great job of lessening recoil and muzzle rise whilst pushing less blowback (and dirt and debris) back at the shooter (and towards anybody next to him, important for 2 man teams) than other brakes I have tried. If your yardstick for how effective your brake works is determined by how much blowback you get, I'd suggest that you're using the wrong metric by which to judge it's performance...
Canadian made muzzle brakes- what’s your favourite?
- Thread starter blueoval56
- Start date
The point of a brake is to lessen recoil and reduce muzzle rise, ie keep you on target. Some achieve that with less blowback than others. I have no experience with the Cadex but I have numerous Heathens and they do a great job of lessening recoil and muzzle rise whilst pushing less blowback (and dirt and debris) back at the shooter (and towards anybody next to him, important for 2 man teams) than other brakes I have tried. If your yardstick for how effective your brake works is determined by how much blowback you get, I'd suggest that you're using the wrong metric by which to judge it's performance...
Precision rifle blog's test clearly showed that the brakes that performed best at pure recoil reduction were the loudest behind the rifle. In every muzzle brake test I've read or watched on YT, the best of the best for pure recoil reduction all had large, rear-angled vents. With physics being the way it is, those rear angled vents are going to blow sht back at you.
That being said, I don't think many people are going to notice (or care about) a 5-10% difference in recoil between the best rear-angled brakes and something good with 90* baffles, at least in smaller calibers. The muzzle brakes I have are all 90* baffles with no ports on the bottom. No blowback, no dirt kick up. If I were to buy a new brake for my 6.5 RPR it would be a Heathen, without question. But if I were to build 338 Lapua tomorrow it would get a Terminator or something similar.
The only Canadian-made brake I have is a MRA Rock Solid that I put on a little 6.5 Grendel SLR. Seems well machined, well priced, and the stainless matched my stainless Odin barrel perfectly. Being on a semi, with an adjustable gas block, recoil is very minimal. My 223 Tikka varmint has more recoil.
That being said, I don't think many people are going to notice (or care about) a 5-10% difference in recoil between the best rear-angled brakes and something good with 90* baffles, at least in smaller calibers. The muzzle brakes I have are all 90* baffles with no ports on the bottom. No blowback, no dirt kick up. If I were to buy a new brake for my 6.5 RPR it would be a Heathen, without question. But if I were to build 338 Lapua tomorrow it would get a Terminator or something similar.
The only Canadian-made brake I have is a MRA Rock Solid that I put on a little 6.5 Grendel SLR. Seems well machined, well priced, and the stainless matched my stainless Odin barrel perfectly. Being on a semi, with an adjustable gas block, recoil is very minimal. My 223 Tikka varmint has more recoil.
Too much blow back in the sense that if you are at the range with other, people 4 stalls down can feel the blow back from the break and it disturbs their shooting. I’ve other breaks just as effective where the blow back won’t disturb others.
William_mississauga
CGN Regular
- Location
- Lunenburg Ontario
I have a clamp on brake from Grizzly gunworks on my rem 700 308 and it works great.
I'm not saying blowback is my yardstick. I'm saying that there is more than likely a direct correlation between brakes that perform better than others and blowback. You cant suck and blow at the same time... it's just physics.
As you said, you don't have an MX1 to compare so you can only speculate. I on the other hand shoot with a few fellows who do have Heathens, so I'm not really supposing.
Selecting a brake because it has less blowback simply suggests that you have made a conscious decision to prioritize comfort over performance.
Not that there is anything wrong with that, particularly for smaller calibers.... It's just a personal choice, and you cant have it both ways without a suppressor.
Personally I run ear plugs and covers, but I do that regardless of the brake. All centerfire rifles are too loud.
The Cadex MX1 brake appeals to me for scientific reasons. There is a high efficiency prototype motor that I was instrumental in design and manufacturing some years ago called the Vengeance motor. Its function operated on pressure differential during the firing sequence. Inside the engine instead of pistons was a series of blades that moved in and out following an eliptical shape. The direction of rotation was initiated by the blade that was protruding the farthest at ignition. So pressure differential was the key to its operation. Brakes can apply this same principal, and Cadex does.
Since the Cadex MX1 brake gets wider toward the front, the larger surface area at the front most vents would make the most out of the decreased pressure at that point and therefore logically perform better than a brake that was uniform from front to back. So from this perspective, the Cadex MX1 brake probably performs better than those that do not share this attribute. Noise and blast not withstanding.
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Cool story...
So you've compared a Heathen to the Cadex and you like it better, good for you. My point was that there are other parameters that are important to consider other than strictly recoil mitigation. I'd rather have a brake that pushes less debris and #### back at me/my shooting partner and manages recoil to the degree necessary for me to stay on target, see my trace/splash (what my requirements in a brake are) than a brake that potentially mitigates recoil slightly more at the cost of more blowback (being that the "extra performance" isn't needed), high efficiency prototype motors notwithstanding.
