Oh, disclaimer, I received no money or incentive to post about this, I do have a bit of a bias as Ive talked to the owners a few times and get along with them well but they didn't seem to want to bother me with asking to post up about, but thought id share.
IMG_2217 by
cody c, on Flickr
IMG_2122 by
cody c, on Flickr
So.. I got out to get some groups at a relatives quarter section up north, they gotta nice bench and 100, 200, 300, 400 yard target boards with a 500 yard gong with large thick wooden back drop. Some of the locals use it as well with permission. Anyways the 6.5 shot poorly... I was pretty bummed, and then figured out I hadn't properly torqued up rail screws!!! Went from 2-3" to between about .5"-.75" with box (130 federal) ammo after torquing the rail screws in. Doh!
The brake is easy to dial, it has little notches that the thumb screw at the end spins against. There is a spring behind it that pushes the shell against the thumb screw so it wont come loose or pop out of place, it rotates with solid clicks, or if you want you can slide the shell backwards from the screw and spin the nut without making noise and spin it quicker. I wish I had some method of putting a metric on how much recoil changes, I may do that at some point but would be pretty involved.
Ok more important notes:
-Dialing in or out the brake made no noticeable difference in POI. I only went full open to full closed so didn't get to play with tuning it, but I suspect it has the potential to dial in groups a bit like the harmonic balancer on a mini 14, having ports on top may play a bigger part in barrel harmonics for tuning for a specific factory round but I didn't play with that yet. This may work quite well for someone wanting to shoot lots of factory ammo and not bother with reloading but to try and dial in loads a bit for accuracy, that may be one of its biggest advantages.
-With the brake on, vs off the rifle it did shift POI slightly (POI shift about 3" right at 100 yards), but that was before I torqued in the rail. I need to get out and experiment with it more and get some better measurements. Ill get out again at some point and try shooting with a few different factory rounds, and rotate it 180 (upside down) to see if or how it shifts to right versus left. I did chat with an older machinist who mentioned taking material off the right or left side of the ports to get it balanced but I need to understand better how much it is shifting.
-The kit comes with washers to act like shims, in order to tighten the brake down and have it indexed properly. The washers were all the same thickness, its easier to shave one down than stack washers and they probably would be good to have a few different thicknesses.
-At a measured 7.2 ounces, I don't know that I would use this on a rifle where the plan would be to put it on and take it off for longer hikes, it seems to make more sense to leave on a rifle and dial the brake off if you use it for hunting and don't want the increased noise without earplugs.
-However! it is really nice to have the option to dial out the brake if you forget earplugs when out shooting targets.
-its not a bulky brake, for weight or size, I like how it slides in or out of my eberlestock pack with rifle scabbard as its fairly stream lined.
-the recoil was also less with the brake on and ports closed as compared to without the brake. It could be the added (7.2 ounces) or the way the expanding gases move around at the end differently but it was very obvious. Again, a 10 pound rifle in a small caliber but Id be very happy to let some first time shooter try it without encouraging a flinch.
-I tried one of the iphone db decibel apps to get a comparative difference in noise... Essentially the app kinda sucks, there was no consistent noise level, too much fluctuation to give a definitive answer, but I could tell that the concussion behind the rifle was an obvious difference between open and closed. I shot one time with brake open without ear protection and regretted it. I may need to get a couple different phones with apps at different locations around the bench or a proper measuring tool to define it better.
More pictures:
IMG_2048 by
cody c, on Flickr
IMG_2215 by
cody c, on Flickr
IMG_2049 by cody c, on Flickr
IMG_2051 by cody c, on Flickr
IMG_2220 by cody c, on Flickr
