Removing a type 97's pinned muzzle break?

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Vitally

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Hey guys,

I've been out of the gunsmithing game for a while now and don't have access to any of the big gun tools anymore. That said, I'm looking to tackle a supposedly pretty simple project. Id like to pull the factory muzzle break off my new type 97. It's the closest thing to a 'loudencer' I've ever had on a firearm and I'd like to put something a little more mild on it.

Ive tried tapping out the pin with a punch, but it's damn tight, tapered, or welded. I'm not sure which.

Anyone have any experience with removing the muzzle break on a t97? Any advice? Obviously I don't want to trash the gun in the process.
 
Short answer: Don't.

Long answer:
Removing the pin is the easy part. The muzzle device is press fit onto the barrel and won't come off easily even with pin removed. Mine had to be cut in half.
Then comes the real PITA to thread the muzzle. The right way to do it is on lathe, but for that you'd have to strip the barrel clean from the receiver and gas system, which nobody wants to do.
The wrong way to do it is with a hand die. It's wrong because threads wont be the exact size, and the new muzzle device you put on it will likely be loose. When you tighten it down with a jam nut, it will likely not align properly with the bore, meaning you wont be able to use any muzzle brakes or long 3 prong flash hiders.

So the short "long" answer is also Don't.
 
Interesting, Thanks for the insight! I've done lots of barrel threading in my time so getting it done properly wouldn't be too big a deal, aside from the whole stripping the thing bare part of course. It's interesting yours was simply press-fit onto the barrel. A friend of mine I spoke to said his was threaded on with a proprietary metric thread. But that could be hogwash.
 
Vitally said:
Interesting, Thanks for the insight! I've done lots of barrel threading in my time so getting it done properly wouldn't be too big a deal, aside from the whole stripping the thing bare part of course. It's interesting yours was simply press-fit onto the barrel. A friend of mine I spoke to said his was threaded on with a proprietary metric thread. But that could be hogwash.
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look bratan, if you really know what you're doing maybe I can get you to fix mine. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend.
 
I took mine off with the intention of taking everything off the barrel to put it through the headstock of my lathe to thread properly. The muzzle device came off easy enough. Moving anything else on that barrel just didn't happen. I press fit on a threaded adapter I made to get threads on there. Kind of a half assed solution, but it got me what I wanted.
 
you can very easily get past having the barrel in the receiver by turning between centers, just make up a long center to pass through the receiver and hold the chamber, running some kind of block off that into an area of the receiver for a drive lug. I've done lots of hinky barrel work this way.
 
I used to own one of these, then I smartened up and bought a tavor lol.
Regardless, I did the muzzle break conversion with great success at one point.
After driving the pin out the break was still too tight to budge, so I had to slowly eat away at it with a grinder and dremel cut disc. The combination of heat and less metal contact loosened it up. If you're careful you can do it without touching the barrel. There's definitely not enough heat transfered to do any damage to the barrel.
I used a sort of intermediate between the right and wrong way to thread. You can purchase an annular cutter with a brass guide to cut down the exterior diameter of the barrel to the proper size (lube the hell out of it and it won't mark the inside at all). Then Brownells sells tapping kits with a guide rod/pilot in various calibers to ensure you cut it straight. Once you get the thread started, you can switch to a normal tap and run it down. Not the BEST way obviously, can't beat a lathe, but it works well enough for a cheap rifle without too much stress imo.
 
traq said:
you can very easily get past having the barrel in the receiver by turning between centers, just make up a long center to pass through the receiver and hold the chamber, running some kind of block off that into an area of the receiver for a drive lug. I've done lots of hinky barrel work this way.
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what about just clamping the end of the receiver and center at the muzzle and fine tuning till your dial is at center?
 
The muzzle break on this is not a muzzle break but a flash hider. Agreed replacing a break with a flash hider would reduce the noise level but it is not going to help by replacing this flash hider. The reason the rifle has such a harsh noise level is it's a bullpup which brings the muzzle closer to you than you're use to. I would not bother to do this change your proposing as I don't believe you will see any reduced noise.

Cheers
Moe
 
Sorry, muzzle break was a slip of the tongue. Flash hider.

Its not my perceived loudness I'm worried about. I shoot 300wm and the other big boom calibers all the time happily. It's more about the comfort of the guys around me at the range. Being able to remove the device all together and just throw a thread protector on when I'm at the indoor range seems like a neighborly thing to do. Obviously I don't mag dump or any other obnoxiousness like that, But it's also nice to not be self conscious about what I'm shooting.

I've got a couple of comments about it being louder than other 223s, so it's got me thinking about options more than anything.
 
Makes a lot of sense. Not like we're running silencers up here so a little bit of misalignment in the threads can be tolerated. Interesting you used an annular cutter with a brass rod to center the cutter. That's a clever solution!
 
Levon12345 said:
I took mine off with the intention of taking everything off the barrel to put it through the headstock of my lathe to thread properly. The muzzle device came off easy enough. Moving anything else on that barrel just didn't happen. I press fit on a threaded adapter I made to get threads on there. Kind of a half assed solution, but it got me what I wanted.
Click to expand...

Honestly I think it's pretty clever. OK, maybe not client ready work as far as barrel threading goes. But that said I've been entertaining the idea of just press fitting my own choice of muzzle device on it and calling it a day. I'm not expecting them to legalize silencers any time soon, so you really don't loose that much by going that route unless you love trying different breaks.
 
Pin should come out without all that much issue. It shouldn’t be welded, just a press for flash hider with a pin.

I could see something like a linear comp helping slightly with your issue.
 
I had Tactical Ordnance remove the flash hider and replace it with a threaded on linear compensator, along with cerakoting the T97.
They did an excellent job.
 
Best way would be to send it off to a gunsmith.
But If your going to do it yourself make sure you get the pilot and annular cutter. People like to poo poo on you for doing it yourself at home. Many have done it successfully, many haven’t.
 
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