muzzle brake

[Extremetaz 15]

Howdy guys,

 

Proud new owner of a HW100 and just reading around for now - will post up a proper into in a bit.

 

I know this thread is a few weeks old but felt I might be able to clarify where the whole muzzle turbulance thing comes from.

 

Pianoman is bang on - it's absolute nonsense where any projectile with a proper barrel seal is concerned.

 

Where it *is* actually a concern, and where the practice originated, is in paintball - ie: where you have a very poor barrel seal and a seamed projectile on a non-uniform axis.

 

It's quite common in tuned paintball markers that one will notice a spiral of holes of increasing diameter along the last 2-3" of the barrel. These holes allow the air that's flying past the projectile to be ported out of the way thereby reducing buffeting as the paintball leaves the barrel and correspondingly, improving accuracy (albeit only from about 5ft at 20yrds down to maybe 3ft if you're lucky).

 

...and as I'm sure you are all well aware, it's not at all uncommon for these sorts of techniques to be assumed relevent accross the board by those who don't know any better - hence the "wierd science" propogates as gospel.

 

 

Regarding the real world use of muzzle brakes (or compensators) - it's as has been suggested towards the end. They vector the exhaust gasses in order to reduce any flipping moment where there is one (I've used an AK Valmet and a glock which has them installed for this purpose), or in the likes of the Barrett, 20mm rifles, and larger canon where they deflect gasses back towards the operator in order to counter the recoiling effect.

 

Flash hiders then are an entirely different item altogether, they do exactly what they say on the tin and exactly what pianoman has mentioned - they simply reduce the degree of flash blinding experienced by the operator in low light conditions.

 

Neither have absolutely any bearing what so ever on small calibre or powderless firearms.

 

 

 

...suppose I'd better get myself over the the intro section now...