Anyone recognize this muzzle brake/weight?

I picked up an older Beeman R1 recently and it had this giant honking muzzle brake on it. It's hideous and huge, but it's very nicely made and finished.

Anyone know where it came from or who made it by chance? It's not a Maccari, I just sent him some pics and he confirmed that it's not one of his.

It's roughly 9.5" long, 1.190" diameter, and slides down 3.5" onto the barrel before a step inside butts against the muzzle.

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I'd say it's home made by someone who wanted a big honking muzzle brake! Lol
I thought so too, but the finish is so nice I was skeptical.

The rifle was supposedly tuned by Ed K. years ago, and judging by the mess made of the inside of the rifle, I highly doubt the same person made the brake LOL.

But hey, I dunno.

It's a whopper for sure, and I just feel it doesn't fit the gun, especially since this is a Carbine length R1.
 
Looks like it's painted. Is it? The similar Beeman brake is painted aluminum. Likely made by said, Ed. I've seen some of his custom parts before.
Here is a steel Beeman replica I made for a young man's Mendoza. It matches the grooved black plastic piece on the rear of the tube. We were going to slow rust blue it but the fellow moved to Arizona. Now the part sits in my shop along with his gun he left behind. Notice the finish on my part. Not polished. I always strive for a fine machined finish with my home ground HSS tool bits.

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Looks like it's painted. Is it? The similar Beeman brake is painted aluminum. Likely made by said, Ed. I've seen some of his custom parts before.
Here is a steel Beeman replica I made for a young man's Mendoza. It matches the grooved black plastic piece on the rear of the tube. We were going to slow rust blue it but the fellow moved to Arizona. Now the part sits in my shop along with his gun he left behind. Notice the finish on my part. Not polished. I always strive for a fine machined finish with my home ground HSS tool bits.

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I believe it is painted. It seems too deep black to be anodized, and it has a couple small dings in it with the bare aluminum showing.

I thought surely it may be a Maccari, as the finish looks almost identical to an Apex I have. But, he confirmed otherwise.

I have a Beeman brake here on hand too, and it's obviously an upscaled copy of the little Beeman LOL

Nice lookin' steel brake there!!
 

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Machined a piston ring groove using an “electric drill, a Dremel tool using assorted cutting wheels and grinding stones , and some files and sandpaper”. I don’t think that big ole honkin’ brake was made by Ed K.

Yeahhhhhh I'd have to agree, LOL

Whoever done the internal work definitely did a "sandpaper and cutting wheel" job rather than a machinist job.
 
Looks like it's painted. Is it? The similar Beeman brake is painted aluminum. Likely made by said, Ed. I've seen some of his custom parts before.
Here is a steel Beeman replica I made for a young man's Mendoza. It matches the grooved black plastic piece on the rear of the tube. We were going to slow rust blue it but the fellow moved to Arizona. Now the part sits in my shop along with his gun he left behind. Notice the finish on my part. Not polished. I always strive for a fine machined finish with my home ground HSS tool bits.
I was thinking of another tuner/stockmaker. Wrong man.
 
A special forged custom piston lapped in the cylinder with specially sourced gravel. Someone has developed some very unique tuning techniques. Looks like the trigger was lubed with eel excrement. Very interesting. I wonder if it's temperature sensitive.
It's not any more, now that it spent a night submerged in the parts washer....
 
Looks like it's painted. Is it? The similar Beeman brake is painted aluminum. Likely made by said, Ed. I've seen some of his custom parts before.
Here is a steel Beeman replica I made for a young man's Mendoza. It matches the grooved black plastic piece on the rear of the tube. We were going to slow rust blue it but the fellow moved to Arizona. Now the part sits in my shop along with his gun he left behind. Notice the finish on my part. Not polished. I always strive for a fine machined finish with my home ground HSS tool bits.

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Nice little lathe! 9” South Bend?
 
That looks like a LOT of hammer forged parts! What are you going to do with this tuned masterpiece?
Well, I stripped it down and cleaned it up and threw it back together for now. Whatever kind of magic lube was used on the piston seal, basically dissolved it. It was chalky and falling apart, but appeared to be a modern urethane seal that most guns use. Definitely wasn't lubed with moly paste. Not sure what went on there.

I popped on a cruddy old used piston seal and relubed it to see how it's gonna shoot. Accuracy seems promising so I'll tear it back down and take my time on it later.

My only real beef is with the transfer port, it has been "worked on" from the inside and counterbored fairly deep. It's kinda slammy feeling, probably because the port is effectively bigger. Worst case I'll bore it completely out and press in a sleeve to the size I want. But it won't hurt it the way it is.

The detent wedge has also been heavily "polished" and lockup isn't the sturdiest. But I have a couple spares on hand and will be an easy swap and fix there.

The rest is minor stuff. The crosshacking in the tube luckily isn't on the sealing surface so it won't matter. And I can weld up the piston nose and reshape it if it doesn't want to hold a new seal.

Admittedly I'm pickier than most because I like to work on these things. It would probably be a fine performing gun left as is (minus all the goop).

The R1 definitely isn't my favorite platform, and neither is the .20 caliber. But, it will fill a hole in my pile of guns and I'm glad to have it to play with.
 
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