This is not me or my video. Just posting this guy's excellent work.
Making a Muzzle break for the FX M3
- Thread starter Corvid_hunter
- Start date
Looks cool but what does it do? Airguns don’t expel that much air to really use a muzzle break. Even at 30 cal it ain’t no 338 or 50.
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I was surprised when I looked into it.
The effect of the air leaving the barrel behind the pellet is substantial. Additionally, in the case of a pellet, the air is blowing into a recessed skirt which is not usually the case in firearms. One of the reasons firearms projectiles are often boat tailed is to minimize this effect.
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Firearm chamber pressure is between 30-55k+ PSI as supposed to 1.2-2k PSI, firearm muzzle breaks are generally angle backward to help reduce recoil or it's just a flash redirector. The amount of air from airgun is noticeable but have you sat next to a proper muzzle break even on a 308? The amount of pressure usually makes my sinus hurt which is why immediately move when someone setup a rifle with a muzzle break next to me. I highly doubt the little puff of air from an airgun will reduce recoil in any measurable way, maybe on a big bore? The muzzle break being pointed side ways will definitely NOT reduce any recoil or do anything besides being a cool air stripper. A good moderator with proper bore size can work as air stripper already.
Also pellet center of weight is forward and when muzzle blast hit the skirt unevenly it just tilt a little bit then recenter itself like a shadow cock, a slug or bullet will start to yaw so a slug is far more sensitive to muzzle blast or require very efficient tune. If the tune is inefficient then yes, you need an air stripper but it's better to get an efficient tune instead. If the crown is uneven which caused uneven muzzle blast then it's best to fix the crown.
Just my 2 pennies, if you got money burning a hole in your pocket then try it and let us know how well it works.
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Airgun pellets are easily disturbed by the puff of air coming out of the muzzle. A muzzle break in the AG world is sometimes called a stripper. They are used to "strip" off that puff of air before it can "dirty" the air the pellet is traveling through. Done right a stripper can improve accuracy over the same gun running without one.
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It's your money so buy whatever you believe to make you a better shooter, it's worth it if you shoot better even from just the placebo affect. I certainly have not seen many competition airgun shooters use muzzle breaks, they usually hyper focused on the tune so they don't need the muzzle break/air stripper. IF muzzle break/air stripper is that magically effective then every gun would come with one....it's just a piece of baffle. IF a muzzle break improves accuracy then the gun's tune is inefficient/bad. Generally speaking a moderator with at least 1 baffle with proper bore size will do just fine at stripping air around the pellet or slug.
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I was into the rimfire benchrest game for several years and I have actually lost count on how many high end rimfire rifles I have built for myself and others during that time. I also got into machining barrel tuners and air strippers for rimfire rifles and I came up with my own design for a tuner/air stripper and I can say without a doubt that they do work improving the accuracy of a rimfire rifle and air rifles.... with no placebo effects involved. It seems to me that the barrel tuners have not been widely used on air rifles, if you go to a IR 50/50 or ARA rimfire match I doubt that you would see a rifle being used that did not have a tuner on it, they have been used for many years, they are not something new. Air strippers have not been as popular as the barrel tuners and I think that has been due to the present day design. I have studied thousands of high speed photographs of bullets and pellets when they leave the barrel of a rifle.The cause of fliers is due to the dead air in the barrel being pushed out in front of the bullet, when this air is forced out the end of the barrel in front of the bullet it creates a turbulent cloud of air that the bullet has to pass through and that turbulent cloud tips off the bullet when it passes through making it unstable. Baffles inside a moderator does nothing to prevent this happening, it takes place outside the barrel when that forced air hits the outside surrounding air in front of the barrel. With this tuner/air stripper, I can install both the tuner and stripper or just the air stripper on the barrel depending on what the barrel seems to like. I have been testing this design on a Gauntlet 2 .25 cal that I bought just to see if I was going to like the air rifle game and I have seen a positive improvement in the way this rifle shoots with it. I just ordered a brand new MK3 Impact and it will be here on Wednesday and I will definitely be testing with it on the Impact.
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I have seen at least a dozen competition shooters rigs that Do group better with a Proper air stripper. Now they were all .177 and that may well make a difference. Hans & Ray of "the A-team or Team Crosman has theirs with a one thousandths clearance. After the Nationals Doug Miller tried the same unit (from of of their , just happened to fit and line up rifles) on his all out custom rig and everyone agreed, group improvement.
We do have a forum member with extensive experience using them (and thinking he made his own) inside a shroud on several custom competition builds. They work.
Having tried a couple of off the shelf strippers I would also say a one size fits all (allowing for all the factory difference , ammo differences, and much loose tolerances) may well not have the same effect as a professional custom made unit.
John
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You are exactly right about the loose tolerances....that's what I'm trying to overcome with this design that I have come up with. I don't want to go into much detail about how I've made it as there are many out there that will steal someone's design if they think they can get away with it....but I have got it now with enough tolerances that it would work with just about any rifle. I'm really looking forward to testing it on the new Impact.
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These are a couple .22 rimfire IR 50/50 targets that I shot in a match at 50 yards with that same tuner/air stripper on the rifle.
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For those looking for ultimate accuracy then an extremely tight tolerance air stripper can potentially help a little. Then again it's for those who are looking for that last 1%. There is also optimal distance from the muzzle/crown and we are talking about bore clearance much smaller than 0.5mm on each side of the pellet. Not easy to achieve nor can most people tell the difference. BSA, AirArms and RAW to name a few are very inefficient and can benefit from an air stripper, the loud muzzle report is a dead giveaway. Daystate, Styre and Feinwerkbak are better so don't really need air strippers.
If an slightly above average shooter can simply screw on a muzzle break from internet and see significant or noticeable improve in accuracy then the gun's tune is most likely the reason why it needs a muzzle break to begin with. Most of the traditional airguns especially guns with bolt action instead of lever have inefficient tune and hammer bounce even down at 12fpe. Fortunately impact can be tuned to be extremely efficient so there is no need for one on a properly tuned impact.
Muzzle blast is the symptom, inefficient tune is the cause and air stripper is the bandaid.
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All I can say in my years of experience with tuning rifles is....a tuner/air stripper or any other type of barrel device will not make a bad shooting rifle shoot good...but...they will make a good shooting rifle shoot better.....a person just has to have the patience to squeeze out the last bit of accuracy using them.
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Muzzle brakes on airguns do work and work well. I have a 600mm Panthera in 30 cal. With a Donny FL on I can see some movement when the gun is fired. Without the mod on there is a lot of movement. When I installed a Eaglevision brake on the rifle did not move at all after the shot. I was only wondering how much a brake would do. Now I know for sure.
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Little puff of air huh?
What comes to pellet guns I agree with you but what comes to higher power pcp's not so much. Even my 257texan benefits alot from muzzle brake and its heck alot more easy to shoot when your muzzle dosent jump or move at all. Bigger bore you go and higher fpe you will have plenty of extra gas at muzzle and volume of moderator quickly runs out. Dose it increase your accuracy not necessarily but there is real function behind it and if noise isnt your problem and wearing hearing protection is ok for you it defo is solid option.
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Big bore is just a little different compared to my 12 FPE 177 or even my high power 25 cal at 80 FPE.
Big bore simply isn’t my cup of tea, if I want to wear hearing protection then I rather bust out the 223 or 6.5 at the 1000 yard range. Yes, I have a proper angled back muzzle break on my 6.5, not on the 223 but I’m tempted to.
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^^^ YES
^^^ NO
Our testing has shown that it is possible to capture that puff of air and slow it down inside the moderator. Once the projectile has gotten ahead of that it is flying in clean air and you get improved accuracy, whether or not it is still inside the moderator.
But yes on all points, that one is just a minor difference in our experiences.
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No amount of tuning removes that puff of air which PRECEEDS the exit of the projectile from the bore. Agreed tuning makes an enormous difference. It might be that there is more going on here than you have considered? I have exceptionally experienced shooters testing my strippers. They are reporting the accuracy of their otherwise exceptionally well tuned and maintained rifles does improve when one of the strippers we are working on is installed. I don't have any knowledge about your experience shooting competition so I won't argue with your opinion but that is what I am being told by the guys doing the tests. I have not personally tried to prove what they have told me because I don't have time to spend a bunch of time on an indoor range.
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I will just have to agree to disagree with that....I have seen high speed photos showing a air rifle when fired with a moderator installed and the turbulent cloud of air is still prevalent....in my opinion a moderator does not have enough volume to completely capture enough of that turbulent air to completely eliminate it........and....you know what they say about opinions......
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Here’s a 12 fpe FT gun held in sitting position….one with a barrel shroud, and one with a recoil canceling device. Slow motion. Somewhere I have a muzzle brake video too…and it’s somewhere in between the two shown.
Muzzle brakes significantly reduce recoil even in 12 fpe guns tuned to a 1.25 fpe/cu in level.
Mike
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