I've been a flash-hider guy forever, looking at muzzle brakes

[GoneBallistic]

I highly recommend the SJC Titan. Looks good and reduces what little recoil a 5.56 AR has to almost nothing and almost undetectable muzzle rise.

[justincase]

Lantac Dragon all the way!

[Mark A]

Over the last 5 weeks I was fortunate to be able to take a couple of different carbine classes. The first class was a small class and at the end of the day we did a gas system and brake comparison. Hands down the midlength gas system was the most popular.

 

The brakes were a mixed lot but all of the brakes allowed quicker shot to shot split times.

 

This past weekend I was able to shoot several of the same carbines (M&P VTAC 2's) with different brakes. I'm not sure how the rest of you judge brakes but for me the main thing is watching where my red dot streaks after a shot. With a fair amount of practice and adjustment of my grip, sling length and stock length I was able to get my aimpoint to streak straight up and down with the original A2 flash hider. This allowed me to better predict what would happen and decrease my shot to shot splits.

 

This weekend we were able to shoot a battle comp, a Gamma VC6, and a Surefire SOCOM. The battle comp was not bad, it reduced felt recoil and allowed the dot to go straight up. The recoil on the  VC6 felt a little less but pushed the dot down which was a bit disconcerting. Possibly that would be helpful in a full auto or burst situation but it increased my split times a bit. Everyone agreed the SOCOM felt 50% softer. The dot did not move up and down at all but instead moved right to left just a tad (and left to right when we shot left handed). All shooters decreased their split times. To be fair, some of the shooters were very good and their times only decreased a little bit but they all went faster.

 

I spent the majority of the weekend shooting that brake on my VTAC. It helped across the board except for 25 yard distances. For some reason my groups opened up only at 25 yards. they were fine at 50 yards and anything shorter. I have no rational explanation for the 25 yard issues other than maybe I screwed up the first string and it got in my head for the rest of the weekend. I'm going to try my hardest to get to the range on Wednesday to do some 25 yard work by myself to see if I just goofed or not.

 

So brakes in general were helpful. I have to admit I was surprised at how much they helped on 5.56 rounds. I knew they helped a lot on 308.

 

For me, the SOCOM was clearly the best of our admittedly unscientific testing. It will transition on to all my carbines and will also be my suppressor mount of choice.

 

Mark

[Ted S.]

I like the A2 for the money. ;)  Never got around to checking any other's out....

[div]

Just for anyone who's interested, this site has two very informative reviews of different brakes. I think the set of photos in the second review tells the story. Tracking recoil patterns using a laser mounted to the gun shows what the effects actually are of each different brake. I'm always impressed when someone takes subjectivity out of the picture and finds a way to measure actual performance. [url]http://www.multigunmedia.com[/URL] Edited May 22, 2014 by div

[reed1285]

Ive got a yhm phantom brake. It works well and was like 30 bucks. Shooting my ar's back to back, you can definitely tell the difference in the one that has the brake.