I bought one of these and after all the good information I have gotten from the hide in the past, thought I would write up a review.
Background:
I am just a guy who likes to shoot precision rifles at distance. I am not a retired marine corp. sniper. I have never even been hired on a secret CIA contract. I actually own guns that shoot larger than ¼ MOA groups even when “I do my part” and I am ok with that. Boring, I know.
Anyway, I bought a Remington 700 AAC-SD in .308 about 6 months ago and dropped it in a B&C stock and topped it with a Bushnell ET 6-24x50. Honestly, I lucked out and hit the Remington lottery. I know that the quality control at Remington can be hit or miss but my gun must have been built on a Wednesday and the person(s) assembling it must have really liked their job on this particular Wednesday. The gun is an honest 1/2-3/4 MOA gun with FGMM 175’s. The first target picture is a typical 100 yard group for the gun. The second is a ~2.5” group (1 inch paster) I shot at 585 yards. Both with FGMM prior to the muzzle brake install.
See what I am saying, lottery winner.
Anyway, one of the major problems I have with the AAC-SD is the really crappy thread protector it comes with. It does a shit job of protecting threads because with it fully tightened down the first ¾ revolution of thread is exposed. The only thing it does worse is protect the crown. Which is to say; it doesn’t protect the crown at all. Dumb, I know.
So, I didn't start looking at brakes for recoil reduction (I’m not recoil sensitive to 308) as much as I was looking for something to protect the crown on the rifle. I originally picked up the killer-innovations muzzle brake based on the price, 50 bucks. I couldn't have a smith turn me a decent thread protector for much less than that.
I received the brake less than a week after ordering. The machining on the brake was perfect. Honestly, I don’t know how they can produce them and sell them for 50 dollars with all the machine time that has evidently gone in to its production. I installed the brake with the
Accu-Washer system from Precision Armament. Which, on a side note, I really like a lot.
Finally got to shoot the new brake last weekend and here are my thoughts. The recoil reduction is good. If I were to estimate, it dropped .308 recoil to around .223 levels. With it, I can see impacts at 100 yards consistently and bipod (harris) hop on hard surfaces is essentially gone. It, like all brakes, is loud. It does seem to “throw” the concussion and sound impulse out around the shooter so I didn’t notice it too much. I was shooting prone and my brother was initially spotting seated directly beside me (even with my shoulders)about 5 feet right of me. He was getting slammed pretty hard so he moved back and closer in (hip level directly beside me) and had no issues. So, KI’s claim that the brake throws the blast around a shooter and spotter seems to be accurate. YMMV. That being said, it is a brake. People at the range shooting next lane over are still probably going to hate you. The brake is closed bottom and did not throw up, or disturb, debris on the ground.
The only real complaint I have with the brake is that it changed my point of impact significantly. I had to come up 1.1 mils (at 100 yards) to rezero after the install (windage adjustment was negligible .2 mils left I think). No big deal except for with my scope and rifle that means I now only have around 12.2 mils of available up elevation adjustment left. Again, not a deal breaker but if I am shooting 175’s at a grand I will probably be using some combination of dialing and holding to get there. Prior to the install I could just dial 12.2 and drive on.It did not affect shot grouping in any way and the known dope for distances I had prior to the install worked perfectly after the install and rezero. That makes me think there was zero impact on velocity. As you can tell from this picture the weather was nasty as hell and the only group I shot after rezeroing was this one at 100 (only 3 shots not 5. Sorry lowlight). The rest I shot on steel and didn't take any photos.
I only have about 40 rounds through it at this point but I am happy with the results and performance so far. As for its original intended purpose, it does an excellent job of protecting the crown and threads of my barrel.
Hope this review helps someone else.
-Tuesday
