I recently purchased a Faxon single-chamber .300/7.62 "Loud Mouth" brake and figured I'd share my thoughts on it. It was purchased as a placeholder (I'm in limbo over what suppressor I want to purchase, so I knew I'd be upgrading to a fixed QD mount in the future). As such, I didn't want to drop $$$ on something I was going to swap out anyways, and the "muzzle lock" feature seemed attractive since I could (theoretically) install/remove it painlessly and use it on multiple hosts with hassle-free timing. Basically, it was pretty inexpensive and I thought it would be better than just running thread protectors on my bolt guns, given Faxon has a reputation of producing some pretty good stuff. The finish / surface treatment seems well done and it looked right at home on my SPS barrels, both in color and size. That's about where the praise ends.
The threads were fairly rough right out of the package and I had to chase them just to thread on to the first rifle smoothly. The text machined into the business end of the brake as shown on Faxon's website is actually very shallow, only partially visible, and not very attractive.
The MuzzLok feature is not nearly as easy to use as you'd think in regards to "hassle free timing". When installed hand-tight with a strong grip in-field, it shoots loose in just a few rounds. When a little torque is applied with a wrench (not Hulking it, since Faxon only recommends 20in-lb or something like that) it tends to rotate not just the brake, but also the locking collar, which I believe could potentially damage the threads if done excessively. And, even after wrench tightening to (at least) the recommended torque value, mine still inevitably shoots loose in ~20-30 rounds.
Most importantly, I can safely say that it is the most underwhelming muzzle device I have ever used in terms of actual performance. I have used this on a 16.5" SPS .308, 20" SPS .308, and 16.1" RARR .300 BLK. As the design (and name) implies, increase in the blast and concussion felt and heard by the shooter is to be expected. However, I noticed absolutely zero appreciable difference in recoil impulse or muzzle movement on either of the .308s. And, as expected, there was a significant increase in noise, and the dust kicked directly back into the shooter's face firing prone was unacceptable. On the .300 Blackout, I think there *may* have been a slight decrease in muzzle flip firing offhand with subsonics, but with supers my experience pretty much mimicked that of the .308s exactly in that it did nothing but make shooting it less comfortable, with zero performance gain to justify its existence.
For what it's worth, I only paid ~$38 shipped for mine. I would have been even more unpleasantly surprised had I paid Faxon's full price of around ~$58 shipped. For anyone else in my shoes... I recommend saving your money and sticking with thread protectors until you nail down the permanent solution you're after.
The threads were fairly rough right out of the package and I had to chase them just to thread on to the first rifle smoothly. The text machined into the business end of the brake as shown on Faxon's website is actually very shallow, only partially visible, and not very attractive.
The MuzzLok feature is not nearly as easy to use as you'd think in regards to "hassle free timing". When installed hand-tight with a strong grip in-field, it shoots loose in just a few rounds. When a little torque is applied with a wrench (not Hulking it, since Faxon only recommends 20in-lb or something like that) it tends to rotate not just the brake, but also the locking collar, which I believe could potentially damage the threads if done excessively. And, even after wrench tightening to (at least) the recommended torque value, mine still inevitably shoots loose in ~20-30 rounds.
Most importantly, I can safely say that it is the most underwhelming muzzle device I have ever used in terms of actual performance. I have used this on a 16.5" SPS .308, 20" SPS .308, and 16.1" RARR .300 BLK. As the design (and name) implies, increase in the blast and concussion felt and heard by the shooter is to be expected. However, I noticed absolutely zero appreciable difference in recoil impulse or muzzle movement on either of the .308s. And, as expected, there was a significant increase in noise, and the dust kicked directly back into the shooter's face firing prone was unacceptable. On the .300 Blackout, I think there *may* have been a slight decrease in muzzle flip firing offhand with subsonics, but with supers my experience pretty much mimicked that of the .308s exactly in that it did nothing but make shooting it less comfortable, with zero performance gain to justify its existence.
For what it's worth, I only paid ~$38 shipped for mine. I would have been even more unpleasantly surprised had I paid Faxon's full price of around ~$58 shipped. For anyone else in my shoes... I recommend saving your money and sticking with thread protectors until you nail down the permanent solution you're after.
