I am becoming an old bastage and don't have the muscle mass I used to to take hundreds and hundred of rounds of large rifle recoil, so I started looking at muzzle brakes for my Remmy 700 in 308 and Model 70 300 WSM. I looked around locally for someone to install these, kept getting responses like we only install this brake or that brake and it will take two months or more to get to it. Was okay on the wait but not confident in the estimates they were giving, plus I don't like my choices being limited to a single brand of brake. One guys wanted $250 per gun which I found very excessive. So I started looking at brakes and came across Harrels on the internet, I called them up to talk about the brakes they make, the price was great, so I asked if he could recommend someone to install them, he put me in touch with a guy named Dennis Adams, a member here on the forum (didn't know that at the time). I talked with Dennis that day, he told me up front he had a few large jobs running at the time and it would be a month or so before he could get to them, but he would get to them, he talked me through teh brake options available from Harrels, no bs sales pitch, just advice that lined up with my other experience with brakes, decided on going with the tactical brakes from Harrels, sent the rifles yup to Dennis. Got them back last week, perfect job timing and coating. I was not so worried about coating tehm at all, I tend to be a bar b q paint on my guns type of guy, I save my prettying up for my motorcycles, Dennis insisted on getting the proper coating for both brakes so they match the guns finish, he talked me into it and he was right, they came out perfect. Well I installed a new Timney trigger on the Remmy a soon as I took it out of the box, also bedded the scope base, finally, (only shot this gun a few times since I got it in Jan), and went to the range today. Was shooting some of my own handloads, 175, 168 smk's for the Remmy and 190 SMK's for the 300 WSM, the scope on teh 300 WSM broke after 10 shots, its a SWFA SS 16X, I will send it back as its only a few months old, the 300 WSM felt a little lighter than a non braked 308, shot smooth and nice. The 308 felt just a little harder than a non braked 223, man what a game changer, shot about 20 10 shot groups with various hand loads, 168, 175 various powders, seems this barrel likes the 175 SMK's on top of Varget best so far, will do some more load development. The 308 sits in a Choate Tactical stock with CDI bottom metal, not a ferrari of Tactical guns but its mine and its is working pretty well, this will eb a work in progress for the next year for me, one of many though.I will be at the range again all day tomorrow, more loads to test and trigger adjustment to do. I have to say thank you to Dennis Adams and Harrels for recommending him, dam nice guy and man of his word, great work Dennis.
Here are some pics from today. (Don't mind my poor shooting still getting dialed in)
Here are some pics from today. (Don't mind my poor shooting still getting dialed in)
