Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Brake?

dvdegeorge,



I got it. We have an Easterner trying to tell us, who have actually experienced seeing impacts from something as large as .375 wildcat, telling us it can't happen. I made the brake and tuned it for the rifle and load.

Your post reminds me of a conversation I had at work when asked about information. I went over to eight feet high and thirty feet long wall and put a dot on it like a period on a page. I told the guy that dot represents the amount I might know and the wall represents the amount of available information. You need more experience.

Two machinists on the same thread and from the same state.

This can't miss.




Travis

A brake on a big 338 in my experience when shooting a 300 grain bullet near or above 2800 FPS will not allow you to see the impact. My barrel is 30" long and that allows the exit pressure to be lower and the noise is not that bad. The brake allows one to shoot relaxed and thus more accurately on average.

You're going to get a stern talking to from a true westerner.

To the OP,

I find stuffing the barrel full of wet paper towel reduces recoil considerably. Please do get a solid cheek weld before sending one downrange. And don't hesitate to crawl the stock.



Dave

I have a .375./.416 Rem Mag with a 28" barrel. The rifle weighs eleven pounds. When I first made the brake it pushed the barrel down when firing it offhand. With some tuning I can see the impact because it pushes straight back, now. I guess I cheat, though. It also has, in addition to the 1 1/4" recoil pad, a 1/2" hydraulic travel shock absorber. I hold it like a BB gun when firing it. One can fire this rifle thirty or forty shots at a session if one wants without even a bruise.

Edited to add:
With 98 grains of RL22 it will propel a 300 grains Sierra at 2,990 feet per second or using 88 grains of IMR4320 a Barnes TTSX 250 at 3,185fps.

There is a fellow that has at least one friend on this board, and maybe is on here himself, I am not sure. His name is Donnie Smith in Texas. We got a rifle from him that he had made the brake for. It is not what you would call prettty, but that is a judgement call, The brake works very very well in controlling recoil and appears to compatible with shooting prone on the ground. I would recommend him.

It'd be cool if you and Jeff could get together and build another brake for his project.

That's what the 'fire is all about!



Travis

Your research is exhausting..........
You better oil your vagina.
You always provide the comic relief points, though.

Are you saying the steel plates are easier to carry than paint cans?

No. But it's an expedition in its own right just getting to them. Which is unfortunate for sure. A lot of guys just ignore the laws about this stuff but I shoot up there enough that I don't want to do that if that makes sense.

ACTUALLY...... what occurred to me after we spoke of this earlier, is that I should hang a couple plates over on the side of the canyon I'm shooting FROM as well. That way, I could hike into either side, paint the plates on that side, and shoot towards the other side. Alternate. It'd be nice to switch the prevailing wind, too, which is always R > L from where I normally shoot.

It's a bummer to hear that a brake won't show me my misses on a Big .33. I'm hoping John is wrong or at least that maybe there's a brake that WILL. Have not ordered a brake yet.

I am an elk hunter and did not intend to shoot past six hundred yards if that, so there's the application. My 340 B went 8.5 lbs with a 26" barrel. I had the barrel threaded for the original Recoil Arrestor but found it so obnoxious sound-wise, aside from POI changes, I took it off after about the first forty rounds and never used it again.

I had a brake on a 375 Mashburn too but discarded it for the same reason.

And I shot prone a lot. But there are differences in recoil tolerances I understand.

I don't know what your rifle is going to weigh but even with a brake, I don't think you'll see Impact under the reticle short of thirty pounds with any of the big 33's; though impact may still be in the FOV.

I really don't know what weight you'd have to be at but while a brake will admittedly mitigate recoil, it will, depending on design, cause movement of some kind. And you'd better depend on at least two-layered hearing protection of you must have one.

At the range I use two layer protection. Hunting, only the electronic muffs. I am no longer bothered by the blast or recoil.

Where there's a will,there's a way.

Last summer I shot a leopard in Mozambique with my .300 Weatherby that is equipped with a KDF brake. After 50 years of successful big game hunting, that was the first animal that I can remember seeing instantly drop dead through the scope.

With a 300 grain bullet from a 338 will not be difficult to know where it its.

Maybe. The "duff" on the ground here maybe has to be experienced to be believed. We have moss growing on our moss here.

It would swallow hits from my 300WM with 200-grainers without a trace.

Seeing hits has always been a big part of the brake sales pitch and I'm still hoping to find one that will do that. I'd gladly eat a little more recoil to get it.

John or others, where would you put the line on this? Would a big braked .30 stay on target?

If you build any gun heavy enough and install a brake you will stay in the scope. I just don't want a rifl that heavy. A 300 grain SMK hits have to be seen to be believed

Sounds like big fun. Can't wait.

Side note, it's cool that the crusty old SMK still reigns supreme in one bore size.

I shoot SMK's because they work and I have over one thousand of them of the same lot. No need to fix something that isn't broke.

Berger...