I am approaching 1900 rds in a factory barreled 300 win. I have decided to re-barrel now, in order to be ready for next year's elk season. ( No hunt booked this year, Dang it). I am torn weather to brake or not. I was thinking of Vais but I do shoot prone alot. I am concerned about the noise of a brake. I shoot this rifle 25-30 rounds a week thru out the year. It is my go west hunting rifle. I figure if I am going to brake now is the time. Thoughts? Thanks Guys

I hate brakes, if you cant take the recoil rebarel to 7mm mag. using 160 partions or 175gr bullets. The elk won't know the difference. Trust me on that. I have shot enough elk and african game to know this.

quote:

Originally posted by WORLDHUNTER1:
I hate brakes, if you cant take the recoil rebarel to 7mm mag. using 160 partions or 175gr bullets. The elk won't know the difference. Trust me on that. I have shot enough elk and african game to know this.

Probably more elk have been taken in Alberta with 7mm RM and 160 gr. Partitions than all other combinations combined.

The Vais brake would work fine from prone. It doesn't have the ports on the bottom, only the sides and top.

Put a brake on if you'd like, you shot 1900 rounds without one, so I doubt the recoil is a huge problem. Shooter fatigue can and does happen to even the most seasoned shooters when putting high volumes through a rifle.

My best suggestion, get a removable brake, shoot to your hearts content at the range, make sure it holds to the same impact point with the brake removed and hunt without it.

At only 1900 rounds though, you shouldn't even be close to wearing that barrel out unless you're shooting very light bullets extremely fast or you're over heating the barrel. I know prarie doggers who put 5-6000 22-250 rounds through a barrel before they consider new ones.

I agree, about 5,000 or more rnds before a new barrel is needed, if no overheating etc. Check the throat and see if the lands are still defined. If so, it's not worn out. If it still shoots well, just go huntin!

I agree with the above. You should not need a new barrel yet. But if you like it's easy to put a brake on your existing barrel. I"m in the camp that likes brakes. A Vias would really make a difference on your 300 WM.

I have a removable Vais and like the options it gives me. Fellow shooters at the range have no complaints of extra noise but can feel the concussion if sitting next to me.
I rebarreled at 2200 rounds, looking back, I should not have for the rifle was still shooting 1/2 ". I belived what I had read about barrel life in magnum calibers. Since I don't, didn't abuse the barrel it probably had much life to go. Have the barrel bore scoped before making the decision.
Jim

With all that is written about barrel life in mag calibers, I thought if I re-barreled now, I wouldn't have to panic next fall if the barrel did wear out. It still shoots good.

quote:

Originally posted by chain:
With all that is written about barrel life in mag calibers, I thought if I re-barreled now, I wouldn't have to panic next fall if the barrel did wear out. It still shoots good.

If it still shoots well, then don't change anything yet. As far as a brake, I hate the noise but like the reduced recoil. Many times when I hunt with my 300 RUM, I use the brake at the range but not in the field. I have a separate cap that screws on for field use. No punishment in the field with the one or 2 shots.

Who said Vais brakes have no ports on the bottom? I have 2 in my hand right now and they have ports all around.
Butch

Chain, your barrel isn't going to suddenly go from a tack driver to a pray and spray. You'll see a slight easing of accuracy when the barrel starts to go but it will still be plenty good enough to hunt with for quite a few rounds after that.

FWIW, I'm in the group that feels if you need a brake, you don't need the rifle.

you don't "need" power steering either, but I'm sure most people wouldn't be too happy to give it up lol.

Butch - I must be thinking about another brake then, I thought it was Vais but I guess not. I had seen some brand of brake that left the bottom intact so you didn't kick up dirt/snow/brush if shooting prone or sitting.

quote:

Originally posted by chain:
...if I re-barreled now, I wouldn't have to panic next fall if the barrel did wear out. ...

When a barrel wears, it goes s-l-o-w-l-y. It does not go from shooting good and then immediately to HUGE Patterns.

If you are keeping up with the Throat Wear, you can probably retain the accuracy you have now by simply altering the Seating Depth a bit(longer).

I thought the Vias had ports all around too, as Butch mentioned. If it does, and if you shoot "Prone" over a dusty or sandy area, it will raise a cloud of dirt/sand around you. And yes indeed, they do increase the noise which reaches your ears.

You can always have a Vias fitted to your current barrel and have a Finish Nut included to put onto the barrel threads if you decide to remove the Brake.

But Brakes do work, and they work extremely well to abate Recoil. I've shot a bunch of 300RUMs and 338RUMs that shoot great. They all had a factory Remington Brake, were very accurate and had only a slight amount of "felt" Recoil.

If Recoil is the problem, a good Decellerator or new Remington Recoil Pad might be all you need. Plus, no additional noise to your ears.

Best of luck to you.

quote:

Originally posted by cobra:

quote:

Originally posted by WORLDHUNTER1:
I hate brakes, if you cant take the recoil rebarel to 7mm mag. using 160 partions or 175gr bullets. The elk won't know the difference. Trust me on that. I have shot enough elk and african game to know this.

Probably more elk have been taken in Alberta with 7mm RM and 160 gr. Partitions than all other combinations combined.

I shot a 300 Win Mag for 12 seasons...it's a great cartridge but I always felt it was a bit over the top in recoil for what I did with it...the 7mm Rem Mag with a 160 at 3000-3100 has nearly the same trajectory and energy at 400 and 500 yards as a 180 out of the 300 Win at 3000-3100....it's so close it's a wash...some charts even give the 7mm the edge at some ranges....bullets with the same BC's as a 30 in the 7 weigh less and recoil less but catch up with the trajectory and energy of the 30's in a lot of cases...a lot of die hard 300 Winny shooters, and there are lots of them out there, have a hard time accepting this but the facts are there.
Not knocking the 300 Winny,..if you load high BC bullets like 200gr Accubonds etc. and push them fast enough they will sure enough out muscle and out trajectory a 7mm Rem Mag...the only trade off is recoil.

I wouldn't brake a 300 Winny myself...just use a bit heavier barrel, maybe go 26" and get a good pad on it. I once had a Sendero in 300 Win that was somewhat easy to shoot prone....you just had to be careful with eye relief...

Chain,

Brake or not to your heart's content. The Vais is the best brake out there. You can put down a piece of canvas (slightly weighted) to keep from kicking up dust. His design is the least objectionable with regard to noise and side blast.
George was my gunsmith for almost ten years. He is a bit of a nut bar, but truly understands brakes and suppressors.

It is not unusual for 300 Mag barrels to go south at your round count (try an STW - whew!).

The most important thing is to rebarrel with a good quality cut rifle barrel - Krieger, Bartlein, Rock Creek, Broughton, Satern, Chanlyn (Rocky Mountain). Have the factory make the shank end longer so you can have it set back as the throat wears out. Start at 26"; you will still have 25" or 24" after set-back.

No need to please anyone else. Life is soooo short, have fun with this project. Also, if you have the Warner Tool company do the re-barrel job, they can install a "match chamber". 300 Win Mag brass is usually .017" to .029" shorter than normal factory chambers. Hornady makes some very good 300 Win Mag brass. You can have the chamber cut to match if you want.

Do what you want, and enjoy it!

LD

If your accuracy is still OK, 1900 rounds normally is not a problem. You should have many more years of life, probably 2000 more rounds.
I install a lot of breaks. The Vais break is a good one but doesn't work better than others. In tests(Harrell brother's I think) they have about a 6% to 8% less noise, but also slightly less recoil reduction. The Harrell Precision brakes cost 1/3 as much and do the same job. If you want one that doesn't have ports on the bottom, Harrell's has one like that, also. I always tell my customers to use the brake target shooting and remove it when hunting and replace it with a cap. I charge $100 to install a Harrell brake that doesn.t need indexing, and that includes the brake and cap, less than the cost of a Vais, alone.......Tom