Purchasing a 7mm mag and just wondered if placing a muzzle break is a good idea, pros, cons? Suggestions?


Thanks

NO,NO,NO I AM SHOUTING BECAUSE I HAD A MUZZLE BRAKE ONCE AND NOW CANNOT HEAR.
Seriously, they are brutal. Recoil pain is temporary, hearing loss is forever.
Also do you really need one on a 7mm Mag? A good recoil pad would be my choice.

Not on a 7mm Rem mag for me.
The big guns might warrant it but it's not for that cartridge, IMHO.
Zeke

PS: I commend you for knowing the difference between a muzzle brake and a muzzle break!

I don't think a 7 mag kicks any harder than a 30-06 and certainly don't need one on it.
I put one on my first .416 Rem Mag and that thing was just obnoxious.

If I feel I need a muzzle brake for a cartridge/rifle combo, I'll purchase something else, either a heavier rifle or a milder cartridge.

They are loud, but work as advertised. Though I can't prove it IMO the Vias brake is not as noisy as some others. This comes from comments from others at the bench. Regardless, always wear ear protection.

Never owned a rifle with one, shot them, but never owned one. Recoil for me is a mental game, and ergonomics mostly. I started out young and obsessed with large bore rifles and feel I have learned valuable lessons on what stock designs suit me. If you don't have any disabilities that prevent you from firing the 7mag then most of it is going to be errgos and a mental game. As I get older I like recoil less.

Well I hate the damn things. I have shot rifles so equipped and they do work. Can't imagine needing one on a 7mm Mag, but that of course is up to the individual.

I care about the hearing on my hunting companions, my dogs and horses............ the regular report from rifles and shotguns is bad enough, never mind the eardrum shattering noise from a muzzle brake.

A good recoil pad, shooter appropriate stock dimensions, a sensible rifle weight for the cartridge of choice, and proper shooting stance and control cam make all the difference in the world to felt recoil.

I also believe that a lot of perceived recoil is psychological. My wife is 5'3" tall and shoots a .338 Win Mag without a muzzle brake. She has no idea why so many guys whine and snivel about recoil. Had a hell of a time getting her to shoot a .243 for little stuff like coyotes and deer as she has just used the .338 for everything for twenty plus years........ finally got her on board because it was a cost issue with powder and bullets. To her, a .243 or a .25-06 feels like a popgun.

I think a lot of guys use brakes on big guns because they think they need them and this stops them from ever learning how to proper manage/handle a big bore rifle.

There are times and places for them to be sure. People with injuries or diseases like arthritis, sustained fire with heavy ordinance like a .50 or .416 Cheytac. Generally though, I think they are over used.

Unless it is a 5 lb gun, NO. I won't even hunt with any one who uses one.

I see them in use all the time in the USA, mostly guides and light SS plastic stocked guns in heavier calibers than they used to carry...

I was the only one of 24 hunters in our camp last couple of weeks that didn't have a muzzle brake on a SS plastic stocked gun, so I screwed mine in on my .338, alas my gun is blue/wood and the brake came with it to use or not to use, A Ruger African model..It bothered no one in that camp..

I think most of the nay sayers are on AR!! or so it seems. Its the first brake I have had in many years, and it sure works. Until I shot my elk I had only used it on the bench. Guess its a changing world..and if one shoots better with it then I'm all for it..two things come to mind, God gave us fingers to plug our ears and somebody less influential gave us hearing protection on little plastic wires that hang around our neck connected to ear foam plugs while hunting, or you can whine and piss and moan, whatever! Ive done both.

Gentleman

Thanks for all the comments and I was curious as to why so many pictures of sheep hunts have hunters using muzzle breaks?

Having shot my 300 I found the recoil manageable so thanks for all the advise and I won't bother with one.

quote:

Originally posted by DIs:
Unless it is a 5 lb gun, NO.

Every public range in this country will have every other shooter on the firing line shooting his or her AR-15 with the most obnoxious muzzle brake money can buy on it, all of them trying to deal with the enormous recoil of the 5.56mm cartridge in their 7-9 lb rifles. Now every rifle needs one....

quote:

Originally posted by AR MAN:
Gentleman

Thanks for all the comments and I was curious as to why so many pictures of sheep hunts have hunters using muzzle breaks?

Having shot my 300 I found the recoil manageable so thanks for all the advise and I won't bother with one.

My guess is some sheep hunters are using the lightest weight rifle they can get and the fastest magnum for flat shooting. They use a MB to reduce felt recoil. I'd rather leave the brake and use something like a 270, 260, 7mm-08 or 25-06 for a sheep rifle. I just bought a 5.5 lb Savage stainless hunter with the intention of using it for Aoudad in the Davis mountains. I went 308 and put a tactical turret scope on it. Still weighs under 7 lbs.

I flinch at noise, thus my double protecting of ears. Shooting up to a .416 Rigby using PAST pad has taken away recoil flinching (along with proper LOP, etc.) The only braked rifle I own was given me by my f-i-l before he passed. That .338 WinMag is noticeably tamer than another I've had/shot and reloaded for.

I can clearly see that most guys don't like them but if you look at lots of field photos you'll see pics of "magnum eyebrow" when a lighter rifle is used in the field.

I stand by my comment that a 7mm Rem Mag doesn't need a brake (for me) but the bigger, lighter rifles damn sure do because I don't like a big nasty cut on my eye. I prefer to shoot while a little relaxed and you CANNOT do that with a scoped mountain rifle chambered in a larger cartridge.

Yes, I use several of the KDF and the Barnes brakes because they have a place and they simply work.

Zeke

PS: they still make ear plugs, don't they?

Recoil in the field when shooting at game is a non-issue, even with some of the hardest recoiling rifles. It is at the bench where recoil is bothersome, sometimes even from relatively light cartridges. Get a recoil-absorbing benchrest for sighting-in and load development and forget damaging your gun and your hearing with a g.dd..n f.....g muzzle brake.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
Recoil in the field when shooting at game is a non-issue, even with some of the hardest recoiling rifles. It is at the bench where recoil is bothersome, sometimes even from relatively light cartridges. Get a recoil-absorbing benchrest for sighting-in and load development and forget damaging your gun and your hearing with a g.dd..n f.....g muzzle brake.

This is often said but is quite simply not true. For example, although you may not remember the rifle recoiling while shooting game, some rifle and scope combinations can limit the type of shooting positions and angles you might take. My 450 Rigby at full tilt is not for everyone when shooting prone. My 340 wby shooting uphill prone, isn't always wise as well. Sitting or shooting rice-patty prone is also a consideration. Getting hurt in the field from recoil can have adverse effects on shooting just like benching a rifle. One particular instance was when I took a running shot on a deer with my 458. While very fluidly swinging my rifle I also pulled it away from my shoulder as I subconsciously repositioning it. At the shot I was walloped shure as shit the deer didn't look any lighter or slower and bounded off. It took awhile to be steady with my 458 again. In the case of the 7mag it's less like than some of the other heavier recoiling rifles but wearing a scope a 7mag can still hit you.

Assuming you use hearing protection, muzzle breaks have no affect on hearing but do lessen recoil...they work and if needed, the concern should be the folks around you.

BRAKE: to slow something down, as in whoa.

BREAK: to damage something. As in "if he shots that POS with the brake on it again without warning us, I'm gonna break his head"

How many times have I been told by a hunter that he flinches on targets but never on game, then he goes out an gut shoots an Impala or buffalo for that matter...

A flinch is a flinch, if one develops a flinch on targets he WILL flinch on game, end of story, the rest is a fable....You may not feel the flinch when shooting at game but you will or did flinch, some get lucky and flinch on the bullseye I suppose.

You do have to pay attention to wearing muffs, but I love brakes. With practice you can see your hits before the gun has jumped the target and you can get back on target quickly. A brake on a 7 mag is a pretty popular combination from what I've seen. I currently have a brake on a 270Wby, the smallest I have had a brake on, and I really like it. It is VERY easy to shoot VERY accurately! I don't use a public rifle range and I don't shoot a braked gun unless I hunt alone. When I am stalk hunting or otherwise that would not allow me time to drop my muffs on, I carry a different rifle.

Hate them on anything! If I wasn't a Libertarian, I'd sponsor a law to outlaw them.

Stock geometry has a significant affect on muzzle rise & "perceived" recoil.

My 7# 8X57 churns out over 3300 ft # of Me yet I can recover quickly enough from recoil to see a deer's reaction to the shot. It has little drop at the butt, the steel butt plate is angled forward at the heel (top) & it has significant cast off. It recoils straight back & away from my face.


A stock with a lot of drop and/or a butt plate angled forward at the toe will cause the recoil to be directed upward into your face. Simply cutting of a little wedge of the stock so the angle is slightly forward at the top can make a big difference in perceived recoil W/O shortening the LOP by much.

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
How many times have I been told by a hunter that he flinches on targets but never on game, then he goes out an gut shoots an Impala or buffalo for that matter...

A flinch is a flinch, if one develops a flinch on targets he WILL flinch on game, end of story, the rest is a fable....You may not feel the flinch when shooting at game but you will or did flinch, some get lucky and flinch on the bullseye I suppose.

My thoughts exactly.

Like I've posted in many of these Muzzle Brake discussions, I have KDF brakes on my .375 RUM and in my .300 Weatherby and I wouldn't consider shooting either of these rifles without their brakes.

I also have a Rem 700 in 7mm Rem mag that I've used on many hunts, and it does not have a brake on it, and even though it kicks more than my .300 Wby does, I have never even considered having a brake put on it.

Muzzle brakes are a real necessity to get the best from the 30/378, 338/378 and the 378.

For long range shooting from an improvised rest with these calibres is not good without a brake. Even if you were 100% immune to recoil you still have the problem of the rifle movement. With a 375 H&H I can shoot those like a 270 or 30/06 in the4 sense I can hold the 375 the same way as the 270, that is, I don't have to make any compromise on my hold to shoot a 375 H&H.

Not so those 378 based calibres. However, with a brake they just seem to "sit there".

AR Man,

I have a 7mm Rem Mag and I installed a vias brake on it and I love it!

Call me a wimp but I don't like recoil.

I definitely shoot better with the brake since recoil is totally out of my mind...I would say that the gun recoils like a 243 or 257 Roberts.

I guess that if you shoot a few shots a year then you don't need it but I use my 7mm for everything...bench shooting to big game to prairie dogs...maybe 150 rounds slow fire in 4 days on PD's.

I am on my 3rd barrel

I don't get the issue with noise...hell yea it's loud....it's also loud without a muzzle break! Shooing it either way without protection is going to screw up your hearing so might as well not get slammed.

Range, I use foam plugs with ear muffs.

Hunting, I use ESP Plugs.

Pick your poison

have one on a 280ai, I use it while shooting off the bench and when shooting groundhogs.

i use earplugs and ear muffs for hearing protection so I hardly hear it and only shoot alone.

I don't think they are as necessary as a proper fitting stock, but the reduced recoil is nice

I don't use them !
Don't like them ! If i can't handle the recoil i can probably get by with a lighter caliber.
In the case of a 7 mag , i would not want or need one. But if recoil was bothering me i would swith to a 270 or a 280...tj3006