Of all things to make this week interesting and odd, my girlfriends Ex-boyfriend got ahold of me to ask me what he should do with his 338 Ultra mag he just bought.( Talk about a pride booster, the ex coming to you for advice on gun topics)

He can't handle the recoil and he wants to put a muzzle brake on it. I hate my brake and I tried to convince him otherwise but he doesn't want any more of it.

So, I need some suggestions on what type of Muzzle Brakes are good that claim they are quieter or what are some ideas to drop recoil in this gun so I can be nice to the guy.

The only one I'd even think about is aa Vias

Not to be a smart ass but tell him to drop to a diff. caliber (.338winmag maybe). I have a removable brake for my .404j but don't use it. Shoot it enough & you should be able to handle the recoil, if not, move down.

I have a brake on mine, its pretty tame now, but I doubt a brake will make enough of a difference if he is already at the point he doesn't want any more of it.

PM me and we can hook up and I'll let him shoot it (at Lenville) a few times with some 250's loaded to 3000....

IV

Tell him he may want to look at the Comp Stock and see if he may want to go that route. lead him to the web address and let him look at it himself.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link....&Ntt=knoxx&noImage=0

I was in Cabelas the other day and they had them in stock. They don't look as bad as the picture.

Good Luck

Reloader

If he can't handle the recoil with out a brake then he doesn't need to be shooting that gun IMHO.

Other things he can do to substaintally lessen the recoil are install a good recoil pad, use a thin cheek EEZ pad to lessen the effects on his cheek bone, install up to three mercury recoil reducers (2 in the butt and 1 under the barrel).

He can also use a PAST magnum recoil shield while at the range and even purchase a leas sled for shooting at the range. Both of these things are extremely effective at absorbing magnum recoil before it gets to your shoulder.

If he doesn't want to go with any of these then I suggest selling it and getting a 338 Win mag or a 300 mag.

Magnum,

I had a KDF brake installed on my .375 Ultra. Its just a few thousandths over the barrel diameter, so it doesn't look too bad. It did tame the recoil quite a bit. It is LOUD, but it was loud before the brake.

I also have a Sims recoil pad on mine which also helps.

And I agree that a mercury reducer or two would also help alot. I have one in each of my trap and skeet guns. A reducer in the butt of the stock will make the gun "butt heavy" and should be counter balanced with approximately equal weight in the forend. This setup would add about a pound to the weight of the rifle, and the combination of reducer and forend weight noticably reduces the felt recoil.

Magnum,

To answer your question any of the name brand brakes will work. I've tried 2 or 3 dufferent ones and they all do significantly reduce recoil. If your buddy can live with the noise issue a brake will help him shoot better. I also think he might be just as well served as others have already suggested if he just moved down a little on the reccoil scale where a brake was not necessary.

Mark

Thanks for the advice. I added a lot of your input when I talked to him last but all of the gunsmiths he'd talk to around his area said the the Mag-Na-Port was the best so he's going with that for now but he might still think it through.

Any other suggestions towards the Mag-Na-Port would help.

And if anyone could answer my question, there is a muzzle brake that I've seen before on the internet and the guy has a bunch of videos of the brake and how it works with different calibers and he states that there is no noise increase. Does anyone have an idea of who that is ?

He could always "Load it Down" a bit until he gets used to the recoil.

quote:

...I added a lot of your input when I talked to him last but all of the gunsmiths he'd talk to around his area said the the Mag-Na-Port was the best so he's going with that for now but he might still think it through. ...

However, it sounds like he asked for your advice so he could disagree with whatever you mention to him.

The MagnaPort only keeps the muzzle from rising, it does very little to abate recoil. By keeping the muzzle down, the rifle tends to recoil straight back rather than rotate upward so the stock smacks the shooter's face.

A good Recoil Pad is always a good idea, but his rifle probably came with that new Remington Pad (R3?), and if it did, changing it would not be enough help to matter.

He can add weight, the special Recoil Reducers, Muzzle Brakes or tie it to a tree, but if he can't handle the recoil, he either needs to Down load or swap for a rifle he can actually handle.

Hot Core is right, the Magna Port does very little towards recoil reduction.

I shot a Vangaurd just the other day in 7RM that had been Magna Ported. It kicked just like any other 7 Mag I've shot. The muzzle doesn't jump on the Magna Ported rifles but, I don't feel like the recoil is reduced much at all.

I ported a hard kicking light weight turkey shotgun on the top of the barrel just to keep it from slapping me in the jaw so badly. It helped as far as I could tell.

Good Luck

Reloader

Ooops........sorry, it's a Mag-Na-Brake, I got that confused.

Maybe I'm crazy but I shot a 338 Ultra that my friend owns that is an LSS model, without the R3 pad and I didn't think it was that bad at all.

The only thing I've shot that I think had true recoil is a 416 WBY.

Everyones idea of "felt" recoil is diff. I know guys that top out at the .30-06. My top end is the .416rem/.416rigby/.404jeff. A soft recoil pad like the Pac. Dec. will help, so will adding a merc. recoil reducer in the butt (the rifle not the exboy friend). Start shooting lighter bullet loads then work up to heavys. FWIW, I had a .375h&h Magnaported & found the "felt" recoil was less because I didn't have to worry about the scope biting me if I crawled the stock.