Just wandering if anyone one makes their own brakes. If so,what size of holes and how many do you use? Also, has anyone tried using an angle on the holes ( maybe a 30 degree)? Winter has had me cooped up inside too much and thought about playing with the lathe.Thanks-SJ

Effectiveness-wise, the more you angle them toward the rear, the more you'll decrease the recoil. But you'll increase the blast you get that much more, too. All I can see that's been done to some of the brakes claimed to produce less blast is to angle the jets forward, which reduces the anti-recoil effect. Be sure to allow plenty of clearance around the bullet inside, say, at least 8mm I.D. for a .30 caliber.

I'm not going to make a brake, because I don't like them. But it's not rocket science. Anybody with basic machine shop equipment should have no problem.

I am rather interested in muzzle brakes as devices, particularly some of the more elaborate baffle types.

Stump Jumper

There have been a lot of experiments and material written on muzzle brake design, if you do a search you can find a lot of it.

To answer your basic questions most muzzle brake manufactorers recomend a maximum of .020 bullet clearance (Shrewd and Vais)for best results. KDF recomends .016.

Most brakes have their gas vent holes at 7 degrees foward angle. As for the number, size, pattern of holes and design of expansion chambers, it would take up several pages, so I recomend you research the designs instead of running into problems that have already been addressed.

If you get stumped on a net search, let me know I might be able to find the url for a good article.

I know you are sort of just looking for a project but my own opinion is there are some really good brakes out there now for a very reasonable price and even though I have the equipment to machine them myself, it is not cost effective.

Real men don't use muzzle brakes! I don't need one on my 8lb .458