It’s here!!
After a couple years of wanting it I finally bought a .300 win mag barrel for my blaser a couple of weeks ago. After anxiously waiting for what seems like forever, I got the first of the two packages. 😀
Got my muzzle brake and mirage band today. I knew the muzzle brake would be big, but the thing is huge. 😯
I always knew how they worked to reduce recoil, but I always wondered how much they do to reduce muzzle climb/flip. I don’t know if they are all like this, but this one has been very well thought out and has a nice design to help that as well. You can see the way the bottom is much wider and has a slowly sloping v shape to keep the muzzle down. The top is much thinner with a sharp v.
I haven’t used many brakes before. While I was looking at them online I noticed there is a huge variety in price. This one was at the very top of the price list. This is the one that my blaser dealer sold and told me was the best for it, so I figured I was spending a lot anyway and I may as well get it. I’m curious how much better it will be than one of the cheaper ones though. It looks to be of extremely high quality, so I’m sure I won’t be disappointed. 🙂
More pictures to come tomorrow(hopefully) when I get the barrel and other parts. 😀 😀 😀
I’m like a kid before christmas. 😯
All Replies
I did see that on the chuck hawks thing. It is hard on the ears, but I don’t think it is bad with plugs and muffs on.
I took it out today with a box of the cheapest ammo I can find (20 bucks :lol:) and shot it off a rest instead of the bipod. That helped a lot. Recoil was a whole lot smoother and much more towards the back instead of hopping all over the bench. I am still getting used to the blast, at least that’s what I’m blaming on my accuracy problems. The rest could get better as well. I used a box with a towell over it. 😆 It works fine for my cz, but the forearm of the blaser has a relatively steep angle to it and it was kind of hard to use the rest on it. I need a sand bag.
Accuracy was a bit strange. I would shoot 5 shots under an inch (which I think is ok with crap ammo) and then put the gun to the side to cool off for a bit. When I’d pick it back up, I’d shoot another half-decent group but it would be somewhere else, POI would change a couple of inches. 😕 I think I need to work on the stock a bit and get it somewhere slightly more fitted to me. The .223 was very forgiving so I think I was getting away with it before. This thing is not forgiving… at all. I believe inconsistant cheek weld and such is to blame here. My other accuracy problem is my expectations. 😆 I will shoot a .5″ group with really cheap hunting ammo, and be upset that it wasn’t smaller. So in reality, the groups aren’t bad when I do my part, the POI moving is though. 😆
I also shot a few rounds with the muzzle brake off today. That was nuts, I had no idea the brake was doing as much as it was. The entire rifle hopped up in the air and landed beside my rest. 😆 Just a few shots was plenty without the brake on, my shoulder actually hurt from it. With the brake on I shot 40 rounds and had no trouble at all. So I really like the brake now. 🙂
I did have a couple of bad moments today though. 🙁 I was the only person out there and I was shooting my cz most of the time, so I didn’t bother wearing earplugs for that. I decided I wanted to try the blaser prone, so I grabbed it and layed down and let one rip, and someone kicked me in the side of the head as hard as they could! After a second of pain and not being able to focus, I realized that I was still the only person there, and I had forgotten to put my earplugs in. 😯 After all this talk of how it can be bad if you have plugs in, it hurts like a mother with them out. 😯 😳 😥 😥 😥
Later I was packing up the car to go home. About halfway through I decided to turn the car on to get the AC running before I got in. I kept packing up (note: during packing I was opening and closing doors and the trunk the whole time) after I finished, I did one more check to make sure I didn’t forget anything, and went to get in, and the car was locked. 😯 😕 Somehow or another the car must have gotten bored and locked itself. 😆 So, I was sitting there on the range, car running, and all of my guns locked inside. 🙄 Luckily there was a key at home, only 15 minutes away, so I had one brought to me.
So yeah, fun day at the range. 😀
Did you know that a Muzzle Brake makes a loud rifle blast even Louder, and will cause permanent hearing loss, even when wearing “Ear muffs” with ear plugs inside the muffs.
Just somethin I though you should know.
Sam 😕
Mr-lama: ok, makes sense now, first time I saw a mirage band. Looked like a very thin strip of sheet metal? Photo on my laptop had very poor resolution: Thanks
Read some very “Important Info about ‘HEARING LOSS’ and “Muzzle Brakes”
If the advantage of muzzle brakes is reduced recoil, the disadvantage is increased muzzle blast. As always, in the real world, there is no free lunch. The increase in muzzle blast with these devices can be literally deafening, even for shooters wearing hearing protection.
The muzzle blast from a powerful muzzle brake equipped rifle is so loud that even with hearing protection the shooter risks suffering some permanent hearing damage after a few shots. Earmuff type hearing protectors typically reduce noise by about 25 dB. A muzzle brake equipped magnum rifle (like a .300 or .338 Magnum) produces a sound pressure level (spl) in the 130-dB range, according to reports I have read. Thus the spl inside the hearing protector is in excess of 100 dB, a potentially damaging level.
http://www.chuckhawks.com/muzzle_brakes.htm
Seems you’re on the way to causing hearing “LOSS”
Sam 😳
I finally learned to use my front rest to get some really nice groups with the XR100, I got a rear bag and it changed everything… 😉
The only thing the bipod works well on is my 22LR… 😕
Were you shooting off sand bags or bipod? Bipods are much more sensitive to recoil and there is a significant difference between the recoil of your new toy and the .223’s. Anyway, you can go elk hunting with Akula now.
The competition thing is one reason I liked the muzzle brake I got. All I have to do is loosen the bolt and it unscrews right off. I have a screw just like the one in the back that I can put in the front of the barrel. And the barrel is relatively short at 25.6″
And yeah, it was off a bipod. I am going to switch up to a rest instead next time (probably tomorrow :wink:) The stock is more comfortable prone and I can hold it better, so the bipod would work well for that. I thought about the bipod problem on the way home, it was hopping pretty good. So maybe I’ll get better results like that. 🙂
I just need to get over the concussion. 😯
Hey Lama, very nice set up. Of all the mirage bands that I’ve seen, Blazer has the most elegant design. Now you know why muzzle brakes are not allowed in most competitions (except tactical matches). The fella sitting two benches away from you can still feel the blast. Btw, that seems like a fairly short barrel (which makes the blast even stronger).
Were you shooting off sand bags or bipod? Bipods are much more sensitive to recoil and there is a significant difference between the recoil of your new toy and the .223’s. Anyway, you can go elk hunting with Akula now.
You may be too young to know this but you were sold a suspender as a mirage band… 😯 😆
Here ya go. 🙂
Pictures of the mirage band. Pictures of the barrel smoking would be Ok also.
Sam
mirage band, never seen one of those on a bolt gun (Heat shield). Can you do some close up pictures of the breech and muzzle brake showing the mirage band? Want to see some photos of the “mirage” with the barrel “HOT”
Sam 😯
You want just pictures or you want them after I get the barrel hot?
The barrel gets hot very fast. Lots of bullet and powder. It doesn’t take but a few shots for it to become very warm. It doesn’t do much for 100 yard shooting, but for long range stuff it should help a lot. 🙂
Knife, I’ll be sure to post a picture of the first tree rat I blast with it. 🙂
Wow: Loud with concussion, using plugs and muffs. Best keep ya mouth shut, if don’t want ya tonsils shook loose.
mirage band, never seen one of those on a bolt gun (Heat shield). Can you do some close up pictures of the breech and muzzle brake showing the mirage band? Want to see some photos of the “mirage” with the barrel “HOT”
Sam 😯
That ought to stop those monster tree rats!
WOW !!!!
Look’n good! Just in time to try out for top shot season two lol 😆
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Later I was packing up the car to go home. About halfway through I decided to turn the car on to get the AC running before I got in. I kept packing up (note: during packing I was opening and closing doors and the trunk the whole time) after I finished, I did one more check to make sure I didn’t forget anything, and went to get in, and the car was locked. 😯 😕 Somehow or another the car must have gotten bored and locked itself. 😆 So, I was sitting there on the range, car running, and all of my guns locked inside. 🙄 Luckily there was a key at home, only 15 minutes away, so I had one brought to me.
So yeah, fun day at the range. 😀
Not wearing your ear protection must have scrambled your brain a little and made you lock your keys in your car. 😆
I have locked my keys in my car so many times, it is actually funny again. (you know after it’s not funny) 😆