I get asked: why is it all the new guns you buy, or all the military guns, they
come with the old military flash hider when we know the first thing we're going
to do when we get ready for three gun season is we're going to put a big sexy
muzzle brake on it to get rid of all that recoil. Why? Why does the military do
it? I'll tell you why the standard military flash hider okay the way it's
indexed on the gun it has openings just across the top of it not down bottom the
reason why they do that is all that that fireball once that bullet leaves the end
of the barrel fireball coming out the end what it does is that fireball
instead of pushing straight out where it can be easily seen from the sides it
vents out through each one of these ports vents out to the sides events up
does not vent down because most of your infantrymen back in the day would be
shooting from the prone position and that would keep it from blowing up dust
off the ground blocking him from seeing the target
makes sense also by having the openings on the top it also kind of keeps the
muzzle from climbing again that makes sense but why do they do it that blast
is still going somewhere that flash is still going somewhere but what it's
doing is instead of the flash coming straight at the enemy where it can be
easily seen by other enemy on the sides the flash is opening up in a star around
the front of the shooters weapon and it does not blast out the front it's very
hard to see from the side because it's limited by these very small ports
however from the front the actual enemy that's being shot at he does see a much
larger visual signature which is kind of acceptable because
hopefully he's on the receiving end of that bullet that you just sent downrange
anyways alright so that's the concept behind the flash hider the
fireball is still going somewhere but it's being blocked from the other people
viewing it and instead it's made more visible to the person directly to the
front I think that's the concept behind it now your civilian flash hiders
Remington and AAC you usually see their guns with one there's one of them right
here you'll see it's not closed and it's opened up it has three openings vents
out that all that fireball that flash opens up into the thirds this is not
indexed so it doesn't have to be keyed a certain way this particular one is
threaded so it can take a ac suppressor what it does is it opens that blast up
to the sides shortens the blast down this way again good for getting rid of
the blast if you're in a combat situation which is why they do it I
don't particularly like this design because it's open on the end when they
first started coming out with the m16 series of rifles in Vietnam the
flash hider was also open on the end and what they found was in the jungle they'd
get a lot of branches and vines in there and would often hang up on the foliage
around them so they closed it and after a few others slight modifications they
went to the modern-day flash hider that comes on all of our military assault
rifles right now alright so Carl why not switch to a
muzzle brake? Aren't muzzle brakes better what is a muzzle brake what a muzzle
break is all right this particular one right here made by JP enterprise this
particular one has got two baffles and what it does is now when that bullet
exits the end flies downrange right our missions of
x-metal and me together that fireball still comes forward all that pressure
that's built up that explosion that's happening that's forcing that bullet out
the end of the barrel that explosion all that pressure is still there it catches
the front walls of these baffles and forces the front of the gun forward
hopefully with on a well-tuned muzzle break with the same amount of force
that's being recoiled backwards a well-tuned muzzle break in other words
setup with the right sized baffles for the right type of ammunition that you're
firing through your rifle will completely alleviate any kind of recoil
impulse that's coming back into your shoulder so what why is that important
that's important for that competitive shooter that needs to make that second
shot on target right away immediately so he can move that next target a lot of
your targets two rounds anywhere on target so the quicker you can do that
control para that double tap the quicker you can move to that next target so the
better the muzzle break the better so there are lots of designs out there this
particular one that I like to use from JP enterprise besides the two
large baffles it also has small holes on top that take out that rise of
the front of the gun that muzzle rise
another brand that's used a lot specially by the guys in the military
this particular one's a surefire muzzle break again two baffles very very well
designed and this particular one is set up there so that you can thread the
surefire suppressors on to the front of the guns now there are lots of other
muzzle break designs out here here's a rather pretty one if you look at it this
one has three baffles and this one's designed by a guy out of Texas called
Benny Hill fine gentlemen great design we personally opened up the holes on the
top to tune this particular one for this length barrel for the animal
we were using that particular match great design and seems like every show
you go to every new gun magazine you open up there's a new design of a new
muzzle break that is better greater sexier and is
going to make you more accurate the problem with a lot of these muzzle
breaks and the reason why the military doesn't like everyone using them is a
lot of times when you're coming into that shoot house or that structure where
the bad guys are in you're in a lowlight situation you may even be under
night-vision goggles and instead of that flash going forward or being dissipated
by that flash hider on a standard military rifle that flash is now boomed
back in just two directions two big fireball you've seen them on the ranges
the guys running the muzzle brakes have guns that are much louder to the people
that are left and right then the guys that are just shooting a flat ground
barrel or somebody with a flash hider not generating any more decibels it's
not generating any more explosive force it's just now it's forcing that
shockwave back so to the left and right to the rear guys running muzzle brakes
are going to be a lot louder likewise under night-vision goggles it's a much
much more distracting fireball so that's why military: some are on board some
are not now there are some designed muzzle brakes that have a shroud around
it that actually catches the blast vents it and then directs it all directly
forward and the intent of that was so that when you go into the shoot house it
works as a fully functional muzzle break but you don't get the distracting
fireball from that okay I don't have a lot of experience running with, I know
some assaulters that tried them but I also know those same
assaulters still aren't running them right so what you need to find is a
happy medium somewhere where you still get all the benefits of a flash
hider and you get all the added recoil management benefits of a good muzzle
break now there are some out there at different designs this particular one
you can see the top of it is opened up like a flash hider but then when you
turn it you can also see that it is still got two baffles basically for it
to work as a muzzle break now if you lay it down as the weapon is fired those two
baffles are actually open further on the top and this helps manage some of the
rise of the barrel when you're shooting fast ok design does it manage recoil as
well as the Jaypee break or the Benny Cooley break no it does it does it block
the flash as well as the military flash hider no it does not however it meets
somewhere in the middle now my personal favorite is this particular one right
here it's made by AAC this is a 7.62 version but if you can see where the
camera is at it still has a flash hider open on the top ok I'm not big that it's
not completely closed you're going to get sticks and binds in it I'm really a
little too old to be running through the jungle I don't think I have to worry
about that and it only has a single baffle for catching that blast
wave is opened on the top also to help manage recoil climb and what I found is
even shooting 308 this is on a 308 gas gun it still manages the recoil very
very well and I have the option that I can thread my my a AAC 308 suppressor on
there and that right there to me not so much worried about cutting the sound out
but a good suppressor completely alleviates that flash altogether so my
preferred choice and what I recommend for people is understand the difference
between a flash hider and a muzzle brake understand why
whatever your mission may be you may lean in one direction or the other if
all you're going to do is shoot three gun by all means go with the most effect
the muzzle brake that you can find if you're leaning more towards a tactical
scenario where you're really worried about the other bad guys shooting back
at you you may want to look towards a flash
hider general-purpose though I honestly believe there's enough really great
products out there that meet in the middle and you get that
good happy medium and that's what you need to do analyze what your particular
mission is and find the final break that works best for you