I am building a long range varmint AR. I am trying to do away with even the tiniest amount of recoil. What are some suggested muzzle breaks? And, do the hydraulic shock buffers work? Will either mod effect reliability? Any other suggestion for recoil reduction that I am overlooking?
From what ive read the JP brake that looks like it should be on artillery is very good at reducing recoil and normal hearing.
When i first read your post i was running though ideas and when yall shoot varmints its from a pretty much fixed position right? Why not make a low and wide tripod and have a post that attaches to the handguard. Then shoot what you want lift the post out of the cylinder and move along to the next spot. That way you could sandbag the tripod and still have a range of motion with the rifle. If you didnt have it tilt side to side and only front to back you also wouldnt have to worry about the rifle being level side to side.
As for the hydraulic buffers i have one that im not completly sold on. I want to give spikes ST-T2 buffer a chance since im having some lockback issues unsuppressed with the hydraulic one.
I am using a WARPED brake on my 24" 6.5 Grendel, along with a hydraulic buffer. Those plus the weight of the gun makes recoil almost nonexistant. It also has a Magpul PRS stock which is quite heavy, making for about a 12 lb gun. A similar setup in 5.56 would be extremely mild.
On all my M4’s I run a full auto bolt /carrier group and a “H” buffer.
My standard round I feed them is Federal M193 which is a Fairly “Hot” round.
The recoil is alittle more than firing a .22LR.
A 20" bull barrel AR with scope and solid FF handguard is going to run what - 11 lbs? Put it in a cradle bag like the Caldwell tackdriver that sort of clamps around the handguard and you really won’t have any recoil. The blast and bolt cycling intensifies the perception of recoil, and I can’t imagine a muzzle brake is going to help the situation any by making everything louder. If you’re using a fixed A2 stock you can even add a DCM buttstock weight if 11 lbs doesn’t cut the push enough.
The Yankee Phantom 5C2 combined with a 10lb gun makes my 18" SPR a pussycat.
-matt
18’’ barrel with rifle length gas system , rifle length buffer tube with rifle buffer and a standard rate rifle buffer spring. Last but not least a good muzzle brake. The rifle length operating system has the lowest recoil [out side of light weight carriers and adj gas blocks]. Combine with an effective brake 1+1=2:cool:
Put lead weights in the stock, and use a brake.
I would not mess with hydraulic buffers or any of that jazz. For a varmint rig I assume you wont be doing drills with it or carrying it at the ready long distances. If you have an A2 stock you can pack quite a bit of weight into the cavity of the stock via lead weights. With a carbine stock you can put lead weights into the battery compartments such as on a SOPMOD or Vltor.
I guess I should get more specific. The setup has a 24" hvy barrel and a Magpul PSE stock. It is a hvy rifle. I have up to 30X magnification with a Bushnell 6500 Elite scope. I am trying to keep from losing the bullet impact at higher magnifications. The slightest recoil will cause to lose sight of the shot on a prarie dog at longer ranges.
I don’t consider myself badass enough to critique shooting form, especially of somebody I haven’t actually seen shoot, so please don’t take this as anything other than an effort to be helpful…
…but in my experience (from working on my own form, seeing the results when I get it right, and what happens when I get it wrong – which I still manage more often than I like), your goal can be accomplished with just technique (not that a brake and a heavy rifle hurts).
By getting directly behind and “perpendicular” to the rifle, achieving good NPA, loading the bipod a bit, “driving the rifle through recoil”, and all the other “good form” stuff, in my experience it can be done .
Unfortunately, at least for me, this stuff is a lot harder to get right consistently than it sounds. I’m working on it though, and am getting more consistent (and getting much better at figuring out what I need to fix after the shot when I don’t get it right). The first time it all came together for me it was kind of “magic” – but the magic was/is definitely a fickle creature.
On a side note re: longer ranges, I actually find longer ranges more forgiving in terms of seeing my impacts (time to “recover” from the recoil I guess).
-Matt
Edit: I should clarify – “technique” obviously can’t eliminate the recoil, but it can manage the recoil so that you don’t lose the target during/after recoil.
I just shot my latest build. It’s a light weight and has the Auto BCG and the"H" buffer. It also has Surefire’s 556K Compensator and Magpuls thicker Butt pad.
This gun pretty much has no recoil at all. I think that Comp though it has a loud bark really helps alot.