Muzzle brake strike - wth

[renegadeg2]

Hi,

I need advice / diagnostics.

This thread is not about "to use, or not to use muzzle brakes."

I recently had a few rifles threaded and muzzle brakes installed. This one is a .308 caliber, heavy krieger barrell. The gunsmith did a test fire without issue.

Everything looked fine before my first day at the range with this rig. Took it out sight-in with new muzzle brake, new scope, new trigger. To ensure my comfort, I used a wooden dowel / pencil pushed in a few inches of the muzzle to ensure things were we aligned. Repeated thevtest a fewvtimes after rotating the dowel. All looked great. Ready to shoot.

Used federal Sierra match king 178gn (factory load). Took about 6-8 shots. Felt flawless. I forgot to keep the target as I just wanted to feel the shots and move on to other rifles.

Got home and saw this when I started to clean it.

Obviously muzzle brake or baffle strike at the end. No indication of problems anywhere inside the brake / baffles.

What the heck happened? Muzzle brake was still tight as hell. This is a MDT pro comp. Used a dowel again and it still seemed centered.

Pleae advise.



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[HyperMOA]

Don’t know if a dowel is going to read true alignment. I’d turn it 180 degrees. Then fire a few more rounds. If it continues to eat away at the same spot your brake is untrue. If you spin it 180 and the opposite side starts to erode your barrel threads aren’t true.

Other wiser people likely have better ideas, but that is what I woulda done.

[catnthehat]

Certainly looks like an alignment issue to me.
I would take it back and get the 'smith to check the alignment.
Cat

[Dean2]

DO NOT shoot it any more. Take it back to the smith. He did something seriously wrong on that install. There is no way a bullet should be able to strike that Brake. If he says there are no alignment issues, find another smith.

Are the other rifles he threaded showing strikes as well?

[marxman]

Looks like some manufacture or installation artifact was in the brake and got blown out

[Pathfinder76]

Originally Posted by marxman

Looks like some manufacture or installation artifact was in the brake and got blown out

This would be my guess.

[Pathfinder76]

Originally Posted by Dean2

DO NOT shoot it any more. Take it back to the smith. He did something seriously wrong on that install. There is no way a bullet should be able to strike that Brake. If he says there are no alignment issues, find another smith.

Are the other rifles he threaded showing strikes as well?

Agreed. Take it back. Something is amiss.

[fps plus]

I can’t see the pictures.
There is usually only 20 thousandths clearance between the bullet and edge of the muzzle brake .
Possibilities:
Not threaded in line with the center line of the bore
- threaded crooked
- loose when shot.
- exit hole not proper dimension
- gas blew a chunk out of brake

Have it corrected before further shooting

[fps plus]

Or foreign object in brake before firing

[renegadeg2]

Thanks for the tips. I'll take it to a new gunsmith as the original gunsmith is in a different province and before i moved. His other work was flawless.

[duceman]

looks to me like the damage is not from a projectile exiting the brake

it looks like a burr from a bump from the outside, and some copper wash on the burr as the bullet passed.

it doesn't seem to me that a copper projectile could cause that sort of damage.