Running a local match,... how to deal with muzzle brakes?

[JEFFPPC]

A crutch. They can't , really won't, read conditions so they try to beat them with a bigger cartridge. In reality you are causing a crosswind the guys beside you must shot through. You walk past them and bump them while shooting they scream. But it is exactly what they are doing. Only real answers are a seperate relay or let thrm run their own match. I have not even addressed the discomfort factor to other shooters.

 

[LiveFire]

I really like the already proposed idea of separate relays if possible. I shoot mainly ar style rifle shoots. None of my 3 ar15s I compete with have brakes. But just this last shoot I was in between a braked 556 on my left and a braked 6mm arc on my right. We have a time limit to fire all the shots. I waited for both them to finish before I fired my first shot.

 

[Dgd6mm]

Love my brakes.

 

[Dgd6mm]

I don't need pipe wrenches to take mine off.

 

[Petey]

Our club states radial brakes only, no clamshell, or rearward ported. If the competitor shows up with such a brake, it's up to them to find a way to make sure their muzzle blast does not impede on the shooters to the left and right of them. Many have built their own plywood barriers or clamped something to the benches. It's either that or remove it to compete, period. Sure isn't fair to the two shooters on either side of that person. Brakes are totally allowed, just can't be blasting the guy next to you. Kind of common sense in my book

 

[JPB3]

Why make this difficult.

No f--king brakes at our matches.

Guys that love brakes can organize and run their own matches.

 

[Rat Rifle]

I shoot at a private range. I would never even take my bench blasters unless I expected to be alone. If another person shows up when I am shooting an unfriendly gun, I switch guns. We are fortunate the owner does not have or want a large membership. Suppressors are common but not the rule. I’m the designated volunteer Range Master, chief cook and bottle washer, downed tree person and do the trimming so I’m there more than anyone else. Unless some schedules an I’ll meet you there”, we seldom see each other at the range. We see each other away from the range more than there. Curtesy prevails without enforcement.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE SENIOR CHIEF !

 

[Larry Koch]

Ban the brakes at matches. Or sit next to them and fire off 6 rounds from a 454 Casull max load 6" barrel and ask if they understand yet.

 

[wedgy]

I think a lot of people shooting with brakes don't realize how bad they can impact the shooter next to them because the braked shooter is in the safe zone of the blast and doesn't feel it. Had a guy next to me with a brakes AR that was peppering me with hot brass from a 30 round mag. I was tossing his brass back to his bench and said if that brass hits hits my $5K Tangent Theta I will be irate and he needs to get a brass catcher. My other range has screens that attach to the side of the bench to block ejected rounds.

 

[Tesoro]

How to instantly identify an ignoranus at a shooting match or a busy public range.....

 

[stevieb92]

Can't we all just get along? Sheesh... ;-)

 

[Mark W]

in order to save some typing, I copied and pasted my response from another muzzle brake bashing thread a few months ago.

”I’ve never been bothered by a muzzle brake whether it’s on my rifle or someone else’s. Sure, I’ve felt a puff of air, but it’s not like it hurt me or anything. Guns are loud, so I’m already utilizing hearing protection. I believe that some people are simply more sensitive than others.

I have a brake on most of my rifles and in all my time at a range, I’ve only encountered two muzzle brake complainers. Both were grumpy old men.”


I don’t shoot a lot of matches, but the ones I do shoot either allow muzzle brakes or they don’t. Most of the ones that do allow brakes prohibit brakes with rearward facing ports which I think is perfectly reasonable.

 

[STOMP442]

I run a match here at our local range once a month. It's an informal match we call the prairie dog match. Its essentially a bench rest match but we shoot small steel targets out to 500 meters instead of paper. I have been running it for about the last 15 years and when we first started almost no one was running a brake and now I would say 9 out of 10 shooters are. Most of the players are the same and even the old timers have got on board with being able to see their misses. We only have one guy that constantly complains about the brakes and his dumbass runs a brake on his rifle too. Some people just have to complain no matter what.

 

[Tesoro]

I run a match here at our local range once a month. It's an informal match we call the prairie dog match. Its essentially a bench rest match but we shoot small steel targets out to 500 meters instead of paper. I have been running it for about the last 15 years and when we first started almost no one was running a brake and now I would say 9 out of 10 shooters are. Most of the players are the same and even the old timers have got on board with being able to see their misses. We only have one guy that constantly complains about the brakes and his dumbass runs a brake on his rifle too. Some people just have to complain no matter what.

Yeah majority makes the rules. Nothing wrong with that if it evolves that way. But if there are 8 shooting straight and then 2 have muzzle blasters it is not nice and detracting.

 

[miles13]

90% of our shooters use brakes. We have never had a problem or complaint at our 600 yd. benchrest club matches as long as I have been shooting. Here's an excerpt out of our rule book.....

Muzzle Brake. A device connected to the muzzle of a rifle that redirects propellant gases to
counter or control recoil. Muzzle Brakes may not be of “Clamshell” or any other design that
intentionally exit gas directly rearward. Note: By the nature of gas dissipation, there will be
some rearward movement of gases. The intent here is to prohibit muzzle brakes designed to
intentionally direct this gas rearward beyond the 90-degree plane. NO HOLE LARGER THAN ¼” IN
DIAMETER. NO SLOTED HOLES OF ANY KIND.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

90% of our shooters use brakes. We have never had a problem or complaint at our 600 yd. benchrest club matches as long as I have been shooting. Here's an excerpt out of our rule book.....

Muzzle Brake. A device connected to the muzzle of a rifle that redirects propellant gases to
counter or control recoil. Muzzle Brakes may not be of “Clamshell” or any other design that
intentionally exit gas directly rearward. Note: By the nature of gas dissipation, there will be
some rearward movement of gases. The intent here is to prohibit muzzle brakes designed to
intentionally direct this gas rearward beyond the 90-degree plane. NO HOLE LARGER THAN ¼” IN
DIAMETER. NO SLOTED HOLES OF ANY KIND.

Yes, Robbie I think when the range is holding sanctioned matches where the sanctioning body allows brakes, that changes everything and the range "must" accommodate" them or just not have those matches. Spacing or barriers are both good ideas in that case. Being a registered match, I don't like the idea of squading brakes off by themselves. Different animal when a range puts on sanctioned matches, imo, but it still is up the the range or match director. But not allowing them will certainly hurt their matches, understandably, if thje range doesn't allow for the sanctioning body's rules.

 

[Rsadams]

Ban them or split them into groups.... Your shooting 300 yards not 3000 and nobody needs one to be successful.... If there knocking stuff off other peoples benches and causing that much distraction it's an unfair advantage anyway and completely unnecessary.... I shoot without a brake on my .308 etc and you don't need a 338 magnum to shoot 300 yards.... The ar15 is the only rifle I shoot with a muzzle device and that's more of a flash hider which you don't really need since the paper targets can't see the flash and don't normally shoot back.... YOU CAN'T PLEASE EVERYBODY.... But you can compromise and keep the majority happy enough...

 

[jackieschmidt]

I think one of the problems we have is quite a few shooters have any knowledge of how 100/200/300 yard Benchrest Matches are conducted.
The vast majority of competitors shoot free recoil. Many, my self included, shoot “heads up”, meaning I am probably not even looking through the scope when I touch the trigger.

Normal Benchrest Rifles at the adjacent benches have no affect. However, we have tested the amount of movement a rifle experiences when a rifle with any kind of muzzle brake is fired and it has a noticeable affect on the other rifle.

This is an easy test to do. You can see for your self why by simply setting a rifle in bags, aligning the cross hairs on a target, and then fire a large caliber rifle with a brake on the adjacent benches and see what happenes.

You will be surprised. And it might compel you to have second thoughts about allowing brakes in a Short Range Benchrest Format.

 

[M-61]

The vast majority of competitors shoot free recoil.

Wow. Never would thought that.

 

[rijndael]

I think one of the problems we have is quite a few shooters have any knowledge of how 100/200/300 yard Benchrest Matches are conducted.

Wait, are we talking about benchrest or a "varmint" match, like the OP said?