SRS TiPro brake + ARCA upgrades (6.5 PRC)

Salmon River Solutions (SRS) is a new company that makes some awesome parts for light-weight rifles. In this story I’ll cover machining and installation for a Ti Pro titanium muzzle brake, and a SRS 4″ light-weight ARCA rail on my custom 6.5 PRC rifle. Let’s go!

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About Salmon River Solutions (SRS)

SRS is a new company focused on light-weight top-shelf shooting parts and accessories. From their Facebook Page:

At Salmon River Solutions we design, prototype, and manufacture titanium muzzle brakes, and rails for rifle stocks such as Arca, picatinny, and outdoorsmans.

The Rifle: Full Custom Light-Weight 6.5 PRC

The rifle I chose to upgrade for this story is my full custom 6.5 PRC light-weight hunting rifle!

From the build story part 1:

This build utilizes top-shelf components that will optimize both weight (this rifle is for packing in steep terrain) and also longevity and strength. Here’s a list of all of the components for the core build:

Action: Pierce Engineering Titanium Remington 700 Footprint
Barrel: Benchmark/Hell’s Canyon light weight carbon wrapped barrel
Stock: Benchmark Carbon Fiber
Trigger: TriggerTech Special
Bottom Metal: Redsnake Tactical
Magazines: Accurate Mag
Scope: Leupold Mark 5 HD

Here’s the rifle as initially built:

Lathe and Mill

Here’s a quick overview of the machine shop equipment I used for these upgrades:

For the stock work in this story, I’m using a Precision Matthews PM-949TV milling machine which is exceptional for this kind of work!

And here’s my new lathe, which is absolutely amazing- the Precision Matthews TL-1660 ultra-precision lathe:

This lathe is also equipped with the True Bore Alignment System complete with 6-Jaw chuck, which is great for holding onto muzzle brakes with wrench flats!

Upgrade 1: 4″ Ultra-Light Weight ARCA Rail

I decided I needed an ARCA rail on this rifle after converting most of my bipods over to ARCA, and then getting a QDT ARCA tripod from Two Vets. While SRS has a ton of rail options, I opted for the SRS 4″ ARCA Rail so that I could optimize positioning options for both bipods and the tripod.

I started by milling down the front portion of the carbon fiber stock so that the ARCA rail would mount parallel with the bore axis:

Note: the SRS 4″ ARCA rail is profiled on the bottom to mount directly to the curved portion of sporting stock forends. It will also work on flat surfaces like what I milled out here, or a chassis with flat bottom, etc.

Now I was ready to install the ARCA rail which fit perfectly:

Upgrade 2: Ti Pro 2 Titanium Muzzle Brake

From the Unknown Munitions Product Page:

Titanium 4 Port // .860 OD // OAL 2.25″ // 1.3 oz

The Ti Pro line of brakes have been designed for maximum recoil reduction and provide the most recoil control per ounce on the planet! These brakes are made entirely from titanium and come with wrench flats that can be turned and tapered to match your barrel. When looking for the right size brake, you generally want the OD of the brake to be the same or just larger than your muzzle diameter so that your gunsmith can taper it down to match your barrel. Please see the charts below to help you find the right brake for your application. These titanium brakes can be cerakoted or DLC’d to match your barrel. We don’t offer cerakoting but we do have DLC (black) and garnet blasted (gray) finishes in our self timing brake line only. This is because when your gunsmith is installing the brake he will most certainly take some material off or alter the finish once installed.

I did a bit of math to figure out how much material would be needed to properly clock the brake, and proceeded to take multiple cuts to “work up” to the perfect crush/torque. Here I am setting the DRO zero before a cut:

After getting just the right cut on the back of the brake, I cut down the diameter of the end and cut a taper to form an elegant transition between the muzzle shank/shoulder and the brake:

Both of these upgrades turned out just how I had hoped, and now I can’t wait to go out and shoot this new-and-improved ultra-light-weight 6.5 PRC! If you need parts like these, SRS is a great option.

Get the Gear

You can find these parts and many other great products at salmonriversolutions.com:

If you have other SRS product you want to see, please drop a comment!

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Thanks,
Gavin