If you want to reduce recoil on your lightweight hunting rifle, you’re going to want to check out the titanium muzzle brakes from Salmon River Solutions. In this story, we’ll look at recoil reduction using the Ultimate Reloader recoil rig!
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Salmon River Solutions Brakes
Today we’re joined by Ken Trapp, owner of Salmon River Solutions (SRS).
Ken confirmed that there’s an incredible number of SRS brakes when separating by bore sizes, threads, brake diameters and port numbers. SRS has several port designs: the Ti Pro Line, The Chub, ‘Lil Chub and the SRS Mini 5-Port, the first brake Ken ever designed. Each of these brakes has a variety of thread options and bore diameters. SRS even offers custom bore options.
This isn’t our first look at SRS products. We’ve featured the SRS Ti Pro II 6.5 Brake on our 6.5 PRC upgrade along with an SRS rail.
We also added The Chub to the 22 GT build. It weighs about 1.4 ounces and feels near inconsequential when held. SRS brakes are ideal for trying to make weight for various competitions or to shave weight for hunting.
Ken Trapp attests that you won’t find a better brake for the weight. Titanium tends to impress and surprise.
Recoil Testing
We utilized our recoil rig to test and measure recoil with a variety of ultra lightweight SRS muzzle brakes. The Ultimate Reloader Recoil Rig measures forces at the buttstock at a rate of 20,000 samples/second, a true representation of recoil.
We used the same gun with each brake — a 8.12 lb. 6.5 PRC rifle.
While we’ve previously tested suppressor effectiveness with the recoil rig, this is the first time we’ve taken a close look at brakes.
Listed in order of testing, we tested several different configurations:
- Ti Pro 2 6.5
- Lil’ Chub 6.5
- Chub 6.5
- Chub 308
- Bare Muzzle
We tested both the Chub 6.5 and Chub 308 to see the difference between a brake bored for 6.5 vs. 308 shooting on a gun that’s shooting a .264 bullet.
On a side note, Ken asked me about the effect of clearance on recoil. This is on my list — starting at the minimum safe above bore diameter clearance number and incrementing testing by 10 thousandths at a time. When you have a tighter tolerance, gasses are vented more efficiently, so you’d expect greater recoil reduction. The question is: is it linear?
Result
The way I typically compare recoil is by looking first at the peak forces for the bare muzzle. I then look at what each configuration does to reduce recoil from the peak number. I also care about the total area under the curve (the full recoil impulse).
The blue line represents the bare muzzle. We quickly noted the rounded shape of the top of the bare muzzle line. The bare muzzle recoils differently at the peak than the brakes do. Not surprisingly, the next line was the .308 Chub as it had excessive clearance. The .308 brake is bored for .338, whereas the 6.5 Chub was bored for .294. There was a 15% recoil reduction between the .308 Chub and 6.5 Chub!
The Ti Pro 2 and Chub 6.5 lines overlap on the graph, respectively 38% and 36% reduction in recoil from the bare muzzle. This is enough of a reduction to take an intolerable gun to shoot to tolerable at a minimum.
Even though the .308 Chub didn’t have proper clearance, it still had a noticeable (21%) reduction in recoil. Remember to think about the clearance when choosing a brake, even if one is marketed as universal. You’ll get diminishing results.
Ken noted that this is where port design comes in. For example, the 2% difference between the Ti Pro 2 and Chub 6.5 is due to different port designs.
Conclusion
This test resulted in a wealth of information — but it’s only the beginning. We still need to take a closer look at clearance and experiment with other brakes! I’d particularly like to try the SRS Heavy on a .338.
Get the Gear!
Take a look at the full list of Salmon River Solutions brakes here!
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Thanks,
Gavin Gear
