As competitors that actually spend time on the podium, we know seeing impacts is everything, so we’re here to fill gaps in the market previously overlooked by manufacturers and pave the way for positive new trends in the industry to address the lack of focus put on rifle balance, weight distribution, muzzle rise and recoil management to get you seeing as many impacts as possible and thus improving your scores.
A universal rating for performance.
The R2B recoil testing standard
The muzzle device industry has no recoil testing standard for comparing products against each other and/or measuring performance.
Due to this, and the fact most people have been led to believe shooting rifles on a recoil sled effectively reports a recoil event, the industry has gotten away with some wild claims and conjecture that isn’t based on the underlying science, for a long time.
Now that we’re finally established and have invested the time and money into recoil testing and achieved marketing leading levels of accuracy and knowledge in this space, it’s time to reel in some of this nonsense and set the record straight.
We have always provided the raw data and results of our tests to the community, but with this new equipment and the experience to run it, we’re now able to go that one step further and offer a quick and easy way for customers to visualize and gauge the performance of not only our own products, but also other products within the industry with the new R2B standard. A simple number and rating attached to all products we test in the industry, so customers can buy with confidence, instead of conjecture.
The R2B standard has a recoil rating that works off of the premise, if you removed the muzzle brake or silencer in question from the rifle and shot it with a bare muzzle you’d increase the recoil of the rifle by X percentage. The higher the number the better the performance.
The blast portion of the rating works off of the same premise, if you removed the muzzle brake or silencer in question from the rifle and shot it with a bare muzzle you’d increase or decrease the blast of the rifle by Y percentage. The bigger the increase in blast, the more comfortable the muzzle device is to shoot. (Blast portion of testing and results coming soon.)
Simple.
Industry leading performance and testing.
Equipment and testing protocols
The recoil portion of the R2B standard requires the following equipment:
A 26 inch, 6.5 Creedmoor barreled action weighing 10.6 LBS. (Weight must be +/- 2%.)
An impact force sensor with an independently calibrated minimum 1500 LBS (maximum load rating), and an interface capable of a minimum 50KHZ data update rate that’s mounted to an aluminum or steel frame capable of being secured to a stable platform for testing. Sensor must be capable of +/- 0.05% accuracy and independently calibrated to ISO standards with NIST certified equipment. (Details and specs of the equipment we use and the equipment we recommend below.)
Berger 6.5 mm Creedmoor 130 gr Hybrid OTM Tactical factory ammo. (Berger 130gr Hybrid OTM bullet moving at 2920 fps +/- 0.5%.)
A minimum 0.264 caliber muzzle brake.
The blast portion of the RB2 standard requires the equipment that conforms to MIL-STD 1474D.
Why this combination?
A muzzle brakes ability to counter recoil is heavily dictated by; the ratio of grains of powder in the case, pressure and the subsequent volume of gas the powder creates, to the weight of the bullet. The heavier the bullet, the less physical powder you can fit in the case before reaching overpressure issues. This results in a slower moving and smaller volume of gas available to fight the recoil of the bullet and recoil event. The lighter the bullet the more powder you can fit into the case before reaching overpressure issues. Resulting in a larger, faster moving volume of gas. The more gas the brake has to work with, the easier it is for the muzzle brake to showcase its performance potential.
The harder you run a brake, while keeping the bullet weight the same, the better the muzzle brake works and the less recoil you’re left with in the end. Even if without a muzzle brake this increases recoil.
We’ve known this for quite some time, (highlighted by +P ammo demonstrations in handguns). A 124 gr bullet being shot at standard pressures gives you X amount of recoil. +P ammo using the same bullet grain weight, but shot at higher pressures and a higher velocity, due to more powder being used, gives you Y amount of recoil. Without a compensator Y has more recoil but shoot them both with a compensator and due to the faster moving, larger volume of gas at higher pressures, you end up running the compensator much harder with the +P ammo. The compensator’s recoil reduction capability goes way up with the hotter ammo, and the result is with the compensator, Y suddenly has less recoil than X due to the compensator’s ability to overcome the recoil penalty of the extra speed and pressure of the +P ammo.
There’s a fine balance here with every cartridge from a pure recoil perspective. Ideally, to achieve the highest external ballistics possible and the lowest recoil at the same time, you want a bullet grain weight slightly less than average, that’s going as fast as possible due to a larger than normal charge of slower burning powder. This will showcase the ability of the muzzle brake to reduce recoil far better than a heavy bullet, going slower from less and faster burning powder. A light for cartridge bullet going abnormally fast for the cartridge will give similar results but this is misleading and is ill advised for recoil testing. It has the same effect we’re trying to demonstrate but skews the results heavily in a way that is misrepresentative of the average/realistic recoil expectations of the cartridge being discussed because it’s abnormally effective at reducing recoil.
Berger 6.5 mm Creedmoor 130gr Hybrid OTM Tactical factory ammo is a hotter load, with a slightly lighter than average bullet and a lot of powder, resulting in a great balance of recoil and bullet speed. It also has a large volume of higher-pressure gas that allows the muzzle brake to highlight its performance capabilities, as previously discussed without being misrepresentative of the recoil of the 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge.
How does the rating work?
The recoil portion is simply based off of the percentage the recoil would increase should you remove the muzzle device in question and shoot the rifle without it.
Once the product in question has been tested, it will be applied with a rating that directly compares its performance to the bare barreled action, tested in conjunction with the aforementioned equipment. The rating will be the percentage the recoil increases if you remove the muzzle brake and shoot it with a bare muzzle. If the muzzle brake in question had a peak force of 600 LBS and the bare barreled action had a peak force of 1100 LBS, which is a percentage increase of 83.3%, it would be applied the following rating: R2(83). Indicating if you removed the muzzle brake from the rifle you’d increase the recoil of the rifle by 83%.
The blast portion is simply based off of the percentage that the blast would increase or decrease should you remove the muzzle device in question and shoot the rifle without it.
Once the product in question has been tested, it will be applied with a rating that directly compares its performance to the bare barreled action, tested in conjunction with the aforementioned equipment. The rating will be the percentage the blast increases or decreases if you remove the muzzle device and shoot it with a bare muzzle. If the muzzle device in question had a peak DB of 170 DB and the bare barreled action had a peak DB of 155 DB, which is a percentage decrease of 8.8%, it would be applied the following rating: B(-8.8). Indicating if you removed the muzzle brake from the rifle you’d decrease the blast of the rifle by 8.8%.
This will then be added to the recoil results and given the following rating: R2(83)B(-8.8)
What’s the testing method?
Using our market leading impact force sensor setup, our experience and the carefully selected equipment we first establish a baseline and verify consistency for the day before testing without any muzzle device. We require standard deviations and accuracy from shot to shot to be less than +/- 0.5% over the course of x5 shots but in most cases achieve quite less than this (with our setup 0.2% is achievable).
Once a baseline for the day’s setup is established, we then begin testing each muzzle device vs the bare muzzle in x5 shot strings. x5 shot strings with the muzzle device in question and then another x5 shot string without a muzzle device. Going back and repeating the bare muzzle strings of fire each time a new muzzle device is selected verifies the setup is still calibrated and the results of the day are valid.
We then average the strings of fire for the muzzle device in question and the string of fire for the bare muzzle. Once completed we simply calculate the percentage increase (rounded up or down to a single decimal place) from the muzzle device’s string of fire to the bare muzzle’s string of fire (0.5 or greater is rounded up, less than .05 is rounded down).
For example: If the muzzle brake in question had a peak force of 600 LBS and the bare barreled action had a peak force of 1100 LBS, which is a percentage increase of 83.333%, it would be applied the following rating: R2(83.3)B(XX).
Buy with confidence.
Current rankings and results
WITHOUT WARNING CHAD NEXT GEN PROTOTYPE (.264 CAL)
WITHOUT WARNING CHAD GEN1 (.264 CAL)
WITHOUT WARNING TMB GEN2.5 (.264 CAL)
ACE PRECISION ACE (.264 CAL)
ACE PRECISION ACE with ACE SHIELD (.264 CAL)
APA FAT BASTARD GEN4 (.264 CAL)
APA FAT BASTARD GEN3 (.264 CAL)
APA LITTLE BASTARD GEN4 (.264 CAL)
MPA DN3 (.264 CAL)
MPA DN5 (.264 CAL)
KINETIC SECUITY SOLUTIONS ATS (.264 CAL)
HAWKINS PRECISION TANK (.264 CAL)
HAWKINS PRECISION UPDRAFT (.264 CAL)
BOTNIA SOLUTIONS MAXI GEN1 (.264 CAL)
MDT COMP (.264 CAL)
AREA 419 HELLFIRE MATCH (.264 CAL)
AREA 419 MAVERICK (.264 CAL)
THUNDER BEAST ARMS MAGNUS K RR (.308 CAL)
THUNDER BEAST ARMS ULTRA 7 (.308 CAL)
THUNDER BEAST ARMS ULTRA 9 (.308 CAL)
CORTINA PRECISION NEXTGEN EC (.264 CAL)
PRECISION ARMAMENT HYPERTAP (.264 CAL)
PATRIOT VALLEY ARMS JETBLAST (.264 CAL)
KGM R30T (.308 CAL)
SILENCERCO OMEGA 300 DT (.308 CAL)
R2B
R2(78.5)B
R2(71.9)B
R2(67.5)B
R2B
R2B
R2(68.4)B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
R2B
All raw test data is available in the following link, it is all in excel format (.xlsx):
The muzzle brake/silencer I’m interested in isn’t on your list?
We are a company that’s main demographic is the PRS and NRL Hunter communities and similar styles of shooting competitions. If we deem a product relevant, we will seek it out personally to test it. Trust us, if it’s in use by the PRS and NRL Hunter communities, we know about it and it’s on the list. If it’s not on the list, it’s not relevant and we won’t be going out of our way to test it but will always be happy to test anything you guys send us. If it’s on the list but no rating has been applied yet, we either have one and will be testing it or are trying to acquire one for testing.
If you as a customer or someone in the muzzle brake industry have a product you would like us to test publicly and/or privately for development, please reach out to us we are more than happy to test the product publicly (test and post data/apply a rating to the product, which will appear above on the list) or test the product in private and supply you with the data for product development.
Simplifying performance for the user.
FAQ
Do you charge for testing?
No, we do not charge for public recoil testing.
We do however charge for private recoil testing. Our fee is a simple flat rate of $500 USD per muzzle device. A very reasonable and cost-effective price for testing from the market leaders of recoil reduction technology and testing. Pricing for similar services within the industry that claim to understand the subject matter, when they don’t, will cost you roughly $2500-4000 USD per muzzle device and will not provide you with consistent data or the data analysis by a subject matter expert required to make meaningful design changes from the data you’re provided with.
This is why we invested so much time and money into this. The service we provide is what we wished and hoped existed at the time when we went looking for such a thing. It just happened to evolve into creating and establishing a standard once we realized how wrong the industry and conjecture surrounding testing and performance was.
What do I receive for my private testing?
You’ll receive the same data that would be released publicly ie: the raw data read out from the sensor in .xlsx format, an R2B rating, a graph showcasing the muzzle devices performance compared to the bare muzzle and stand out muzzle devices, a graph highlighting peak forces, length of recoil event and a quick analysis of your product’s performance.
Do you offer product development or licensing of your technology?
No.
We already design all of Mountain Forged’s muzzle brakes, which are targeted at demographics that we don’t resonate with and don’t wish to add anyone else into the mix. Between us and them we have the entire market covered.