Muzzle Brakes (improved range)?

Question

Does anyone have any info on whether or not adding a muzzle brake onto a gun will increase its range at all? I added a muzzle brake to one of my guns and it increased its accuracy by a little more than 50% but was curious about whether it had any affect on a weapons range. Thanks

Answer 1

A muzzle break works on a gun *after* the bullet has already left the muzzle.  It can NOT increase your range or your accuracy other than psychologically.

Answer 2

No, it can not increase your range, although accuracy increases your effective range..

What likely happened was that you had a muzzle crown issue which was corrected when you added your brake or the addition of the brake made YOU personally able to shoot more accurately and had nothing to do with the inherent accuracy of your rifle..

Answer 3

it does not increase your range. it expels the gasses at the time the bullet is fired. this will take a great deal of the kick or recoil away. a muzzle brake is on the end of the barrel. it will have a series of holes around the brake.doing away with the recoild  also makes the gun a great deal louder.

----------retired texas deputy sheriff----------

Answer 4

No it will not. short answer.

Long answer: a muzzle brake is designed to 1)reduce barrel flip, allowing faster followup shots and making it easier to hold on target 2) port sound away from the shooter - making it difficult to pick which direction a shot came from (if you're being shot at) and less hazardous to the shooter 3) dampening felt recoil by porting gasses in a direction other than foreward.

Nor will a muzzle break increase your rifles accuracy, it may increase your ability to shoot accurately for any or all of the above reasons, but s******g a tube with holes in it to the end of the barrel will have no effect on the priojectile.

Answer 5

Field & Stream, Sept 08, has a good short article on muzzle brakes, but they don’t mention range at all.

I can see your accuracy improving because your rifle doesn’t kick you as bad.  You won’t flinch as much either.  I had to get through that with my .30-06, which kicks like a mule.

I don’t see how it would increase the range of your bullet though.  It disperses the gas at the barrel’s end reducing the force on the round, unless you increased the amount of powder behind it.  I’ll keep researching.  

Answer 6

You got lucky on your barrel harmonics. Normally you wouldn't expect better accuracy ( tunable brakes like BOSS excepted), unless it cures a flinch. There's no reason in the world for it to affect trajectory to any measurable degree, though drilling holes in the end of a barrel does theoretically make it ever so slightly "shorter," but I wouldn't lose sleep over such a very tiny velocity loss.