I have been seeing folks on a few other forums where they put muzzle breaks on small caliber pistols, primarily 9mm. Unless I?m missing something, which is entirely possible, what is the point in doing this?, is it a ?looks thing? or are they just trying to minimize the little recoil there is

Most people do it as nothing more than a thread protector.

Then again, there are some dummies that even put muzzlebrakes on their 22lr guns.

I think most people are trying to do everything they can to improve it in every imagineable way possible.

But, in the case of muzzlebrakes on things that don't even kick, well, that's just dumb.

I admit that I do have an A2 style hider on my 10mm AR carbine.  But, it's hollowed out inside and is mostly just serving as a thread protector.  If I were to go outside right now at almost 11PM and shoot it, I would probably get more flash from the ejection port than I would the muzzle.  So, I make no claims that I think it's on there because it would reduce the flash.

Absolutely, I think a lot of these folks just like putting on 10 million different mods, and then they wonder what happened to their once reliable pistol 😂

LOL.

Yeah, I'm an admin at a gun forum and have been a mod on several others over the years.

I have seen several new members join just to complain about how janky a gun is, and somewhere in the long explanation, they'll state that it happened after they installed their new expensive part from XYZ company.

This was very common with misaligned gas blocks and heavyweight buffers and such.

Yep I read daily people get a new firearm and they pop up on a forum asking about modifications...  I say leave it alone, get to know the firearm as it functions and understand how to clean and maintain them!

For sure, plus many of the folks that are so interested in a million mods tend to be younger and new to firearms, then they wonder why the weapon doesn?t work correctly

I've been guilty of making a bunch of changes to my guns.  So, I can't say it's just the young crowd.  I've not considered myself young in a while now.

Whether it was a muzzlebrake or something else entirely?  I've done it.

I've been more interested in the effects of a muzzlebrake inside of silencers though.  You used to never really hear anyone using any kind of internal brake or comp inside of a silencer, but I'm here to tell you that it can be very beneficial.  Especially if you're wanting to direct some of the gas in a certain place or location.  Reflex style suppressors to name one where the gas is needing to go back over the barrel back towards the shooter to fill up that chamber better is one prime example.

I quickly realized that a cone shape where the gas ports out of the internal brake/comp makes a high/low pressure area which is very effective at that.

Heck, just directing the gas anywhere away from the bore helps with suppression.

But, that is probably way out of the context of the topic.

Me as well, but have also realized that making several changes at one time can make it very difficult tracking down the cause of a problem. Any more, grips, sights, and an occasional recoil spring in a non-carry weapon is all I will do. As we all know, you can spend a ton of money on cool upgrades without gaining anything but an unreliable weapon.

You're not wrong.

While I do buy stuff for my guns sometimes, it depends on what it is.  I stopped being tacti-fool a long time ago.

I often like reduced weight trigger/sear/disconnect springs as long as they don't make the gun unreliable from light strikes where I can. 

Then again, I'm known to make my own stuff when no one makes what I want too.  I actually prefer that whenever possible.  There's a lot of things that I am known to do that is not commercially available.   

Can sure pay off if your handy like that

I love doing stuff like that.

Some folks are good at mechanickin' on cars.  Some can paint beautiful pictures that will be enjoyed by many for centuries.  Some can write stories that people enjoy.

Me?

I like working on my guns and designing and making things.  It's just what I enjoy doing.  Mom always told me I got it from the Browning side of the family.

Nice, I love it

I'm that guy has run brakes/comps on most of my pistol rounds at one point or another.  The main purpose for me is to change the timing of the gun.  On blowback designs like 22s a brake doesn't really do much except add a "cool" factor but on a locked breech or a delayed blowback design the entire feel of the gun changes through it's recoil pulse. 

My 5.7x28 doesn't have much recoil regardless of the load but it has a small steel brake made for an sr22 installed on the ruger threaded barrel setup.  The little brake has just enough grab to delay the timing to the point I can keep the shoulders from moving on the fired cases which is the main issue with 5.7s.  My case life is significantly longer and I can now load outside of the box.  (For those who haven't toyed with the little 5.7 it is a very picky round).  The brake makes it much easier to get along with.

On bigger rounds like the 10mm and 45 super a good brake changes the timing enough that instead of cases flying into the next zip code they fall right at my feet.  Recoil becomes very flat to the point it feels like someone is holding onto the gun.  I can run stock recoil springs vs heavy ones with hot loads and it works proportionately well with a good brake.  Meaning the hotter the load the more efficient the brake works so reliability isn't an issue. 

The only time things get finicky is with light for caliber bullets loaded with large charges of slow powder.  The large amounts of gas offsets the low inertia from light bullets so the slide can't get moving.  Case in point I have a 38 casull build on a glock 40 and loaded some lightweight lehigh 65g bullets under a case full of 3n38.  Even though it was a 2500fps load with 900lbs of energy the slide barely moved.  The concussion was so loud (naval cannon) I though i locked the gun up when it didn't cycle but the empty case popped right out when I racked the slide by hand.  Move up to a 90g or heavier bullet and i get normal functioning again.

But then again as with cars and trucks I hot rod everything I mess with.

That?s really interesting, Thanks!

Quote from: ss30378 on August 01 2022 02:04:20 PM MDT
I'm that guy has run brakes/comps on most of my pistol rounds at one point or another.  The main purpose for me is to change the timing of the gun.  On blowback designs like 22s a brake doesn't really do much except add a "cool" factor but on a locked breech or a delayed blowback design the entire feel of the gun changes through it's recoil pulse. 

My 5.7x28 doesn't have much recoil regardless of the load but it has a small steel brake made for an sr22 installed on the ruger threaded barrel setup.  The little brake has just enough grab to delay the timing to the point I can keep the shoulders from moving on the fired cases which is the main issue with 5.7s.  My case life is significantly longer and I can now load outside of the box.  (For those who haven't toyed with the little 5.7 it is a very picky round).  The brake makes it much easier to get along with.

On bigger rounds like the 10mm and 45 super a good brake changes the timing enough that instead of cases flying into the next zip code they fall right at my feet.  Recoil becomes very flat to the point it feels like someone is holding onto the gun.  I can run stock recoil springs vs heavy ones with hot loads and it works proportionately well with a good brake.  Meaning the hotter the load the more efficient the brake works so reliability isn't an issue. 

The only time things get finicky is with light for caliber bullets loaded with large charges of slow powder.  The large amounts of gas offsets the low inertia from light bullets so the slide can't get moving.  Case in point I have a 38 casull build on a glock 40 and loaded some lightweight lehigh 65g bullets under a case full of 3n38.  Even though it was a 2500fps load with 900lbs of energy the slide barely moved.  The concussion was so loud (naval cannon) I though i locked the gun up when it didn't cycle but the empty case popped right out when I racked the slide by hand.  Move up to a 90g or heavier bullet and i get normal functioning again.

But then again as with cars and trucks I hot rod everything I mess with.

I knew and understood a bit of that but this is a pretty good explanation.
I have a Charger that someone actually tack welded a muzzle device on. It served zero function other than added weight.