Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Don't save money...

...by cheaping out on your gunsmith.

Saw a Bushhamster "Y-Comp" muzzle brake launched into the berm yesterday, due to an indifferent job of pinning the thing on. You'd think that the shooter would have noticed the sudden departure of several ounces of metal at a high rate of speed from the front end of his gat, but he says he didn't feel anything.

It wasn't threaded or silver soldered; just affixed over a smooth turned-down shank on the end of the barrel with a single blind pin and some dried crusty residue that may have been library paste for all the good it did in keeping the thing attached.

He needed to re-zero the weapon. Also, it's a lot more pleasant to shoot on the same relay as that guy without that godawful racket-making excrescence on the end of his carbine.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this the equivalent of launching your golf club head down the course?

krazmo said...

Half my shootin buddies have those devil-spawn comps. Hate 'em, hate 'em, hate 'em! I make somebody else hold the timer.

Hate 'em!

aczarnowski said...

A comp on a 5.56? The fierce recoil and muzzle rise is apparently too much to handle?

Steve Skubinna said...

Jeez, aczarnowski, are you that obtuse? You need comps because they look totally bitchin' and tactikewl!

And because a guy you know "in the teams" says this is the same one they use in the Sandbox for Drowning Dingoes.

Um, I mean... Browning Bongos? No? Er...

... Downing Tangos. Yeah, that was it.

Anonymous said...

Folks put comps on rifles for control.

Same reason they put rubber pads on stocks.

It might be to help deal with punishing recoil.

It might be to speed up follow up shots.

Asking "What is it for?" can be educational.

Matt G said...

I can't think of a single patrol officer I know who has one on his carbine, but now I'll have to be on the lookout.

The bigger concern to me would be to lose all hearing, especially if one got fired indoors.

staghounds said...

It was a special multiple projectile for CQB!!

Ancient Woodsman said...

I'm sure you could ask Jay G - he's got one what looks to be pinned to a threaded muzzle on that MA-compliant M4 on his title page.

I had one of the press fit/pinned on a 20" post-ban Bushmaster and it was o.k. Loud but worked.

If a muzzle device is what is wanted some folks don't have a choice but to have a comp, but not having the choice is no excuse for percussion gunsmithing.

Will said...

Try being next to a Garand with a comp that resembled the one you see on .50BMG's! Forgot my ears once, when we started a string shooting prone (I was switching back and forth between custom plugs and muffs). My ears rang for days.s.s.s...

Anonymous said...

Hate to be the one to say it, but some of the dumbest crap I've heard of, and I hear a lot being in the business, comes from "gunsmiths". They know far too much to read instructions, for one thing. -- Lyle

GuardDuck said...

Did a carbine class with a guy who had one of those cochlear compression devices on the end of his Bushie .308 shorty.

Fortunately the powers that be decided to place him in the furthest left lane. Unfortunately they also decided to place the only lefty (moi) in the next lane over.

Ed Foster said...

I have a comp on my 20 inch, for no reason other than it was there when I got the barrel. Pinned it, put a little braze in the hole so it couldn't be removed,and now it's legal here in CT.

Doesn't shoot a damned bit better than the one before it that I wore out, and that one had no compensator at all. Go figure.

Will said...

IIRC, some of the .gov/mil documents refer to the "flash hider" on the m16A2 as a brake. This is due to it being directional. Blows up and to both sides, but not down. By definition, that is a muzzle brake. Wonder how much down force it generates?

Steve Skubinna said...

Will, the reason it doesn't blow down is to avoid stirring up a dust cloud when fired. The flash hider on the M14 has the same arrangement of vents.

But you probably already knew that.

Dr. StrangeGun said...

It may very well have been library paste. Cornstarch is in the long list of materials used as a 'glue' and/or thread locker (threads would have been convenient here, granted) before the plastics revolution.

Unknownsailor said...

That Bushy AK-74 style thingy works; I have one on my XM-15E2S. Friendly to those next to you it is not, though.
Also, if you ever get to Gunsite for 223, and you have a brake on your carbine, don't forget to stick it outside the box when you run the Scrambler. Those of you who have been know what I mean.