Old School: Who Doesn't Hunt with a Muzzle Brake or Suppressor?

[Broomd]

'Old school,' lol.

 

[ThatredneckguyJamie]

well dang it...one more thing in my life I get classified as doing "old school". come to work everyday and expect others to do the same...that's cause your old school. Drink plain old coffee without 15 different fancy flavors, old school. Shoot a rifle without adding 2-8" of extra unneeded metal on the end because otherwise it either kicks too much or is too loud...old school.

 

[bmart2622]

Nice. What a useful comment.

.270 unbraked. I'd be in line for a suppressor if my state allowed them. Only shot it once without hearing protection while hunting and lucked out with the downhill profile I was on reflecting a good amount of the muzzle blast outward. No ringing, but I wouldn't shoot without protection again.

Complaining about other people doing nothing wrong and shooting at a shooting range isnt very useful

 

[prm]

…. In fact I haven’t hunted this year period.

That’s not right!

 

[mother_plucker]

Nope, I can’t use a break for medical reasons
and a cann is a PIA in red tape and wait time
I might change my mind on a break for a 35 whelen , but I got enough governmental crap and buying a suppressor will add more

Silencer shop, and Silencer Central have really taken the "crap" and PITA out of buying them, a Silencer Shop kiosk will do the finger prints, and everything you need is easy to do on it. Yes, the wait is ridiculous, but once you shoot suppressed, you'd never go back.

 

[264 MHC]

I'm fairly young at 27 so when I started getting into rifles more seriously, suppressors were fairly prevalent and I had used a few before starting my gun collection. Every rifle I have bought or put together in the last 9 years has a threaded muzzle because I knew I wanted a suppressor. I finally got one 3 years ago and love it. I don't do load development with them other than verifying that loads remain accurate, but I almost always hunt with them now. I will agree that it is fairly unwieldy on barrels over 20" or so, so I have been using shorter barrels lately. My 6.5 Grendel AR I built specifically for suppressor use with a 12.7" barrel and it is shorter with the suppressor than any of my bolt guns and lighter too. That $400 to the government for having an SBR and suppressor does suck though.

Brakes, I am not a fan of. Mainly just from being blown out by them at the range. For that reason I don't have any guns that need them. My heaviest recoiling gun is a 10lb 280ai that is very manageable.

 

[General RE LEE]

I just realized that using the term “old school”, might be old school lol

 

[Wrongside]

I have a few braked rifles- comp/target guns- but never hunt with them.

We aren’t ‘allowed’ suppressors here in Canukistan. If we were, I’d probably set up some of my rifles for them. But not all, I’m not interested in adding weight to my ultralights.

 

[jimh406]

I have one threaded bolt action rifle. I haven't hunted with a brake or suppressor.

I do put in ear pro (band type) before the shot with my 300 Wby for the past few years since I restarted rifle hunting. It doesn't take that long to put them in.

Back in East Tennessee when I was younger, I never did. I survived 30'06 and 300 Win Mag, but quickly converted to bowhunting. One hunting rifle shot per year to fill a tag. Also, usually had some type of ear covering on which probably buffered the noise some.

 

[hedrick99]

Agreed. Combine that with hunting being a leisure activity where nobody "needs" to slay that deer right now, and it is a head scratcher. We hook electronic ear muffs to our bio harness and put them on before shooting an animal. Very easy. If I am expecting a fast and furious gun fight with my game of choice, I just put them on before they are needed. Keep my ears warm and amplify normal sounds to boot.

That’s my move. My ears ring sooo much regularly because as a kid I never wore ear protection, nor sunscreen nor sunglasses (the seventies and eighties) I hate ear muffs because they push glasses into my temples but I do wear them and love my breaks. To each his own it’s all about having a good time. Go get em

 

[Stinky Coyote]

Another vote for old school here, we are forced to in Canada. I ran brakes for a short while on ultralight 270 wsm and some other magnums (7rm/300wm) but glad I migrated off the magnums. Now I run threaded factory barrel set up just waiting for the collapse of our tyrannical govt. and a sensible structure to replace it...I'm future proofed, will be looking to grab a tbac ultra5 one day to complete our short barrel low hp rigs up here in Canada. The war that's been under way since 2016 should reveal itself to the public officially this year.

Muzzle brakes are awful period and have no place anywhere imo. As it is we only touch off on 30 grains of powder now and ears at the range/target/zero checks...but no ears for hunting. It's best we can do for now.

 

[DeerCatcherUT/CO]

I hunt with a Ruger 7mm mag. No break for me. It kicks my ass but it’s a tack driver so why mess up a good thing? Better wear your mouth guard because it kills on both ends!

 

[Newtosavage]

I guess I'm really old school because I've cut the threads off of barrels before and probably will again. LOL

 

[Ragu]

Hearing protection should be worn w/ or w/o a brake. Hunting or plinking. Rifles are loud. Either way.

I lean towards a brake on larger hunting calibers because it improves my accuracy(reducing flinch). I believe you should become very familiar with a rifle and make it as easy to shoot as possible.

 

[Rich M]

I dont use or like brakes.

Supressors are great. Be great if we could just go buy one and use it…

 

[Stinky Coyote]

Suppressors should be law, for a number of reasons, all of them for humanities benefit lol. Not even joking. Do we straight pipe all our cars? It's the dumbest thing ever not protecting EVERYONE's ears from this damaging and annoying noise pollution. (shooters and public that may be near by)

 

[SamsonMan22]

If I could use a can here I would for sure, I hate muzzle brakes and refuse to use one after having a few rifles with them. They are great for recoil but I can’t stand the extra blast with them, some are down right miserable even with doubled up ear protection.

 

[justin davis]

I held off on a suppressor for the longest of times. Seemed like a pain. Well I got one last year and tell you what. I should have got one a long time ago. What a saver to the ears.

 

[Macintosh]

Brakes suck for everything except my shoulder. Same as ported barrels, they JUST. PLAIN. SUCK. I have one on a prs-ish rifle. Hunting guns are bare. I dont own a suppressor for 3 reasons.
1) i regularly hunt in a state where they are not legal to hunt with. Probably not even legal to possess there given the effed up politics there. Even in my home state the law allowing suppressors for hunting is very recent (last year?) and sunsets in a year or so, so no guarantee I’d be able to continue using it. Regardless of what I think of this its what I have to deal with and is unlikely to change any time soon, if at all.
2) my definition of a hunting rifle rarely comes threaded, a minor hurdle but an additional hoop to jump through if I want to use one.
3) its not the red tape, its that I think its ridiculous that I need to go through it (and pay $$$ for the “privilege”). Combined with the above its enough for me to not bother out of spite. Dump the nfa and Id have one for every gun I own.

I wear ear pro hunting when its realistic, which is extremely rare hunting locally. Hunting in the west its easy—totally different ballgame. Yes, my hearing is damaged. No, Im not happy about it. Yes, I vote…unfortunately that hasn't been cutting it.

 

[nphunter]

Old school with all my rifles, I already have hearing loss and don't want to have to deal with one more thing while hunting. I also don't shoot large caliper rifles, my 280AI does everything I need with very manageable recoil, my youngest son has been shooting it since he was 8 and like 65lbs and has killed a ton of critters with it, my 120lb wife also shoots it any time she hunts. My barrel is threaded I've just never personally been a fan of breaks and see zero advantage to using one for the hunting I do.