Suppressor vs. Muzzle Brake – What The Pros Use

Most shooters prefer either a muzzle brake or a suppressor. So, when I surveyed the 200 top-ranked shooters in the Precision Rifle Series (Learn about the PRS), I specifically asked each of those top marksmen what they run in competitions.

There are a couple of national-level matches each year that are specifically “suppressor only” matches, like the Box Canyon Showdown match and the Silent Night match. Matches like those dictate what muzzle device competitors can use, and I didn’t want that nuance to confuse those taking the survey or skew the results. So here is how I asked the question:

Here are the results of that question:

On the chart above, the various colors represent where a shooter landed in terms of season rank in the PRS. For example, black indicates shooters who finished in the top 10, the darkest blue is people who finished 11-25, and the lighter the blue, the further out they finished in overall standings. The chart legend itemizes the ranks each color represents, but basically, the darker the color, the higher the shooter’s overall ranking.

77% of pro shooters use a muzzle brake exclusively, 10% use a suppressor exclusively, and the remaining 13% said they might run one or the other depending on what match it is. In fact, 9 out of the top 10 said they used muzzle brakes exclusively. The other 1 out of the top 10 said it depends on the situation. There were only 2 ranked in the top 25 who said they used a suppressor exclusively.

If you’re new to this style of long-range, competitive shooting, you might be confused about why more people don’t use suppressors. First, it’s not because they don’t own a suppressor or don’t want to wait on the ATF paperwork. Virtually all of these guys own suppressors but still choose to run a muzzle brake in competitions.

So why do the overwhelming majority of competitors use a muzzle brake rather than a suppressor? There are several tradeoffs between the two, but I’ll try to briefly hit on the two biggest reasons most of these guys are using muzzle brakes:

• Muzzle brakes help you stay on target better than a traditional suppressor. Spotting your own impacts is critical in these types of competitions so that you can correct your next shot to center. I performed empirical tests on this first-hand a few years back. The results show several different models of brakes, and you can compare those to a bare muzzle and suppressor at the top of the diagram. The red dot represents the point of aim, and the other dots are where the sights went under recoil. (View the full test on the ability to stay on target)

• Some muzzle brake designs are almost twice as effective at reducing recoil as traditional suppressors. Reducing recoil also helps you stay on target and watch your impacts downrange. I performed first-hand empirical tests on this a few years back, where I carefully measured recoil reduction of 20+ muzzle brake designs and compared those to a high-end 9” suppressor. (View the full test on recoil reduction)

There are a few other factors that may play into the decision to run a muzzle brake or suppressor for some of these shooters. For example, brakes are typically much shorter than suppressors, making the rifle easier to maneuver as you move positions. Muzzle brakes also typically don’t heat the barrel as quickly as suppressors. But the 2 above are likely the biggest drivers among this crowd.

New Products Break The “Traditional” Mold

Historically, muzzle brakes were the far end of the spectrum for performance in terms of recoil reduction and staying on target, but the least shooter comfort. The increased noise and concussion from a muzzle brake aren’t fun. Traditional suppressors could be seen at the far end of the spectrum in terms of optimizing for shooter comfort. It might look something like this:

Notice I’ve been intentionally referencing “traditional suppressors.” That’s because new suppressor designs have been introduced that seem to blur the lines between a suppressor and a muzzle brake. While they are legally still classified as suppressors, they are shorter and have a muzzle brake on the end of them that can help them further reduce recoil and help you stay on target.

Here are a couple of examples of these more hybrid products that I’m referring to:

On the left, you can see Thunder Beast Arms Corp’s (TBAC) new line of Magnus suppressors, released at SHOT Show 2024. The ones with the brakes on the end are designated by TBAC as their “Magnus RR” suppressors, which stands for “Recoil Reduction” because it further reduces recoil. The first production run of these new TBAC Magnus RR suppressors is just now making it to distributors, so we’ll have to wait to see how many of these top competitors end up using them. TBAC claims these new designs reduce recoil on a 308 by almost 50%!

The product on the right in the image above is Area 419’s Maverick suppressor, which is a single suppressor that is modular and can be assembled in any of the shown configurations – including a couple of configurations with a muzzle brake on the end. This design was originally released in 2019 and is currently being used by 6 pro shooters in the top 50 in the PRS. (I’ll cover that in-depth in an upcoming article.)

So, are the Area 419 Maverick and TBAC Magnus RR suppressors or muzzle brakes? The ATF legally classifies them as suppressors, so they still require a $200 ATF stamp. But honestly, these designs sport some benefits of both. In fact, the 5.5” configuration of the Maverick increases the noise, meaning it doesn’t suppress the sound any compared to a bare muzzle.

Another suppressor, the KGM’s R65K and R30K, are only 5.8” long and feature an Adjustable Port End Cap. There are 8 tunable ports around the end of the can, and each has a threaded plug that you can remove to tune how much gas is redirected both vertically and to the sides. By porting some of the gas up, you can offset muzzle rise and help the shooter stay on target – similar to APA’s design on their Gen 3 muzzle brakes.

On the muzzle brake side, products like the ACE brake and APA’s Cone of Shame Nut have been introduced to reduce concussion to the shooter, even if they give up a little on recoil reduction. Some shooters have developed a flinch when using muzzle brakes that redirect gas rearward toward the shooter, and those products have helped them mitigate that and keep their eyes open so they can maintain focus on the target through the shot and better see their impacts.

Here is how 2-time PRS champion Austin Orgain describes the ACE brake he helped develop:

 “We wanted to design a brake that was effective but that didn’t direct as much blast back on the shooter. This was around the time that the APA Fat Bastard Gen 3 Brakes and other brakes with ports angled back at the shooter had become very popular, and we tried those out like everyone else. I’d say I may be slightly more blast-sensitive than some guys, but I didn’t really like using those brakes. At the end of a two-day match, I’d have pounding headaches, and it felt like someone was squeezing my head. We thought that can’t be healthy or good for your hearing, so we wanted to come up with something that kept the muzzle really flat but didn’t direct as much blast back on the shooter.”

Now, if you want to strictly optimize for recoil reduction, the pure physics of ports that are angled back to the shooter are hard to beat, but that comes at a cost. And for me, that was that I would flinch. I started videoing myself, and I noticed that my eyes would close for a split second. Well, that recoil reduction was doing me no good. The recoil was reduced, but because my eyes closed for a split second, I still missed part of that bullet flight. With our brake, you don’t get near as much concussion back on the shooter, and I don’t have that finch and keep my eyes open through that first part of recoil. It’s a lot easier to pick up trace, and it’s a lot easier for your eyes to track that target in your scope through recoil and see where your bullet impacted on the target.” – Austin Orgain, 2-Time PRS Season Champion

If you are shooting a brake with ports that are angled back towards the shooter, I challenge you to get a friend to video you over a few stages to see if you react to the blast. I didn’t think I was sensitive to that until Justin Watts took a video of me shooting at the JTAC class. In fact, I had already had my interview with Austin above before the JTAC class, and I remember thinking that I just must not be as sensitive to concussion as Austin was! 😉 Maybe you aren’t sensitive to it, but I bet most people would be surprised by the results. I know that I was. I didn’t react every time, but maybe 1 in 5 shots. But I also knew I didn’t seem to see my bullet impacts as consistently as other shooters, and that can make a more significant difference than you think.

There are slight delays for our brains and eyes to react, and in general, those are extremely fast – but so is a bullet traveling through the air! Here is a rough estimate showing average human reaction times and how that translates to the distance a bullet would have traveled:

The Take-Away

My point is that there are new products on the market that give shooters more options and the ability to strike new balances between competing performance characteristics. Instead of simply choosing one polar extreme or the other, we can fine-tune the performance to our application and personal preferences.

I didn’t intend this to be an exhaustive list of new products that fall somewhere between the extremes, but if you know of other products that allow shooters to strike a new balance in performance between traditional brakes and suppressors – please share it in the comments below!

Coming Up Next

The next articles will cover the specific brands and models of muzzle brakes and suppressors that these top-tier competitors are using. This year, I also asked them if they used barrel tuners, so I’ll include that data as well. So stay tuned for those results!

If you enjoyed this content, there is more to come! Over the next few months, I’ll be publishing a ton of data on what the top precision rifle shooters are using. Check out the other “What The Pros Use” articles that have already been published.

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