I recently surveyed the top 100 shooters in the Precision Rifle Series (PRS), and this post reviews the calibers and cartridges those guys were running in 2015. The PRS tracks how top competitors place in major rifle matches across the country. These are the major leagues of sniper-style competitions, with targets typically from 300 to 1200 yards. I’d like to personally thank all the competitors who took the time to complete the survey. I also want to apologize for the survey being sent out so late this year, and for the technical issues a few ran into. I know your ...

Over the past couple months, I’ve had an opportunity to put 500 rounds down a Remington MSR (Modular Sniper Rifle). This is the same rifle that was awarded the illustrious Precision Sniper Rifle (PSR) contract, and now is being used by our elite special ops snipers. And for the first time, Remington Defense is making weapons like this available to civilians! Update: 10/7/2015: EuroOptic.com already sold out of their first batch of Remington PSR Rifle Kits, but they have another 50 on order and those are scheduled to arrive this month. The PSR Contract The Precision Sniper Rifle (PSR) program launched in 2009 ...

The recent August issue of Outdoor Life featured a Q&A session I had with their gun editor, John Snow. I wanted to share that here with you guys, and OL kindly gave me permission to do that. So here’s what John wrote: Lifelong hunter and gun enthusiast Cal Zant tapped into his engineering background to create PrecisionRifleBlog.com, one of the most informative sources for shooters on the web. OL: How did you get involved in the outdoors? CZ: I grew up in West Texas and have been around guns my whole live. I don’t even know how old I was when I ...

This post summarizes the eye-opening results for the massive muzzle brake field test I’ve worked on the past few months. It included several objective tests to quantify the performance of 20+ muzzle brakes designed for precision rifles in 6mm through 30 caliber. My goal with this project was to equip fellow long-range shooters with as much hard data as I could reasonably gather, so they could make an informed buying decision for their application. I’ve already published ridiculously exhaustive details of each test, but I’ll try to sum it up in this post. This test focused on muzzle brakes designed ...

I’m working on the overall results for the muzzle brake test, and I need some help from you guys! Please take the short poll below to let me know what the most important aspects are about a muzzle brakes performance. PLEASE put some thought into this, and don’t just say that all the aspects are “VERY Important” … that isn’t helpful. Update 8/21: The poll is now closed. Thank you for providing your input! 1,011 responses were collected. I think this will really help manufactures understand where they should put their effort to better meet what the market wants. Here ...

Muzzle brake designs vary widely, and their blast pattern varies significantly as well. I wanted to capture the muzzle blast somehow to help you see the differences between the 20+ models in my field test. There is no established method for doing this, so I had to get creative. My first attempt was with a fog machine. Don’t laugh! My idea was to set up some high-speed cameras (one from above, another from the side), flood the area around the rifle with fog, then fire the rifle, and watch how the fog was dispersed. It was a bad idea. I ...

I thought about these muzzle brake tests for over a year before I started this field test. We all know one of the biggest downsides of a muzzle brake is how loud they are. If you’ve shot more than a couple of these, you know some are much louder than others. So I naturally wanted to quantify how loud each model was, but it turns out that is much more complex than it may seem. Steve Adelmann (one of my favorite gun writers) explains the issues involved in quantifying the sound signature of a firearm: “When you compare decibel measurements ...

Over the past couple months, I’ve been working with a lot of scary smart engineers on my muzzle brake field test. One who has given me a lot of great input is Josh Kunz, whose professional background is in Aerospace Engineering. Josh recently told me about a new line of bullets he’s been working on, which have the potential to be one of the biggest leap in ballistics in recent history. The product is being unveiled this week at rifle competitions at Camp Perry. In fact, some of the bullets are being shot in competitions for the first time today! ...

One important aspect of a muzzle brake is helping the rifle stay on target. In fact, I was discussing this muzzle brake test with David Tubb, a very accomplished rifleman, and he is convinced the ability to stay on target was the most important aspect of a muzzle brake. He thought a few percentage points difference in recoil reduction may not make a huge difference (or help you get more hits), but a brake that can keep you on target can be a big advantage. Staying on target not only allows quick follow-up shots, but more importantly for precision shooting, ...

This post provides a comprehensive view of the muzzle brake recoil reduction data gathered on all 4 rifles. You can dive deeper into the recoil data in these posts: How The Data Was Collected 6mm & 6.5mm Recoil Results 308 & 300 Mag Recoil Results To recap, here is a look at the 4 cartridges and rifles used for the recoil tests: First, let’s look at how the recoil signature of each rifle was affected. The graphic below shows the amount of recoil force over time for each rifle, which was directly measured at the butt of the rifle. Each ...