Reviews & Field Tests

Lots of people have asked what I’ve been working on, and I’m excited to finally be able to tell you guys about a huge project I’ve invested a ton of time in over the past several months. Last year, Bryan Litz and team over at Applied Ballistics ask if I’d be interested in contributing to Volume 2 of their Modern Advancements in Long Range Shooting series. I have immense respect for the work those guys have done and the huge impact they’ve had on me and the rest of the shooting community, so I was honored to even be asked. ...

A few months ago, I introduced Flat Line Bullets (view post) designed by Josh Kunz and made by the Warner Tool Company (WTC). These new monolithic, lathe-turned bullets claimed some crazy-high Ballistic Coefficients (BC). BC defines how efficiently a bullet is able to cut through air and retain its velocity down-range. If you’ve been shooting long-range for any length of time, you know BC is one of the most important performance metrics for a bullet … and you’re also well-aware of how common it is for manufacturers to bloat the BC numbers they advertise. So everyone was anxious to know, are ...

Very few rifles have received the hype and fanfare like the Ruger Precision Rifle. With an MSRP of $1399, we all want to believe in a budget precision rifle that is match-ready out of the box… but does it deliver? This post tries to give you an honest and straight-forward review of what we experienced out of the box. Guest Author & the Best Christmas Gift Ever Recently a close friend asked me to help surprise her husband with a rifle for Christmas. She had heard him mention one rifle in particular, and asked if I recognized what kind it ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...