How to Align a Muzzle Brake with Shims
Purpose Behind Properly Aligning a Muzzle Brake
The general purpose behind a muzzle brake is to reduce the recoil of your rifle. In order to do that efficiently, the ports of the brake have to be properly aligned/timed. The most common proper orientation for muzzle brake ports are horizontal. This article will apply to nearly any muzzle brake that requires shims to be timed, whether that’s a standard brake or one that can also mount a suppressor like our 3 Port Brake.
*For those using a muzzle brake with a suppressor, you’ll most likely only notice the recoil reduction it provides when shooting unsuppressed*
Using Shims to Align a Muzzle Brake
In an ideal world, a muzzle brake would thread down to the shoulder of your barrel and be properly aligned without anything else needed. Unfortunately since every barrel has slightly different tolerances and thread lengths, this rarely happens. This is where shims come into play. Shims allow you manipulate the amount of rotation your muzzle brake has in order to align it properly. In the example below, the muzzle device is 135 degrees off, utilizing shims will allow you to make a 135 degree adjustment in order to properly align the muzzle brake.
Nearly every company that sells shims will have slight differences in terms of the amount of rotation they provide. One commonality is that a shim pack will typically include shims with varied thicknesses in order to provide multiple combinations. For instance, the Rugged Suppressors Shim Kit include 3 variations of shims, a small, medium and large sized shim. Each variation of shim provides a specific degree of rotation that can be seen below (28tpi, 24tpi, 1mm and 1.5mm are for the different thread pitches that we make shim kits for, ex. 28tpi is for 1/2×28 threads):
When put into practice, utilizing these shims will allow you to have a large variety of options to align your muzzle brake to the correct position. In order to get you headed in the right direction, we’ve provided ball park shim configurations based on the amount of rotation you need to align your muzzle brake.
How to Properly Align and Mount a Muzzle Brake
There are three basic steps to mounting a muzzle brake to your rifle:
- Remove the Current Muzzle Device
- Find the Proper Shim Configuration
- Mounting the Muzzle Brake
1. Removing the Current Muzzle Device
First things first you’ll have to remove whatever muzzle device is currently on your rifle (if there is one). While you’re doing this don’t forget to remove any crush washers or shims that are being used with the old muzzle device. If you’re having a hard time removing the muzzle device it may be utilizing Loctite to hold it in place.
If that’s the case, take a blow torch to the muzzle device and consistently heat all sides of the muzzle device. You’ll notice the Loctite burning off by seeing smoke come from the threads. Once the Loctite is all brunt off, it should be significantly easier to remove the muzzle device. Be careful that you don’t touch it or drop it onto anything flammable as it will be hot.
2. Find the Proper Shim Configuration
In order to figure out how much you’ll have to correct the alignment of your muzzle brake, you’ll have to thread it onto the barrel without any shims. From there, you can find the amount of rotational correction you need and match that up with the provided shim configurations (as seen above) as a starting point (keep in mind that when you torque down the muzzle device with a wrench, it will potentially add up to an additional 45 degrees or more of rotation).
This step will take a bit of trial and error because every barrel is slightly different. Referencing back to the amount of rotation each shim provides can help to make the process faster when you’re making your corrections.
*Make sure to torque down the muzzle device with a wrench during this process to prevent any issues during the next step.*
3. Mounting the Muzzle Brake
Once you’ve found the configuration of shims you need, remove the muzzle brake and shims. Make sure that the threads on the muzzle brake and barrel threads are cleaned and not covered with grease or oil. Acetone or alcohol does a good job of cleaning up threads. You’ll then put back your shims, add a small amount of red Loctite to your barrel threads and then screw on and torque down your muzzle brake. If you have the ability to torque your brake to a specific amount, we recommend 25 ft pounds. If you don’t have a torque wrench this will be tight, but not as tight as you can possibly go with a wrench. From here, just give the Loctite time to cure and you’re good to go.
Overview
We hope this article provided useful information and saved you some time mounting/aligning your muzzle brake. Muzzle brakes do take a bit more time to initially put on your rifle, however the recoil reduction benefits are pretty great. If you’re looking for a muzzle brake for your rifle we offer various options depending on your caliber and preference that can be found here. If you already have a muzzle brake and just need shims, we sell shim kits for 1/2×28 and 5/8×24 along with .338 common thread pitches. Enjoy your new muzzle brake and we hope to see you at the range!
If you have any questions during this process, don’t hesitate to give us a call or email. All of our contact information can be found here.