My buddy Alex ordered the wrong threading on the brake for his .338, so he asked me if I wanted it. I've been running this brake that I got off Amazon and though it has performed flawlessly on my .308 and my .338, it is a massive brake and looks disproportional to the rifle, and more so the barrel.
So I'm going to give this brake a test drive, the APA Fat Bastard, and see how it goes. The brake was far simpler to install compared to the Titanic that I had on there before. It came with a shaped jam nut instead of crush washers and the profile of this brake against the profile of the barrel on the Savage 110 match better than the Titanic (just a nickname, I think it the name of this brake is the GRG Competition Muzzle Brake).
I got a chance to take the 10TR out for a test drive today, up at PCDHFC. Not sure if the temperature is important, but it was probably hovering around -1 or so. The rifle is pretty much as is out of the box except with the addition of a Blackhawk pivot bipod, GRG Magnum Muzzle Brake I got off Amazon.com.
Now the following findings are from a noob shooter, and on top of that, a noob to bolt action rifles and precision shooting. I barely knew what MOA meant until just two weeks ago. I'm sure some of you more advanced and experienced shooters could get better results, but these are my results:
First up is the Nosler Custom 168gr:
At 100 meters, I got a group at 2.66 inches. I had a feeling that one on the right was a flyer so I let off so I tried another group:
My second group was a lot tighter at 1 inch.
I tried the Nosler out to 200 meters and shot three 3-round groups, measuring 1.78in, 1.59in, and 1.7in. This left me with a pretty good feeling.
Next up is the Remington Premier Match 175gr Match King BTHP. Boy, that's a mouthful.
At 100 meters, it wasn't so hot with a 1.9in grouping. Again, this is probably the result of user error (me).
I did three more 3-round groups and the results were 1.66in, 2.12in, and 2.19in. they were all over the place, but maybe I was rushing, maybe I pulled a few shots, who knows.
When I took the Remington Match Kings out to 200 meters, I was really wondering what I was doing wrong, but I ended up shooting two 3-round groups getting 4.18in and 3.5in.
That was pretty much all of the Nosler and Remington ammo I had with me today, so I decided to test out the Federal Premium 168gr Sierra Match King BTHP Gold Medal Match that I had left over from testing out my 700p. It didn't do that great in the Remington, so I figure I might as well blast away a 5 round group and see how it did in the Savage.
The results were surprising to me, but then I thought back to all the reviews saying how awesome these were and the surprise faded away. 5 rounds in a 1.7in group at 200 meters.
Next up were some left over Hornady Match 168gr BTHP. These did okay in my 700p, but I didn't have time to test them out extensively so I'll have to get another box to run through the Remington again.
I shot three rounds and got them in a 1.9in group, and then decided to blat off the 5 rounds I had left. 1.65in. I was in awe.
I had some good luck with my Savage, and I also had some good luck running some cheap ammo through my 700p a few weeks ago, so I thought I'd just run my 700 a bit. I pulled out some Federal 150gr soft point blue box.
At 100 meters with three 3-round groups, I got 0.9in, 1.6in, and 1.52in. Not great, but not horrendous I suppose.
When I went out to 200 meters, I started going down with the ship. I ended up flopping out a 4in group. I pulled out the few PPU 145gr stuff I had left and tossed that down the 200m mark.
I may as well have taken the PPU out of the rifle and threw them at the target because 7.7in group is downright embarrassing out of a bolt gun. Back to the drawing board with the 700. Maybe it doesn't like cheap ammo after all, or maybe I was just so used to shooting the Savage, I got lazy with the Remington.
I decided to blow through a few rounds at the steel gong at 200 meters. That made me feel better:
I also took a shot at the gong with my Savage, unfortunately, all I had left were 3 rounds of Federal blue box and I had no idea what the hold over would be in the Savage because I hadn't shot any through it yet, but I wanted to film the Savage in action along with the GRG muzzle brake:
I completely missed the gong on the last two rounds, but oh well, I'm positive I can nail it with Nosler, Hornady or SMKs. Better luck next time I guess
I ordered a couple of muzzle brakes to mount to my Savage 10TR. The rifle hasn't arrived yet, but the brakes did, haha! Anyway, the one on the left is the GRG Magnum Muzzle Break and the one on the right is the Global Sportsman model 10/15 Tactical Bafflled Short Competition Brake. The GRG unit is absolutely massive and looks like it would be right at home on a tank or artillery platform.
Set this picture up for a size comparison with a 2 3/4in shot shell. The GRG unit just towers over the other Global Sportsman. It is huge. I have no idea how this one handles as I couldn't find any reviews on it, couldn't even find any info on the manufacturer.
There was a bit more information about the the Global Sportsman one, with 7 reviews on Amazon.com but that's about it. In the package, there was a small note saying that they are a small family run business. Anyway, most of the reviews say the brake works well, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.
