Threaded barrels on long guns are legal. Installing a threaded barrel on a semi-auto pistol creates an illegal unregistered assault weapon (and you cannot legally register it.) A felony punishable by many years in state prison and fines.
Although they will work on any length barrel, they shine most on pistols and short barreled rifles, making the muzzle blast rather less objectionable to the shooter and those to his… er, her side. Linear compensators do one thing and they do it very well. As a bonus, linear compensators are still legal in California.
A muzzle brake or recoil compensator is a device connected to, or a feature integral to the construction of, the muzzle or barrel of a firearm or cannon that is intended to redirect a portion of propellant gases to counter recoil and unwanted muzzle rise.
Best AR-15 Muzzle Devices
| Top-Rated AR-15 Muzzle Devices | Muzzle Device Type | Price |
|---|
| LANTAC Dragon Advance | Muzzle Brake | $125.19 |
| Fortis Muzzle Brake | Muzzle Brake | $85.45 |
| Seekins Precision AR ATC | Muzzle Brake | $85.00 |
| VG6 Precision GAMMA Muzzle Device | Muzzle Brake | $63.99 |
Under a new California law, all semi-automatic rifles with a feature called a “bullet button” have to be registered by June 30th. Since the bullet button requires a tool, usually the tip of a bullet, to release the magazine, it was considered “fixed” and therefore legal.
A muzzle brake or recoil compensator is a device connected to, or a feature integral to the construction of, the muzzle or barrel of a firearm or cannon that is intended to redirect a portion of propellant gases to counter recoil and unwanted muzzle rise.
Muzzle brakes, aka compensators, work somewhat like flash hiders in that they redirect muzzle gas. But instead of shaping and concealing the gas to reduce visible muzzle flash to the shooter, muzzle brakes work to redirect and use that gas to reduce the climb and recoil of a firearm after shooting it.
While the former is intended to reduce visible flash, a muzzle brake is designed to reduce recoil inherent to large cartridges and typically does not reduce visible flash.
A muzzle break or flash hider doesn't affect accuracy but it does protect your barrel crown.
Muzzle breaks can also break scopes. As most scopes are designed to withstand violent recoil actions with gradual deceleration, the sudden stopping, relatively, of a muzzle brake can damage them. As the deceleration is more violent, it can be akin to slamming the scope into a wall.
Check out Jeremy's first flash hider roundup here, and the second one here. A compensator or “comp” is a muzzle device designed to counter the vertical rise of the barrel when the gun is fired. In order to counter that muzzle rise effect, a compensator vents some of the gasses that escape from the barrel vertically.
This device by itself does not reduce recoil or flash. It is often combined with a brake, and you will often see ports for compensation on a muzzle brake. For the purposes of this article, though, these two devices are completely separate in function.
A lot of muzzle devices are brakes and compensators, but not always. We learned that a comp is designed to help keep the muzzle on target. A brake, on the other hand, is designed to reduce the amount of recoil you feel when you fire a shot off.
Muzzle brakes may do nothing to degrade the accuracy the rifle will have, but it will change how the barrel whips during barrel time. That might change accuracy because bullets will leave at a different point. Brakes only work to reduce recoil after the bullet's left the barrel.
Most brakes hovered around 100%, which means they sound twice as loud as the rifle with a bare muzzle. Finally, we have some brakes that were more than twice as loud.
