[JEAUX5OH]

I shot several 5.45 AK's this week end and noticed some were .22 like soft shooting and other were still soft but a bit sharper impulse.

Turns out the really soft shooters had Zig Zag brakes the other were straight cut's and one was a repro something or other.

are the zig zags really that much more effective or could it have been recoil spring and ...?

 

[StuG_1944]

recoil buffers in any?

 

[Remy1492]

was one of them a century or lancaster build? They have bored gas ports too big, allowing more recoil and smashing of rear trunion = painful to shoot.

Otherwise the BG brake makes it feel like a strong .22

If its really beating you up, something is wrong.

 

[TabulaRasa]

I think the net effect of the zigzag cuts is that there is slightly more area for the gas to escape and the gas is more concentrated when it hits that brake baffle up front. The overall length of the crescent cuts is slightly less and it is marginally less effective, although it is alot cheaper to manufacture.

Or maybe that's just me talking out of my ass. :bd:

 

[BLindeye_03]

I had an arsenal 7.62 ak-74 brake on my m70 and the recoil feels the same with that compared to my arsenal sgl31. It does feel like it has less muzzle rise but I always thought my m70 had very soft recoil.

 

[phreakmode]

I do not think that the ZigZag comps reduce recoil anymore than half moon, or no moon for that matter, designs. Some thing that does come in to play however is the spring strength in the recoil spring. A light or warn spring will cuase impact of the BC with the rear trunnion, ergo cuasing the momentum of the BC and bolt to be transfered through the rifle in to the shooters shoulder in a much more abrupt manner than if the spring were to transfer that same amount of enery. Likewise, an overly strong spring will roughly have the same results (all be it via different mechanics).

I have several different AKS-74's and Romanian AIMish-74's that have identical siblings. Even though they are in essence identical, recoil varies between them.

The Romanian comps do not have the cuts/slots that AK-74 and AK-100 series comps have, yet they perform practically on par with them.