[Templar]

"I've been asked this question in the past,The Russian/East German 74 brake has one distinct difference in the Bulgarian 74 brake[Bulgarian pictured on the right],the forward divider on the Russian/East German is narrower than the one on the Bulgarian brake.In my opinion,this would create more of a difference than the zig zag cuts found on the Russian/EG as opposed to the half moon cuts on the Bulgy."

 

[Kuiper]

There's been question whether or not the zigzag would be more effective as a muzzle brake than the two piece copied and mfg'd by the Bulgarians.

Bulgaria as a whole didn't start mass producing the AK74 until 1984-1985. As a result their AK74 is a direct copy of the late '83-'85 AK74 mfg'd in the USSR. The zigzag never made on bulgie rifles though and it seems the production started with the early two piece brake found on Bulgarian AK74's now.

Ekie and Tantal wrote a comprehensive guide on AK74 mfg variations, I found it most helpful.
http://tantal.kalashnikov.guns.ru/variants.html

By the way, with a EG zigzag brake underway it would be my pleasure to compare the zigzag to the two piece brake and post here...

 

[Kuiper]

In follow up on Johno I tested both twopiece and zigzag brakes tonight on the range.

I fired in three conditions;

- Without any muzzlebrake whatsoever

- With the Bulgarian two piece brake

- And with the EG zigzag brake

Weapon is a Bulgaria arsenal AKS74 in 5,45 mm. Ammo used Barnaul 60gr FMJ.

Without the muzzlebrake felt recoil was comparable to a 20" AR15. Muzzle rise when firing 5 rounds in rapid succession was as expected.

The twopiece brake cut felt recoil and muzzlerise back to half when I fire the weapon without brake...there is however a noticable increase in blast noise when compared to shooting without a muzzlebrake

EG zigzag brake, recoil reduction and muzzle rise reduction as to be expected from this type of brake. I felt some difference when compared to the twopiece brake. Also, and this has been noted before, I felt it did do a better job at directing noise away from the shooter.

I can't say one is better the other, both versions do their jobs as they should. The EG zigzag brake seems to do a slightly better job at directing noise away from the shooter. The way the bridge at the frontend is made contributes to this I think. All in all I found the EG brake doing it's job a bit better than the twopiece.

 

[Kuiper]

Added a long collar russian AK74 brake I just received...

Pics include a EG zigzag brake, Bulgie two piece and a Russian longcollar...

Enjoy the pics and comparison..