...a story re: muzzle brakes...on my very first hog hunt I brought a Ruger #1 in 7x57 scoped with a Leupold 2x7.
...the fellows who invited me turned up in camo shoes, socks, pants, shirts, jackets, hats and had black-out ready for their eyes. They had new Winchester 300 WinMag's, muzzle brakes just installed-holes peppering the tube , black stocks, Harris Bi-pods, big matte scopes. Black slings with loops for lots of extra cartridges.
I felt 'hunt ignorant' in olive pants, an old shirt and a regular jacket with paint on it but felt I could reload the single shot quickly and had practiced with my own loads.
That night I got a hint they might be a problem when we compared re-loads and found about half of theirs had weak neck tension and the Nosler BT's slipped into the case.
The next morning we were in a row-crop, about 35 degree's when I rethought the clothing thing but it was too-late, my camo'd buds seemed cozy and I just had to deal with the cold. The guide split us up in separate trucks looking for hogs-he saw my rifle and had an assistant plant me on a hill overlooking a shallow wash then went down to stir up pigs.
About a hour later the assistant pointed to brush moving and told me to aim at a clearing about 200 yards away. A little pig squirted past then a bigger one trotted in view. With cross-hairs on the head, trigger pulled, the scope picture cleared and the was a hog on it's side kicking hard, blood freely flowing, a hit just behind the front shoulder.
We joined up with my bud's and guide, found they got no shots, saw no pigs. This hunt resumed in the afternoon with us all riding in a truck, I was in the cab the shooters in the back holding on to a roll bar. We drove to hill tops, then coasted with the engine off, windows down listening for something-guides hear hog noise, I just heard wind.
A shout came from the guide "hold on!" - he started the engine, and cooked down a long hill, ahead were about 30 hogs leisurely walking past cows.
The guide stopped, both shooters tumbled out though one popped the bi-pod down and planted the rifle on the truck hood. The guide got out a "don't shoot off the hoo..." when I heard a boom a felt an air blast wrap around my open window and face (which really rang my gong) my hearing was gone and simultaneously saw the white paint on the hood blossom into a 6" blister.
There was more shooting - though my hands were over my ears and I was working my jaw trying to fix the hearing thing, the guide was 10 ft behind shooters, the hogs picked up the pace and were out of sight in seconds. The shooters saw no hits but the guide said one hog had a leg hanging off.
We drove up to an interception point and they both got hits about 150 yards out, small entry holes - big exit wounds. The guide went after the cripple up the side of a hill with his Rem .243, a shot rang out and this 250 lbs of hog came rolling down the hill past me and the road, then continued to the hillside bottom stopping by some grazing cows...who figured a dead pig was not a good sign and moved 50 yds away.
So my experience with muzzle brakes is that they make a lot of noise, a brake equipped firearm needs practice and a guide still has a big hood spot, now rusted to remind him how much he dislikes em.
