Brake Cleaning

[austinkroe]

I am a relative newb to the AR and I recently built one with a JP/Cooley brake. I have fired around 600 rounds through it now and there is some build up (what I would consider to be a lot for the amount fired). I am not very good at taking macro pictures so I will do my best to describe it. There is some build up on the baffles that appears to be a combo of lead and carbon. It has a rough texture. There is also Some buildup on the muzzle. It appears to be a sizable carbon deposit on the muzzle face and threads inside the brake.

I am not sure if this should cause any concern. Should I clean it or is it a self limiting problem? Will it eventually effect accuracy? How should I clean the brake if I should? Are there any other eccentricities of a muzzle brake that I should be aware of? Also, do you all locktite your brakes on or do you merely tighten them down so you can remove them easily?

Let me know your experiences.

Thanks

[Chris Conley]

If your losing sleep at night over it I say clean it. You'll have to anyway over time. Sometimes it damn near takes a chisle to get the carbon off.

Chris C.

[sierra77mk]

I am a relative newb to the AR and I recently built one with a JP/Cooley brake. I have fired around 600 rounds through it now and there is some build up (what I would consider to be a lot for the amount fired). I am not very good at taking macro pictures so I will do my best to describe it. There is some build up on the baffles that appears to be a combo of lead and carbon. It has a rough texture. There is also Some buildup on the muzzle. It appears to be a sizable carbon deposit on the muzzle face and threads inside the brake.

I am not sure if this should cause any concern. Should I clean it or is it a self limiting problem? Will it eventually effect accuracy? How should I clean the brake if I should? Are there any other eccentricities of a muzzle brake that I should be aware of? Also, do you all locktite your brakes on or do you merely tighten them down so you can remove them easily?

Let me know your experiences.

Thanks

You should use break cleaner to clean your brake.

N.M. shooters NEVER remove the flash suppressor. Does not affect accuracy. Unscrewing and re tightening things affects accuracy.

It is self limiting at the muzzle. Just wipe the baffles or scrub with your favorite solvent and a tooth brush.

Install with loc-tite. The last thing you want for accuracy is a loose metal thing rattling around on the end of your barrel.

(Ask me how i know)

[ShooterSteve]

I scrub mine every once in a while if it gets bad looking, but I don't go nuts over it. I don't really worry about it untill I see it really needs it, then just do the scrape n scrub thing. It doesn't really clean it, just knocks it back to "less visible mess".

[Navysteve]

I take mine off of the are around the end of the year and put it in the ultrasonic sink with some bore cleaner and the next morning its clean. Other than that I don't clean it.

[el pres]

I just clean mine externaly, acualy carbon reduction not cleaning.

Although JP recomends to acualy take the brake off every X# of rounds to remove the

carbon ring forming at the crown which can effect accuracy eventially. I wonder how many

acualy go this far. With a lathed barrel to comp fit I dont want to take mine off and ruin the

look ??

Edited July 19, 2009 by P.Pres

[ChrisMcCracken]

Of note, though the comp may not need lots of cleaning, the crown of the barrel does require it every so often. I talked to jim about this. Some comps are worse than other about fowling the crown, but all will eventually need cleaning. He recommended around every 1k rounds.

[StealthyBlagga]

I've had the same stainless Cooley Tactical brake on my match rifle for 5 years. I've never removed it nor cleaned it. The crud build up seems to be self-limiting... the excess apparently gets blasted away. Actually, after many thousands of rounds, I am seeing significant baffle erosion, so I figure whatever crud is on there is probably doing more good than harm at this point. The rifle still groups great.

Edited July 19, 2009 by StealthyBlagga

[ChrisMcCracken]

I've had the same stainless Cooley Tactical brake on my match rifle for 5 years. I've never removed it nor cleaned it. The crud build up seems to be self-limiting... the excess apparently gets blasted away. Actually, after many thousands of rounds, I am seeing significant baffle erosion, so I figure whatever crud is on there is probably doing more good than harm at this point. The rifle still groups great.

I'll not argue with results. I'll be interested to see how mine works out.

[DMAC]

I've had the same stainless Cooley Tactical brake on my match rifle for 5 years. I've never removed it nor cleaned it. The crud build up seems to be self-limiting... the excess apparently gets blasted away. Actually, after many thousands of rounds, I am seeing significant baffle erosion, so I figure whatever crud is on there is probably doing more good than harm at this point. The rifle still groups great.

I feel much better now after hearing this. I only have about 800 rounds through mine and I scrub as best I can but it is tough to clean. I REALLY don't want to take it off because the seam of lathed barrel/comp fit is invisible.

[Jesse Tischauser]

I've had the same stainless Cooley Tactical brake on my match rifle for 5 years. I've never removed it nor cleaned it. The crud build up seems to be self-limiting... the excess apparently gets blasted away. Actually, after many thousands of rounds, I am seeing significant baffle erosion, so I figure whatever crud is on there is probably doing more good than harm at this point. The rifle still groups great.

I just removed my JP brake after shooting only 500 or less rounds through it. I was suprised at how much baffle erosion was present already. So I say leave the crude in there so the brake lasts longer. I now only plan to clean mine if the crude build up becomes lopsided and effects the brakes performance.