Posted on 05/26/2015 5:21:03 AM PDT by marktwain
I watch very little TV. I do not like to corrupt the data flow. But I happened to be in Las Vegas when my nephew was watching a BBC program on human smugglers in Thailand. From BBC.com:
Manit told us his district had long been used by human traffickers to transfer migrants from boats to trucks. He wanted to stamp it out. But he was getting little help from the central government, or from local law enforcement.The BBC correspondent was allowed to join a patrol off the coast. In the video, the BBC is not shy about showing weapons, and they had a close up of this Petty Officer, First Class' muzzle brake. Notice that the slots are all oriented to the bottom side of the brake. This is 180 degrees out of how I would expect them to be oriented; in this position, the muzzle blast is directed forward and down, pushing the muzzle up, and creating a potential signature by kicking up dust, dirt, or leaves that may be below the brake in a prone position. I would not fault the Petty Officer, he was probably just issued the rifle. But, I have to wonder what the unit armorer was thinking.
I’ll bet it gets pretty dusty when shooting in the prone position.
Smuggler can climb trees really fast so that is the advantage - assisted muzzle lift.
My guess is that he skipped that day at Armorers school
Perhaps some sailors will be able to explain the advantage of having the muzzle brake with the slots facing downward.
No more seaman jokes please.
It’s a mistake, like the SWAT cop with the EOTech on backwards.
My favorite was the cop maintaining perimeter at an incident with her AR mag in *backwards*.
Figured it was. Takes a bit more to put on a muzzle brake than an optical site. I wonder if they ran out of flash hiders?
Probably, but I personally haven’t seen that much difference in climb unless you’re in full spray and pray auto on an AR or M-4 platform to warrant putting on a brake vs. a flash hider myself. In this instance where he’s got it on upside down, yes. It will make the muzzle rise.
But you also have to consider the overall weapon design. The built in brake on an AK is mostly pointing up but cocked off to the right about 1 or 2 O’clock....likely because of the bolt and gas assembly design (gas piston above) plus the ergonomics of the shooter’s grasp and stance.
One of the design features for the AR design Stoner started with is that the overall action - retraction (gas), bolt cycling and buffering all needed to be in line with the barrel, i.e., only straight back recoil with no mechanical vectoring affects that pushed up or down. I suspect that even in full auto on an AR, the rise is probably mainly due to the big moment arm its barrel-aligned reverse thrust puts on the shooter as the 5 foot+ arm of that moment (thrust). ARs weren’t first issued with brakes (or breaks as some call); they were three pronged flash hiders that later graduated to the bird cage design. Honestly, I’ve never even thought my two would need a brake at all.
If he only remembered that barrel shrouds are shoulder things that go UP.
They probably get very little practice. Many troops never even zero in their weapons. My bet is that he has never fired his rifle, but I am willing to be educated by those more familiar with the Thai military.
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