Muzzle brake shroud legality?

[cemoulton]

I'm thinking about a threaded washer that covers a small portion of the barrel in place of the crush/timing washers. The purpose would be to allow a thread on shroud to cover your any brake or comp when shooting with groups, at open range or in confined paces and direct the blast forward.

i had considered this a couple years back when shooting with a few friends who have obnoxious brakes. Yes i know i'm a sissy and should just double up on ear pro and get over it, but i have yet to learn to enjoy being slapped in the side of the face when leaning out from cover while your buddy is shooting roll over prone below you.

At the time i figured it would be considered a suppressor but with the relatively recent release of several dedicated muzzle devices that do basically the same thing i'm starting to rethink the idea.

Is it worth a letter to the atf or do we figure they would just dismiss it out of hand?


edit to say yes i realize i am crap at picking the proper forum section. i hope i didn't screw up yet again'

[chasetopher]

I doubt there are any legal issues unless your design idea includes an extended shroud with baffles etc.

It sounds like what you have in mind is similar to an existing producthttp://www.weaponoutfitters.com/qd-brake-shield-simplistic-shooting-solutions.html

[cemoulton]

I doubt there are any legal issues unless your design idea includes an extended shroud with baffles etc.

It sounds like what you have in mind is similar to an existing producthttp://www.weaponoutfitters.com/qd-brake-shield-simplistic-shooting-solutions.html

Basically the same but to be used with any standard diameter muzzle device.

I'm not looking to market an idea, I'd just like to turn out a few for friends and myself.

[GH41]

Without getting too technical the man says if a device reduces the noise it is a suppressor. I think your intention is to divert the noise not reduce it. In theory doing what you want to do with the right muzzle brake could reduce the noise and land you in trouble. I don't know if it's still around but at one time there was a brake available that was about 8" long and had 5 or 6 baffles with open chambers that looked very much like a can without the shroud on it. It even had a couple of grooves in it that might accept o-rings. Though not marketed as a suppressor it looked like it would make a crude one by simply slipping a piece steel tubing over it. If I were you I would just buy a muzzle device that suited my purpose. Homemade, threaded and tubing are three flags raised if they wanted to hassle you.

[Kain]

In regards to building one, Ned Christiansen had a few pictures of shrouds that he did up to shut down the blast from brakes in some classes in the below thread.

https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?154202-Removing-fsc-556-compensator-and-replace-wth/page2