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Ryan Nafe

One last thing, this is honestly just a bit of venting and a check to see if anyone else has the same feeling going on:

I’m getting pretty frustrated with manufacturers putting out otherwise fantastic rifles but putting brakes on them, even mid-weight rifles in very mild cartridges like 6.5 crapmore and .308. It’s a complete waste of time, materials, and the subsequent cost to the consumer. I mean really, under what conditions would anyone think it worthwhile to put an extremely loud spiral-ported brake on a heavy-barreled .308 that already has very mild recoil? What the hell is going on, and who’re the idiots buying a regular weight sporter in 6.5 crapmore with a muzzle brake on it?

Bergara and Tikka are the two worst offenders in this regard, as far as I can tell. Bergara, for example, recently came out with several lines of rifles (wilderness series and some of their pro series rifles) which are quite decent designs, but they needlessly add expense, length, and noise by putting spiral-ported brakes on the rifles. The production cost could easily be down $100 without that mostly needless feature.