How to Choose the Best AR 15 Muzzle Brake

Looking for a muzzle brake for your AR-15? As I’m sure you noticed, there are a ton of options out there, so it’s pretty difficult to decide which is the right one. In this guide, we will review the top five, and make some recommendations for you.

For starters, let’s go over exactly what a muzzle brake is, for those that are unfamiliar.

A muzzle brake is a device that attaches to the end of a barrel of a gun. It’s designed to vent the gasses from the weapon in a specific way, which in turn helps to reduce the muzzle rise and recoil felt. Obviously, this article is about muzzle brakes for AR-15s, but muzzle brakes are used on even the largest guns, such as Howitzers in the military.

Some muzzle brakes are also designed to hide the flash of the weapon. However, this article will be focused primarily on muzzle brakes, not flash suppressors.

If you’re thinking about buying a best muzzle brake for your AR-15, let me make a few recommendations to you. I absolutely recommend shooting with a muzzle brake, dependent on what type of shooting you are doing.

If you are doing any type of shooting that requires faster second shots, a muzzle brake can be extremely helpful. Additionally, if you are going to be spending long days at the range, a muzzle brake will be your friend, and may prevent you some shoulder pain.

When looking to buy a best AR-15 muzzle brake, there are a few different things you need to keep in mind. You need to consider the weight, the price, and the amount it reduces the recoil.

Let’s take a look at the best AR-15 muzzle brakes.

Top Five Muzzle Brakes

Muzzle Brake

Top Feature

MSRP

Recoil Reduction

Cell 1 / 3

Size

Cell 2 / 3

Quality

Cell 3 / 3

Price

Cell 4 / 3

Flash Reduction

Cell 5 / 3

If you’re short on time, we broke down these five muzzle brakes up front for your convenience.

If you’re looking for the absolute best performing AR-15 muzzle brake, check out the Precision Armament M4-72. It is extremely effective at reducing recoil.

If you’re looking for an inexpensive AR-15 muzzle brake, the DPMS Miculek performs very well. It outperforms muzzle brakes that cost twice what it costs. However, be warned that it isn’t the nicest looking muzzle brake.

If you’re hunting, be sure to check out the VG6 Precision Gamma. It is extremely small and lightweight muzzle brake that is resistant to the elements.

The Precision Armament AFAB is a hybrid muzzle brake that also reduces the muzzle flash.

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Precision Armament M4-72

Precision Armament M4-72

The M4-72 from Precision Armament is an absolutely excellent muzzle brake. It is a relatively compact design, measuring 2.25 inches long, .865 inches in diameter, and weighing in at 2.6 ounces. While not the smallest on our list, it is an excellent size. It is available either matte black or matte stainless.

The pros of this muzzle brake are the amount of recoil it can reduce, the overall quality, the durability, and the price. This muzzle brake vents the gases to the sides using its triple baffle design. Thanks to this design, it is able to reduce the recoil by an impressive 72%. This performance paired with the manufacturer tolerances and overall quality make it an excellent choice.

The muzzle brake is made of a durable stainless steel, and has an exterior finish on it. It will withstand the elements easily. All of these features at an affordable price make this a great bang for your buck purchase.

As far as cons are concerned, there really isn’t much not to like.

Seeing as it has the best recoil reduction available, this is the best AR-15 muzzle brake overall. It is suitable for any use.

Top Features

  • Recoil reduction. Unmatched performance
  • Durability. Stainless steel is excellent.
  • Bang for your buck. Excellent performance at a reasonable price.

VG6 Precision Gamma

VG6 Precision Gamma

Up next is the Gamma muzzle brake from VG6 Precision. While it doesn’t perform quite as well as the Precision Armament muzzle brake, this is another excellent option. It measures 1.75 inches long, .86 inches in diameter, and weighs 2.08 ounces.

As you can see, this one is slightly shorter and lighter than the last. In terms of recoil reduction, it does decently well, reducing recoil by around 63%. This reduction is accomplished by VG6’s calculated Computational Fluid Dynamics. This is how they reduce the recoil while also keeping the size small.

The pros of this muzzle brake are the size, price, and durability. Similar to the last muzzle brake, this one is manufactured with tight tolerances, making it a high quality muzzle brake overall. It’s made of a heat treated stainless steel, and also has an external finish.

The cons are that this must be professionally installed, although that is worthwhile on almost every muzzle brake.

Due to the smaller size, this may be the best AR-15 muzzle brake for hunting.

The extremely light weight means that you won’t even notice it, if you have to carry the weapon any type of distance.

Top Features

  • Bang for your buck. Just like the last, this muzzle brake is excellent quality and performance for the price.
  • Durability.
  • Size. Small and light enough that you may not even notice it.

Lantac Dragon

Lantac Dragon

The Lantac Dragon is an extremely popular AR-15 muzzle brake. Its popularity comes from its high quality and durability paired with its decent performance. The muzzle brake measures 2.57 inches long, .866 inches in diameter, and weighs 3.2 ounces.

Right off the bat, you can see that this one is a little larger than the competition. However, it performs on par with some of the other competitors, with its recoil reduction coming in around 63%. The patent pending design of this muzzle brake gives it a unique look, but also allows for increased performance.

The main pros of this weapon are the extremely high quality and durability. Lantac manufactures all of their products extremely well. They are known for their exceptionally high quality and quality control measures. The muzzle brake is made of a hardened steel, which is then given a nitride finish. This makes it extremely durable.

The cons of this muzzle brake are mostly the size and the price. While the muzzle brake isn’t huge, it is larger than most of the others on the list. In fact, it is outperformed by more than one smaller muzzle brake. This may make the added length and weight an issue to some users. Also, the price is pretty high, which is to be expected of such a high quality product.

Due to the added weight, we would recommend using this muzzle brake on a range weapon.

While it is only a couple of ounces, that may add up over time and distance, so we would recommend the VG6 for a weapon that must be carried far.

Top Features

  • Quality. This muzzle brake is of the highest quality. Lantac should be commended for their products.
  • Durability. Can withstand the elements, and will not come loose in use.
  • Performance. Despite its size, this muzzle brake has a pretty significant amount of recoil reduction.

DPMS Miculek

DPMS Miculek

The DPMS Miculek is an extremely affordably priced muzzle brake. However, despite its low pricetag, it also performs extremely well. The muzzle brake measures 2 inches long, .92 inches in diameter, and weighs in at 3.25 ounces.

This muzzle brake has three relatively large baffles and six side ports. It vents the gases effectively, and reduces the recoil by an extremely impressive 67%.

The pros of this muzzle brake are the performance and the price. As you can see, this is one of the better performances on our list. It outperforms the VG6 and the Lantac by multiple percent. This is an excellent feature, especially considering the price. It is extremely affordably priced, and can commonly be found way cheaper than the MSRP.

It is also made of a steel material, so it is a pretty durable piece of equipment. One final pro is the easy installation. Most brakes require a gunsmith to put them on, but the Miculek only needs the lock nut that it comes with.

The cons of this muzzle brake are the aesthetics and the size. When you look at this muzzle brake, it is not exactly nice looking. Some of the other brakes on this list are way more aesthetically pleasing, and have a more sleek look. The Miculek looks extremely plain, but the performance makes up for these bland looks to most people.

This is the best cheap AR-15 muzzle brake.

This muzzle brake is suitable for most uses, but keep in mind the looks if you are building some type of show weapon or anything of the sort.

Top Features

  • Price. Unbeatable price. Shop around, and it can commonly be found cheaper than the MSRP.
  • Recoil reduction. This brake performs well, despite its low price point.
  • Easy installation. Will save you time and money.

Precision Armament AFAB

Precision Armament AFAB

Last on our list is the AFAB from Precision Armament. This muzzle brake is a hybrid, meaning that it reduces the recoil while also reducing the muzzle flash. It is the only hybrid on our list, but is definitely worth looking into.

The muzzle brake measures 2.225 inches in length, .865 inches in diameter, and weighs 3.0 ounces. As far as performance is concerned, the muzzle brake performs well. It reduces the recoil by around 52%, while nearly eliminating muzzle flash completely.

The pros of this muzzle brake are the hybrid performance, durability, and overall quality. As we mentioned, this is the only hybrid on our list. That also means that there isn’t another muzzle brake on this list that can do what this one can.

As far as durability is concerned, the brake is made from stainless steel with an Ionbond finish. This makes it exceptionally durable. Similar to the M4-72, this is an overall extremely high quality brake.

Other pros include the fact that this brake can be pinned to 14.5 inch barrels to make them legal length and the overall look. When pinning this brake to a barrel, it essentially counts as part of the barrel, which makes the barrel over 16 inches total. This avoids the need for an ATF tax stamp for a short-barreled rifle. As far as the look is concerned, this brake is sleek and tactical looking.

The cons are that it doesn’t reduce the recoil much. However, given the fact that it is a hybrid, this is to be expected to some point. It shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Given the fact that it reduces recoil and suppresses the flash, it would serve well for any nighttime or tactical shooting.

Top Features

  • Hybrid performance. Reduces recoil and suppresses flash.
  • Sleek looking.
  • Can be pinned to your 14.5 inch barrel.
  • Precision Armament quality. To be expected.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are some excellent options out there for you. While there are many more available, these five were some of our favorites. If nothing else, we hope that this list has provided you with a starting point in your search.

While it is not an all-inclusive list, be sure you are checking out the amount the muzzle brake reduces recoil, how much it costs, and the general size of it.

Doing further research into the reviews available online will give you a general idea of the quality to be expected, but keep in mind that the big names are generally well known.

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