Help with muzzle break

[FatalDeveloper]

I just finished building a rifle with a muzzle break. Took it to the range and fired a couple of rounds, all of which were hitting high. One of them actually hit the baffle. Took it home and discovered the bullets were hitting the bottom of the muzzle break. There are three chambers in the break. The bullet did not touch the first one, barely touched the second one and went deeper into the third. Would this be an installation issue or a defective break? I'm leaning towards the break since it did not damage the first chamber. What are your thoughts?

 

[1911ly]

Stop the show till that gets fixed!

Is that a factory threaded barrel? Something is threaded wrong. Either the barrel or the brake. Both need to be checked.

 

[FatalDeveloper]

Don't plan on shooting it again until it is fixed. I'm just glad it only grazed the break and didn't hurt me or someone around!

The barrel was threaded by a gunsmith.

 

[1911ly]

I'd take it back with the break and have him check it out! No other real way to fix that without running that thing out on a lathe to see whats wrong. That break is seriously damaged. That kinda scares me a bit. Please let us know whats wrong.

If that barrel wasn't threaded on a lathe it is probably the issue.

 

[WaffenmeisterJr]

Always check to make sure that there is a clear path for bullet travel when changing or adding a muzzle brake. The brake you have may have been poorly machined, or it could be the barrel threading job. Something to keep in mind, and most (or all) gunsmiths should know this, is that sometimes the bore and the exterior of the barrel are not concentric. You can't just add threads using the exterior of the barrel as a reference. Barrel threads will need to be concentric to the bore. If not, you can get what you got there. I don't know if that is what is causing your problem, but you're lucky it's not worse. Imagine what mess you'd have if you were using a sound suppressor instead of just a muzzle brake. Good luck, and like the others said, yeah, don't shoot that thing again until it gets fixed.