AK Muzzle Brake Fix!

1
Hey folks, I thought I'd share my experience searching for a way to make my WASR muzzle brake stop flopping around, which I suspect is affecting my accuracy (well, that and the Russian ammo, "Friday after vodka lunch" level machining, etc...)
In all seriousness though, my rifle, a Romanian WASR that I purchased new through Century Arms and then customized, actually shoots pretty straight all things considered. Small upgrades like a better recoil spring, windage adjustable rear sight, real (and heavier) Romanian furniture, and a Midwest Industries 2-Chamber muzzle brake tightened things up nicely in the accuracy department. Still, I couldn't help but feel like the slop of the brake must affect accuracy a bit- as with most AK pattern rifles, the brake just indexes with the plunger spring in the detent but doesn't tighten up against the barrel. I don't know much about barrel harmonics, but it seems to me that a brake flopping down as the barrel rises isn't optimal.
So, I went searching for a solution, but most of the stuff I found had to do with slowly Dremeling down an aftermarket brake until the index point coincided with the brake meeting the barrel at the tightest point. This seems like it could get expensive fast, and the slightest over-zealous move with the Dremel could mean coughing up another 50 bucks... it also seemed like it might be tough to keep the brake surface perfectly flat as material was removed. So I moved on to the possibility of using a spacer of some sort... some guys suggested a rubber O-ring (melty?) and some just shade-tree'd up a pile of washers, but my days of that kind of shit are behind me.
Then it occurred to me that I might be able to use an AR crush washer, and that's when I found my solution after a long internet search- the Precision Armament Crush Spring.
These are made to use with PA's own AK brake, but I figured they might work on other brakes too. I ordered a couple from Optics Planet, waited 37 years for them to arrive, and installed one behind the MI brake. The indexing on my brake was perfect for the washer to be compressed, but not bottomed out, which is optimal according to the install instructions. Like a crush washer, they are a one-time-use kind of thing, but at 2.50 a pop they are downright affordable. I'm not the kind of guy who takes off the brake during cleaning (or the kind of guy who cleans an AK more than once a year) so the two I ordered should last pretty much forever.
I took the rifle out this weekend and put some rounds downrange, and everything ran perfect. Recoil feels a hair tighter (maybe I'm imagining things but I really do think I can feel the difference- no more rattling on the end of the barrel). Accuracy was a little better but the lack of flyers was really great- often I feel like the Russian ammo produces a lot of flyers, but I had none through a couple mags, and it was easy to put 1"-1.5" groups on target from standing and kneeling at 30 yards.
Anyway, if you're looking for a solution for brake wobble, maybe this helped.
-Crow
Minute Of Average
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