Blackbearhunter, I'm not fond of brakes on any rifle! A few years ago, I bought six Ruger No1 rifles at an estate sale. there was a 243 Win, and 7mm mag, a 300Win Mag, a 338Win Mag, a 375 H&H, and a 458 Win Mag. As I already had rifles that were chambered for everyone of the calibers, I had handloaded ammo on hand. Headed out to the deasert with all the rifles, and a big box of ammo, my friend, and I wanted to see if these things would shoot!

I started with the 243, and slowly worked up the line to the 338 which was begining to feel the recoil. My friend was loading them for me, and handing them to me to shoot. He thought it would be funny to skip the 338, and hand me the 375 H&H with me thinking it was the 338! I fired it and it felt like the 7mm I had just fired! I said "man! that is the lightest kicking 338 I ever fired! He began to laugh, thinking I was jokeing! Then he told me it was a 375 H&H, and I didn't believe him. Sure enough it was a 375H&H, so we looked it over and found it had been MAG-NA-PORTED, and had a Pachmeyer decelarator recoil pad. When I finely fired the 338, which wasn't ported, it was a wake up call! The 375 H&H felt like a 7mm Rem mag, and the 338 win mag felt just like my Mod 70 338.

I still don't like BRAKES but I can live with porting the barrel, if the rifle is uncomfortable to shoot otherwise. I like the stock mounted recoil reducers even less than BRAKES, because they seem to screw up the balance of the rifle! All only personal with me, and others may do as it pleases them!