Hello all!
Does anyone know much or have much hands on with the blast forwarding devices for muzzle breaks? I'm really only familiar with the birdcage, or a regular break. I got a good deal on one, and installed it instead of the birdcage. My specific question is this: I've seen reviews and read quite a bit that it's great for reducing side noise and overall concussive values. What if I were to drill 3 equally spaced "ports" on the top? In the eyes of someone with more range time than 16.5 years in the military with the birdcage. I know it kinds defeats the overall purpose, but I'm trying to eliminate as much of the blast forward fireball as possible, and just trying to think outside the box....if you have experience, let me hear it, no matter how ignorant you think it might be... this is my first attempt at a true AR build... here's a couple of pics to show what I'm talking about, and overall build... I'm on a fixed income, so it's pieced together to the best of my ability. I've also got no walk pins on the way, and 4.5# JP Enterprises spring kit...smoothed it out quite a bit....If you see anything I can improve, don't hesitate to chime in... I need all the help I can get!! Appreciate y'all, and stay safe!!

Griffin makes one

Has one what? Ported BFD? Do you know if it's effective?

I think if you drill holes in your linear compensator it would defeat the purpose. You would probably be better off putting a standard birdcage on it, or just a thread protector. Never seen a linear compensator with holes in it.

https://rexsilentium.com/Rifle-Muzzle-Brake-Low-Concussion-System-p77436126

I bought one of these a long while back , when the company was known as Custom Muzzle Brakes - I don’t see a better link or exact product like I bought but the schematic should bring the point home.

My thoughts :

Standard liner compensator systems don’t give you a whole lot of choices to bleed off the gasses and limit the fireball.

A2 birdcage and Vortex muzzle breaks do a fine job of limiting the fireball but start to be concussive

The recoil eliminator style brakes do a good job of diverting the fireball out of the shooters sight (to the sides) but man oh man make the mistake of shooting one time without ear pro and you’ll wish you never had screwed it on the muzzle !

So the system I linked to above allows the shooter to change configurations of the primary muzzle device to suit your fancy and then if you want to put a blast forward shroud on you can just screw it over the existing brake.

Pretty nifty design if you ask me...

So to your question , sure you can drill as many holes as you want into your BFD to try and hone the gas signature - I would probably look at various designs and mimic one that others show the results of using the system before just drilling random holes ....

Here's like what I was talking about, only on top... probably 4-6 holes, tapered at around 1/2" increments.... I can always just replace the shield! Thanks for your in-depth review and time!
Ported BFD example

Before you do your modification shoot a couple of groups at 100 yards

Reshoot after the mod and see if your groups and point of impact are effected

Often ports or openings on brakes are situated to allow for a clean (contrentic) bullet release in terms of the escaping gasses

Also have you thought about slightly offset holes instead of top dead center - maybe you can counteract the slight muzzle rise from the rifling

Thanks for your follow-up reply... I really don't have access to a range where I can test repeatedly. I had Ft Hood, but they shut down all public Access. I drilled it to the best of my ability, and if it doesn't work, I'll get another one eventually and just leave it alone.

What Are you trying to gain by in drilling holes in the top?

I just bought a linear comp to replace my JP to HOPEFULLY make my AR more enjoyable to shoot. I haven’t shot 3 gun in a year and a half, so I wanted to make my rifle more truck friendly.

IMO, if you want a real brake, buy a real brake. Otherwise, I’d stick with the bfd as designed, or use a birdcage or thread protector.

I guess I didn't break it down well enough in all my previous posts. Since all I've ever done is shot Arabs instead of 3 gun or anything else involving sport shooting, I should do more research prior to presenting thoughts before some of the most pretentious pricks in all of Texas. Pig Popper, I truly appreciate your replies and help. I remember now why I WAS a top poster, but left this forum altogether...if it's not the way of the person with the "opinion", it's automatically wrong...... y'all can have this [censored]...admins, do me a favor and remove my profile... I'm positive I won't need it anymore

Well, that escalated quickly! 1Fowlhntr, 1st, Thank you for your service. You asked for opinions. Looks like Tactical Cowboy gave you an opinion. I saw nothing negative or pretentious about it. "Use the device as intended " is pretty sound advice in many situations.