I have a friend with a 7 mag that wants to put a muzzle brake on his rifle.
He wants as much recoil reduction as possible.
What has the best bang for the buck?
If you don't want recoil, don't shoot a 7mm Mag. Why does he need a 7mm Mag? Few people hunt with a muzzle brake, because it makes loud even louder. HEARING PROTECTION REQUIRED!
Sorry, I didn't answer the question. So he will have to take the rifle to a gunsmith to get the barrel threaded; I'm sure they can make a recommendation on an appropriate brake. I think there are some clamp on muzzle brakes, but that seems risky to me... you may end up launching the brake.
A friend put a break of this style on a Browning bolt gun for a guy. The rifle is a .270. It reduced the recoil a lot but you can hardly stand to fire it, even with hearing protection.
I think he knows that 7mag is overkill but he shoots it well and it's his only hunting rifle.
He wants the muzzle brake to make life easier on himself and possibly introduce others to shooting.
Hearing protection is a must anyway so it shouldn't be an issue stepping it up a bit.
Keep the suggestions coming, we're going to start looking at options now.
Thanks for helping a couple of guys that are ignorant on this subject.
One of my shooting buddies put a Witt Machine clamp-on brake on his 300 RUM. It's still there. I have one on a 30-06 and it does quite well. I'm shooting 185 grain plus bullets through it at LR and the recoil is relatively mild.
I've been thinking of a 7 mag for quite sometime. I just haven't run across one that wanted to follow me home. They have quite a high BC and would be fun to shoot "out yonder".
I have quite a few braked guns and the noise and blast is not to bad for the shooter, who is behind the rukus for the most part. It's the bystanders that get hammered. I wear plugs and muffs so it doesn't matter to me.
Go with the Vais brake. I put these on customers rifles regularly and they will cut the recoil down to the point he can probably see his bullet strikes. They are the only brake that also has holes in the front of the brake to allow the noise to continue downrange.