Putting a brake on one of the lower calibers has many reasons for doing so. Some hunters just don't like recoil. In my younger days I thought recoil was fun. I had a Win .458 magnum shooting 500gr bullets in Alaska. I thought it was fun to shoot. I was only 30 years old then.
Things change as you get older. I had cancer removed from my left cheek. 75 stitches to seal it up. It left the nerves in my cheek very sensitive. Recoil was very painful. Especially, if the gun was a cheek slapper.
I had a Rem 700 in .270 that I wanted to tame the recoil on. I put a Limbsaver recoil pad on, and had my gunsmith install a Vais muzzle brake. It was a pleasant gun to shoot after that, and my cheek thanked me. The recoil was similar to a .243. Maybe even softer. I used 150gr Partition, and it was an excellent deer and elk gun.
The Vais brake is the way to go. I heard no increase in noise level when shooting. Of course if you were standing next to me you got blasted, but I hunt alone, so that wasn't a problem. I'd go to the range very early in the morning when nobody was there. I highly recommend the Vais brake if you're thinking of buying one.
Here's the gun with the brake installed.
