Never set brake before landing in a Chippy, except perhaps during the early phases of being checked out and you have yet to get used to the aeroplane.
I say this as someone who has flown one over the last 33 years, ever since gaining my PPL, and has never ever ground looped.
Setting brake will result in exactly the situation you describe; you have limited rudder travel due the brake being set, and at that limit you will apply the brake when what you really need is more rudder! Result? You arrest the incipient swing but when you run out of rudder and hit the brake... you set off a swing the other way - and so on until you ground loop!
You are depriving yourself of full rudder, and running into brake application in a harsh manner.
Leave the brakes unset. Use ALL the available rudder. If that's not enough (you hit the stop but the incipient swing hasn't ceased) just GENTLY pull back on the brake lever. You'll already have the relevant full rudder on, so only the requisite wheel will be braked, and in a much more controlled manner than running out of rudder and hitting harsh brake before the rudder bar has reached the stop!
In fact, I use my little finger, hooked around the brake lever, to geeeeently feeeed in juuuust enough brake (puuuull while you feeeel) to negate the incipient swing without starting one the other way! And all this while holding full anti-swing rudder. It really is the only way to do it! And very satisfying!
Last edited by Shaggy Sheep Driver; 29th Nov 2012 at 21:23.