All The Things You Didn’t Know but Wanted To about Suppressors!

All The Things You Didn’t Know but Wanted To about Suppressors!

By Michael Ware

We’ve discussed suppressors (silencers) quite a bit, but there are some things you need to consider when buying one for yourself. Buying a suppressor has some paperwork associated with it that some folks find problematic. Trust me. It isn’t that bad. Granted, I find the need for this paperwork as necessary as a kick in between my back pockets, but nobody from ATF asked me my position this matter.

As a side note, the HPA (Hearing Protection Act) is poised to see serious movement this year at the federal level. It should. Short version? Suppressors would be removed from the NFA list and would no longer be federally regulated. They shouldn’t have been placed on the National Firearms Act to begin with. In case some of you didn’t know, handguns were originally on the list. But some obscure Senator spoke up and said “Hey? Won’t America take up torches and pitchforks if we do this?” so at the last minute they slid out handguns and slid silencers onto the list instead. The whole NFA thing was supposed to be temporary while Uncle Sam reeled in organized crime in the Al Capone era. Oddly enough, they didn’t rescind the NFA after the era came to a close.

The HPA, as originally written, would do some pretty cool stuff. A suppressor would be classified as a long gun like a shotgun or rifle. Also, it would provide a $200 tax credit back for every $200 tax stamp all of you have paid from the October 22nd, 2015 date of submission of the HPA bill. I have customers who have bought as many as 15 cans… That’s three grand for those of you counting. That’s a lot of tax for something as silly as a courtesy item. All this extra silly paperwork goes away when the HPA passes, and you’re back to filling out the same local and federal paperwork with back ground checks you’ve done for a number of years when you bought a rifle or shotgun. It’ll be great when these are off the NFA list.

Now back to our earlier scheduled program. There are several questions we need to have answered. Let’s delve into it.

Do I need a can that is capable of being torn down and serviced?
I have somewhat of a dissenting opinion on this one. When it comes to ‘clean’ burning stuff like centerfire rifles I tend to not worry about it. I have cans that have well in excess of 20,000rds through them and I’ve never cleaned them. When carbon gets built up, it tends to break off and get pushed out like little ashes, so I don’t worry about it. It isn’t like you’ll fill one up and the baffles will be chocked full of carbon just waiting to turn into diamonds.

Now… For handguns, I can see why you might want to clean one out from time to time. Rimfire is nearly a necessity though. Carbon is one thing, but lead is another. You’ll eventually fill up the baffles of a perfectly good suppressor with lead deposits. This does two things as well. It lessens the effectiveness of the suppression. The first few baffles do a lot of the work in the can, so if the gas isn’t able to flow and expand. The results are a louder weapon. Also, if your can is full of lead it isn’t going to be light. Who wants to add a bunch of weight way out on the end of your barrel to hold up? Not this guy. You could have some similar concerns with shotgun suppressors although most of the debris should be contained within the wad and should be carried free of the can itself.

What kind of attachment should I get for my rifle?
There are a few different basic types we see often with can attachments. Usually they are either what we refer to as ‘direct thread’ or ‘quick detach’ in some fashion or another. Direct thread units simply screw on your threaded barrel until it is tight and you’re done. You need to occasionally check to make certain your can is tight. A loose can is a great way to get in heaps of trouble. Baffle strikes are what we call a bullet hitting the inside of a can. Avoid them like the plague. Most baffle strikes are minor, but you and I both know what happens when you push a bullet at high speed into a metal tube – all kinds of mayhem results. Do so with gloves too and be cognizant of the heat associated with having your can attached. You’ll only make that mistake once. Ask me how I know if you run into me sometime.

Another method of attachment is the QD mount or host as they are called. This host simply screws onto your threaded barrel and remains in place. The host allows you to quick disconnect with coarse threads and/or a ratcheting collar in some such fashion that disallows the can to become loose. In essence, the suppressor can be tightened down until it stops and then you’re good to go. The other thing most hosts do is provide a means of flash suppression or they often provide a means of recoil reduction. Most are muzzle brakes, but there are handfuls that are flash hiders.

I’m a big fan of the QD units, but you have to keep a couple caveats in mind. First, you need to be extra careful not to overtighten these types of mounting systems. You can get a can stuck on your mount if you’re not careful and it can get ugly. Also, a can that moves slightly or doesn’t tighten back down to the same indexing point each time it is affixed, can seriously degrade the accuracy of a rifle. It isn’t quite as crucial on pistols and rifles used at shorter ranges, but a loose can or inconsistent can will absolutely destroy a precision rifle’s accuracy. By destroy I mean rifles that shoot 1” groups and pull MOA pretty often, won’t be able to hit a grapefruit at the same 100 yard distance. So don’t go cheap on the can host if this will be used in a precision or medium to long range hunting application.

What about the material of the can? Does that matter?
Rimfire cans are usually aluminum. Rimfire rifles generally don’t generate huge amounts of pressure, so the vast majority of manufacturers do well with aluminum. When it comes to others in pistol applications there are a hodge podge of different materials. I personally don’t see one over another as a clear winner. There are many different uses for different applications so there is a short pro and con list for each. Rifle cans are generally steel, stainless or chrome moly, along with titanium, iconel, and others.

Steels are easy to work with, heavy, and work pretty well. We’ve built custom 50BMG cans in our shop from chrome moly steels. I don’t like the extra weight, but sometimes they are just the ticket for a specific application. Stainless works pretty darned good too. Again, while heavy, they work well and last a long time. There are materials out there that are tougher to machine and more difficult to work with, but as tradeoffs go are really great for weight and longevity in most applications. Units built with Titanium are strong like steel and light like aluminum. Inconel is a nickel-chromium based alloy and works pretty well too. I even know of a handful of folks that use Stellite if you can believe that. Talk about over achievers!

You can get really snobby about your can material if you want, but most of the arguments for a certain type of material for the purposes of longevity are silly. Not to sound snarky, but the number of ‘shot out’ cans I’ve seen in a decade of working with this stuff is a whopping zero. I’d be far more interested in weight and overall size. If you can suppress sound efficiently and provide it in a small or reasonable package rather than a long heavy can, you’ve got my attention. I’ll leave the rest of that debate right there…

Can I use my suppressor on multiple weapons?
Sure. People do that all the time. There are actually some units built specifically to convert in size and configuration from anything including .45-70 all the way down to 9mm and 223Rem if you can believe it. Some folks just buy a 45 can and use it on their 40S&W and 9mm to boot. A really popular option is to buy a 30cal can and use it on everything down to 223Rem. Some even offer that host we mentioned earlier so they can be used from weapon to weapon. An example? Well, let’s say I have a 300WM hunting rifle, a 6.5Creedmoor precision rifle, and a 223Rem chambered AR15. I can buy a host that fits on each rifle and simply QD attach it to each one of those rifles in seconds. That’s pretty economical and starts chipping away at the expense of buying a can pretty quickly.

There are a handful of tiny questions here and there associated with cans that will crop up, but I think we covered the few I see the most. There are questions as to whether you need to send in your form 4 ATF paperwork as an individual or a trust, but that is a very specific choice based on a lot of personal criteria, so either give me a call and we’ll go over that one or just see what your lawyer may advise given your future planning layout.
Shoot well friends, and do so quietly… -Michael