Which suppressor thread, from relative newbie

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DannyLandrum

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OK, I know next to nothing about commercially-available cans.

Is there a hefty / overbuilt 9mm, .45, or other, somewhat budgety can, that could be used for all of the following:

-AR15 in 5.56 shooting ONLY subsonic 75 grainers
-T/C Contender .357 Max shooting ONLY subsonic 230 grainers

I understand it wouldn't work all that well for the undersized 5.56 with that big hole, but... And would your answer be the same or different if I added -9x19 pistol to the mix?

Also, I hear that Form 1s are now being approved in less than 2 weeks, due to the new and improved online application, correct? Can't decide whether to build or buy.....
 
If you have access to a lathe and weight isn't a major concern, build your own. If you don't have a lathe, or access to one just buy a commercial can.

If you do decide to build ask lots of questions and write down answers to help you make your design decisions. I am in the middle of building a 30 cal do it all suppressor, and even with the right tools it is taking a while. One of these days I'll get motivated and spend a few hours and finish it up...
 
I have the silencerco hybrid 46. It is extremely flexible suppressor. It has a .46 bore so it can handle anything up to 45-70 on the rifle side of things and can handle pistol calibers 9mm through 45 ACP. With semi auto handguns like all suppressors one must buy the boosters for the particular caliber.

I bought it due to its flexibility and I really like it so far, but I don’t have much to compare it to as its my only can besides a .22 can

If you do research many say you don’t lose much suppression due to the over bore, it was these reviews that led me to go for a one size fits all approach.
 
What do you mean by "somewhat budgety"?

Almost all pistol cans can handle subsonic loads that can fit through their bore, regardless of cartridge. You might want to stop short of .458 cal shooting 700 gr. cast loads, but stuff burning <20 grs. of powder or otherwise having minimal exit pressure with Trailboss loads and the like isn't going to hurt pistol cans. The biggest issue is that most are using aluminum for tube, baffles or both, and Al can't take much heat. Mechanically, at lower temperatures, my 10 ounce Phoenix .45 can will handle short barreled .308, have done it (full auto, no less). But the aluminum baffles, which are all but the blast baffle, didn't survive my 300 round machine gun torture test that included 216 rounds of 9mm followed by 60 rounds of M193 and then 25 .308. If I had kept the rate of fire to 2 or 3 rounds per minute, the suppressor would take .308 indefinitely.

That said, my Phoenix is a Ti tube with 17-4 stainless booster housing and front cap, so gonna be tougher in terms of pressure than an aluminum tube can with aluminum caps.

If you have access to a lathe and weight isn't a major concern, build your own.

No reason F1 cans cannot be as light as or lighter than commercial. Remember, I still make all of mine on fully manual machines. While I'm better tooled and have a lot more time at the hand cranks than your average hobbyist, there's nothing I build in the way of cans a guy with a smaller lathe and benchtop mill couldn't, albeit much slower. F1 cans done right can absolutely perform in suppression, accuracy and weight.
 
If you buy a big bore rifle can, you can can find adapters to thread barrels all the way down to .223.
https://www.brownells.com/rifle-par...y&utm_campaign=itwine&utm_content=100-015-977
Putting a 308 can on my AR was easy. Ideally you want to match the gun to the suppressor bore, but it's not an absolute. The sound suppression is just less effective.
https://www.silencershop.com/silencers/large-bore/bowers-vers-458.html

One thing I did with my Mac 10 .45 can was to take the end cap off and make wipes out of milk bottle plastic for .22. It worked well.
 
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What do you mean by "somewhat budgety"?

Almost all pistol cans can handle subsonic loads that can fit through their bore, regardless of cartridge. You might want to stop short of .458 cal shooting 700 gr. cast loads, but stuff burning <20 grs. of powder or otherwise having minimal exit pressure with Trailboss loads and the like isn't going to hurt pistol cans. The biggest issue is that most are using aluminum for tube, baffles or both, and Al can't take much heat. Mechanically, at lower temperatures, my 10 ounce Phoenix .45 can will handle short barreled .308, have done it (full auto, no less). But the aluminum baffles, which are all but the blast baffle, didn't survive my 300 round machine gun torture test that included 216 rounds of 9mm followed by 60 rounds of M193 and then 25 .308. If I had kept the rate of fire to 2 or 3 rounds per minute, the suppressor would take .308 indefinitely.

That said, my Phoenix is a Ti tube with 17-4 stainless booster housing and front cap, so gonna be tougher in terms of pressure than an aluminum tube can with aluminum caps.



No reason F1 cans cannot be as light as or lighter than commercial. Remember, I still make all of mine on fully manual machines. While I'm better tooled and have a lot more time at the hand cranks than your average hobbyist, there's nothing I build in the way of cans a guy with a smaller lathe and benchtop mill couldn't, albeit much slower. F1 cans done right can absolutely perform in suppression, accuracy and weight.
Not doubting you in the slightest about how light a f1 can could be, but for the less experienced guy who only gets one crack at the build per tax stamp I will err on the side of too much material instead of too little. Maybe by my third one i will be more brave and build a lightweight 22 can, since I am sure I'm up to that.
 
I'm sure you know, but you can buy most of the difficult to produce parts for a form 1 from companies like Diversified Machine and SDTA:

https://diversifiedmachine.us/shop/

https://sdtacticalarms.com/SDTA-PRODUCTS_c_52.html

I'm not sure what folks who don't have a lathe are using for baffles... still freeze plugs?

I'm thinking about doing a .45 caliber carbine can with a Ti tube and 3 lug adapter, mostly because of the previously mentioned efile wait times.
 
I'm sure you know, but you can buy most of the difficult to produce parts for a form 1 from companies like Diversified Machine and SDTA:

https://diversifiedmachine.us/shop/

https://sdtacticalarms.com/SDTA-PRODUCTS_c_52.html

I'm not sure what folks who don't have a lathe are using for baffles... still freeze plugs?

I'm thinking about doing a .45 caliber carbine can with a Ti tube and 3 lug adapter, mostly because of the previously mentioned efile wait times.

I still see some freeze plug stuff.

Remember, once a Form 1 silencer is completed, us SOTs can rebuild or recore them as a gunsmithing service. If you build a can with freeze plugs and it doesn't work well (which they don't), you can have it recored. The only part that has to be reused is the tube. Can't make changes to length or caliber, but mounting systems, baffle style & quantity, front cap-we have a blank canvas there.

I just re-did a 6" .30 can that had an ugly hole through a front cap and 8 thick freeze plug baffles with heavy walled spacers. I re-threaded his rear mount from 1/2-28 to 5/8-24 and it got a new stack of my 65° 17-4 rifle baffles, 7 of them, fully welded with a new front cap (part of the welded stack). We cut his weight by almost half, and though I didn't do any metering before or after, and while a 6" .30 can on a 5.56 SBR is gonna be pretty loud no matter what, he was thrilled at how much quieter. Not to mention the accuracy improvements of a precision machined & welded 17-4 core over freeze plugs. Yeah, that was a $400 recore, but now it performs the way it should, and the only money he "lost" was a $40 Ti end cap and probably $20 in freeze plugs & steel tubing.

IMG_2895.JPG

IMG_2898.jpg
 
I still see some freeze plug stuff.

Remember, once a Form 1 silencer is completed, us SOTs can rebuild or recore them as a gunsmithing service. If you build a can with freeze plugs and it doesn't work well (which they don't), you can have it recored. The only part that has to be reused is the tube. Can't make changes to length or caliber, but mounting systems, baffle style & quantity, front cap-we have a blank canvas there.

I just re-did a 6" .30 can that had an ugly hole through a front cap and 8 thick freeze plug baffles with heavy walled spacers. I re-threaded his rear mount from 1/2-28 to 5/8-24 and it got a new stack of my 65° 17-4 rifle baffles, 7 of them, fully welded with a new front cap (part of the welded stack). We cut his weight by almost half, and though I didn't do any metering before or after, and while a 6" .30 can on a 5.56 SBR is gonna be pretty loud no matter what, he was thrilled at how much quieter. Not to mention the accuracy improvements of a precision machined & welded 17-4 core over freeze plugs. Yeah, that was a $400 recore, but now it performs the way it should, and the only money he "lost" was a $40 Ti end cap and probably $20 in freeze plugs & steel tubing.

View attachment 811479

View attachment 811480
That’s a sweet looking baffle stack.
 
That’s a sweet looking baffle stack.

Thanks!

That's the standard baffle profile I've developed for my centerfire rifle cans, a 65° (50° included angle) skirted cone with an asymmetric radiused clip. I played with a lot of different angles, amount of shoulder, clip depth & width, found this one to meter really well. As in, on an 18" .308 bolt rifle, my 9" Furtivus with 11 of these cones metered 134.8 dB at the ear inside an uninsulated 12x24 room. The 8" Valkyrie with 9 of them hit 138.6 same gun, ammo & room. A 7" can (not mine, but a high quality commercial suppressor) was also metered, came in at 143.2 at the ear on that rifle.

Each can metered 2.5-3 dB higher at mil spec than shooter's ear.
 
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