Effect of Suppressor on Hand Loads

Zero difference on or off for me with handloads or factory ammo. I have a short, Sendero Profile proof barrel with a light can and a tapered mount, so a lot less impact to barrel harmonics than other setups.

Light weight, fluted, and or longer barrels with steel / heavier / longer cans I have generally seen some poi shift regardless of factory or handloading.
 
ObiWanKannoli said:
Zero difference on or off for me with handloads or factory ammo. I have a short, Sendero Profile proof barrel with a light can and a tapered mount, so a lot less impact to barrel harmonics than other setups.

Light weight, fluted, and or longer barrels with steel / heavier / longer cans I have generally seen some poi shift regardless of factory or handloading.
Click to expand...
I always like it when experience and theory are consistent!
 
Bowfisher said:
Maybe I'm just picky, but there is no way I'm using a " regular" can on a gas gun. One shot and all your ammo is dirty in the magazine. I was completely disgusted the first time I tried it. Couldn't believe people were that clueless...

I run two types of cans, the absolute quietest for bolt guns and a flow through style for ARs. Lots of lower back pressure cans now. I won't put anything else on an AR and consider those that do soft in the head. Have to clean the AR more than I want to anyway, without making them a carbon factory after 10 rds. Complete idiocy. YMMV
Click to expand...
Does it make you feel good to refer to others (many likely otherwise like-minded) of being clueless, 'soft in the head', or idiotic? No response required, but you might consider being a little less harsh. Just saying.
 
Bowfisher said:
Maybe I'm just picky, but there is no way I'm using a " regular" can on a gas gun. One shot and all your ammo is dirty in the magazine. I was completely disgusted the first time I tried it. Couldn't believe people were that clueless...

I run two types of cans, the absolute quietest for bolt guns and a flow through style for ARs. Lots of lower back pressure cans now. I won't put anything else on an AR and consider those that do soft in the head. Have to clean the AR more than I want to anyway, without making them a carbon factory after 10 rds. Complete idiocy. YMMV
Click to expand...

Bowfisher

Settle down...
 
BigDon said:
This could get interesting! Have you thought about shooting the 308 w/o the can? Not surprised a skinny barrel would be reactionary to that mass on the end.
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To clarify, the Ruger .308 has a heavier barrel (.756-ish at the muzzle, not much taper, no fluting) than the .223 (.670-ish at the muzzle, tapered and fluted). The Sandman-L is 9" long and way too much for that skinny little barrel. I won't be shooting the .223 suppressed anymore. I'll get a new barrel for it, probably a 6.8 SPC.

I figured the .223 would be "off" without the suppressor. Mostly because I had to change the scope today. This was the first day to shoot it with a can. I had some interesting results with the .308 today. Velocity spikes for one. But I know why they showed up. Dumb mistake on my part. More to come.
 
Data and targets below. I am including the velocity data, so you can see the velocity spikes, and the target.

I was going to make a game out of it but I'll just get to the reason for it. I was going to shoot all factory primer holes then shoot all enlarged primer holes. Guess who mixed up his brass when he annealed and got some large primer hole brass dispersed through the loads. I return the spent case to the same hole in the box that it came from so it's easy to see the correlation. Pardon the scribble on the target. I wasn't sure how this test was going to go so I walked down and circled the rounds that belonged to the group each time. I have faster loads, that pop in cooler weather, but group a lot better than these did. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go shoot a suppressed AR... :/

Rem 783 .308 Subsonic Powder Test 01.jpg


Rem 783 .308 Subsonic Powder Test 02.jpg
 
For the record, I only ran through the tests to see how well these two new, factory rifles would shoot. Both barrels looked pretty rough in the borescope so I put both through the David G Tubb final finish process. That cleaned them up pretty well. Without a can the .223 shoots nice groups. Load 9, is 25.5 gr of Varget and it is compressed. The load data came from Barnes and there were no pressure signs. Not a bad 2 shot group though. The last group on the last target is the "no suppressor" group.

I like the .308 so I may leave it as is. It's got a short barrel and it might work for a hog gun. If not, it'll get a new 6 twist 8.6BLK barrel and still use it for a hog gun. The .223 is destined to get a 6.8SPC barrel, replacement stock (unless my grandson likes it), and donated to my son-in-laws coyote and hog remediation projects.

Ruger Gen 2 .223 Powder Test 01.jpg


Ruger Gen 2 .223 Powder Test 02.jpg


Ruger Gen 2 .223 Powder Test 03.jpg
 

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One thing nobody mentions very often is the extreme heat generated by a suppressor. If I fire 3 rounds within a minute or so on my bolt action 308 the suppressor is already too hot to touch. Many use suppressor wraps to cut back on mirage caused by the suppressor but that traps the heat and you could fry eggs on a suppressor in short order.

Don't get me wrong... I love my suppressors but the heat they generate on a centerfire rifle will give you a very unpleasant surprise if you aren't careful...

Rimfire suppressors not so much but then I don't really rapid fire anything. I'm about accuracy, not spray and pray.
 
LDHunter said:
One thing nobody mentions very often is the extreme heat generated by a suppressor. If I fire 3 rounds within a minute or so on my bolt action 308 the suppressor is already too hot to touch. Many use suppressor wraps to cut back on mirage caused by the suppressor but that traps the heat and you could fry eggs on a suppressor in short order.

Don't get me wrong... I love my suppressors but the heat they generate on a centerfire rifle will give you a very unpleasant surprise if you aren't careful...

Rimfire suppressors not so much but then I don't really rapid fire anything. I'm about accuracy, not spray and pray.
Click to expand...
I don't have that problem with suppressed .308 loads, even after 10 rounds. The .223 heated the can up quite a bit after 5 rounds so it's a good thing that you mentioned it. I have a .22LR upper for my AR and it's suppressed. It's a lot of fun to shoot but I don't "mag dump" either.
 
Mike6158 said:
I just got back from shooting a Ruger Gen II in .223 (supers) with a Dead Air Nomad L and Rem 783 in .308 (subs) with a Dead Air Nomad 30. The .223 has a skinny little spiral fluted barreI. I took the can off for the last two rounds. POI shifted up 4". I'll try to post a scan of the target in in bit. To be honest, I wasn't surprised. The Nomad L is long and heavy.
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This tracks with what we saw when testing SWAT rifles and the officers logging results with & w/o the cans. The average was about one mil and the extremes depended on the barrel profile.
BigDon said:
This could get interesting! Have you thought about shooting the 308 w/o the can? Not surprised a skinny barrel would be reactionary to that mass on the end.
Click to expand...
All we tested (20+ rifles) showed an upward shift when removing the can. Holding a mil low would get you back...on the average. Sometimes there is a slight lateral displacement too - hence the testing.

We also documented the change when resting the barrel itself on a hard surface, like the top of a barricade or on a windowsill. That drove impact up about a mil for most rifles, suppressed or not. We felt it important to know these deflections because you never know what kind of position you might be forced into and a barrel rest might be all you have.
 

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