AB Suppressor Conundrum

[lesvoth]

AB Suppressor Conundrum
By Les Voth

Two approvals by the ATF on Monday. The first was an 8 Stack 7.62 Raptor from AB Suppressor. Jumping in my junker I made the 110 mile round trip to the dealer to retrieve it. All the parts were in the box.

When you buy a Raptor you get the suppressor, a tool to remove the endcap, a flush mount, and a “reflex” that suits your needs. For anyone unfamiliar with the “reflex” it’s an addition that screws onto the suppressor instead of a flush mount or QD mount, and fits over the barrel, increasing the blast chamber volume. Makes it more quieter, but does not make your rifle longer.

With the Raptor retrieved and home it was quickly secured to the 5/8x24 muzzle threads of a 6mmBR, extending the overall length of a 27.5” barrel by 6ish inches. The first task at hand was to make sure the rifle maintained its zero with an additional 8 ounces - plus reflex - hanging off the end.

It did. It seems that 6mmBRs are very tolerant of most variables thrown at them. The rifle even grouped in its customary tight pattern with both 70 grain BT Noslers going 3450 fps and 105 grain Berger Hybrids following along at 2860ish. Those two different bullet weights impact within ½ an inch at 100 yards.

Big smile!

At 3:50 p.m. of the same day I checked my email to find another approval. This time it was for an AB Suppressor 7.62 Warthog. A quick call to the dealer was made to discover the “suppressor guy” had to pick up his progeny before 5:00 p.m. so I couldn’t pick up the Warthog until the next morning - unless I drove like Butze or Harris, and my junker would have left it’s junk on the Interstate if I’da tried that . . . So, tomorrow morning, then.

As everyone’s filing in for work the next morning I’m smiling like an idiot, sliding into the curb in a cloud of smoke with my bucket of dented sheet metal, just joinin’ the queue!

Happy that the Warthog is finally outta jail and going to its loving home, I’m quickly headed back out their door after the paperwork.

The. Conundrum. Begins.

Which rifle’s gonna wear which suppressor? You can’t leave a suppressor unmounted cuz you’re gonna use one every time you go packin’ from now on. So do I put the Warthog on the 22” carbon wrapped Bartlein 6.5 SAUM and leave the Raptor on the 27.5” #3 Bartlein barreled 6mmBR? Or, should I put the most effective suppression - The Raptor w/reflex - on the SAUM, and muzzle the BR with the Warthog?

This is as bad as trying to decide which rifle to take on a hunt! Maybe worse!

I remembered using a Warthog at a demo about a year and a half ago, screwing it on the BR and being more than satisfied. Yup. I took the brake off the SAUM, put the Raptor on it, and put the Warthog on the BR. The difference in overall length between the two rifles with suppressors installed came to just over 2” with the BR’s stock collapsed for transport.

Because of recent rain I didn’t go prone, but used the hood of my Jeep to good effect. The purpose of this excursion was to check zeros on both rifles with the suppressors installed. And I needed to throw some ATips downrange with the 6.5 SAUM after a good cleaning. I’d learned that you should clean your barrel between running monolithic bullets - Hammers in this case - and conventional type bullets, so the SAUM was squeaky clean. I’d just run out of fun running Hammer’s 80 grain HHTs flying well over 3700 fps, and was switching back to Hornady’s 135 grain ATips until my supply of 80s was replenished.

The 135s did what they were supposed to do, and did it quietly. One way to judge how quietly was to have a neighbor drive by wondering if you’re okay because you’ve been parked “over there” for a while. After you say you’re okay, he sees the rifle you’ve been shooting not far from his yard, and says, “Oh, yer shootin!” and drives off smilin’, cuz he knows shootin’s fun, but he hadn’t heard me shooting at all. Just one of the results I was hoping for when I began The Suppressor Quest!

The conundrum has worked itself out. The most effective suppressor is now hanging off the rifle that burns the most powder. The cool little Warthog muzzles the BR. ‘Course, if I throw the Creed barrel on the Stiller, or get the cut-down Ruger VT threaded, or thread the 260 Encore, or put the 22-250 barrel back on the Archimedes, or buy that 223 barrel back from Keaton . . . Oh, dang! I’ma gonna have to get another AB Suppressor suppressor!

Another pair and a spare! That’s what I need!

 

[lesvoth]

Followup

Last week Friday while packing to go to a range I recently became a member of, I threw in my PRS rifle as an afterthought. The work that day was for another project rifle - the Pristine Technologies single shot I’d built into an F Class gun. When I use the word “work” I don’t use it lightly.


The Pristine F Class rifle weighs the max, or more, at 22+ pounds. Its heavily modified Sinclair front rest weighs at least that. The Protektor Model loaf rear rest w/handle can be used as a weight for getting into more better physical condition. Add to that a 22+ pound PRS rifle, bags, ammo and my overweight derrière - I was working!

The reason for the PRS rifle being included in the trip was to zero it with my newly received AB Suppressor Raptor 8 w/reflex. Although I had no intention of using the can during a match, that rifle is so accurate, and I’d shot so many rounds through it, that if something needed to be ventilated badly, I have more than complete confidence in it - and if I wanted to do it more quietly - it should be zeroed with that titanium appendage/accessory attached.

Upon arriving at the range and unloading rifles, bags, rests, ammo and glass onto two available benches, I carried two target boxes down to the 100 yard berm. Returning to the benches it was discovered that the target boxes could not be seen from the benches because of the tall grass on the berm in front of the 100 yard berm - and me without a weed wacker!

Down to the berm I go and start pulling long grass by hand to make two separate paths in front of my targets. Two paths became three because the grass was so tall I couldn’t see problems in the terrain before I’d begun. Now I’m so gassed I’d rather load it all back up and go home, but that’d mean loading everything back up while I’m sucking air like a beached whale.

So I stayed. In all my years I’d never belonged to a range before, but have been to many. This wasn’t anticipated.

Anyway. Back to shooting . . .

I played with the Pristine rifle for a while. Found out how to use the rest and rear bag. Learned of some more work I need to do. During five shot strings the rifle would put three through the same hole and throw two random shots - every single time. Granted, this was with bulk factory ammo, but there’s a trick I’m missing . . .

Switching to the Raptor 8 equipped PRS rifle, it was shot off another bench with an AccuTac bipod and an Armageddon gear Schmedium light fill bag supporting the rear.

One shot confirmed that the zero had shifted after switching out its ACE muzzle brake for the suppressor. Dialing the correct .2 mils windage into the Arken EP 5 scope put the confirmation rounds right where the reticle’s dot dictated.

Done.

Load all gear into the rear of the Jeep and go home. On the way home I stopped where some steel hangs at various distances, propped the PRS rifle on the spare tire, popped the triangle hanging at 540 three times in a row, reinserted said rifle in the double rifle bag and dragged my tired self the last few miles home.

My wife meets me at the Jeep, grabs my two ton gear bag/backpack, throws it on like a soldier, asks if she can carry anything else for me, and heads inside while I cradle the two rifle carry bag in two arms and stagger through the front door, up the stairs and into the “gun space.”

I’m done!

Luke texts me two hours later: “Shooting tomorrow?” I phone him from the kitchen so I don’t disturb my darling wife watching True Crime on TV in the living room. After I tell him how tired I am, Luke tells me I’ll never go to a closer PRS match - and he’s right. It’s only an hour from my house. I told him I had to load ammo to go if I was going and I’d think about it.

Back in the living room my inquisitor wife asks who was on the phone. I said Luke was, and he wanted me to go to the match. She said, “Then you better get upstairs and get to work!” Upstairs I go, fire up the Frankfort Arsenal powder dispenser, dispense Varget into 100 already primed 6mmBR cases, and top them with 105 Berger Hybrids with an Arbor press and Micron Precision die.

Done again.

I’m too old and buggered up, and my well padded buttocks provide such impressive ballast for my ample belly that I’m not a threat to the top ten anymore at any PRS match, but it’s more fun than the local coffee shop - and I like the people. I finished middle of the pack-ish - 46 out of 78.

Five miles from home I’d remembered I still had the Raptor 8 on the rifle but kept truckin’ to the match. I doubt it was an impediment to my doing any better, but muzzle brakes are still the answer in recoil mitigation for that shooting discipline. The impulse is definitely different. Spotting hits as they occur requires a developed technique, so it is very possible, but it took a bit to relearn that at the match with the can on.

How was AB Suppressor’s Raptor 8 w/reflex received? The landowner has one on order now. The other fellow using a can in my squad - he finished 6th - said the Raptor was quieter than his can, and he’s usually always got “The Best.” Almost everyone in the squad complimented the “quietness” of the can like they were surprised it was that quiet. Luke said he had to watch to see if I was even shooting.

Will I shoot a PRS match every time with a suppressor? Nope. But I’ll definitely do it again. In fact, this weekend in Missouri there’s a two-day suppressor-only match . . . As long as I don’t have to go pull long grass anywhere before Friday I might go . . . Better fire up the Frankfort Arsenal . . .

 

[Bucklowery]

Awesome write up. Thanks for sharing.

Buck

 

[Joejack]

I got my first can in late December took 7months it is a ab raptor 10 stack I love it. It makes my.223 and my 6mm wildcats so quite it just makes me giggle every time I use it. My 6.5ss with 140 Bergers and 62 gr h1000 I don’t need hearing protection to shoot

 

[lesvoth]

Awesome write up. Thanks for sharing.

Buck

Thanks, Buck, I appreciate that.

 

[lesvoth]

I got my first can in late December took 7months it is a ab raptor 10 stack I love it. It makes my.223 and my 6mm wildcats so quite it just makes me giggle every time I use it. My 6.5ss with 140 Bergers and 62 gr h1000 I don’t need hearing protection to shoot

I applied for the Warthog in March and the Raptor in May. Getting the approvals in June was a pleasant surprise.
It’s interesting what goes on inside your head the first time you use one - the thought of not using one is a nasty one.
I love the Raptor 8, but I can see how you’d be in love love love with a 10. The 8 on the 6.5 SAUM great!