Suppressor on mountain rifle

[Dentite]

My opinion is NO. They are expensive, unwieldy on a normal length barrel, add weight to something you spent a lot of money to reduce weight on, another thing to be cleaned and maintained, and are not necessary since there are better and cheaper options to save your hearing. It's a fad in my opinion since the rifle will still be loud and you should still wear ear protection. Instead, spend 1/3 as much and buy electronic ear buds like Otto Noisebarriers, etc. Why go through the ATF hassle and expense for something that only causes more maintenance time and hassles? It's a fad.

What maintenance does a centerfire rifle suppressor require?

Have been using them for years and they've never required any maintenance.

Now a rimfire suppressor with .22lr being shot through it is a different story.

Whether it's worth it to a person is an individual choice, but let's at least be accurate with the pros and cons.

 

[lancetkenyon]

They complain about cleaning them, POI shift after reinstalling, bullet strikes on suppressor, waiting times to purchase, cost of suppressor, heat of suppressor even with covers, mirage caused by suppressor, etc., etetc.

Sounds like a combination of truths (wait time and cost), and a combo of bad gunsmithing, poor installation practices, poor quality suppressors, and user error (cleaning, POI shift during removal/reinstallation, bullet strike, and heat/mirage).

I have multiple thousands of rounds with my suppressors. I take them off between shooting trips, and swap back and forth between rifles on the same trip. I have NEVER had POI walk from my zero.
I have cleaned my suppressors twice. Fill it with CLR and let it sit. Rinse with water and repeat as necessary. Never takes more than a few hours. And actual time spent is maybe 10-15 minutes of working time between letting them soak.
As for bullet strikes, either an improperly cut muzzle thread, incorrectly installed or loose suppressor, or incorrectly sized bore diameter. A properly sized, installed, and tight suppressor will not do this.
As for heat, yes. They get hot. With a cover, the mirage is hardly present with 3 shots. Let them cool like any other barrel, and no issues.
I shoot mine all the time with no hearing protection. At a covered range, they are a lot "louder" than out in the open. My own rifles still surprise me on how quiet they actually are in the field.

 

[Huntnpack]

I would never sacrifice barrel length for a suppressor, barrel length is your best freind for generating velocity which is exactly what you need for long range preformance. the wind is your enemy for long range shooting and the less time the bullet is in the wind the less effect the wind has on it. thats why for 1000 yd shooting matches people will opt for higher velocity cartridges, 6.5x284, 300wm, knowing well that their barrel life will be very short with these fast cartridges around 1000 rnds for acceptible accuracy at long range. they also will run 28 to 32 inch barrels to get preformance from the cartridge. if you take a 300 magnum and shorten the barrel to 20 inches you reduce its preformance to equal a 308 with a long barrel so you have a noisy hard kicking barrel eating rifle all of which is opposit to what you want for a long range rifle. if you have ever been in the target pits pulling targets you would be able to hear the bullets flying overhead, they make a supersonic crack as they are faster than the speed of sound unless they don't have enough barrel length to keep the bullet above the speed of sound which happens to 308's and 223's at 1000. when they drop below the speed of sound they loose stability and come through the targe sideways if they even hit the target at all. if the report from one shot while hunting bothers you that much bring ear plugs. I am not convinced the game animals care either way and as I said the bullets being supersonic make almost as much noise as the report from the muzzle

In regards to the thread topic:

"Suppressor on Mountain Rifle"

It's not difficult to get a short suppressed rifle system to achieve one's performance goals. It's in how you define your goals & the approach you take. I don't consider reducing a given cartridge's performance, rather utilizing a given cartridge to achieve my terminal performance goal.
Careful thought, research & planning goes a long ways in achieving desirable results.

Ymmv.

 

[R. Cram]

It's not difficult to get a short suppressed rifle system to achieve one's performance goals. It's in how you define your goals & the approach you take. I don't consider reducing a given cartridge's performance, rather utilizing a given cartridge to achieve my terminal performance goal.
Careful thought, research & planning goes a long ways in achieving desirable results.

Ymmv.

Shortening a barrel always reduces preformance, when shooting in matches for 20 shot strings you can watch other shooters preformance in the wind and compair cartridges and rifle combinations when a speed up in the wind happens or a let off or the dreaded switch. the ar15 is used more than any other rifle now in high power and its easy to see the difference between a service rifle with a 20 inch barrel and a 24 inch barrel on a match rifle when shooting in the wind. I shoot a 260 and at the 600 yd line the wind moves me about half as much as a service rifle. the wind is not static every shot at 600 needs to be evaluated, it is a very rare day when you never have to change your windage from shot to shot. If a person wants to learn the wind that doesn't happen with a handfull of shots after a person has shot 10 matches he may start to become proficient with reading the wind which is your enemy for long range shooting whether shooting paper or animals. 10 matches is around 1000 shots which for high capacity cartridges is time for a new barrel so to take a 300 magnum and reduce it to a 308 by cutting the barrel off is a huge waste of potential if you leave the barrel long you get the advantages of less wind drift and better trajectory and there is no replacement for trigger time to become proficient at shooting. a person would be way better off shooting a 308 with 28 inches of barrel and getting 4 or 5 thousand rounds of barrel life. nobody will be good at reading wind and shooting in field positions without shooting lots of rounds down range. shooting in field positions is neglected, go to a range it is unlikely you will see anybody shooting any position accept off the bench which has nothing to do with hunting so will not train you in any helpfull manner

 

[bultinkle]

a 20" 300 win will push a 215 over 2700

My 21" 300prc ran a 215 over 2850

Takes a lot of barrel in a 308 to get that kind of performance, I think people underestimate shortish magnums

For the original question it's so personal, I like rifles both ways. I'm super sensitive to rifle balance so sometimes I dislike cans if the make rifles super nose heavy. I always love them once I start shooting

 

[marksman1941]

Sounds like a combination of truths (wait time and cost), and a combo of bad gunsmithing, poor installation practices, poor quality suppressors, and user error (cleaning, POI shift during removal/reinstallation, bullet strike, and heat/mirage).

I have multiple thousands of rounds with my suppressors. I take them off between shooting trips, and swap back and forth between rifles on the same trip. I have NEVER had POI walk from my zero.
I have cleaned my suppressors twice. Fill it with CLR and let it sit. Rinse with water and repeat as necessary. Never takes more than a few hours. And actual time spent is maybe 10-15 minutes of working time between letting them soak.
As for bullet strikes, either an improperly cut muzzle thread, incorrectly installed or loose suppressor, or incorrectly sized bore diameter. A properly sized, installed, and tight suppressor will not do this.
As for heat, yes. They get hot. With a cover, the mirage is hardly present with 3 shots. Let them cool like any other barrel, and no issues.
I shoot mine all the time with no hearing protection. At a covered range, they are a lot "louder" than out in the open. My own rifles still surprise me on how quiet they actually are in the field.

This exactly. I saw a whole lot of excuses to be angry at something without legit cause. They're expensive (so are guns, so is good ear pro) and the wait time is annoying. Everything else is operator error or just looking for a reason to be mad.

 

[R. Cram]

there is a sight called rifle shooter . com which I think is very good and he took a 300 wm and cut off the barrel one inch at a time and chronographed the results and the rifle lost 40 fps per inch of barrel length check out his results, I would not have a 300 wm less than 26 inches so a 6 inch loss would be 240 fps loss which would lower the velocities at least to 30-06 levels and a long barreled 308 might be close to keeping up. this forum is generally about how to get the best preformance of a rifle to have the best chance of getting good hits at long range shortening a barrel is the exact opposite of trying to get the best preformance out of your equipment

 

[Huntnpack]

shortening a barrel is the exact opposite of trying to get the best preformance out of your equipment

I Disagree !

 

[marksman1941]

there is a sight called rifle shooter . com which I think is very good and he took a 300 wm and cut off the barrel one inch at a time and chronographed the results and the rifle lost 40 fps per inch of barrel length check out his results, I would not have a 300 wm less than 26 inches so a 6 inch loss would be 240 fps loss which would lower the velocities at least to 30-06 levels and a long barreled 308 might be close to keeping up. this forum is generally about how to get the best preformance of a rifle to have the best chance of getting good hits at long range shortening a barrel is the exact opposite of trying to get the best preformance out of your equipment

"Performance" isn't the uttermost maximum velocity possible. Performance is doing exactly what you want it to do, and doing it well. If someone wants to carry a stubby .308 with a suppressor on it, and it kills deer in the manner that person wants it to, then it's performing well. If the person wants to shoot 1000 yards with that same setup then it may not perform well. But performance is subjective, and relative to the goal at hand.

 

[cohunt]

The short vs long barrel comparison always comes up when people talk about short barrels.......but you gotta compare apples to apples---- a 16" 300wsm is always gonna be faster than a 16" 308w or 16" 30-06

People compare 18" magnums to 24"-26" std cartridges but that's apples to oranges if a guy wants a short barrel

 

[R. Cram]

"Performance" isn't the uttermost maximum velocity possible. Performance is doing exactly what you want it to do, and doing it well. If someone wants to carry a stubby .308 with a suppressor on it, and it kills deer in the manner that person wants it to, then it's performing well. If the person wants to shoot 1000 yards with that same setup then it may not perform well. But performance is subjective, and relative to the goal at hand.

the title of this forum is long range hunting as I said, so in that context velocity is always an advantage. if you aren't concerned with maximizing your equipment to acheave that goal then cut your barrels off

 

[marksman1941]

the title of this forum is long range hunting as I said, so in that context velocity is always an advantage. if you aren't concerned with maximizing your equipment to acheave that goal then cut your barrels off

And the title of 24hr campfire is about a fire, but we don't sit around flames singing kumbaya. We're talking about the context of the post, not the forum.

 

[R. Cram]

I'm glad you are not singing kumbaya, I don't know if you can hold a note, the post wanted comments as to the plusses and negatives of a suppressor on a mountian rifle. the plus for a suppressor is a reduction in noise and recoil, the negative is the added weight you tryed to loose to make it a mountian rifle and if you shorten the barrel less terminal preformance and poorer long range preformance

 

[QuietTexan]

They complain about cleaning them, POI shift after reinstalling, bullet strikes on suppressor, waiting times to purchase, cost of suppressor, heat of suppressor even with covers, mirage caused by suppressor, etc., etc.

I don't complain about any of those things

I never clean mine.
I zero with them on.
Never had a bullet strike.
Is what it is, just as long as my other NFA items.
Cheaper than the rifle or the scope, separately.
Momma taught me to touch hot things when I was a spud.
Not an issue on 3 shots or less.

Not damaging my already damaged hearing = priceless.

Weight wise I'll take a leak before I start hiking, that's the amount of weight we're talking about here. Literally ounces. If you have plastic buckles on your pack, if it's made out of Cordura, if you carry food in anything heavier than ziplocks, if you carry a phone and any other ballistic device, if you carry a way to start fires where there are no trees..... a suppressor is easy to pay for saving single digit ounces elsewhere. I'm serious - I'm pretty sure the bino harness I wear weighs about what my suppressor does. Actually weigh gear and realize what does and doesn't cost that much in your weight budget.

A spare pair of good pair of wool socks weighs about half as much as my suppressor, and we all know: