Tag Archives: suppressor

ATF’s NFA branch moving on up

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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has split its National Firearms Act branch into a separate division in hopes of providing more oversight and efficiency.

The new NFA Division will consist of an Industry Processing Branch, focusing on processing forms from the private sector, and a Government Support Branch centered on law enforcement.

The IPB will see the regulatory body dedicate an entire branch to handling the processing of consumer-directed documents including Form 1 and Form 4 applications for the making and transfer of NFA items such as suppressors, and short-barreled rifles and shotguns.

But what does this mean? I talked to the experts to find out…

More in my column at Guns.com

Some things never go out of style

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Exotic Swiss arms maker Brügger & Thomet is probably best known for their MP9 series firearms, but have you “heard” of their VP9?

The manually-operated VP9 (veterinary pistol, 9mm) is meant for humane euthanasia by large animal vets in the field and has an integrated suppressor that they bill as the “most quiet pistol in this calibre on the market.”

With a five-shot magazine, it only has two moving parts and at 11.25-inches overall length with its largest can, is about the size of an M1911, though is much quieter. Like classic Welrod (a British WWII design it favors that also used internal wipes) quiet. It sucks that rubber wipes are considered by ATF to be “silencer parts” over here, which makes it rough for U.S. suppressor makers to come up with comparable designs as its impractical to repack these old-school cans on a regular basis.

In the above video by 5.11, they visit B&T AG and talk with Reto Flutsch (that name, tho) and go loud quiet with a VP9.

For more on it’s grandpa, check out the video from Ian with Forgotten Weapons, below.

Clean those cans!

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When you cut a “stuck” suppressor in half, you shouldn’t be able to read the solid carbon build up layers like the rings on a tree. Yikes.

Carrollton, Texas’ TPM Outfitters took to social media with a cautionary tale of what not to do when it comes to firearm suppressor maintenance.

TPM specializes in Heckler and Koch products and they were recently sent some demo factory HK MP5SDs– you know, the neat little room broom that comes integrally suppressed– that were having some issues. The problem was two-fold: that the suppressors were “stuck” to the gun and couldn’t be removed and that they just weren’t working anymore.

Turns out there was a reason for that.

“They obviously did not try to take off the suppressors and were seized to the barrels, this is why it is so critical that the suppressors come off every 250-500 rounds to clean the barrel and ports of built up carbon,” notes TPM. “The suppressors were solid carbon all the way to the end cap inside.”

Hanging out at SHOT Show

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Whelp, back from the annual gathering of the gun tribes in Las Vegas. Saw some interesting things. Did some interesting things. I think the biggest stories, besides the new SIG M17, is was the Hudson H9 and the SilencerCo Maxim 9.

Prefaced by a quiet build up over the past few weeks via social media, the H9 melds a full-sized 9mm semi-auto to a striker-fired pistol with a crisp 1911 trigger that has a .115-inch travel. But the innovative handgun with its cyberpunk panache didn’t just hatch fully formed from an egg last month.

More here.

Then there is the Maxim. The pistol, a 9mm that accepts double-stack Glock 17 magazines, can be arranged in either a short or a long configuration– both of which are suppressed. The difference in length between the two options is about an inch, with the full-size configuration measuring 10.75-inches overall and the abbreviated one taping out at 9.54-inches, which is about an inch longer than a standard 1911. Weight varies between 37-39 ounces.

More in the video below and in this piece in my column over at Guns.com.

Now that is a Scorpion with a subtle sting

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The classic Skorpion machine pistol dates back to the Cold War and CZ redefined that .32ACP room broom into a polymer framed 9mm a couple years back with the semi-auto blowback-operated CZ-USA Scorpion EVO.

Last year, the Czech Republic-based company added to the line with the Scorpion EVO 3 S1 carbine, which sports a 16.2-inch barrel and is offered with a faux suppressor built specifically for CZ-USA by SilencerCo.

However, 16.2-inches can seem so long on an otherwise handy pistol caliber carbine so SilencerCo has come to the rescue and converted a limited run of 35 Scorpions to short barreled rifles, complete with side-folding stocks and an  Omega 9K suppressor (delivers 131.5 dB reduction on 9mm) with a direct thread 18×1 mount.

How sweet it is.

cz-skorp

More in my column at Guns.com

Marine battalion to get very quiet in upcoming tests

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A U.S. Marine with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, conducts a company attack range in Twentynine Palms, Calif., Oct. 23, 2016. Bravo Company is participating in Integrated Training Exercise (ITX) 1-17 and preparing to support Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Sarah N. Petrock, 2d MARDIV Combat Camera)

A U.S. Marine with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, conducts a company attack range in Twentynine Palms, Calif., Oct. 23, 2016. Bravo Company is participating in Integrated Training Exercise (ITX) 1-17 and preparing to support Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Sarah N. Petrock, 2d MARDIV Combat Camera)

The U.S. Marine Corps is expanding its use of suppressors in a test that will see a full battalion using them on everything from service rifles to .50-caliber machine guns.

An infantry battalion of the 2nd Marine Division will have every element, from combat engineers to headquarters units, equipped with suppressed weapons in an upcoming experiment. The concept has already been trialed so far this year in company-level exercises.

I spoke with Adam Mehlenbacher, who knows firsthand about dealing with hearing loss and complications for many service members and their families. He’s an audiologist who heads up the American Academy of Audiology’s Government Relations committee and he is also an Army veteran who had deployed to Bosnia and Iraq.

“Hearing loss and tinnitus are the most common service related disabilities. They can have an enormous negative impact on communication ability and quality of life,” Mehlenbacher told Guns.com. He added that they’re both completely preventable.

“Everyone in the military is issued hearing protection and as an audiologist I will say you should always wear it,” he said. “Although, as a veteran I know there are times when service members just do not. Issuing weapons with suppressors is a great way to reduce noise exposure.”

More in my column at Guns.com

Nothing to see here

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The term “gun buyback” is kind of a misnomer as it implies that the people purchasing said unwanted firearms “off the streets” owned them in the first place. Nonetheless, they sometimes turn up interesting items for which those involved pay a song. In recent years this has included a revolver stolen from Teddy Roosevelt and a vintage museum-quality StG44, both of which were saved from the torch.

Sadly, a beautiful M1911 owned by Sammy Davis Jr. was not.

Well, speaking of odd catches at buybacks, the Marin County District Attorney’s Office hosted one earlier this month which was covered by the local paper and I picked up at Guns.com. Why would I pick up such a normally pedestrian news story?

Because they garnered a cherry HK MP5 with a side-folding factory marked stock and four-positon ambi Navy fire control pack lower, as well as a host of mags and a couple of suppressors for $200. At the very least it is a SP89 conversion Sterling VA marked H&K with nice laser on the front.

hk-mp5-with-a-side-folding-factory-marked-stock-and-four-positon-ambi-navy-fire-control-pack-lower
As California frowns on suppressor ownership altogether for civilians and you have to get special permission from DOJ besides your regular NFA hoops for full-autos, the MP5 combo likely came in from out of state, was illegal (say it ain’t possible), a prop house gun, or is a Post-86 dealer sample or LE gun. In any of these cases, there are likely some questions.

The vintage GemTech Pill Bottle: How small can a can get?

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Gemtech’s own Alexander Crown did a quiet little rundown (see what we did there) on their old school “Pill Bottle” .22 suppressor.

Gemtech beretta 21 little 22 can called the Pill Bottle. It had a key chain attachment to be discreet

Back in the sweet old days of Mitch WerBell’s Sionics, the British Welrod of WWII and the Navy’s Mk 22 Hush Puppy of Vietnam, most suppressors worked by using internal wipes out of leather or some other material (except notably for the De Lisle Carbine which had 13 rigid baffles made of Duralumin). A few years ago many suppressor companies advertised their wares as “wipeless” but it’s gotten to the point to where almost everything is these days, so you don’t even see the term anymore.

The tiny Pill Bottle is such a device, using a ¼” rubber wipe with a lifespan of about 50 rounds or so.

From Crown’s write up at Breach Bang Clear:

For those of you not familiar with wipe technology, it is essentially some sort of pliable material that a bullet can pass through but gasses can’t. In the very early days of silencers, these could have been made of leather, cotton, or usually plastic/rubber. These wipes have a limited life span and have to be replaced periodically as they wear out, and this poses a problem in our modern day since the BATFE considers them silencer parts. Manufacturers cannot simply ship them to your door, although they can be made by the user. Just not in surplus.

So how big was the Pill Bottle? Try 1.25 inches long and weighing just one (1) ounce.

Oof.

Gemtech Pill Bottle 3

Do yourself a favor and read Crown’s write up, it’s a good look behind the curtain. Makes me want to get my Beretta M21 threaded.

A look inside the Sig SRD762Ti 30 Caliber Suppressor

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In May I had a chance to take part in the Third Annual American Suppressor Association Media Day at Knob Creek and got to visit with that great tactical honey badger, Sig’s (formerly AACs) Mr. John Hollister himself and take a look at their SRD762Ti can.

hollister

It’s a pretty interesting Grade 5 Titanium direct thread silencer design with 5/8″-24tpi threads (or a QD version) to match the muzzles of a lot of common .30 caliber rifles on the market today. Rated to provide 135 dB suppression for up to 300 Win Mag it will take everything smaller in diameter ( .204 Ruger, .223/5.56x45mm, 5.45x39mm, 7.62x39mm, 7.62×35 (300 Blackout), 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.8 Spc, et.al) as well though dB mileage varies with ammo as with any suppressed offering.

SRD762Ti1Weighing in at 17.6 ounces (18.4 for the QD model) and a length of 9.25”, it’s beefy, but wait till you look inside:

sig supp detail

Just look at all those baffles, I mean, that’s a lot of damned baffles….

The taper of the back end is actually the back of the blast chamber and there is no outer sleeve (yup, its technically tubeless) allowing for a lot of volume to dissipate the gas.

The NFA-compliant serialized portion of the SRD762Ti is the machined blast chamber, which houses the silencer’s thread interface

The NFA-compliant serialized portion of the SRD762Ti is the machined blast chamber, which houses the silencer’s thread interface. This SRD556 uses the same concept.

I really dug kicking the tires on the can and it makes a heck of a difference, even moderating the high “tone” that you get when shooting high-powered rifles in a suppressor. I hope to get one to review for Guns.com in coming weeks.

Of course it’s $1K MSRP, so there is that…

 

For those quiet walks in the woods

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Impro guns has dug up a smooth (and suppressed) little game getter that likely got a poacher in hot water with the Carbineri

poachinggun2
Here’s a very neat little takedown gun seized by police in Italy which is entirely handmade, fits in a backpack and is chambered for either .22lr or .22 hornet. Intended varmint may or may not have included local magistrates.

Looks like the Man from UNCLE gun...but on a DIY budget

Looks like the Man from UNCLE gun…but on a DIY budget

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