Suppressors
are a great addition to any precision rifle, or any firearm for that matter.
Hollywood often portrays a suppressor wielding thug assassin,
secret agent, or Special Forces Delta Seal Ranger silently eliminating
sentries unbeknownst to others nearby. In the gun world, we know this to
be false, with few exceptions concerning sub-sonic ammunition with .22's,
Mp5sd's, 300BLK, etc.. Still, with the latter firearms, they are still
comparable to the sound signature of a nail-gun or a door slamming. Even the
sound of the bullet impacting the target is quite loud, loud enough to alert
nearby enemies. Let's look at the practical uses of suppressors. They
serve as excellent hearing conservation whether you are one of the elite in the
mountains of Afghanistan, or elk hunting in Alaska. People often report
getting greater accuracy with a suppressor attached. I have not found a good
study indicating why this would be. However, a couple of theories are: 1) It allows the
bullet to travel uninfluenced by as many gasses since they are blocked by
baffles. 2) It reduces the concussion of the blast on the shooter which
helps him/her focus on the fundamentals without anticipating the recoil.
Either way, once you shoot with a suppressor, you'll never want to shoot
without one.
Now
let's talk about the environment. In many places, there can be an extreme
array of environmental ups and downs. It can be 80 degrees by day and
drop to 30 or less by night. It can be sunny and within hours be snowing
or raining. The following report is based on an experience I had while hunting
in Alaska.
Rifles
used:
LWRC REPR 16" 7.62x51, AAC Mk13-SD, Nightforce 2.5-10, and 168gr
Federal Gold Medal Match 308
LWRC
M6IC 14.7" 5.56x45, Surefire Socom 556RC, Elcan SpecterDr 1-4x, Hornady
55gr Vmax 223
I
live on the southern coast of Alaska, and the annual rainfall is almost always
above 200 inches. It is extremely difficult to keep things dry. On August
12th of 2014, I went to a nearby island to hunt dear. At this time the
season was bucks only, so no doe's. (Suppressor Hunting is legal in Alaska).
My brother and I went to a bay where we have seen many deer before and
decided to hike up the steepest part to get to the top without providing our
scent to the wind on the less steep part. At no time were we crossing
streams or ponds.
I
think it's worth noting, before EVERY hunt or field training I do, I take my
rifles to the range the day before and ensure they are zeroed and I do NOT
clean them until after the hunt or field training. On the day of this
specific hunt, I went to a range at 0600 hours before we left and made a cold
bore shot at 630 yards on a 13" steel target, followed by a 3 shot group
at 100 yards that was well under 1 MOA and zeroed perfectly.
We
hike all day long for as much usable daylight as we had, which was about 6
hours. It was raining cats and dogs. We were both wearing
"waterproof" gear, the real expensive name brand gear that I won't
name. We were soaked in the first 10 minutes. We both carried suppressed
carbines muzzle down. The only exception to this was when we had to sling the
rifles on our backs to use both hands for climbing, which was only about 5% of
the time. We saw 6 doe's, no bucks. During the hiking, neither of
us bumped or dropped the rifles, nor did we stick the muzzle in the dirt.
We also kept the ejection port covers closed, we were pretty religious
about that.
After
returning to town, I went to the local range and attempted to shoot an 8"
diameter gong at 300 meters. My REPR appeared to be impacting about 4
feet right, but was not predictable. The elevation seemed fine, but it was
really all over the place. The suppressor was on tight, and the gas
adjustment was on the correct setting. After firing most of a 20rd
magazine, I was finally getting good hits. My last 5 or 6 rounds were within 4
or 5 inches of each other.
Then
came the M6IC. I pretty much got the same results. I also go blasted
in the face with water and powder after the first few shots. The REPR did
the same thing but it wasn't quite as bad because of the receiver design.
It appeared to me that the suppressors got some water in them, but I
wouldn't have imagined that it would throw the impact off that much. I
contacted both Surefire and AAC to ask if they had ever received calls about
similar issues, and neither one could think of why it happened, and admitted
they hadn't heard of it before. I started scratching my head, thinking
maybe water had run down outside of the barrel and got past the suppressor
mount and into the can, or perhaps into the gas block and down the bore.
Neither one of those really made sense to me. The easiest way would be from the
end, which we carried down 95% of the time.
After
this I decided to run a little test. Bare with me, it might no be the most
scientific test in the world, but with the resources available to me it was the
best I could think of at the time. The temperature was 38 degrees F and
Barometric Pressure was 29.82. Elevation is approximately 10 feet above
sea level.
First
I set up a test target at 100 yards. On the target there are 1 MOA grid lines
with diamonds that are 9 MOA apart from each other in the corners and another
diamond in the center. After cleaning both rifles thoroughly, I attached
the Surefire suppressor to the M6IC tightly and shot a 6 round group at the
upper left diamond using Hornady 55gr Vmax. Shooting was done from a
bench with bean bags. The group measured barely over 1 MOA, roughly 1.18"
center to center. I then allowed the rifle and suppressor to cool for
about 20 minutes. I then removed the suppressor and poured water into it muzzle
end down, until it came out the end, then shook it in both directions until no
more water poured out of it. I then reattached the suppressor tightly and
fired a 10 round group at the lower left diamond of the same target, using the
ammunition from the same lot as previously. I didn't think to measure the
group because it was so bad. My guess is around 7". Here is a
picture of the test target.
.jpg)
Next
I followed the same process with the REPR. I thoroughly cleaned the rifle
and shot 5 rounds of 168gr Federal Gold Medal Match on the upper left diamond
of a new target. It was well under 1 MOA center to center, and would have
been 1/2 MOA had it not been for a flyer. I allowed the rifle and suppressor to
cool for about 20 minutes. I then removed the suppressor and repeated the
same process of filling it with water then shaking it out. After reattaching
the suppressor tightly, I fired a 10 round group at the lower left diamond. The
group was so bad that I was amazed to find that I did not have a baffle strike
on the suppressor. Here is a picture of the REPR test target. Notice the
extremely high shot in the middle, and the extreme far right shot. Only 9 of
the 10 shots were accounted for.
.jpg)
After
this test, I cleaned both rifles and shot about 1 magazine worth of junk
ammunition to evaporate the remaining water, then proceeded to shoot clay
pigeons at 300 meters. The zero of the rifles were not changed at any time
during the test, nor were the optics removed.
...end part1
*Gregory
Rubio is a former USMC infantry rifleman and current law enforcement officer.
He is an LE Colt AR-15/M16 armorer and Rangemaster/Firearms Instructor in
Alaska with over 20 years of experience with practical firearms usage.
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