have you compared a form 1 suppressor to a commercial one?

[jmorris]

Have you compared a form 1 suppressor to a commercial one?
If so, what was the commercial unit?
How did they compare?
Any photos to show off?

[Baffled]

Here's the problem - a lot of guys (like me) make a F1 can to fill a void. I have a commercial .22 pistol can, a CAC-22, and it is proportioned for a handgun. I wanted a .22 rifle-sized can for an M-16/22 setup. The pistol can looked goofy on the M-16, way too small. So I've built a couple of .22 rifle cans. I can compare them, but it is meaningless because of the volume differences.

I'm sure there are guys here with both F1 cans AND commercial units of roughly the same size, and with the same caliber, that can compare them.

[ranb]

I was able to compare my form 1 22lr and 9mm cans to those made by AAC. Both of my cans were made with K baffles and had threaded end caps. The AAC cans were sealed and had thinner walls (and greater volume) as far as I could tell. I was especially impressed with how well the AAC can worked on the 10/22 as the action noise seemed be much louder than the muzzle noise. My can was slightly louder, so I guess that means it was at least 3 decibels or twice as loud as the AAC. Evaluating my 9mm can was different. I did not have a recoil booster and depended on a light recoil spring and 147 grain loads at 1050 fps (a bit hot) to operate the Browning HP slide. The other guy used a Glock with his silencer and somewhat lighter loads I think. As both pistols were much louder than the suppressed 10/22, it was hard to tell which one was better given the different loads. When I put my silencer on the Glock, it would not cycle do to the lack of a booster and therefore had no action noise and was a bit less noisy.

In the end I decided that my cans were not as effective as the AAC’s, but were good enough. I also liked to be able to take them apart for cleaning and making it yourself is the best part. Paying $20 plus tax does not hurt either; although spending about $2000 for metal working tools makes my seven silencers cost (so far) about $315 each.

[David Hineline]

A form 1 silencer can be built by a goober with some PVC pipe and junk from the garage

or it can be built by an experienced machinist with access to the most modern manuf. equipment made out of solid unobtainium.

How can you compare this to anything?

[Mageever]

I personally would like to compare the one I just made. More thank anything just to compare the principle of the can (monolithic staggared chamber design) with what's out there. It's pretty close in size to a Pilot, Spectre, etc., so it would be pretty appropriate.

[jmorris]

A form 1 silencer can be built by a goober with some PVC pipe and junk from the garage

or it can be built by an experienced machinist with access to the most modern manuf. equipment made out of solid unobtainium.

How can you compare this to anything?

Side by side by someone at a range what I was hoping for (I doubt most folks have access to proper sound test equipment). The request for photos would show construction ideas and operator ability. I assumed that it would be much easier to obtain photos/specifications of “home builtâ€

[ranb]

Here are what some of mine look like.





All of these are made from aluminum bar stock and tubing on a lathe. I was able to use tap/die to make the threads on the 22 can, had to use the lathe to thread the other end caps.

Ranb

[David Hineline]

Here is one of my designs and no I will not release the drawings of the internals.

[Mageever]

Wow David! That has to be "Assassin Quiet"!!

[David Hineline]

It's as quiet as any silencer I have ever heard.

[jmorris]

Ranb, have you had any chance to compare yours to any production units?

David, maybe I should have also asked for accuracy results as well (but at least you didn’t use PVC). Thanks for keeping me on my toes.

[ranb]

Yes, read the third post in this thread.

Ranb

[Baffled]

Some Stacks:

[#93]

I drove from Ohio to Texas to get a chance to test my F1 cans. John Titsworth set up a shoot and made his meter and equipment available for anyone use. He also ran the meter and made sure everything was being done to standards. Thanks John! Anyhow, my first F1 can is a screw on 22 can it is 1 inch by 6 inches and has a .272 through bore. A little longer than most commercial cans. It is also a bit heavier since it it made mostly of stainless steel. It averaged 122.5 dB over a 10 shot string. It has a lot of FRP at 128dB and the second shot was 124 dB then it settled down to 121 dB. The test gun was a 5 inch barreled Ruger MKII that metered 155.5 dB for a net reading of 32 dB reduction. John said that is similar performance to an Outback II. It uses an original baffle that I designed, and just like David I am not willing to share the guts, I really wish I had access to a meter and could tweak the baffles I really think I could squeeze a few bore dB out of the can given the opportunity. Here is more info on that can viewtopic.php?t=15046

I also got to test my Camp 45 integral. It averaged 123 dB over a 10 shot string. I am very happy with those results but I don't have access to data on how commercial Camp 45s perform. The secret to this can is lots of volume. Here is a how the build of that gun went viewtopic.php?t=17515