advice on building a maglite suppressor

[jim556]

I'm about to send off my form 1 for my first suppressor build and have decided to use the maglite method for it. My first choice would be to make a 9mm can for my glock, second would be a .30 cal can for a few rifles. I have been doing a little research on the subject but have yet to find someone that used a maglite to build a suppressor for a handgun. From what I have learned is that pistol suppressor usually have some sort of spring in them to compensate for the barrel movement in handguns and that putting a suppressor that does not have one on a handgun like a glock would cause short strokes. I was just wondering if anybody on here have any info on the subject or should I just build one for a .30 cal rifle and then buy a factory 9mm can later on. I just dont want to build one for a 9mm and then find out it wont work with my handgun after I already pay the tax for it. Im still in the idea stage and will wait until I send off the form 1 and it gets approved until I start working on building one. Anyways, sorry for ranting on, I'm new to the site and thought its worth a try to get some info.

[Delorvan]

I built one for my 9mm on a Form 1. I used the Greatlite instead of the maglite, but it generally does need a Nielsen device, also known as a recoil booster or a linear decoupler. SDTA sells a rear adapter that will fit the Gemtech recoil booster. You can get the decoupler directly from Gemtech.

In a pistol with a fixed barrel, that is a barrel that is hard-point attached to the frame by a pin/screw or permanent welding, a decoupler is not needed and indeed not wanted Most .22s fall into this category. Most other pistols use a floating barrel design where the barrel moves during action. In a pistol with a floating barrel that detaches during the action and lifts slightly during the action of the slide, adding a suppressor onto the end of the barrel adds too much weight for the barrel to float properly. This absorbs energy (recoil) and causes too little energy to be transferred to the slide for it to move properly. The decoupler acts as a piston that compresses during the cycle which effectively removes the weight of the suppressor from the barrel during cycling. The net effect is to increase rearward force during action, allowing the slide to cycle properly.

Sometimes you need higher-velocity or +P ammo in addition to the decoupler to increase rearward energy enough. This depends entirely on your pistol and will require testing.

That's probably more than you wanted, but there it is Bottom line - yes it can be done.


edit: In addition to a suppressor adding too much weight and reducing energy, it may also cause the barrel to not unlock and float correctly, creating a physical block to the action of the slide. In both cases, you will generally wind up with a FTE.

[whiterussian1974]

Sometimes you need higher-velocity or +P ammo in addition to the decoupler to increase rearward energy enough. This depends entirely on your pistol and will require testing.

Heavier weight slugs also help. They add mass to the equation w/o needing to go Supersonic.
Another option is to lessen the spring strength.