Last 4th of July, I broke my Surefire Socom 556.
Let me first state, had I actually read the manual for it, this might not have happened. It says to not exceed a hundred and twenty rounds in a string. I fired 181 rounds before I realized the suppressor had ruptured.
10.5 Inch LMT upper rec
SF3P flash hider
Colt M16 Lower
Right after inserting the 7th magazine and closing the bolt, a friend called a cease fire. He noticed the top of my suppressor had some extra venting
Gun was so hot, the 181st round was a cook off in the chamber (in a safe direction)
The outer tube had ruptured in three places and had a slight bulge at the top. Surprisingly, I didn't notice anything unusual from the back side of the rifle. Didn't notice an increase in sound. We let the suppressor cool off and removed it without too much trouble, it did take two hands though.
Sent a picture into Surefire, the response from them was they would replace my suppressor with a new one at 50% of MSRP and obviously a new tax stamp. While I don't necessarily disagree with their stand on this matter, It didn't help the sour taste in my mouth from ruining the can in the first place. But lets be honest, I did burn this thing up AND pushed it beyond what was stated in the manual.
I opted to keep my can, as it still functioned as "normal" on light semi auto use. Finally just got around to getting this thing "repaired". I had a sleeve machined to fit and was pressed on with a hydraulic press. Interference fit. It is snug. It is not welded on at this time.
All of the 212 and socom cans have internal venting as seen in the first picture, I added the arrows to show the direction of heat and gas. There is an expansion chamber between the internal stack and the exterior tube. This is where the heat built up and the tube gave out. Prior to this session of abuse, I probably have had less than 1000 rounds through it.
Now on to the pictures.
Brian
