A friend today arranged to meet me at his property to shoot. He only had a little while to shoot before needing to leave, so we put a few rounds down range at a time, concentrating on things like the way the rifle sounded when standing different distances from the shooter, noting muzzle rise and comparing to the '74 compensator, and attempting to determine at what distance the sound of the bullet flight overcame the "pop" from the rifle.
Since the can is being used with a 16" 5.56 barrel, but is intended for 7.62x39, and since it also features a unique, progressively larger-bore baffle setup to eliminate issues with baffle strikes due to '74 type threaded FSBs frequently not being perfectly parallel with the bore (the diameter of the end cap orifice is about 1/2"), I wasn't expecting a super quiet can.
Without having another can and rifle to compare it with (this is the first can I have owned and only the third I've shot with), I can't tell how it compares for sound suppression, but I was able to note the following:
- Shooting about 20 rounds without earpro did not cause ringing of the ears, but did cause just enough of a "spike" each shot to make me think it is not hearing safe. It seemed to fall somewhere between a .22 pistol and rifle in the way it made me feel- like it wouldn't bother me shooting for a little while, but an extended session might leave me with a slight headache.
- When standing roughly 25 yards away to the shooter's 4 o' clock, the "Pop" seemed to be mostly or totally overwhelmed by the traveling and impact sounds of the round, as the berm was only about 30 yards away from shooter. Those sounds were clearly louder and drew more attention to the impact area than to the weapon itself.
- There was no feeling at all of having gas blown up the nose! I imagine the larger bore along with the larger than average diameter of the can is responsible for this. It completely lacked any semblance to my gas nose experience firing an M4 with a tac16.
- It's weight of just under 20.5 oz compares favorably with AAC's M42000, when you factor in the flashhider/adapter needed for the AAC can (total weight 21.4 oz), and did not completely overwhelm the balance of the rifle. It balances right at the "heel" of the standard black AK-74m type plastic handguard with the suppressor attached. Without the can, it balances about 1/2" in fron of the magazine.
- The Brevis' length of roughly 5.5" is nice, since it only adds about 2" to the overall length compared to a '74 compensator.
- The Brevis makes use of the spring loaded pin on the FSB to prevent it from unscrewing, so it has the one advantage of a quick detach can that interested me.