What is a Suppressor?

Preface

As suppressors continue to increase in popularity and application, you are going to see a lot more of them around here. For those of you who are new to suppressors, today we are going to go over the various suppressor types to help you better understand the subject. Even if you think you don’t want or will never need one, it’s a good topic because your perspective might change sooner than you think. Today we’ll go over everything including materials, manufacturing processes, internal designs, mounting configurations and such. Hopefully by the time you finish reading, you will have a better understanding of your suppressor options.

this 300blk carbine uses a **Dead Air Sandman K** for compact and quiet shooting

What is a Suppressor?

Suppressors have been called a lot of things; in the movies they call them silencers though it’s a bit misleading because they are hardly silent. A suppressor is like a muffler, but they don’t work the same way. Mufflers simply bounce pressure and sound waves inside a chamber to reduce the noise that comes out the tailpipe. A suppressor is similar but has to overcome the enormous volume and pressure of a gunshot. Most rifle cartridges generate in the ballpark of near 50,000 PSI, your vehicle’s engine generates around a hundred times LESS pressure.

desert tech srs m2 apex optics banish suppressor — my **Desert Tech SRS M2** chambered in .223 uses the **Banish Buck 30** for great sound suppression

The deafening noise of a rifle going off will make your ears ring, because of the supersonic wave created by all this pressure leaving your muzzle. The job of a suppressor is to slow the expansion of all that gas, so that when it leaves the muzzle of your firearm, it is no longer creating the sonic boom. This is done by slowing the high pressure gas as it exits the muzzle using various chambers, while letting the bullet escape its way to target untouched.

desert tech quattro 15 — this **Banish Speed K suppressor** is perfect for my **Quattro-15**, read more about it HERE

As all this high-pressure gas is slowed within the walls of the suppressor, the energy has to go somewhere. The result is a rapid increase in heat. Essentially all the energy of the expanding gas is turned into heat instead of noise.

Suppressor Construction

For the longest time suppressors were mostly made with the same idea; a sequence of baffled chambers that would capture the expanding gas. Enough of these chambers would be stacked until the exiting gas was slowed enough to be sufficiently quiet for its owner. “K” cans as they are often called are a compromise of putting just enough of these chambers to reduce the report of the gun. Just enough means that they are usually louder than larger suppressor designs.

my **Desert Tech MDRX** wearing a **CGS Group Hyperion K**

The baffles between these chambers have a hole just big enough for the bullet to pass through, while trapping much of the gas behind it. Many of these baffles and holes have features to increase turbulence of gas as it passes through. Clipped baffles have offset ports in them, and as gas passes through them it creates turbulence further restricting the straight flow of gas to the muzzle, much like a Tesla valve. Additionally different suppressor designs might vent pressure through just the muzzle, or from multiple points at the front of the can. Some designs even incorporate a muzzle break at the front of the suppressor to help reduce recoil.

Pistol suppressors often use a booster piston assembly, these are necessary to allow many semi-automatic pistols to function. The booster piston allows movement in the barrel/suppressor assembly, this movement is needed for the pistol to unlock the barrel and slide during operation.