I'm new to sound suppressors & am thinking of getting one for my AR.

[V4Vendetta]

My AR has a 16" barrell & is chambered for 5.56 rounds. It has a flash hider on the end of the barrell permantly.

I live up near Danbury in Stokes County. Will the sherrif sign off on the form or will I have to go the "trust" route?

Do sound suppressors require much cleaning? How do you clean them? What suppressor should I go with? How long should a good suppressor last? Are they quiet enough to be worth all the paperwork?

I would need it to be able to attach to a barrell with a flash hider, under $1,000 & quiet enough to use indoors with no ear protection. Would only be fired in semi-auto mode.

Here's a link to where you can view photo's of the barrell if you need to.
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269398

Thanks for the help.:)

[Syntax360]

I doubt you'll get a response about your particular CLEO - there is no reason not to go the trust route, IMHO. You won't have to spend any extra coin on fingerprints or passport photos and the CLEO thing is a complete non-issue. It is arguably easier, cheaper, and your form will likely be approved faster. It's not hard and you shouldn't be intimidated - go the trust route.

Most of the mainstream cans are sealed units, meaning no disassembly. I only have a pistol suppressor, but cleaning only consists of leaving the thing in a solvent tank whenever I feel so inclined and then blowing out the fluid with an air compressor. Cleaning usually only consists of letting the thing soak in some (safe) solvent for a length of time - nothing difficult.

What can you decide to go with depends on what kind of money you want to spend, what mounting option you decide on (quick detach or threaded), and other subjective factors. AAC, SWR, and Gemtech are some of the popular ones. There are many more...

I'm not sure how long they are supposed to last - how often do you shoot? I would not anticipate ever needing to replace it unless there was some "accident" like a baffle strike, etc.

How quite do you think it's going to be? This a TOTALLY subjective thing - you are asking us if it is quiet enough to be worth it to you... Only you can answer this.

It absolutely will not be quiet enough to shoot indoors without hearing protection. AR's are pretty notorious for being loud - unless you buy subsonic loads (some of which may not cycle correctly), you will get a sonic crack. The 5.56 is a high pressure round - most would say you should expect something similar to an unsuppressed .22LR. It is loud, but it's not deafening like it would be unsuppressed. If you want Hollywood quiet, you need to be looking at suppressing a .22. If you want nail gun quiet, 9mm will work. Even .45 (dry) will likely be unsafe w/o ears...

It sounds like you are fairly new to this stuff - I would GUESS that you will be thoroughly disappointed if you suppress your AR. I highly recommend starting with a .22LR pistol or rifle (10/22 or bolt for scary quiet).

Check out silencertalk.com (you should register if you want to access the useful parts of the forum) for a wealth of information.

[V4Vendetta]

Just how would I go about threading the barrell on my 10/22 for a surpressor?

[PAR]

You can buy a threaded replacement from:

http://www.tacticalinc.com/index.html

or

http://www.gunkings.com/

I picked up .22 suppressor from TacInvo but I went with the TacSol barrel from Gunkings. If I get a chance I'll post a picture of the completed 10/22ultimate.

[Silentarmy]

Yankee Hill has some Nice models with the included Flash hider that it quick-disconnects from. They are about $535 here at my local NFA Dealer + the transfer tax of $200 to your greedy uncle. I went that route so I can put that Flash hider on each of my .223 AR's as well as my 22-250. The standard thread for the .22 caliber rifles is 1/2x28. Advanced Armament has a Sweet new model that is really quick on the disconnect and has a little button to release it but is it worth $850 + tax? You decide!

[Crosshair]

I always went with the individual route. Simpler for me IMHO and my CLEO signs the Form 4 while I am getting my fingerprints taken.

[Silentarmy]

That would be your Greedy Uncle SAM!

[Zak Smith]

I never clean my suppressors.

A modern suppressor should last almost indefinitely.

-z

[suppressed_shooter]

I've been running a Knight's Armament QDSS for a little over a year now. I have had pretty good results firing it dry. I don't have any subsonic ammo to compare noise emissions to, but with standard M855 ball and even with the hotter Mk 262 Mod 0 ammo, the noise reduction is more than sufficient to ditch hearing protection as long as no one else is on the firing line. It cuts the noise down to something like a cap gun, not counting the weird noise the bullet itself makes as it travels.

Running a suppressor on an M4 definitely increases fouling. It's worse than blanks, in my opinion. If I run 10 mags through it, I'll be spending at least an hour tearing down the rifle and cleaning to get rid of all of the gunk. And that is with tuff-glide lubricant on the weapon before I go out shooting.

The biggest thing to watch out for is heat, though. The can heats up pretty quick and takes a while to cool down. I've screwed up and melted a tac-glove to the can after only firing two mags rapid fire through it.

Also, you will probably want to take it out to the range with a good bit of ammo to shoot it in. Break-in for mine was about 500 rounds or so before it settled in, accuracy-wise. Shooting with a suppressor changes your point of impact, by the way. If you get a decent suppressor, it holds pressure behind the bullet longer, so you get a slight velocity increase, which changes the ballistics of the round.

The QDSS is a sealed unit, so cleaning for me is pretty much taking it off of the barrel (it uses a proprietary flash hider that screws onto the barrel in place of the original, btw), filling it with strike hold, letting it sit for a few hours, and then blowing it out with compressed air.

I've run at least a case of ammo every month for the last 15 months, and it still works fine. Your mileage may vary, of course.