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Silencers 101

Get to Know the Types of Suppressors

Good news: There have never been more suppressor options to choose from than there are right now - the choice is yours!

Bad news: There have never been more suppressor options to choose from than there are right now - and it can be confusing.

We're living in a golden age of suppressor designs, and that means that there are a ton of different types available. On one hand, this is fantastic. There are suppressors available for every different type of gun in all sorts of different calibers for every type of use.

Trying to wade through the countless pages of information on the internet about the different types of suppressors can be exhausting. Where will you find the best info? How do you know you can trust what you read?

Here at Silencer Central, we've been selling suppressors all day, every day for almost 20 years. That puts us in a unique position to help narrow down this confusing environment and give you some facts about the types of suppressors.

Types of Suppressors by Host Gun

Broadly speaking there are four different types of suppressors based on use and the guns they’re mounted on. They are as follows:

Rifle

Rifle suppressors are built for the higher pressures and the demands of centerfire rifle use. Because of this, they're going to be physically larger than pistol and rimfire suppressors that we will discuss below.

Rifle suppressors can be scaled up to almost any caliber and cartridge, the only limit being the budget of the purchaser as they tend to get more expensive the more they scale up. They're in common use for a wide variety of rifles and carbines, ranging from single-shot, bolt-action, and semi-automatic rifles (like the AR platform) in all sorts of popular calibers, like .223/5.56, .30-06, .308 Win, .338 Win Mag, and even .45-70 and .50 BMG.

Pistol

Pistol suppressors are designed around lower pressure handgun rounds and sometimes even the lower pressure subsonic .300 Blackout rifle round. The key takeaway though is “lower pressure” rounds. A pistol suppressor cannot withstand the increased pressure generated by full-power rifle cartridges. Instead, these suppressors are suitable for most centerfire handgun rounds, like 9mm, 10mm, .45ACP, etc., and all rimfire rounds like .22LR.

Pistol suppressors are generally smaller than rifle suppressors in overall size, but they're still larger than rimfire suppressors.

Rimfire

Rimfire suppressors are some of the most affordable suppressors on the market because it is fairly easy to make a suppressor for the low power and low-pressure rimfire rounds currently in use. Typically designed to effectively suppress .22 and .17 magnums and smaller, these suppressors really should only be used for rimfire guns due to their smaller size and weaker construction than suppressors for centerfire rounds.

While they are typically cheaper, the tradeoff is that you can only use them on your rimfire guns. Still, if you're looking to test the suppressor waters, a rimfire suppressor is a great way to go.

Shotgun

A relative newcomer to the game is the shotgun suppressor. The options in terms of make and model are very limited compared to what's available for rifle, pistol, and rimfire suppressors, but they do exist. Most commonly used on 12 gauge shotguns, they can be used for hunting purposes like duck or quail hunts, or for sporting purposes like trap shooting or sporting clays.

Can You Use a Suppressor with Multiple Guns?

Yes, you can use one suppressor with multiple guns - so long as you follow the manufacturer's guidelines for the suppressor. Generally speaking, a multi-caliber suppressor is also a multi-gun suppressor.

Many suppressors (such as those found in the BANISH lineup) are capable of being used with many different calibers. This also means that they can be used with multiple different guns. Just as an example, you can use a BANISH 45 pistol suppressor on a Glock 19 in 9mm, a 1911 in .45ACP or 10mm, and even on an AR platform firearm when using subsonic .300 Blackout ammo.

Another example would be using the BANISH 30 or the BANISH 30 Gold on an AR in .223/.556 as well as on a Winchester Model 70 or a Remington Model 700 in .30-06 or .308 Win.

Of course, those are just a few examples, but it helps you get the overall picture.

MONOCORE VS. STACKED BAFFLE SUPPRESSORS

The first Maxim Suppressor used a carefully crafted series of baffles to contain gasses until they cooled off enough to be quieter. It did that by making muzzle gasses basically spin in a vortex before passing out of the silencer. The end result was that the gas was low enough pressure to eliminate much of the sound associated with gunfire. While suppressors then and now can do nothing about the supersonic crack of bullets traveling faster than sound, they can and do work rather well with silencing the report of muzzle gasses.

For over a century various means to trap and contain gas have been tried, from simple stacks of sheet metal baffles to complexly machined single piece suppressor cores and even the use of various greases and oils!Today there are basically two kinds of suppressors on the market: monocore and stacked baffles. These come in a huge variety of form and function. Various historical types of suppressors like those using leather or Nomex wipes are almost completely out of production due to the fact that the ATF treats the disposable wipes the same as they do a completed suppressor (although a few remain on the market).

Stacked Baffle Suppressors

Stacked baffle suppressors aren’t too far removed from what Maxim envisioned with his original silencer. Today, he might recognize the technology that goes into the BANISH Suppressor, which uses a titanium baffle stack machined to a higher level of perfection and precision than was possible in 1909. Every manufacturer uses a different sort of baffle stack design based on what they think is best and what their shops can handle making.

Some people have built Form 1 suppressors using baffle stacks made out of engine freeze plugs, even. While this works, a precision-engineered baffle stack will always be quieter and more efficient than an improvised job. Today’s modern silencer baffles are almost all of a stacked cup design that contains gas at each baffle, cooling and slowing it down at each baffle until it exits the end of the suppressor.

Monocore suppressors

Monocore suppressors do away with a baffle or wipe stack and replace it with a carefully machined tube that goes inside the main suppressor body. There are some manufacturing advantages to monocore suppressors which make them cheaper and easier to make.

Looking at a monocore suppressor core, you can see that it more resembles older styles of stacked baffles and achieves sound suppression by forcing the gas to take a convoluted route out of the suppressor, much like the early Maxim suppressors did. However, monocore suppressors retain many of the performance problems of older stacked baffle designs. They cannot work well with high powered magnum rifle rounds without greatly increasing their length and weight and they can be harder to clean than a stacked baffle design.

However, when cost is an issue or when you are shooting lower pressure rounds, monocore suppressors are a very viable option. They are commonly found on rimfire suppressors and centerfire rifle and pistol suppressors where higher pressure rounds aren’t in use.

Beware the “fuel filter” monocores sold by questionable online stores. They are flat out illegal to own unless you have properly filed and received approval for building a suppressor on an ATF Form 1, and even then the whole process is somewhat of a gray area. Plus, the performance of these mass-produced imported suppressor parts cannot achieve the same quality as a properly built monocore suppressor.

READY TO LEARN MORE? WE'RE HERE TO HELP

Are you ready to buy a suppressor or just have more questions? Feel free to drop us a line and we’ll be happy to help you choose your first (or next) suppressor.As the nation’s largest silencer dealer licensed to sell in all 42 silencer legal states, we can offer pricing and selection unavailable anywhere else. In fact, you can even buy your silencer from the comfort of your own home without having to go to a gun show or retail location. So let’s get you started on your silencer today!