Re: Easy off muzzle devices for a threaded suppressor
Personally,
When I was a Unit Armorer for Uncle Sam, we were trained that all muzzle devices were to be tightened with a tool and/or secured with a positive locking device. I don’t ever recall seeing a TM or FM that recommended installing any muzzle device hand tight.
In terms of suppressors, all of mine are torqued onto the barrel and/or held in place with a positive locking device. For threaded suppressors, I can understand running one hand tight given the tolerances that a suppressor requires and the fact that it would have to travel a substantial distance down the threads/barrel before it dropped enough to intersect the bullet. I would assume if you are running a suppressor hand tight, that you are also checking it frequently to insure that it is not loosening up and walking down the barrel.
In terms of thread protectors, they don’t see the same forces because they are not as directly or severely impacted by the muzzle blast like a flashhider or suppressor, and they are also not as likely to drop into the path of a bullet if they loosen a little.
IMHO, I don’t put suppressors or thread protectors in the same category as a muzzle device like a typical flash hider.
I would never advocate installing any muzzle device like a flash hider hand tight, and I doubt that you would find any manufacturers instruction manual that recommends that method for installation.
Finally, I still have scars/marks in my hand & arm from where a flash hider and bullet made contact from the rifle of a shooter next to me. Investigating what happened, the guy showed up at the range, bought a new flash hider, didn't have the proper tools, so he just put it on hand tight, and after a couple of hundred rounds it vibrated loosed and dropped into the path of an exiting bullet. Every shooter around that individual is lucky they were not blinded or seriously injured by the shrapnel & bullet fragments.
I am going to err on the side of caution, and hope the individuals shooting around me do the same, because I may not get so lucky a second time around!
Best of Luck,
M Richardson