Suppressors No love for the Griffin armament sportsman ultra light ?

vigildom7

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Minuteman
May 15, 2018
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Albuquerque, New Mexico
I know the thunder beast is considered king of precision rifle cans with a few others well loved. I have noticed that the GA gets no love as far as a viable precision rifle can. I am curious as to why. The weight of the GA is 11.4 oz which is very close to the TB direct thread. While only less than a inch longer.

I know taper mounts are well regarded as a tough mounting option. Is it the stainless steel rather than the titanium ?
It seems the GA cans are well regarded in their other cans performance wise just no love for this one or?
Forgive me for ignorance new to the suppressor world.
 
Griffin as a whole gets no love on this forum. They offended some people like a decade ago with some supposedly racist engraving on a handful of cans and they've been accused of copying suppressor/mount designs from KAC.

Personally, neither of these things matter much to me. I have a Griffin Paladin in jail right now. The vast majority of negativity comes from folks who have likely never even used, let alone owned, a Griffin can. Most of the reviews I've read or heard from actually owners have been very positive.
 
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I have a Recce 5 can, and I think it's great. Sure, there are some things that griffin has copied from KAC. The Recce 5 is an example of that. KAC had the flash hider end cap design before griffin did. However, I can say through night shooting experience that it works on the griffin. No muzzle flash at night. I was curious on accuracy with it, and it's great. First round impact is consistently low left for some reason and then works back into groupings in the bullseye after pressure builds up in the can.

This I will say...people will always favor companies who support them even if another product is equal to or greater than the company that supports them. It's a natural bias. I posted about my AMTAC over the barrel suppressor that is 9" long but only adds 3" to the end of the muzzle. Nobody cared. You'd figure that would be something of interest for long barreled rifles on here...but it doesn't have the TBAC name attached to it.

I am sure not everybody is that way on here, but there is definitely a heavy bias towards TBAC here.
 
I have a Recce 5 can, and I think it's great. Sure, there are some things that griffin has copied from KAC. The Recce 5 is an example of that. KAC had the flash hider end cap design before griffin did. However, I can say through night shooting experience that it works on the griffin. No muzzle flash at night. I was curious on accuracy with it, and it's great. First round impact is consistently low left for some reason and then works back into groupings in the bullseye after pressure builds up in the can.

This I will say...people will always favor companies who support them even if another product is equal to or greater than the company that supports them. It's a natural bias. I posted about my AMTAC over the barrel suppressor that is 9" long but only adds 3" to the end of the muzzle. Nobody cared. You'd figure that would be something of interest for long barreled rifles on here...but it doesn't have the TBAC name attached to it.

I am sure not everybody is that way on here, but there is definitely a heavy bias towards TBAC here.

There’s no conspiracy, people obviously prefer more portable cans.
 
I also own a SAS can, another company that tends to get shit on on this forum, but my Reaper is awesome and the handful of times I've called with a question the owner has been super friendly and helpful.

While I have no doubt TBAC makes a badass can, i dont believe they are the end all, be all that folks here make them out to be. TBAC has a large presence in the PRS community, which is popular here. Just look at the .30 cal cans on silencer shops website ranked by popularity. TBAC doesn't have a can in the top 20.
 
I also own a SAS can, another company that tends to get shit on on this forum, but my Reaper is awesome and the handful of times I've called with a question the owner has been super friendly and helpful.

While I have no doubt TBAC makes a badass can, i dont believe they are the end all, be all that folks here make them out to be. TBAC has a large presence in the PRS community, which is popular here. Just look at the .30 cal cans on silencer shops website ranked by popularity. TBAC doesn't have a can in the top 20.

That's because they don't hand out gift certificates to silencershop. I am not saying anything bad about TBAC or their marketing strategy. It's just how they have been able to dominate this side of the market. Kudos to them.
 
TBAC makes awesome cans. They also run a business very well and support this community. I have nothing but positive to say about them.

I also own two Griffin Armament cans (Recce7 and Optimus Micro) and think very highly of them. I think both are really good cans and I use the Recce 7 more than any can I own. I have always been able to get a call back the same day with GA if I wasn't able to get them directly and they were very easy to work with and answered all of my questions. I am not familiar with the specific GA can you mentioned, but if it's anything like their other cans, I don't think you will regret the purchase. As far as taking other companies designs and tweaking or improving just a bit, show me a company that hasn't. The engineering in a can is a little difficult to get anything but incremental changes in. I think all companies have copied Hiram Maxims design, and that doesn't bother me a bit.
 
I own several griffin cans and I have no complaints. they have all worked flawlessly. TBAC does make great cans, they were born in PR shooting. I know they have ventured into a few other areas now but PR cans is what they do. Plus some folks just like to have what they think is the best. everything is subjective to opinions.
 
I also own a SAS can, another company that tends to get shit on on this forum, but my Reaper is awesome and the handful of times I've called with a question the owner has been super friendly and helpful.

While I have no doubt TBAC makes a badass can, i dont believe they are the end all, be all that folks here make them out to be. TBAC has a large presence in the PRS community, which is popular here. Just look at the .30 cal cans on silencer shops website ranked by popularity. TBAC doesn't have a can in the top 20.

You're not doing SAS any favors by reminding everyone of the giant shit SAS splattered 3 years ago, or of the firm that decided to pick up their slack and help take care of things.

I can only hope I am missing the joke in your comment about popularity lists.

OP, apologies for further derailing of this thread.
 
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I have a Griffin Recce 5 and it may well be the best can with regards to suppression (Silencer Shop says its their quietest 5.56 can, watch the Dustin Ellerman video on youTube). It's 3 dB quieter (granted that's probably hard to hear) than it's big brother the Recce 7 30 cal can when used on a 5.56. And it's not a big can at all. I also have the Griffin Optimus multi config can that is currently sitting on a 10 1/2" Blackout and does great... works even better when it's on an 18" barrel Blackout. Also use the Optimus as a 5.56 can and in it's short mode with a piston setup on a 9mm Sig MK25. Have no problems with them and don't know anything about their racist comments which were probably born out of FBI stats... as a lot of comments like that are. I just buy the metal things they make, I don't go to their church.
 
2 Recce 5’s
2 M4SDK’s
1 Revolution 9
1 Checkmate converted to direct thread with their parts
1 Paladin (currently in jail)

I think they are great suppressors. A few people whine about copying this and that, everyone these days is copying something. The whiners can piss off...

The Sportsman suppressor would be a fantastic suppressor, especially coupled with their Ti Minimalist Mount. That mount is 1oz meaning the whole unit at the end of the muzzle is 12.4oz. That’s gotta be pretty darn close to one of the lightest possibilities with excellent suppression on the market for a hunting suppressor.

I have found myself looking at the whole package weight (mount and can) and not just the suppressor, lately. Griffin Armament distances themselves even more from many of the others, and their cans are respectably light to begin with.

Maybe I don’t know jack (and maybe I do know my shit...), but I do like their use of 17-4 for strength/durability to weight ratio for hard use stuff.
 
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Edit for above, below:

I have found myself looking at the whole package weight (mount and can) and not just the suppressor, lately. Griffin Armament distances themselves from the pack in terms of overall weight even more from many of the others, and their cans are respectably light to begin with.
 
I really like the Griffin products. So far Recce 5 (and thinking about getting a second one) and the Optimus... a great multipurpose can, more than just "modular".. I use it full length with 30 cal .7.62, blackout and 5.56. Shorter would probably work just fine with Blackout and I will find that out tonight... a 9mm or less pistol can with piston, a bit heavy for some dinky .22 pistols to cycle properly and great as a direct thread .22 can. While some think the steel makes it heavy I like the weight and think it contributes to an overall nicer tone than the pinging of some thin titanium cans. Next up will be a Revo 9... had to get a Dead Air Ghost .45 first because they were half price!!
Do want to get a Tbac .338 or a .458 Socom can. Wondering if the .458 will work as well on .338 Lapua as the dedicated Tbac .338 new core can?
 
Griffin as a whole gets no love on this forum. They offended some people like a decade ago with some supposedly racist engraving on a handful of cans and they've been accused of copying suppressor/mount designs from KAC.

Personally, neither of these things matter much to me. I have a Griffin Paladin in jail right now. The vast majority of negativity comes from folks who have likely never even used, let alone owned, a Griffin can. Most of the reviews I've read or heard from actually owners have been very positive.

This was the cause of the butthurt
 

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The thing about Griffin cans from a performance perspective is that they are all high to very high back pressure designs. The Recce 5 is actually one of the loudest cans on the market at the shooters ear. On a bolt gun, you don't care. But for anyone running one can between bolt guns and semis, or just running semis, there are significantly better options.

And as far as I've seen, TBACs still outperform them on bolt guns (with the possible exception of the Recce 5 on a 5.56 bolt gun).
 
I'm not sure how you measure the back pressure of a suppressor with the equipment the average person owns, but I wouldn't necessarily disagree.
I wish I had a Recce 5 to compare it to, but my Optimus Micro, I would assume would be similar in back pressure as the Recce 5 and the suppression level is beyond acceptable with out hearing protection fired in any of my ARs or in a Sig 556. I would own a Recce 5 as well, but I'm burnt out on waiting for the ATF. I thought it would get better after getting a bunch of cans, but I think it's the process and principal that puts me off. Sure wish we could fix that. I can't understand why we can't do digital Form 4s if we can do digital Form 1s.

I used my Recce 7 yesterday with a group of guys calling coyotes and they were universally impressed with the sound and tone. I think the tone specifically makes it sound great. It also has very good suppression levels and compares very well in that regard to any can out there. Price wise they are pretty good too.
 
The thing about Griffin cans from a performance perspective is that they are all high to very high back pressure designs. The Recce 5 is actually one of the loudest cans on the market at the shooters ear. On a bolt gun, you don't care. But for anyone running one can between bolt guns and semis, or just running semis, there are significantly better options.

And as far as I've seen, TBACs still outperform them on bolt guns (with the possible exception of the Recce 5 on a 5.56 bolt gun).

I have at least 7 5.56 cans and the Recce 5 ties my 11" AWC Thor XL in perceived quietness. I watched all the Silencer shop videos and the Recce 5 is the absolute quietest compared to anything in it's size range or longer. I'm not challenging your at the ear readings. I wonder if it's the fact that the lower tone of the Griffin Steel can is easier on the ears even though physics tells us that lower tones travel further than ping or clang I often hear in titanium cans.... and I suppose a lot depends on which scale you use and how your peak pressure is measured, what load, etc, etc, etc. I'm sure that measurements at the shooters ear can be louder because of the action noise in semis and the escaping gas and sound. I'm not necessary brand loyal to anyone but I do like the Recce 5. In Dustin Ellermans video on the 5 he specifically asked the Silencer Shop which 5.56 can they sold was the quietest and a group of employees all went with the 5.... portability or compactness was not asked for, just the quietest can. Like I mentioned before I have a very expensive AWC all machined sealed titanium Thor XL direct thread that was always the previous quietest 5.56 can I've ever shot in side by side comparisons with my ears and that of range officials spread over different distances and the seems just as quiet. There is no sensation of pain or pressure at all to your naked ears when you get out from under the range roof. We are still in a pit at the ranges but when i go up on the flat tundra or in the snow of winter the can seems a lot quieter, I would imagine having no echo on three sides and a building behind you hurts an accurate meter test also. Like the man on another suppressor forum says as his signature quote "I don't care what your chart says". My friend, this is not a slam on you or meters or charts but sometimes taking off the ear pro and putting away the literature and meters lets us hear how they all really sound. Also we are too cheap to afford a meter... since I'm the old guy with lots of NFA items and a SOT license I guess its up to me to buy one of those damn things... sounds like fun. I just want to make sure it is what everyone else uses and that I'm taught which scales and distances to use.
 
George from Alaska did you not read the "at the ear on semi-autos" part?

From your own beloved silencershop: Recce 5 is 144.1db to the shooter. That is extremely loud on an AR.

For comparison here is the older Gemtech Trek: This can is 141.82db to the shooters ear, considerably quieter. So silencershop's testing in fact shows the opposite of your claim. While the Recce 5 is one of the quitest cans at the muzzle, it is one of the loudest to the shooter on semi-autos due to high back pressure (which is what you expect for cans with great muzzle reduction).

However, it is even worse than that as NFA Talk testing shows: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...wyDg5mApxqWhauRwFakB4PSQ0/edit#gid=1156700540 With a Q Trash Panda or other lower back pressure suppressors, you'll be in the 135db range at the ear, almost 10db quieter than the Recce 5. Heck even newer cheap cans will be ~4db quieter on SBRs!

So scientifically and unequivocally the Recce 5 is a loud can on an AR or similar semi-auto. As for your "just listen" argument, I have. My friend has a Recce 5 and a Recce 7. Both are significantly louder than my Omega to my ears on my AR.

I'm glad you like your Griffins. But my OP stands, they are objectively inferior cans for anyone using a semi-auto.
 
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I have a Recce 7 that i really like but the muzzle brake is a piss poor try. The minimalist is what I have on multiple guns. Every single one has had the damn brake come off inside the can despite being torqued to their "spec". They have since come out with one that has wrench flats to address this issue but im not spending $500 to outfit my rifles with new brakes. I have figured out how to remove the stuck brake relatively easy to if someone is having this issue send me a pm and I'll assist.