I thought you guys would find this interesting since people like to think that rifle silencers "self clean" themselves and don't get filled with copper, lead, carbon, etc like handgun and rimfire silencers do.
This first cutaway pictured below is a prototype CGS Group Hyperion 762 that took the abuse of 12,800 rounds of Nexus 260 Remington through an 18” semi auto host (wood background). The Hyperion is 100% billet Grade 5 titanium, and it was also obviously never cleaned during the stress test. Note how the particle erosion of the blast baffle and the subsequent baffles is virtually nonexistent. You can also clearly see where the different materials have built up with copper in the first section and carbon in the forward section. It's not lead up front since all the rounds fired through the silencer had a completely sealed copper base.
Whether or not you need to clean a rifle silencer is dependent on the cartridge you’re shooting, firing schedule, barrel length, etc. The best way to see if you need to clean a rifle silencer is to just weigh it every couple thousand rounds. Ase Utra in Finland references an average of 1 gram of buildup per 100rds depending on the cartridge, quoted at the bottom of this post. Tuukka also goes over the effects fouling can have on sound reduction, flash, and accuracy. Depending on the can, clean it out with a solvent or throw it in an ultrasonic cleaner, or when provided do what the manufacturer says.
After I'd posted our Hyperion silencer cutaway on Instagram, Wedgetail Industries in Australia was nice enough to post a cutaway of their rifle silencer with nearly the same round count. The Wedgetail Ninox silencers shown below are an unspecified high temperature alloy (listed as titanium on their website though) and are more traditional in design, using ported cone baffles. It's very useful for demonstrating build up in traditional silencers. The following four pictures on a white background are of their Ninox rifle silencers with 12,000rds of 308 fired through them.
Wedgetail Industries Ninox silencers at 12,000rds of 308:
And I'll also include this brief write up by Tuukka Jokinen of Ase Utra in Finland on silencer cleaning:
This first cutaway pictured below is a prototype CGS Group Hyperion 762 that took the abuse of 12,800 rounds of Nexus 260 Remington through an 18” semi auto host (wood background). The Hyperion is 100% billet Grade 5 titanium, and it was also obviously never cleaned during the stress test. Note how the particle erosion of the blast baffle and the subsequent baffles is virtually nonexistent. You can also clearly see where the different materials have built up with copper in the first section and carbon in the forward section. It's not lead up front since all the rounds fired through the silencer had a completely sealed copper base.
Whether or not you need to clean a rifle silencer is dependent on the cartridge you’re shooting, firing schedule, barrel length, etc. The best way to see if you need to clean a rifle silencer is to just weigh it every couple thousand rounds. Ase Utra in Finland references an average of 1 gram of buildup per 100rds depending on the cartridge, quoted at the bottom of this post. Tuukka also goes over the effects fouling can have on sound reduction, flash, and accuracy. Depending on the can, clean it out with a solvent or throw it in an ultrasonic cleaner, or when provided do what the manufacturer says.
After I'd posted our Hyperion silencer cutaway on Instagram, Wedgetail Industries in Australia was nice enough to post a cutaway of their rifle silencer with nearly the same round count. The Wedgetail Ninox silencers shown below are an unspecified high temperature alloy (listed as titanium on their website though) and are more traditional in design, using ported cone baffles. It's very useful for demonstrating build up in traditional silencers. The following four pictures on a white background are of their Ninox rifle silencers with 12,000rds of 308 fired through them.
Wedgetail Industries Ninox silencers at 12,000rds of 308:
And I'll also include this brief write up by Tuukka Jokinen of Ase Utra in Finland on silencer cleaning:
Originally Posted By outlaw45:
This is a post I made on other suppressor forums as well and also in our Facebook feed.
With regards to endurance and fouling, what we have more often seen is that the effectiveness ( flash, sound and in some rarer cases accuracy ) is starting to be affected more, than what the actual erosion or wear is
ie. more dirty than worn to a point than a suppressor cannot be used.
One reference figure in increase in weight is 1 gram per 100 rounds from several tests done here across different calibres, so potentially the suppressor weight is c. 60-80 grams if fired for 6000-8000 rounds without any cleaning.
But this is just an average/example figure, it does appear from some of our recent .300 BLK specific use and testing that the cartridges burn quite clean.
Example pictures of one of our SL8i-BL .300 BLK suppressors that has several hundreds of rounds through it already ( both super and sub sonic )
Note first baffle cleanliness between new and used, definitely the least accumulation we have seen starting to gather.
But usually there is more fouling gathering on super sonic rifle calibres.
So far the most effective cleaning method has been ultra sonic washing, smart to perhaps starting to do it between for example 1000 – 3000 round intervals, to remove hopefully all or most of the fouling put in that round count.
But one can check themselves on how the weight is accumulating for their particular system, as we cannot know all suppressor type / design, weapon type, calibre, ammunition type etc. combinations and how they affect this.
Rate of fire and heat plays into this as well, usually baking on the fouling harder on assault rifles than on bolt action sniper rifles.
Also, shooting several thousand rounds in training & operations does not take very long on an assault rifle vs. a bolt action sniper rifle.
A simple way is just to weigh the suppressor on a small digital scale to see how the weight is accumulating.
Maybe they want to clean more frequently than other users, maybe their cleaning period can be longer.
Or maybe they don’t want to clean at all if the rifle gets fired for example a maximum of some hundreds of rounds a year.
Accuracy can be in some cases be affected if the rounds / load are quite dirty and fouling gathers on the edges of the bullet channel.
This can be easily brushed clean or in absolute worst cases drilled with the right size drill bit.
With regards to affecting the sound suppression.
We have had an AUG rifle platform military customer send us an older generation jet-Z CQBS-QM suppressor back for examination and the suppressor had over 11,000 rounds through it without any maintenance.
Barrel length was 16" on the AUG's
When tested on a 16" M16 type rifle, the net sound suppression was c. 9 dB less at 1 m left of the muzzle, than with a new sound suppression. Meaning a c. 38% reduction in sound suppression ability.
At the shooters left ear, the net sound suppression was c. 7 dB less than with a new suppressor, meaning a c. 33% reduction in the sound suppression ability
Picture of a cutaway suppressor from the same testing batch, with c. 13500 rounds of M193 through it:
Note that this particular suppressor is not dirty at all in the bullet channel edges and the customer reported still very good accuracy, but the issue was the weight increase and effect on sound/flash performance.
Also, the testing firing cycle was quite punishing on that suppressor and probably caused a quicker rate of accumulation for the fouling, so not perhaps an average example but a worst case.
So to sum up, there is a lot variables involved, if you need to clean your suppressor at all or if it is needed, how often do you need to do it.
Best Regards!
Tuukka
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