Suppressors Suppressor OD

[wade2big]

Would a 8” x 1.75” suppressor be an advantage over a 8” x 1.5” suppressor built the same other than the diameter? I am not having an easy time finding weight difference between the two. Would there be any practical advantage shooting a 6.5 creedmoor? How about a .300 WM?

This is a lot of questions but even searching through google I can’t find any information.

 

[awonder]

It should give you some extra volume due to the bigger diameter but I doubt you’d be able to tell the difference honestly.

 

[goosed]

1.75" is going to be a big suppressor. Typical of 338 cans.

 

[cmoore806]

I have two suppressors, one is titanium the other iconel steel. The titanium has a larger OD and the steel a smaller one. Both are 762 caliber suppressors and I've never bothered to compare the sound dampening between the two. There is a weight difference, Ti being lighter. weight of the suppressor might effect POI shift, but it would be very much a rifle/load specific situation

 

[sleeplz]

I'm no expert, but the extra diameter would give you more volume and that's less gas in the face.

 

[cmoore806]

I'm no expert, but the extra diameter would give you more volume and that's less gas in the face.

unless its a thicker walled material

 

[sleeplz]

unless its a thicker walled material

1.75 vs 1.5, the 1.5 better be extremely thick for them to have equal volume. Dead air Nomad and Q suppressors are going towards 1.75. I don't think they are much heavier than 1.5.

 

[RyanScott]

The difference is more in backpressure and heat than in noise.

 

[goosed]

I'm no expert, but the extra diameter would give you more volume and that's less gas in the face.

Generally, yeah... that does end up being true, but it's actually a little more complicated.

It's like an exhaust system on a car... bigger will almost always reduce velocity, but it doesn't always mean better. Instead the optimal solution for reducing the amount of gas in your face is creating the prefect amount of velocity. That way pressure waves are perfectly timed to take full advantage of what is known as 'pressure wave scavenging' to remove as much gas from the system as possible before the bolt opens.

The difference is more in backpressure and heat than in noise.

I think what you might be experiencing is not actually the difference in noise levels (sound) per se, but instead frequency (tone) bias. It's not always just the amount of sound (intensity of the waves) that makes things seem quieter to our ears, but the tone (frequency) has a big impact as well. The amount of sound from muzzle blasts might not seem to change as much because your ears like (or dislike) the tone, similar to how finger nails on a chalk board overly effect some and not others regardless of how loud it might be.

After all the entire physics behind how most suppressors work is that they reduce heat and pressure from gases before they exit. Reducing both of those reduces the amount of energy in the system which creates the happy side effect we all like, which is reducing the amount of sound. Sound is nothing more than kinetic energy. Reducing available energy (heat+pressure) will always have a direct relationship to the reduction in sound.

Pass through suppressors are a little different animal. Instead of trying to reduce as much energy as possible they are trying to direct the flow of energy and thus the direction of the sound much like a tornado siren... but that's a whole different topic.