Today I went to meet with AJ Goddard of Bighorn Arms out here in Brighton, CO. Meeting me there were Shane and Ray Dog of ThunderBeast Arms and they brought one of their 30P suppressors to go against the Shark and the Gemtech Sandstorm, they also brought there sound meter.
Now, understand this was just an initial shoot off and I am not claiming to be Bill Nye the science guy, I feel it helps answers some of the questions people were asking me during the other comparison that I did with the Gemtech and Shark.
At Bighorn Arms, AJ had put together an awesome barreled action in an AICS from Paul at Trigger Time Gun Club . The action is the Bighorn Custom Action as been getting much use around Colorado but is not talked about much here on the Hide. So I wanted to change that because I think there is real merit in the floating head design used on the Bighorn. The spec's of the action is as follows:
The action fits into standard Remington 700 stocks.
It uses any standard trigger that fits a Remington 700.
The sight bases sit on the same elevation to eliminate misalignment.
The bolt has a floating head so the lugs are always squarely in contact with the receiver and not affected by the alignment of the bolt body in the receiver.
The action also has a gas block to help prevent gases from a blown primer or case failure from reaching the shooter. This is especially important when the loading port is near the shooters face.
The materials used to machine and build the actions are aerospace quality.
The bolt head is carburized to maintain good core strength and high surface hardness to prevent galling on the lugs.
The rear tang was stiffened to support the heavier barrels.
The action is rigid in order to support the heavier barrels. To do this meant closing the action on the top; and on repeaters, removing less material on the bottom. (Closing the action on the top meant top loading of magazines was not possible).
We examined and tried many magazines and bottom metal:
· The Surgeon bottom metal with the Accuracy International magazines was the top choice for the tactical .308/.260 market. These are available in 5 and 10 round capacities.
· For the hunting crowd, straight stack magazines feed like a dream.
Some accessories that are handy and available:
· The Picatinny rail with 20 MOA of angle. This rail extends foward of the action, allowing for some of the larger tactical scopes to be positioned forward providing the shooter more eye relief.
· The action is available with 8-40 scope mount threads or the standard 6-48.
· The action is also available in a left-handed version or left-hand/right port and right-hand/left port.
We zeroed the rifle at 100 yards with some Cor Bon 175gr Ammo, and easily shot a 3/8" or better group. We then went to 200 yards outside AJ's shop and prepared to shoot all the suppressors next to the sound meter.
B&K 2209 4938 Pressure Meter
We had the meter set up 1 meter off the muzzle and prepared to test each can both at 200 for impact shift and for sound.
For each Suppressor we fired a 4 shot group at 200 yards on a 3" Shoot N C. The conditions were certainly not the best. The temp was well into the 90's, I recorded about 93 degrees with a gusting wind coming from 3 o Clock at 6 to 8 MPH.
The unsuppressed sound reading for the Bighorn Arms rifle was 163.13
First up was the Gemtech Sandstorm:
The first round impacted at 12 O Clock on the Shoot N C then the next 3 shot group was off the target on the paper about 2.5 inches directly to the right of 12 O Clock. The group was roughly an .5 to .75" MOA at 200 yards.
The sound meter numbers were:
140+ for the first round
134.4
137.6
136.0
With an average reduce of 26.13
Next we shot the Shark Suppressor
It impacted centered up on the Shoot N C around 12 O Clock with a decent 1" group, between the 8 and 9 ring of the target. I may have blown a shot in the mirage as it was really hard to hold steady, but the group was well placed as expected for the Shark
Sound Meter Readings
140+ for the first shot
136.2
137.0
136.0
for an average reduction of 25.83
Lastly we shot the ThunderBeast 30-P
the group was centered up well in the 10 and 9 ring and was definitely the tightest of the 3 suppressors. Ray's quote to was "accuracy first", he went to say, and I know, "we are shooters first so the accuracy has to be on.
The Sound meter numbers were:
140+ for the first shot
134.7
134.6
134.9
for an average reduction of 27.08
The target at 200 yards looked really good:
The first shot from the Thunder Beast hit just above the red dot next to the Shark impact then the 3 shot group was just off to the right a bit. Two rounds touched then the next dropped a bit but that could have been due to the heavy mirage we had.
The rifle and Thunder Beast combination was definitely the most accurate given the conditions.
As I said this isn't scientific I know, but it does give you some data to help make your decisions. We did shoot some video and I will have to edit it up, because there is a lot we recorded a bunch of it as we didn't want to appear skewed in anyway. So I will get the highlights up to show everyone.
The Gemtech Still has a bit of the shift, clearly but the accuracy is good once that first shot is gone. The Shark and Thunder Beast are really really close, the noise reduction and accuracy goes to the Thunder Beast as does the price, but they are definitely neck and neck. I asked Shane about a 1 db difference and he said, you would really have to be about 3 db to potentially hear it, and all 3 were within the 3db range of each. But if you want that edge, the Thunder Beast had it.
Size and weight they are all Titanium and very close, the Shark gives you that ability to take it apart if you are so inclined.
It was great day today, and I hope this helps... I promise to do more as I will be shooting the rifle a lot over the next few months.
Now, understand this was just an initial shoot off and I am not claiming to be Bill Nye the science guy, I feel it helps answers some of the questions people were asking me during the other comparison that I did with the Gemtech and Shark.
At Bighorn Arms, AJ had put together an awesome barreled action in an AICS from Paul at Trigger Time Gun Club . The action is the Bighorn Custom Action as been getting much use around Colorado but is not talked about much here on the Hide. So I wanted to change that because I think there is real merit in the floating head design used on the Bighorn. The spec's of the action is as follows:
The action fits into standard Remington 700 stocks.
It uses any standard trigger that fits a Remington 700.
The sight bases sit on the same elevation to eliminate misalignment.
The bolt has a floating head so the lugs are always squarely in contact with the receiver and not affected by the alignment of the bolt body in the receiver.
The action also has a gas block to help prevent gases from a blown primer or case failure from reaching the shooter. This is especially important when the loading port is near the shooters face.
The materials used to machine and build the actions are aerospace quality.
The bolt head is carburized to maintain good core strength and high surface hardness to prevent galling on the lugs.
The rear tang was stiffened to support the heavier barrels.
The action is rigid in order to support the heavier barrels. To do this meant closing the action on the top; and on repeaters, removing less material on the bottom. (Closing the action on the top meant top loading of magazines was not possible).
We examined and tried many magazines and bottom metal:
· The Surgeon bottom metal with the Accuracy International magazines was the top choice for the tactical .308/.260 market. These are available in 5 and 10 round capacities.
· For the hunting crowd, straight stack magazines feed like a dream.
Some accessories that are handy and available:
· The Picatinny rail with 20 MOA of angle. This rail extends foward of the action, allowing for some of the larger tactical scopes to be positioned forward providing the shooter more eye relief.
· The action is available with 8-40 scope mount threads or the standard 6-48.
· The action is also available in a left-handed version or left-hand/right port and right-hand/left port.
We zeroed the rifle at 100 yards with some Cor Bon 175gr Ammo, and easily shot a 3/8" or better group. We then went to 200 yards outside AJ's shop and prepared to shoot all the suppressors next to the sound meter.
B&K 2209 4938 Pressure Meter
We had the meter set up 1 meter off the muzzle and prepared to test each can both at 200 for impact shift and for sound.
For each Suppressor we fired a 4 shot group at 200 yards on a 3" Shoot N C. The conditions were certainly not the best. The temp was well into the 90's, I recorded about 93 degrees with a gusting wind coming from 3 o Clock at 6 to 8 MPH.
The unsuppressed sound reading for the Bighorn Arms rifle was 163.13
First up was the Gemtech Sandstorm:
The first round impacted at 12 O Clock on the Shoot N C then the next 3 shot group was off the target on the paper about 2.5 inches directly to the right of 12 O Clock. The group was roughly an .5 to .75" MOA at 200 yards.
The sound meter numbers were:
140+ for the first round
134.4
137.6
136.0
With an average reduce of 26.13
Next we shot the Shark Suppressor
It impacted centered up on the Shoot N C around 12 O Clock with a decent 1" group, between the 8 and 9 ring of the target. I may have blown a shot in the mirage as it was really hard to hold steady, but the group was well placed as expected for the Shark
Sound Meter Readings
140+ for the first shot
136.2
137.0
136.0
for an average reduction of 25.83
Lastly we shot the ThunderBeast 30-P
the group was centered up well in the 10 and 9 ring and was definitely the tightest of the 3 suppressors. Ray's quote to was "accuracy first", he went to say, and I know, "we are shooters first so the accuracy has to be on.
The Sound meter numbers were:
140+ for the first shot
134.7
134.6
134.9
for an average reduction of 27.08
The target at 200 yards looked really good:
The first shot from the Thunder Beast hit just above the red dot next to the Shark impact then the 3 shot group was just off to the right a bit. Two rounds touched then the next dropped a bit but that could have been due to the heavy mirage we had.
The rifle and Thunder Beast combination was definitely the most accurate given the conditions.
As I said this isn't scientific I know, but it does give you some data to help make your decisions. We did shoot some video and I will have to edit it up, because there is a lot we recorded a bunch of it as we didn't want to appear skewed in anyway. So I will get the highlights up to show everyone.
The Gemtech Still has a bit of the shift, clearly but the accuracy is good once that first shot is gone. The Shark and Thunder Beast are really really close, the noise reduction and accuracy goes to the Thunder Beast as does the price, but they are definitely neck and neck. I asked Shane about a 1 db difference and he said, you would really have to be about 3 db to potentially hear it, and all 3 were within the 3db range of each. But if you want that edge, the Thunder Beast had it.
Size and weight they are all Titanium and very close, the Shark gives you that ability to take it apart if you are so inclined.
It was great day today, and I hope this helps... I promise to do more as I will be shooting the rifle a lot over the next few months.
