What Does the Inside of a Truly Dirty Silencer Look Like?

[Buck Wilde]

What does a dirty silencer look like? I mean a silencer that really needs cleaning?

I have two silencers, and I have only used one so far: a Banish 22. I have probably run 200 Mini-mags through it. Someone somewhere told me it should be cleaned at around this point.

I opened it up, and I would guess there is around a tenth of a gram of crud in it. I looked at some sites describing the problems with dirty silencers, and they said one issue was the weight of the crud. Since there is nearly no crud in my silencer, my best guess is that I am nowhere near the point where it actually needs cleaning, so the real must-clean round figure is probably more like 20000 than 200.

But I don't really know.

I know this: CLR really does work without scrubbing. It knocked the carbon off my baffles with no effort. I got a jug, and I'm going to use it for silencers and nothing else. I'll soak the parts in it and pour it back in the jug, I'll reuse it until it quits working. I tried ammonia, citric acid, and Oxy-clean, and they did nothing. I haven't tried powdered brewery wash, which removes nearly anything, but it's expensive.

 

[Buck Wilde]

I'm going to weigh this thing when it's clean so I have a baseline.

 

[Huskydriver]

Lol 200 rounds? Come back when you got like 4k homie....

 

[0724/1030]

Dead Air Mask after a few rounds…

 

[Rex_Allen]

Dead Air Mask after a few rounds…

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Cleaned with clr?

 

[Buck Wilde]

Thanks for the help.

I think I was wrong about one of the other things I tried. It looks like either citric acid or laundry detergent cleaned the crud off, but it wasn't obvious until I rinsed the baffle. Both are cheaper than CLR, so I plan to try them again eventually.

I found out where the stuff about cleaning after 200 rounds came from. It's actually from the Silencer Central site: "Most .22 suppressors can be disassembled for cleaning. Cleaning is required every 100 - 200 rounds to avoid having the baffles fuse together." I don't see any indication that my baffles were anywhere near that state.

This thing was a monster pain to take apart, not because of the baffles, but because of the end threads. They did not want to release. I was afraid I was going to bend something, but I finally got both off. Any suggestions for keeping them from sticking would be appreciated. I put a little anti-seize on one end. It looks like hard black grit gets in the threads, and the finish is rough to begin with.

 

[0724/1030]

Cleaned with clr?

Negative. Tumbled in stainless steel media.

 

[MadDuner]

I clean my suppressors after every use. Not necessarily because it “needs it” right then, but each time it all disassembles easy and is easy to clean.

 

[SND]

Great thread. Have been shooting a banish22 also and going through the cleaning pains and thought mine was dirty until seeing Gunny’s. Have had no luck with cleanig solutions but have not yet tried CLR. After seeing Gunny’s results, ss media has moved up the list of cleaning methods.

Gunny - do you do anything different for the baffles than for brass? I assume a bit of detergent and water?

 

[MadDuner]

I use Dawn in hot water and a nylon brush.

 

[Buck Wilde]

The silencer is back at work. The CLR made the crud fall...the frick...off. Period. The baffles look like they have never seen gunshot residue.

Next time, I won't take both end caps off. There is no reason to. And I'll get a toothbrush to clean the hard grit out of the threads so the cap on the muzzle end will go back in.

 

[Buck Wilde]

The silencer is back at work. The CLR made the crud fall...the frick...off. Period. The baffles look like they have never seen gunshot residue.

Next time, I won't take both end caps off. There is no reason to. And I'll get a toothbrush to clean the hard grit out of the threads so the cap on the muzzle end will go back in.