Today we are talking about the world of 9mm silencer considerations and how they apply to the end user. Well… the top five considerations at least…lol. There are a lot more but for the sanctity of keeping this blog to reasonable in length, we will just do five for now.
The 9mm silencer is one of the most common silencers on the market and as such can be used for many things and come in many configurations.
Top five 9mm Silencer Considerations
The list of things that we look for in a 9mm silencer are as follows:
- Sound Suppression – This seems obvious, but not everyone looks at this metric first. We want the best performance for our purchase dollar and to be honest… Isnt this the reason for getting a silencer to start with? Our Mystic X and Infiniti X silencers are some of the best performing 9mm silencers available and when combined with quality sub-sonic ammunition, the performance is stellar!
- Weight – The next thing we look at here is weight. Nobody wants a brick screwed onto the end of their rifle, so when we design a 9mm silencer like the Mystic X we look at the cost in weight to add features versus the sound performance added. this is where solid models in CAD software save tons of time and expense, we model them up and run evaluations on them then cut out the top designs for head to head real world silencer comparison testing. No amount of simulation software can compete with the perception of the human ear. So we look at the weight during the design phase and work the designs based on the metals we choose.
- Material – Since I just mentioned it in #2, let’s go ahead and talk about the material next. We have used all sorts of metal in the past to make our suppressors with, but over time we have slowly settled on just a few materials because of cost versus performance of each of the metals we use now. Titanium is our most costly metal we use at this time.,,well by volume at least. It is super strong, super rigid and super light weight. It doesn’t hold up to ablative abrasion as good as some others though. 17-4 PH Stainless Steel is the next metal and it takes weight for cost with titanium. more cost effective, but heavier is the biggest problem we are looking at most of time in the lab. The next metal is 300 series stainless steel, this choice is great where cost is a problem but it trades cost for weight AND strength, so if the solution doesnt require a light weight super strong design, this one is a great choice. Lots of silencers on the market are made from this grade of stainless steel. Next is aluminum alloys, these alloys are almost universally used in rimfire silencers and pistol caliber silencers as the pressures are low enough to not cause material failure in the aluminum. This metal is not really suitable for rifle use in the United States since the cost in money and time is so great here. There are other metals, but these are the most common for us.
- Multi-role use – The 9mm silencer of today needs to be able to fill roles other than its namesake. Our Mystic X family of silencers are all rated for many calibers other than the native markings on the suppressor. This gives the end user the most diverse option list possible when it comes to platforms that the silencer is effective on. This metric is why we recommend people get one the Mystic X suppressors for their first silencer as it allows them to try it out on lots of host weapons for the cost of one unit. Then once they find a specific use case that rises to the top, so to speak, then we can work with the user in choosing a role specific model for that one job freeing up the Mystic X for other tasks.
- Cost – We all know that silencers in the USA are costly to get in the form of time, money and peace of mind. These three factors contribute greatly to the decision on which suppressor to choose for the first one or even 2nd or 3rd addition at some point… So this is balanced with our cans by having the same model available in more than one metal choice. Like the Mystic X and the Infiniti X are essentially identical other than metal choice. This gives the user the choice of lighter weight at great monetary cost or heavier and less monetary expenditure.
As you can see, the thinking behind making a 9mm silencer is not so cut and dried. If you have a favorite host firearm like a Sig P226 or a 9mm AR1-15 Carbine or even a 357 lever gun, then give us a call we are here to help you keep those guns quiet!
If you want to know more, email us at support@libertycans.net or call us at 706-661-6911 and until next time, keep your powder dry…