When looking over things that people frequently ask us about the world of suppressor ownership, one of the main things we find is ammunition choice for a 9mm suppressor.
Ammunition comes in two basic flavors in the world of 9mm suppressor ownership, and you need to start thinking in these terms if you want to get the most out of your 9mm suppressor. Super-sonic ammunition and subsonic ammunition.
Super sonic ammunition for 9mm silencer use.
When shooting super sonic ammunition through your 9mm suppressor, it will suppress the gun’s “bang” but there is a second noise that the silencer can not suppress.The supersonic flight noise of the projectile flying to the target is much louder than most people realize and is the number one complaint of a new silencer owner when they goto the range for the first time without knowing about this kind of ammunition to use. This is a common complaint and we have tried many different methods to educate people on it, but it is still a problem with new owners. For 9mm use, ammunition is running right at the super-sonic threshold and sometimes goes over this point. This speed is approximately 1070 feet per second and varies with all sorts of parameters, but understand that it is close to this number and if you go too fast, it will “crack” because the projectile is make a mini sonic boom as it flies down to the target.
Subsonic ammunition of 9mm suppressor use.
This is the most desirable ammunition for most applications. We understand that in some applications that certain ammo is needed, but for the most part this will be the ammo that you will want to use. The easiest way to know if the ammunition is subsonic is to shoot it. If it sounds super good and like a staple gun then it is subsonic, lol. At least that is how it should sound coming from one of our 9mm suppressors like the Infiniti X pistol silencer. All joking aside, some ammunition will be marked on the box as such. Another way to tell is to look at the bullet weight of the rounds you are thinking about using. if the bullet weight is 124 grains or less it is almost certainly super sonic ammunition. If the bullet weight is 147 grains or heavier then it will almost always be subsonic ammunition. There are instances where this doesnt work, but for the most part, it does.
Another thing to remember is that some 9mm subsonic ammunition is designed to be slow enough by reducing the energy of the powder charge. This will normally produce two things at once. The first is a nice sounding suppressor, the second is erratic cycling or failed cycling of the host weapon entirely. We have seen this often with handholds, the speeds are crazy slow and super quiet, but the gun wont cycle reliably. The recoil booster on the pistol silencer will help sometimes with this, but not always, there has to be enough energy to overcome the guns system as designed and some additional drag from the suppressor as well or it wont operate as intended.
These are the main things we look for when looking for ammunition for our 9mm systems with silencers installed on them. So if you have anymore questions, click on this link to be taken to the website for help.