Today we look at what is the optimal 22LR suppressor for a rimfire rifle and why we use one at all in this application.
There is a stark difference in the demands placed on the silencer when suppressing a pistol versus a rifle. The powder charge in a 22LR cartridge is consumed in the first 6″ to 10″ of bore in the gun barrel. What this means is that on a rimfire pistol we have unburnt gunpowder entering the silencer and then finishing the burn cycle. A 22lr suppressor is not actually designed for this application directly and it can cause wear to soft material baffles like aluminium. The term used for the damage that this can cause is ablative erosion, but that is for another blog post…
22LR Suppressor in a Rimfire Rifle
So , back to what I was saying. The rimfire pistol deals with the gas column in a different way from the rifle. The rifle is simply dealing with gasses and not burning powder particles. So since this is all the 22lr suppressor has to deal with on the rimfire rifle is can be optimized to work with this. What we have found is that it is imperative that you use subsonic ammunition in a rimfire rifle so the rounds do not break the sound barrier. This will make a lot of noise that there is no known technology to suppress. Once we know we have subsonic ammo, then we need some sort of silencer to capture the escaping gasses and allow them t expand some in a controller environment so they can lower their pressure and there by not reignite upon leaving the silencer.
Since all the powder is burned by this point and you are dealing with hot gasses only, the silencer can be a lot smaller. This is why we made the Vector 22lr suppressor modular in design. The extension module adds two more baffles to the system and this helps with use on a rimfire pistol. Since the gasses on a rimfire rifle are so much lower, the extension module can be removed and the shortened version can be used instead. This lends itself to a nice and lightweight package that is also fairly small too.
