When you use a 9mm silencer, there is a plethora of added parts to the pistol system that can affect accuracy. The silencer is the last part of that system and because of that, has the most potential to affect Point of Impact.
How a 9mm silencer works with a booster
The first thing we have to understand is how the pistol and silencer work together. The part that connects the two devices is called a “Booster”. This little mechanism is a wonderful invention that allows the pistol to function with the added mass of the silencer to be attached to the end of the barrel. It also decouples the silencer momentarily from the gun so that the barrel can move before the the silencer does. This allows the gun to unlock and cycle in a new cartridge while the silencer “floats” in space in front of the gun. To keep this assembly repeatable, we have the booster indexed with little teeth inside the booster. There are ten of these teeth in the booster and ten slots that they fit into them. Our booster design for the Mystic X 9mm silencer family is designed in such a way that you can index the silencer in 36 degree increments.
So what this means is that we can unlock the booster and index it to a different position in the booster housing. The method to do this is pretty simple in our 9mm silencer assembly since the booster is not keyed for the full length of travel. Simply unload the gun, we dont want someone getting hurt doing this. Then grab the silencer and pull it away from the gun until the teeth in the booster clear the slots they fit into. Turn the silencer a little and reset the teeth into the next slot so not the teeth are shifted on slot in either the right or the left. This will also shift bullet impact as the silencer will impart a “nudge” to the bullet in flight due to the gas turbulence in the 9mm silencer.
When you shoot at the target the next time, you will notice the group will have shift somewhat to a new location based on the new index location of the booster. We here at Liberty will normally shift impact by indexing the booster until the group is at the 12 o’clock location and possibly high as it is simpler to aim based on a vertical location than any other. Normally this isnt a very large shift, but sometimes there are factors outside of our control and the planets just dont align. It is a thing that some guns just dont cohabitate with a silencer installed, but most do and this works 99.9% of the time. So if your groups are somewhere odd when you shoot suppressed, this may be the solve you are looking for. Until next time, keep your powder dry!