When choosing a silencer for your project, it is important to choose one that fits your needs in the scenario that you will be using it in. This is the most common stumbling block for most first time buyers and even veteran silencer owners. Let’s take a quick look at what can be some of the criteria that should be looked at for choosing a silencer for multi purpose use or a dedicated application.
Multipurpose Suppressor
When most people decide to get a silencer for the first time, they usually gravitate to the multipurpose silencer. This makes a lot of sense too as it gives the most versatility of use that can be had for the purchasers dollar. Sometimes this is a good thing and sometimes this is a problem. The problems come in when you want a very specific application and this application has criteria that the multipurpose suppressor can not fit in. Things like small carbine builds for mounted operations. You would definitely not want a something like the Mystic X in a situation like this. Now, multipurpose designs do have merit though so things like a rimfire rifle as well as a centerfire hunting rifle is a great application where one day you are on the square range shooting steel targets with your Infinti X multipurpose suppressor, then the next day you are in your tree stand hunting whitetail deer with your Savage Model 110 in 308 Winchester. This dual application setup is a perfect example of what a multipurpose suppressor is supposed to be used for. There are many more but this is a good one to start with
Dedicated Suppressor Designs
This area is where I normally steer a more seasoned silencer owner as this is where you start to dedicate silencers to specific firearms. The most common applications for dedicated suppressor designs is like the photo above of a 556 NATO short barreled rifle and that it will see heavy use on the firing range. The Constitution 2 silencer seems to be the unit of choice for this application actually.
Another application for a dedicated silencer is on a rimfire pistol, these are very popular setups and for good reason. When people goto the range the first time to shoot a suppressed 22LR firearm, the pistol is usually what it is. If you have never used a high quality rimfire suppressor on a rimfire pistol host you are missing out. This is one of the true joys in life for the firearms enthusiast, to experience the exhilarating pleasure of shooting a quiet rimfire firearm.
My conclusion to all of this…
So here is my conclusion to this topic, at first almost all people should get a multipurpose suppressor to “dip their toes in the water” so to speak but once they have done that, the next one will be a dedicated unit to be “married” to a certain firearm. This is the logical progression in the United States with the way the process is currently structured for silencer ownership. Some people will obviously fall outside this area, but most will fit nicely inside this box and that is ok. Get your silencer and go have some fun with it.