When looking at the 5.7 suppressor choices out there, it becomes abundantly clear that most companies (including us at one time) just beefed up their 22 lr suppressor designs and used those for 5.7x28mm as well.
This is not a great idea, in that these suppressors have been designed around a different caliber entirely and will not perform really well on a more powerful cartridge like the 5.7mm. First off, a good 5.7 suppressor should have more volume than a 22LR suppressor has as it generates a larger gas column. This is evident in that is has a higher chamber pressure and the chamber is physically larger, this means there is more gas to deal with. Now this doesn’t mean we just need to use 5.56 suppressor modules instead, although a good 5.56 suppressor would work just fine. But rather, something in between is needed for a great 5.7mm suppressor. We have tinkered with the design in the past, but there really wasnt a lot of interest in the caliber until recently when there was a resurgence in AR15 uppers in this caliber.
Our latest designs (which have used in custom builds so far and have not seen enough demand to make a production items yet) involve a tube of 1.25″ in diameter and an overall length of 6.5″ and contains a titanium core to keep weight to a minimum. When using premium material like this the price is driven by the cost of supplies to build it like the raw titanium bar stock and tubing are quite expensive and make the base cost of the silencer much higher than if we had used something like 316 stainless steel.
This is another thing that makes a good 5.7 suppressor unique. We see it needing to be lightweight in design, so this is why we chose the titanium tube and core. It is not a take-apart design though so it is not to be used in rimfire applications. We did this to maintain repeatability in the design so the can doesn’t get assembled with changed to the structure over time like changes in torque or assembling it differently causing point of impact shift. So we opted to build it as a rifle can that does not come apart like the rest of the world has done. The last thing to consider is the baffle design, which is optimized for high pressure rifle cartridges and not low pressure rimfire rounds. This makes it work much better with the whole system and keeps accuracy high on the list of priorities.
So until next time, keep your powder dry!