0
Bulletin Board

Making a 50 BMG suppressor

When you make a 50 bmg suppressor, there are things to consider. Things that need consideration are like pressure, gas volume, weight and size. All these come secondary to sound suppression but must be considered.

These are the four main things aside from sound performance we looked at when we made the Behemoth 50 bmg suppressor. So lets take a little closer look at those specs.

Pressure… is a funny creature. It can do work, it can be destructive, it can be a byproduct of another job, all sorts of things but for us, it is a problem. We have to design the 50 bmg suppressor to handle incredible levels of pressure as this cartridge is propelling a 750gr bullet at almost 3000 feet per second. This kind of energy delivery takes a lot of pressure. Like from 9000 to 11,500 PSI in most modern bolt action sniper style platforms. So you have to design the silencer to absorb this pressure and then be able to mitigate the noise signature at the same time.

The gas volume of the 50 BMG cartridge is enormous to say the least. There is 290 grains of gunpowder in a 50 BMG round, compare this to a 308 Winchester which has 41 grains of gunpowder and you start to understand how massive the 50 bmg suppressor has to be to handle it. That is 7 times the gunpowder… So this necessitates that a good 50 bmg suppressor be fairly large. We need to be able to capture that gas column and hold onto it momentarily to be able to do the things with it we do and then let it go under controlled conditions.

Weight is an obvious spec that has to be addressed. This is because these guns are meant to be man portable and not crew served. Since we are having to carry this thing in a pack of some sort, we have to keep weight manageable or the soldier will not deploy with it. He will simply choose to leave it behind to conserve space and weight. This is why we chose to make it out of titanium, almost exclusively. We had to keep weight under 3 pounds and titanium allowed us to do that. Another great benefit to titanium is that it is incredibly strong as well as light, these two things made it the obvious choice for the Behemoth.

Size is the final spec we are talking about today with this design. The size is dictated by volume as well as bore t bore aspect ratio. When we decided to build a 50 bmg suppressor, we knew it would be fairly large, but we had no idea it would be as big as it turned out. This was in part due to us also wanting it to be hearing safe at the shooter’s ear. This basically means we wanted it to meter below 140dB at the shooters ear since that is the person that will be closest to the rifle when it is being used. We achieved this metric and then some with it consistency measuring 134 to 136dB at the shooter’s ear. This was only possible through the use of titanium and the size we finally chose to work with.

There was a lot more to designing the Behemoth 50 bmg suppressor, but these are some of the highlights and this gives you a glimpse into the world of making a suppressor for one of the largest rounds out there for civilian use today. Hope you enjoyed this little peek behind the curtain so to speak and until next time, keep your powder dry!

Bulletin Board

Building a 300 blackout suppressor

This is something that I have personally enjoyed working on over the years. The perfect 300 blackout suppressor is one that has size, weight and sound performance at the forefront of the list of attributes that is has to have. So let’s take a look at my favorite 300 blackout suppressor.

Leonidas Gen 2 main image - 300 blackout integral rifle silencer - best 300 blackout
Leonidas Gen 2 ready to go!

The first and absolutely best 300 blackout suppressor that we know of it the Leonidas Gen 2 integrally suppressed AR15 upper. This is a personal pet project that has evolved into one of the very best suppressed 300 blackout rifles on the market in our opinion. We use titanium in the construction of the core, there is very specific geometry to prevent things like gas pinging that makes the silencer ring like a bell so to speak. We also have VERY caliber specific baffle geometry that is optimized for the subsonic variant of the cartridges that are on the market. This doesnt mean that you cant use supersonic rounds in the Leonidas, it will work great with those too, but to see the real magic, you need to shoot subsonic ammunition in it.

There are so many little nuanced things that have been done to this design over the years to improve it that I could probably write an entire book called ” The Ultimate 300 Blackout Suppressor “… Things like putting the gas block inside the silencer module allows us to capture leaking barrel pressure gas around the gas block as well as adding significant volume to the expansion chamber to lower to pressure of the gas column so the baffle stack can handle it easier. We also have improvements in barrel technology as well by using specifically designed barrels that have a tighter twist rate to help stabilize the heavy, subsonic bullets available today for this caliber.

The Leonidas Gen 2 300 BLK Integral Silencer
The Leonidas Gen 2 brings a smile to everyone’s face!

If you would like more information about the Leonidas Gen 2 integrally suppressed rifle, just shoot us an email or give us a call and we will do our best to answer your questions! Until next time, keep your powder dry!

Bulletin Board

Why are rifle suppressors still loud?

Let’s take a short look at what makes a rifle silencer seem loud when they are obviously still making the gun quieter.

When we think of what a rifle with a silencer sounds like, we automatically think of movie guns. Suppressor sounds in the movies for a long time have been creatures of the imagination of the foley artists and nothing more. This gives the general public a misconception of what a silencer should actually sound like.

30 cal suppressor, suppressor for 6.5 grendel, integrally suppressed rifle
Sovereign 30 cal suppressor on a long range rifle.

The first thing we have to understand is that the bullet exiting a 30 cal suppressor, like the Amendment silencer, is basically traveling Mach 2.7 right out of the gun. So with something going this fast, there will be an associated sonic boom as the bullet passes through the sound barrier. This sonic boom is proportional in size to the object so it makes a loud “pop” instead of a boom like we are used to hearing when a fighter jet passes over that is supersonic (which as I understand it, they are not supposed to do)… This pop is very loud at about 135dB usually, this makes the bullet in flight, the loudest part of the gun firing when there is a suppressor for 6.5 grendel, integrally suppressed rifles or any other rifle silencer installed IF the measured sound comes in at about that number. Since we have no way of suppressing this level of sound this will make it to the sound meter no matter what.

The usual 30 cal suppressor, a suppressor for 6.5 grendel (we recommend the Sovereign suppressor for this application), and even integrally suppressed rifles all suffer from this phenomenon. These are some of the carbines and rifles we see that have silencers installed on them that will also have people question why the silencer doesnt make it quieter. Once we get the bullet below the speed of sound, integrally suppressed rifles in particular sounds much better.

The Zulu integrally suppressed 5.56mm AR15 rifle is a great option.

Lastly, understand one other thing about rifle silencers as well. They are dealing with a lot more energy than pistol or rimfire calibers firearms. This fact alone makes designing a 30 cal suppressor that is super quiet a daunting task right out of the gate. We have done it with several of our models, but it is not easy to do. Even our integrally suppressed rifles like the Leonidas or Zulu are great examples of this concept. So if you have questions concerning getting a suppressor for your rifle, or just need to ask us about something we make in general, just reach out to us at 706-661-6911 and we will be happy to help. Until next time, keep your powder dry!

Bulletin Board

A Silencer for 450 Bushmaster

This is a subject that has been coming up more and more. A silencer for 450 bushmaster is a interesting proposition to be honest. When looking at this cartridge, one has to consider the huge volume of gas as well as the large bore diameter the suppressor needs for this caliber.

We always suggest something like the Goliath for this cartridge as it has the best sound characteristics when it comes to a silencer for 450 bushmaster. Nothing that we are aware of beats this silencer for sound signature. It also has the ability to be a suppressor for marlin 45-70 as well. The 45-70 is a very similar performing cartridge as the 450 bushmaster so they will perform very well with the Goliath .458 socom suppressor.

What makes the Goliath silencer so good? Well, three things in particular. The material of construction is almost all titanium so it is incredibly light weight for it’s size. It is large enough to deal with the huge volume of gas that these cartridges produce and lastly, it is engineered specifically for these large bore, high volume calibers.

silencer suppressor carbine AR15
Goliath makes a great 308 suppressor as well.

We chose titanium to do tow things in particular, one was to dissipate heat rapidly. which titanium does well. The second thing was that we could make the silencer light weight as titanium is a very strong material as well. Titanium is also very rigid so there is little to no baffle flex with these powerful rounds and this translates into better accuracy on target and more repeatable results over time. Another thing to consider is that this silencer can also be used on other calibers as well since it will clear anything in diameter smaller than 45 caliber. Things like the 338 Lapua Magnum and 408 Chey Tac are perfect examples of large caliber rounds this silencer can work with. IT is also light enough from the use of titanium to be a viable hunting silencer as well. It can basically do everything you need in a rifle silencer and we also ship it with an Armageddon gear suppressor cover so when you shoot the mighty 450 Bushmaster through it, you wont have to deal with heat mirage for several rounds on your hunt.

So if you have questions about the Goliath silencer and how it works as a silencer for 450 Bushmaster, just call us at 706-661-6911 or shoot us an email, which is plastered all over the website. Till next time, keep your powder dry!

Firearm Type

Caliber

Cart
Cart Overview