Suppressors Baffle strike

[coldboremiracle]

The dreaded baffle strike, I keep hearing people talk about it. I've never seen the damage one can do, are there any pics out there of cans that suffered one? I'd like to see what happens when it hits the fan. as well as the story behind it (what,where,why) and maybe even what was done to fix/replace them.

 

[Mr_Brass]

Re: Baffle strike

Yeah I am paranoid about this too. if it happens am I out my $x00 suppressor and $200 stamp? Would like to know before I start really looking into getting a can.

 

[Blackhawk 1]

Re: Baffle strike

I want to buy a can for my 338 and hear about baffle strikes, being new at all of this can anyone post pictures of strikes and is there a cause of this or is it just part of the game?

 

[Chucky]

Re: Baffle strike

The 2 big causes of baffle strikes from what I have seen are improper installation of the suppressor and bullet's not stabilizing in the barrel because of rate of twist and so forth or shooting just bad ammo.

If you are shooting proper ammo and the suppressor was threaded and installed correctly you should be fine.

Chuck

 

[coldboremiracle]

Re: Baffle strike

Yes I understand that, but OP was to see actual pics of baffle stikes and what actually happens, as well as the follow up repair, paperwork,legal mumbojumbo if any, ect.

 

[Zevdogs]

Re: Baffle strike

Hear is a big strike on a 308
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ-KG1odvLs&feature=youtube_gdata

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1335555


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbtq6RUg6Vs&feature=youtube_gdata

 

[In2b8u]

Re: Baffle strike

In the bottom video you can see the can is hanging wrong off the end of the bbl. Probably attached the can wrong to the adapter.

 

[Zevdogs]

Re: Baffle strike

Yup and no round comes out on the first shot then on the 2nd shot a whole bunch of shit comes flying out

 

[n64atlas]

Re: Baffle strike

I can't believe they were looking down the barrel with bolt closed. The kid didn't know the rifle and closed the bolt instead of droppinng the mag!

 

[delta9mda]

Re: Baffle strike

a correctly mounted can should give no problems. they only thing to worry about is bullets no being stable.

many manufacturers will repair their cans if you get a strike. stay with quality makers and you will be fine. strikes can happen but not as much as you are fretting about.

 

[TXCOWDOC]

Re: Baffle strike

Shoot your rifle w/o the can at 100 yds. Look for 'key holing' on the paper. If you have nice discreet round holes, put the can on and go to work. Periodically check the can for tightness. I use a gold paint pen and put a small dot at the 12 o'clock on my barrel/can junction and can tell with eyeballing uf my can is loosening.
Good luck-

 

[JSTARSZ]

Re: Baffle strike

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: TX COWDOC</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Shoot your rifle w/o the can at 100 yds. Look for 'key holing' on the paper. If you have nice discreet round holes, put the can on and go to work. Periodically check the can for tightness. I use a gold paint pen and put a small dot at the 12 o'clock on my barrel/can junction and can tell with eyeballing uf my can is loosening.
Good luck-
</div></div>

good advice I may have to use that methodology.

 

[chainring]

Re: Baffle strike

Use a good barrel, mount the adapter and can (or can only, if it's a thread-on) and look through the barrel from the breech end. If you see a consistend shadow of can around the edge, you should be fine if your ammo is right. If you see too much can-rim shadow on one side, stop and check for problems with threading concentricity, adapter problems, etc. All I shoot is full velocity factory ammo, so stabilization has never been a problem. Mount-to-barrel problems have been an issue, though. Always take a look, even on quality barrels. Never had a strike. Be interesting to see some pics. You might try silencertalk for more suppressor-related info.

 

[Lazlo]

Re: Baffle strike

I had an issue earlier this year with a baffle strike. It began as a POI shift as the can heated up, and on one occasion, shifted about 18" at 100yds. Noticing something was askew, I removed the can and saw a witness mark in one of the baffles and on the end of the can. I was wearing hearing protection, and did not notice the strike.

I sent this to the manufacturer and they repaired it with a 4wk turnaround. Sorry, no pics.

 

[GBTX01]

Re: Baffle strike

Baffle Strikes suck there is no other way to put it. I have a baffle strike earlier this spring on my 308 can with a QD flash hider. I fired three rounds first two were fine and number three blew the can off the end of the gun.

I sent the can and rifle to the manufacture and they examined the threadings, can and ammo. Everything was perfectly aligned. Best that any of us can figure is that the can was not threaded all the way on to the flash hider and worked loose enough to cause the strike.

The manufacture was outstanding in assisting me in get a new can. Because the sidewall was damaged the can had to be replaced not just fixed. It is more paperwork and more money but the manufacture helped me out best he could and I extremely happy with their customer service.

The bullet,.30 168AMAX, stuck the first baffle, began to fragment and exited the sidewall and front of can taking a couple baffles with it. The can sheared .25 turn of threads off both the can and the QD mount before flying down range about 15ft.

This will not keep me from buying more cans in the future but I will be more cautious. They are a hell of a lot of fun. My wife loves shooting my suppressed guns.

 

[clmayfield]

Re: Baffle strike

Not always possible... but I had Tac Ops build me my rifle and decided that I would have them build the suppressor as well... that way they are doing the threading and building the suppressor. If there is an issue, I am not stuck with the suppressor manufacturer telling me I got a bad thread job or my gunsmith telling me I have a poorly designed/ built can.

I know this isn't possible for most builds... but when it is, it should be a big consideration.

 

[MAJ MALFUNCTION]

Re: Baffle strike

Now <span style="font-weight: bold">THIS</span> is what a proper baffle strike looks like!

It was a customer's can and the very first day he took it to the range he had a round exit the can pretty much sideways. The cause - the barrel was not threaded concentric to the bore and the can was way out of alignment.

The good news for him was that the integrity of the out tube (the serialized portion of the NFA item) was not compromised, so the manufacurer was able to completely repair the can and he didn't have to pay for another $200 tax stamp.

 

[christian77]

Re: Baffle strike

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbtq6RUg6Vs&feature=youtube_gdata</div></div>
"It's funny because it's not mine." says the fucktard in the background.

It would be funny, if the owner of the damaged suppressor knocked his teeth out with the can and it was posted on youtube.

 

[TXCOWDOC]

Re: Baffle strike

Matching the bullet weight and rate of twist is critical to prevent baffle strikes. Always check for 'key-holing' on paper before you put the can on. The pic below is a prime example.

 

[300WSM]

Re: Baffle strike

+100

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: doorkicker</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbtq6RUg6Vs&feature=youtube_gdata</div></div>
"It's funny because it's not mine." says the fucktard in the background.

It would be funny, if the owner of the damaged suppressor knocked his teeth out with the can and it was posted on youtube. </div></div>

 

[HPLLC]

Re: Baffle strike

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: TX COWDOC</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Matching the bullet weight and rate of twist is critical to prevent baffle strikes. Always check for 'key-holing' on paper before you put the can on. The pic below is a prime example.
</div></div>


If you fire more than ~100-130 rounds rapidly with a 10.5" barreled Ar-15 or more than ~150-170 rounds rapidly with a 14.5" barreled Ar15 you may see most bullets begin to keyhole. That's a secondary consideration with regard to stability.

There is a bore temperature that can be reached at which point bullet stability is negatively effected.

So having baffle strikes with a 10.5" barrel and a perfectly good 5.56mm suppressor is as simple as dumping 4-5 30 round magazines back to back full auto in 35-40 seconds.

A guy in the industry who's been building silencers for a very long time said something to the effect of, I could have a silencer last 100,000 rounds or 200. Basically suggesting rate of fire and barrel length will dictate suppressor lifespan.

It's probably a good idea to have a little patience with suppressed weapons in training environments and give them a break to cool after some obviously "recreational use". Real combat situations rarely if ever call for more than a few magazines to be expended in any one event, and when they do, most often it is over several minutes or even several hours.

Most need for massive volume fire from suppressed 5.56 weapons is imagined.

 

[dustingaunder]

Re: Baffle strike

They can be as mild as a little copper rubbed off on the end cap exit hole or they can be a complete detonation of the suppressor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ-KG1odvLs

 

[Knuckleduster]

Re: Baffle strike

I have had baffle grazing on my can before. I was shooting is sub freezing temps. My groups started flying all over the paper. My only guess was that the can got hot and slowly unscrewed. My first thought was that my optic was loose. Checked it and it was fine.
Then the can sounded different when I fired again.
Check the can and it was a little loose. Mine didnt blow out the side thank God or I would have cried. I was shooting LC ammo and I made sure I screw that baby on good every time. That led me to the temperature theory.

 

[HPLLC]

Re: Baffle strike

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: dustingaunder</div><div class="ubbcode-body">They can be as mild as a little copper rubbed off on the end cap exit hole or they can be a complete detonation of the suppressor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ-KG1odvLs </div></div>

I've never seen in person, or viewed pictures of one that has detonated. If you've seen a baffle module from Liberty you understand that was failure of the ribs that run down the stack on either side either spontaneously, or after a baffle strike. The silencer tube must have been attached to the front end of the stack, so when they sheared, the module forward of the failure point, and tube went downrange.

You could probably incur a detonation of sorts if you made the tube very very thin like .010" Barring that it would be tough to accomplish that. Most of the time there is a weakest point in the system and that point fails causing something to move internally and POI deviation tells the shooter it's not right and he stops firing, or with some of the lighter silencers on the market the tube may bulge.

They are pretty safe most of the time and I've never seen anyone injured by a failure but I've only seen 3 or 4 failures and probably pictures and details of ~50 on the internet, so it's not a great volume of experience.

My brother twice has been firing weapons when POI deviation alerted him to light baffle contact and in both cases he stopped firing and there was no visible damage to the silencers, both of which had loosened on the barrels. It's important to mount them with torque using tools. Handtight is not a good idea. Don't get me wrong I've mounted dozens of rifle cans hand tight and used them that way in a lot of cases, but in every case one has broken loose it's never been tightened properly with a tool.

I've probably experienced baffle strikes 6-10 times with prototype stuff or using the wrong twist or ammunition and all those cases have only cost me one front cap with Aguila SSS 60 grain .22lr in a barrel I'd ordered as 1/9 that turned out to have been supplied in 1/16.

 

[HPLLC]

Re: Baffle strike

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Knuckleduster</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I have had baffle grazing on my can before. I was shooting is sub freezing temps. My groups started flying all over the paper. My only guess was that the can got hot and slowly unscrewed. My first thought was that my optic was loose. Checked it and it was fine.
Then the can sounded different when I fired again.
Check the can and it was a little loose. Mine didnt blow out the side thank God or I would have cried. I was shooting LC ammo and I made sure I screw that baby on good every time. That led me to the temperature theory. </div></div>

That's pretty odd. I don't know what could cause that. freezing is not very many degrees from room temperature as far as metal is concerned. I've heard of cases where welded silencers migrated measurably in terms of runout at like 300-600F but that's a considerable amount of temperature change, 5-10 times greater than room temp to freezing. Runout in that case was measurable to like .008" or so not anything to really freak out about.

Some silencers run .350" bores though, and if your barrel thread wasn't perfect and you stacked that runout on top of a similar temperature warpage deviation from welding that could result in light baffle grazes. .021" of runout will cause contact in a .350 bored .308 can, but with a good barrel thread and a properly welded can that .021" of runout is a massive amount of runout that should never happen.