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Suppressors Brass/Copper Residue in Upper and Lower

RLinNH

Sergeant of the Hide
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Minuteman
Mar 23, 2019
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Whenever I use a suppressor on my .300 BO on either one of my builds, I get a Copper/Brass looking residue in the upper and lower receiver. A buddy of mine that has more experience than me, but no military background says that it's unburnt powder due to the suppressor. Weird, as I also load my own rounds. This looks like copper or brass shavings. Not powder. Although, I could be wrong as I am a suppressor noob. I have 4 suppressors, and my 6.5 Creed doesn't do this, but it's a bolt gun. Nor does my handgun suppressor. Pics coming. Is it unburnt powder? Or something else? I need to know as I am a former Marine, and weapons maintenance is paramount with all of my weapon systems.
 
Here are the pics
 

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Bear in mind that I also ran 150gr Super AE loads through suppressor. Sighting in the system after adding the suppressor. BUT, my Honey Badger does the same with subs and the Trash Panda attached. Maybe it's the powder that Gemtech uses in it's subs?

I need to work up my own sub load. I have everything needed. Just need the time to get to the range with the chrono. Still need to dial in my 6.5 Creed cartridge. :mad:
 
Had the same thing happen with sub loads in a 308 bolt gun. Not as bad, but had a little unburnt powder in the action. I changed the powder I was using to load sub ammo and the problem went away.
With full power loads, I have yet to see this happen in my bolt or gas guns.
 
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Whenever I use a suppressor on my .300 BO on either one of my builds, I get a Copper/Brass looking residue in the upper and lower receiver. A buddy of mine that has more experience than me, but no military background says that it's unburnt powder due to the suppressor. Weird, as I also load my own rounds. This looks like copper or brass shavings. Not powder. Although, I could be wrong as I am a suppressor noob. I have 4 suppressors, and my 6.5 Creed doesn't do this, but it's a bolt gun. Nor does my handgun suppressor. Pics coming. Is it unburnt powder? Or something else? I need to know as I am a former Marine, and weapons maintenance is paramount with all of my weapon systems.
Unburnt powder. Not getting into right pressure region for complete burn. Suppressor has nada to do with the unburnt powder, just an artifact of powder used so there will be enough port pressure for gun to cycle. Suppressor might be cause of more unburned powder to be blown back into receiver but not the root cause of unburned powder.
 
Having unburnt powder is relatively normal. Metal shavings that far back in the gun to me is not normal. What are the details of your load? IE what type of powder and bullet...Also after shooting definitely collect and inspect your brass. Finding the source of the metal flakes is in my view worth the effort.
 
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I didn't see that you were using Gemtech ammo. If so don't worry. They use some kind of case filler to make the cases more full in lots of their ammo. If you are using that kind of ammo just carry on like normal. Nothing is wrong.
 
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I didn't see that you were using Gemtech ammo. If so don't worry. They use some kind of case filler to make the cases more full in lots of their ammo. If you are using that kind of ammo just carry on like normal. Nothing is wrong.

Case Filler? Weird. Thanks for that explanation alamo
 
Case Filler? Weird. Thanks for that explanation alamo

They try to make light subsonic ammo. 187 grain or whatever. Even 190 grain can be a pain in the ass.

I'm not sure if you reload but powder shift is a definite real thing. When you get tons of left over space in the case you can shake your gun up and down vertically and get one velocity but then put it horizontal and shake it again and get a totally different velocity.

Basically the powder shifts around inside the case and even though you have the exact same powder weight, type of brass, and bullets, but some might be supers and others might be subs just dependingon how much you jostle the gun around.

Case filler is supposed to help fix that problem. Gemtech uses it all the time.
 
They try to make light subsonic ammo. 187 grain or whatever. Even 190 grain can be a pain in the ass.

I'm not sure if you reload but powder shift is a definite real thing. When you get tons of left over space in the case you can shake your gun up and down vertically and get one velocity but then put it horizontal and shake it again and get a totally different velocity.

Basically the powder shifts around inside the case and even though you have the exact same powder weight, type of brass, and bullets, but some might be supers and others might be subs just dependingon how much you jostle the gun around.

Case filler is supposed to help fix that problem. Gemtech uses it all the time.

Thanks for the filler explanation. I do reload, and now it makes a lot more sense in regards to the filler. I have 200 cartridges of the 187gr subs that I haven't used yet. I need to work up a sub load of my own for my .300 BO.