SBR suppressor durability

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Private
Minuteman
Jun 5, 2023
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Denmark
I'm looking for a suppressor to take the most blast/flash of a 14.5" bolt rifle in 308 win. Due to the short barrel setup and unburned powder my thinking is to get a larger silencer rated for 338 LM or a 7.62 full automatic silencer. Would that increase the lifespan/durability of my silencer going that route? Or should I just stick to a regular 308 win rated silencer? The silencers I'm looking for is Ase Utra Bore lock systems, mainly SL7 and Dualuse 762.
 
I assume you are posting from Europe. Here in the US most of the manufacturers will tell you barrel length restrictions (if any).

In any case most cans could handle a 14.5" barrel no problem. That said it depends I guess on what the can is made of. Usually the life of a suppressor depends highly on how frequent it's shot. Things like heat matter a lot. In a normal non machine gun application 30-50,000 rounds would be about right before the can needs to be replaced. If you have that much ammo to run through one suppressor then you are doing good.
 
I guess it depends on what you mean by “lifespan.”

Obviously a longer can is quieter, and length is more important for sound suppression than diameter (all other things being equal).

Does lifespan to you = suppressor functionally holds together? Or does lifespan = time that suppressor maintains approximate sound suppression? Etc.

The first few baffles take the brunt of the blast.
Cans that screw onto a muzzle brake have the best chance of limiting the blast to the baffles (but do not eliminate the blast effect). The muzzle brake, in this scenario, is in a way “sacrificial”.

One way or another, the blast eats away something.

If I wanted a suppressor to hold up the longest, I’d use the muzzle brake setup I mentioned and find a suppressor that was made out of Stellite or at least has a blast baffle made out of it.

 
I shoot my Dead Air Nomad-LT, Otter Creek Labs Hydrogen-L, and TBAC Magnus-HUB with direct-thread mounts on my 16" MPR .308 Win and have seen no detrimental affects. A quality Ti can should be just fine. But like was stated, most manufacturers will have their barrel length ratings on their website.
 
For.me the best can with the least flash and first round pop has been the Thunderbeast ultra line.. I haven't had a chance to use their dominius surpressor. Life span is subjective to several factors and one being the fire rate and how hot the surpressor gets. I've got over 6k rounds on my ultra 9 with no issues and it's been on everything from a 12.5 ar 15 (no mag dumps) to 300 PRC Shooting 215gn bergers at 3150fps. My 2 cents
 
Get the ASE SL7i. Expensive but worth it for durability and suppression. Made of stainless steel so it is heavier than most other brands but that is why its more durable.

Just be aware that they cannot be disassembled for cleaning.
 
Get the ASE SL7i. Expensive but worth it for durability and suppression. Made of stainless steel so it is heavier than most other brands but that is why its more durable.

Just be aware that they cannot be disassembled for cleaning.
Well Im looking at Ase Utra SL7i-Borelock and A-TEc Marks man. Do you have any experience with Ase utra?
 
Looks like KGM did a good job of fucking DA and their customers over...

That's awfully charitable. KGM isn't responsible for DA not returning phone calls (shutting off their phones), ignoring email, or the use of subs in the first place. This is worse than when Bergara was the sub and DA blamed all of that on the sub too (Bergara). No, this is exactly what happens when a company like DA doesn't make it's own product and has almost no skin in the game. Read the comments, all of DA's product lines have problems and warranty resolution takes six months (if you're lucky). Same as a few years ago, which DA aggressively denied publicly. Even their nice-guy engineer that normally handles public damage control is refusing to help frustrated customers.
 
That's awfully charitable. KGM isn't responsible for DA not returning phone calls (shutting off their phones), ignoring email, or the use of subs in the first place. This is worse than when Bergara was the sub and DA blamed all of that on the sub too (Bergara). No, this is exactly what happens when a company like DA doesn't make it's own product and has almost no skin in the game. Read the comments, all of DA's product lines have problems and warranty resolution takes six months (if you're lucky). Same as a few years ago, which DA aggressively denied publicly. Even their nice-guy engineer that normally handles public damage control is refusing to help frustrated customers.
I have never heard of a single problem with a Sandman series can, or a Mask HD… I have seen issues with the Nomads and Sierras, but never seen them not respond to a customer or get it fixed. That’s a new one for me.

I know KGM did a half-ass job respraying my Mask. Took 5-6 weeks, and all they did was slap a new nitrided mount & and cap on there, didn’t blast the old finish off the tube, and sprayed over it, making it look like it has bubble letters on it. They didn’t even bother to clean the baffles.

That’s not to be blamed on DA, that’s KGM not wanting to do satisfactory quality work for a (now) competitor. Does it function fine? Does it look better? Sure… But it was a lazy repair job.
 
I have never heard of a single problem with a Sandman series can,

I have and there's plenty of other first hand accounts on Reddit and Arfcom. A friend of mine sent them a Sandman that was warped and they shipped him back the wrong serial number. They blew him off for months and months and months. That was during Bergara and here we are again, unwelded Nomads, broken Sandman, unwelded Sierras, etc. DA are ghosts through it all. With as public as it all has been over the last three or four years, you'd have to be intentionally ignoring the problems to say you're unaware. There's a 24 page thread on Arfcom (as of today) and literally 25 threads on Reddit (one of which I linked above).
 
I have and there's plenty of other first hand accounts on Reddit and Arfcom. A friend of mine sent them a Sandman that was warped and they shipped him back the wrong serial number. They blew him off for months and months and months. That was during Bergara and here we are again, unwelded Nomads, broken Sandman, unwelded Sierras, etc. DA are ghosts through it all. With as public as it all has been over the last three or four years, you'd have to be intentionally ignoring the problems to say you're unaware. There's a 24 page thread on Arfcom (as of today) and literally 25 threads on Reddit (one of which I linked above).
I don’t waste my time on ARFcom or Reddit…So, no I’m not intentionally ignoring anything, I just have a life.
 
That's an unfortunate reality if you outsource your manufacturing.

DA should really manufacture their own cans. I personally wouldn't consider a DA until they do that.
As exceptional as all of my DA cans are, I have no complaints, but it’s sad to see KGM doing this to DA out of spite for them ripping up their contact.

I will have to agree with you on that though…Until they get their new mfg plant up and running, and have some proven batches ran through, I’m going to keep the ones I have, and entertain other brands. But I do hope they get things going soon, and start putting out great products again.
 
As exceptional as all of my DA cans are, I have no complaints, but it’s sad to see KGM doing this to DA out of spite for them ripping up their contact.

I will have to agree with you on that though…Until they get their new mfg plant up and running, and have some proven batches ran through, I’m going to keep the ones I have, and entertain other brands. But I do hope they get things going soon, and start putting out great products again.

I'm not sure if it's fair to say that KGM is purposely trying to screw DA. I'm sure DA feels like that at times, but that's the nature of outsourcing your manufacturing. The company that you outsource too will always look after themselves first and foremost.

I don't know the details of the KGM and DA relationship, nor do I really care too. I'm sure it's complicated, and perhaps some soured relationships over business matters.

You're always at the mercy of another company if you outsource your manufacturing. DA should've known this is a potential issue when they came up with their business plan. They waited way too long to start up their own manufacturing (if that's in fact what they are doing).
 
I'm not sure if it's fair to say that KGM is purposely trying to screw DA. I'm sure DA feels like that at times, but that's the nature of outsourcing your manufacturing. The company that you outsource too will always look after themselves first and foremost.

I don't know the details of the KGM and DA relationship, nor do I really care too. I'm sure it's complicated, and perhaps some soured relationships over business matters.

You're always at the mercy of another company if you outsource your manufacturing. DA should've known this is a potential issue when they came up with their business plan. They waited way too long to start up their own manufacturing (if that's in fact what they are doing).
From the way I was told it sounds like they are either finding someone new that is more local to them, so they can keep a close eye on QA/QC, or maybe starting their own, but I’m not sure, so don’t quote me on that.
 
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I don’t waste my time on ARFcom or Reddit…So, no I’m not intentionally ignoring anything, I just have a life.

It's been posted here repeatedly too. Your ego appears too fragile to accept that DA is responsible for all of their own problems. They have decent designs, they produce a highly inconsistent product and stand behind it only when convenient. A serious company would have had a recall for less. DA's strategy is to let end users find out if the product is defective and then drag their feet repairing or replacing it.
 
It's been posted here repeatedly too. Your ego appears too fragile to accept that DA is responsible for all of their own problems. They have decent designs, they produce a highly inconsistent product and stand behind it only when convenient. A serious company would have had a recall for less. DA's strategy is to let end users find out if the product is defective and then drag their feet repairing or replacing it.
My ego is too fragile? I am not associated with any company, so I honestly don’t care, I’m just saying that I’ve never seen a thread on here about Sandman cans or Masks having issues. Only Nomads and Sierras. How is my ego fragile for stating facts that I don’t use ARFcom or Reddit, that I haven’t seen a single person ever talk about a Sandmsn or Mask having issues, or the fact that I don’t go around googling for gun industry drama every single day.

I don’t understand your personal beef with Dead Air…Seems your the one with the fragile ego who is always bitching about them every time the words Dead Air get mentioned. It’s almost like you have some skin in the game somewhere with a competitor of their’s. Me personality, I’m not associated with any brand, I can make recommendations to try to help steer folks in a positive direction, but in the end, IDGAF what they spend their own money on…It doesn’t affect me one way or another.
 
I've lost all hope. I should have my Sierra5 in a month or two as I'm at 203 days. Maybe we could do a pool on how many rounds it takes to fail. Shoulda stuck with Huxwrx. Given the logistical nightmare of fixing one of these, stores should stop carrying them or even offering them for sale. Does anyone have a high round count on one that hasn't failed?
 
I've lost all hope. I should have my Sierra5 in a month or two as I'm at 203 days. Maybe we could do a pool on how many rounds it takes to fail. Shoulda stuck with Huxwrx. Given the logistical nightmare of fixing one of these, stores should stop carrying them or even offering them for sale. Does anyone have a high round count on one that hasn't failed?
I’m just glad I went with the OCL Polonium, instead. I was eyeballing a Sierra 5 pretty hard, but no way in hell after seeing all the failures.
 
My ego is too fragile? I am not associated with any company, so I honestly don’t care, I’m just saying that I’ve never seen a thread on here about Sandman cans or Masks having issues. Only Nomads and Sierras. How is my ego fragile for stating facts that I don’t use ARFcom or Reddit, that I haven’t seen a single person ever talk about a Sandmsn or Mask having issues, or the fact that I don’t go around googling for gun industry drama every single day.

I don’t understand your personal beef with Dead Air…Seems your the one with the fragile ego who is always bitching about them every time the words Dead Air get mentioned. It’s almost like you have some skin in the game somewhere with a competitor of their’s. Me personality, I’m not associated with any brand, I can make recommendations to try to help steer folks in a positive direction, but in the end, IDGAF what they spend their own money on…It doesn’t affect me one way or another.

Everyone seams like a hater to a White Knight. I'm a DA customer, I do have skin in the game.










There are endless Sandman threads on Reddit r/NFA.
 
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Well Im looking at Ase Utra SL7i-Borelock and A-TEc Marks man. Do you have any experience with Ase utra?
Only experience I have is watching others use them. Where I live they are half the price of a good rifle. They are too expensive for me. I am just happy I got a second hand ASE Utra JetZ that I am extremely happy with.

ASE have been making suppressors for military use for a while. Noise reduction sounds subjectively is as good as other larger cans with the added advantage of being able to run them really hot without damage. If you search far enough on the interweb you'll find a photo of one glowing from heat. Fully welded construction means there are no parts that can come loose when abused. You'll probably bend the barrel before damaging the suppressor...
 
So, probably beating a dead horse here, but I can't help it.

Does anyone know the barrel quality/mamanufacturer behind all those horror stories? I'm a Form 1 suppressor guy, and have NEVER had concentricity issues.

I know AK platforms are notorious, as well as cheap barrels.
 
So I guess I have skin in the game since I own a Sandman S and a Nomad Ti and have a Sierra 5 in jail. I do participate in a couple of forums (although not Reddit) and have seen some people have issues with the Sierra 5, but I thought that was a few early ones. All I can say is that zero problems with my Nomad Ti or Sandman S. The Sandman S is switched between 3+ rifles and has probably sees 3-4000 rounds through it so far.

As far as CS, I do know DA has a gentleman who frequently posts on this forum and does seem to be very responsive to any CS issues.

And with respect to KGM, they have recently pulled out of the civilian market all together to focus on military/police contracts, so maybe that has something to do with their no longer doing the work for DA. And I've never heard anything negative about KGM's own stuff.