Category: Semi Autos
I haven’t been able to do much shooting the last few weeks due to inclement weather, and various obligations (like paying the bills…) so I took a few minutes tonight to snap a few pics of some more of my suppressor hosts.
I’ve posted about most of these before, but I figured having some better photos and talking about why I like them would be better than not doing anything at all.
I originally built this ruger charger type pistol to test barrels and such for the long awaited SBR build that I completed recently. Once I was done with the testing, I added a few parts, and built this little gun. It’s quite accurate for such a short barrel, mostly due to the Kidd barrel, but it’s also a reasonable suppressor host. I say reasonable instead of great, because the Kidd barrel is just a bit too long to keep the cheap bulk ammo subsonic, so it’s louder than it would be if the barrel was an inch shorter.
This Contender G2 hasn’t really been talked about a lot yet, but it’s really a great host. Being a single shot, there’s no action noise aside from the hammer falling, and no ejection port noise either. The 16.25″ barrel requires subsonic ammo, like any other .22 rifle, to stay quiet, but it’s very accurate, and I’ve used it to shoot pests out at the old family homestead without annoying the neighbors.
The Walnut stocked Ruger 10/22 started life as a standard pre-warning gun. I still have all of the original parts I took off (barrel and trigger assembly) but I wanted something I could shoot with the suppressor and open sights, so I built the gun using the 21″ custom made SS barrel, and put a polymer trigger group on the rifle because it was already built with the auto bolt release, extended mag release and 2# trigger. I like the rifle a lot, but haven’t had a lot of opportunity to shoot it, as I’ve been working with other guns since I built it.
I’ve talked about this flamed out bump-fire .22 rifle before on the blog, but I don’t think I ever got a picture with the can attached. The Tac-Sol barrel of course is amazing, and pretty central to the build.
January 23, 2014 Tony 0 Comments
The S&W model 422 was originally brought out to be a less expensive, and most likely less accurate version of the S&W model 41 target pistol. It succeeded in being less expensive, and I suppose it may also be less accurate, but it’s hard to say for sure.
My model 422 is very well worn. The owner who had it before me bought it new, and said he fired over 100 thousand rounds through it before selling it to me. I’m not sure if that number is correct, but the gun had certainly seen plenty of use.
One of my favorite things about the 422 platform is it’s ability to be easily adapted for suppressor use. Because the barrel is tensioned from the factory, all you need to do is remove the factory tension nut, and replace it with a threaded adapter. The one on my pistol is an older version, and newer ones are shorter and less obtrusive. Because the barrel sits so low in the gun compared to the slide and sights, there are no issues with seeing over a suppressor like there are with some other pistols. You could actually mount a 1.5″ diameter suppressor and still use the sights.
Since my model has a 4.5″ barrel, almost all of the bulk pack and high velocity (not hyper velocity) ammo stays subsonic. Some ammo is exceptionally quiet, such as CCI ‘quiet’ ammo. (go figure)
Here’s a video showing just how quiet the gun can be:
December 23, 2013 Tony 1 Comments
A while ago I posted about my all stainless steel Charger type pistol. I mentioned that I would be updating the pistol as things went along, and since I’ve made some changes to the pistol, I figured I’d update here as well.
Since the last post, I’ve added a Medium eye relief scope (2.5X) and a Kidd barrel. The Scope was a gunshow bin buy scope, and it came without the adjuster caps. Since replacement caps would have cost more than I paid for the scope, I haven’t worried too much about them. The Barrel was purchased from Tony Kidd when he was having a sale earlier this year. The Kidd barrel is extremely well made. It’s also attractive, and accurate. And it should be no surprise, it also added more weight to the pistol.
You can’t tell from the photo (or in person) that the barrel is threaded, at least, not until you unscrew the thread protector. The finish is so well machined, that it’s literally impossible to see where the barrel stops and the thread protector starts.
I have fired a few magazines through the gun, but I forgot to get photos of the groups. After the holidays, I’ll get back to the range, and shoot some groups and show you just how well the thing shoots.
The only complaint that I have thus far is that the barrel is too long to keep cheap bulk pack ammo subsonic. But at least the added length helps with cycling, and so standard velocity ammo runs through the gun just fine. SV ammo of course, is subsonic by nature, but it’s also more expensive…
December 22, 2013 Tony 0 Comments
Well, I started this project a while ago, and I’m getting closer to the final product now.
The stock is an Knox Axiom charger stock, chosen mainly because it was cheap. The Receiver is a Solid stainless unit from MOA industries. (You must start with a never before used receiver or a pistol receiver to make a pistol) The trigger assembly is a Solid stainless steel unit from an 80’s vintage AMT lightning. The Barrel is 3.5″ and was cut down from a standard barrel. The barrel is threaded and custom chambered.
The short barrel was chosen to reduce the overall length of the finished gun. One issue with the short barrel was unreliable function. 4.5″ is generally considered the minimum on a 10/22 type pistol for reliability. I slicked up the inside of the receiver and the bolt to help, but the biggest difference was the Kidd charging handle. With all that, it runs great with a 3.5″ barrel and the short barrel keeps even the hottest bulk pack type ammo subsonic.
With the Tac-Sol suppressor, the gun is reliable, quiet and running well. When I get my stamp back the gun will be going in a custom folding stock and become an SBR.
I decided to give it a try with a ‘Docter’ brand red-dot sight. It looks a little funny, but we’ll see how it shoots:
October 29, 2013 Tony 0 Comments
I remember years ago reading an original Maxim silencer advertisement, and reading through their brochure. One of the things that struck me was the mention that you could fire shotshells through the suppressor just like any other gun.
If you ask online about shooting .22 shotshells through a suppressor, you will be told not to do it. You will be told this for good reason. Firing shotshells through a suppressor is a pretty bad idea. The shot could spread out and cause damage to the baffles, not to mention lead up the suppressor.
Since the Tac-Sol Cascade Ti has a generous through bore (.290″) and is fairly short and made of solid titanium, I figured I would tempt fate and fire some .22 shotshells through the suppressor to see if they worked. I figured I would know right away if they shot or the capsule weren’t clearing the suppressor.
I started out by placing some cardboard 6″ from the muzzle of the gun, and firing. The hole created was .244″ in diameter and uniform. I tried again at the same distance, the the shots were consistently less than .250″. That was good enough for me.
I started out slow, and just fired one shotshell through the can, after inspecting the suppressor and seeing no indications of contact, I fired a magazine full, still no contact. I was limited because I was shooting into the bullet trap in the safe room, so I couldn’t really back up and check out how things sounded or if it effected patterns at all. I hope to get to the range to try some more later in the week.
For now, a short video shooting into the bullet trap.
October 8, 2013 Tony 0 Comments