I recently purchased a Predator 12, mainly because my other suppressors are all muzzle-forward designs and I wanted a reflex suppressor.
The Wildcat Predator 12 is made here in the UK by a company called UK Custom Shop Limited.
It is a huge suppressor best suited for a bench gun. It is long and heavy: the weight is 719g and the length is 286mm if you have a 150mm reflex tube. More on that later.
Here it is on my Thompson/Center R55 Benchmark:
The P12 is a modular suppressor in three parts:
1) The bridge. This is the part that screws onto your barrel. You can order different bridges, for different thread requirements. The most common one I see here in the UK is 1/2" x 20 tpi (UNF). However my R55 barrel is threaded 1/2" x 28 tpi (UNEF), so that is the bridge I specified when ordering the P12.
The bridge has a forward facing thread and a rear-facing thread. The forward facing thread is for the main baffle stack (which is called the diffuser by the manufacturer). The rearward facing thread is for the reflex tube.
2) The diffuser. This is the unit that houses the baffle stack. The front of this diffuser is colour-coded to the intended calibre of use. In this case the diffuser is coloured purple as it is for .22 (not just .22 rimfire but could be used for any .22).
3) The reflex tube. This screws onto the back of the bridge and rearwards over your barrel (but not contacting the barrel). The company supplies a bushing that you can lathe out the center of, so that you can have a snug fit between the back of the reflex tube and your barrel. If you know the diameter of your barrel the company will lathe that bushing for you and include it in the kit.
I have elected not to use it, since I don't want a suppressor making two points of contact on my barrel. The bridge has several holes in it so that gas from the muzzle of the barrel has rearward access to the reflex tube. You can therefore regard the reflex tube as an extension of the initial air space provided by the bridge.
The interesting part about the reflex tube is you can get it in different lengths, from 110mm to 250mm. Mine is 150mm, because that is the longest one that can extend rearward on my R55 barrel.
So it really is a modular suppressor, since you specify a number of things before ordering:
1) Bridge thread
2) Diffuser calibre
3) Reflex tube length
4) Rear bushing inner diameter
At a later stage you could buy another bridge to allow you to use that suppressor on a gun with different threads.
You could also buy a longer or shorter reflex tube.
Finally you could buy a different diffuser stack (taking into account the fact that you might have to change the bridge also if the major calibre changed a great deal). In the UK, the purchasing of a different diffuser would be the same as buying a new suppressor since it is the prime component of this suppressor.
Here is a picture of the suppressor dismantled. The bottom left bushing is how it is when it leaves the factory without being turned on the lathe.
And here is a radiograph labelled to show how this suppressor is assembled:
To give an idea how far backward it extends over the barrel, here is a radiograph of it attached to my R55 Benchmark. The red arrows indicate the shoulder of the threaded end of the barrel.
Continued...
The Wildcat Predator 12 is made here in the UK by a company called UK Custom Shop Limited.
It is a huge suppressor best suited for a bench gun. It is long and heavy: the weight is 719g and the length is 286mm if you have a 150mm reflex tube. More on that later.
Here it is on my Thompson/Center R55 Benchmark:
The P12 is a modular suppressor in three parts:
1) The bridge. This is the part that screws onto your barrel. You can order different bridges, for different thread requirements. The most common one I see here in the UK is 1/2" x 20 tpi (UNF). However my R55 barrel is threaded 1/2" x 28 tpi (UNEF), so that is the bridge I specified when ordering the P12.
The bridge has a forward facing thread and a rear-facing thread. The forward facing thread is for the main baffle stack (which is called the diffuser by the manufacturer). The rearward facing thread is for the reflex tube.
2) The diffuser. This is the unit that houses the baffle stack. The front of this diffuser is colour-coded to the intended calibre of use. In this case the diffuser is coloured purple as it is for .22 (not just .22 rimfire but could be used for any .22).
3) The reflex tube. This screws onto the back of the bridge and rearwards over your barrel (but not contacting the barrel). The company supplies a bushing that you can lathe out the center of, so that you can have a snug fit between the back of the reflex tube and your barrel. If you know the diameter of your barrel the company will lathe that bushing for you and include it in the kit.
I have elected not to use it, since I don't want a suppressor making two points of contact on my barrel. The bridge has several holes in it so that gas from the muzzle of the barrel has rearward access to the reflex tube. You can therefore regard the reflex tube as an extension of the initial air space provided by the bridge.
The interesting part about the reflex tube is you can get it in different lengths, from 110mm to 250mm. Mine is 150mm, because that is the longest one that can extend rearward on my R55 barrel.
So it really is a modular suppressor, since you specify a number of things before ordering:
1) Bridge thread
2) Diffuser calibre
3) Reflex tube length
4) Rear bushing inner diameter
At a later stage you could buy another bridge to allow you to use that suppressor on a gun with different threads.
You could also buy a longer or shorter reflex tube.
Finally you could buy a different diffuser stack (taking into account the fact that you might have to change the bridge also if the major calibre changed a great deal). In the UK, the purchasing of a different diffuser would be the same as buying a new suppressor since it is the prime component of this suppressor.
Here is a picture of the suppressor dismantled. The bottom left bushing is how it is when it leaves the factory without being turned on the lathe.
And here is a radiograph labelled to show how this suppressor is assembled:
To give an idea how far backward it extends over the barrel, here is a radiograph of it attached to my R55 Benchmark. The red arrows indicate the shoulder of the threaded end of the barrel.
Continued...