TOO many to pick from

Liberty Mystic X would be a good choice for your first suppressor.

I can tell you my personal experience and maybe it will help.

Take a look at the Sparrow and the Spectre II for your rimfire can. I have both and love them. you can break them down easily and since they are stainless (baffles) you can drop them in an ultrasonic for easy cleaning. I can say from my personal experience that you want a rimfire can that comes apart, they get real dirty.

I have a Saker 762 for my centerfires. I know you asked about a .223, which you can run through the Saker 762 with no problem (plus any 30 cal rifle you may buy in the future). If you want to cut down on the sound a bit, it's as simple as replacing the end cap on the can to fit your desired caliber. However it is not necessary, just an option.

For a centerfire pistol have you considered the Osprey? I have an Osprey 45. I shoot my 9mm's through it, plus all of my 45's. 45's are subsonic so they are super quiet. Most 9mm's are supersonic so you will still get the sonic crack. The exception are 147 grain 9mm's, they are subsonic.

I have the Sparrow and would highly recommend it unless a slight first round "pop" was if great concern. The report is similar to an airgun and based on previous experiences a lit match in the suppressor can eliminate the first round pop if the strike does not scare the game away.

for a rimfire can, if it's for a rifle only, get the sparrow. if it is going to be used on a pistol as well, get the spectre 2. That first round pop on the sparrow is kind of loud.

for a rifle can, look at something 30 cal. that way you can use it on the 223 and on larger calibers like 308 if you so desire. I also recommend something lightweight. hanging 20+oz off on the end of a rifle barrel can really mess up the balance and feel of the gun.

RunninLate said:

While at a LGS today, they showed me an Omega can that can be sized down for 45 to 9 in that order by changing a piston. Is a piston an adapter?

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It's both, it's often called a piston, a mount, an adaptor, a LID, a Nielsen device, etc. All major manufacturers use pretty much the same design on their pistol cans, and that design is to compensate for the way most centerfire pistol barrels move when the gun is fired, and it also allows you to switch out the piston for use on barrels with different thread pitches.

I assume you're referring to the Octane or the Osprey, considering the Omega is a 30 caliber rifle can. The Octane and Osprey aren't unique in that manner, pretty much all 45 silencers on the market can have their piston switched out to shoot it on a 9mm.

I just got mine, with a trust.. Took 143 days. YMMV..

Spectre II for the .22LR.. With the normal/subsonic rounds, it's not much louder than releasing the bolt..

Specwar 7.62.. Got it for .308 and 5.56.. Range report for today says that the .308 was pleasant compared.. The 5.56 was normal velocity and has a loud crack.. Was shooting under a cover..

FWIW, the Spectre II and the Sparrow are both top rated but of different designs ( Someone with a Sparrow can correct if I'm wrong ). The Spectre is a removable baffle system with the older style baffles, rated easier to disassemble & clean. The Sparrow is a monocore design with a simpler design, not sure on how easy to clean.

The Specwar 7.62 is not designed to be taken apart to clean.

I have not disassembled the Spectre II at this point.

As far as making sure you get the right one; how do you know it's the right one? Ask someone you know; personally, I'd ask the dealer after telling him/her what you expect to use it with and how. Then look at the price points, and pick one.. Me, I tend to go mid to high price.. Chances are, these might not be your last cans, so learn with these initial few, then go back once you figure out what you do or don't like.

I chose one for .308 because the dealer recommended using the .308 with 5.56 instead of getting a dedicated .308 and a dedicated 5.56.

After today, in a few months, I'll probably go thru and buy another couple as spares/backups.. Changing a hot can at the range can be painful- so having a second is worthwhile, to me that is.

Right there with you. I got my trust in May and am now waiting for three tax stamps.

For .22 I chose the Sparrow as based on ease of maintenance. This is also the only silencer I have personally used.

For handgun I chose the Osprey .45 because it reviews well and can be used on 9mm and .40 as well.

For c.f. rifle I got an Omega 7.62, again on the idea it can down-adapt to 5.56.

Good choices? Maybe. I'll start to find out in another 4 months.

There is a lot of information out there, but it is hard to make sense of without any point of reference. The comparison to buying a first gun is a good one, with the difference being that not many shops will rent suppressors.

I should have mentioned I have been collecting guns with threaded barrels for a few years. I have five factory-threaded .22LRs, two .308s, and AR uppers in .223 and .300 blackout. So the .22 and 7.62 cans were no brainers for me.

What I don't have is any threaded centerfire handguns.

I am now seriously debating the pistol(s) to set up for silencer use and have a thread in the autoloaders section about candidate .45s. The simplest/cheapest answer would be a drop-in barrel for a Glock 22 (which I happen to have).

My three silencers were picked from three different stores, two local and one several hundred miles away. Each store had something to offer and I am lucky to have several nfa-friendly shops in my area.

There is a chart here that breaks down some suppressors by specs

http://www.olivebrancharmory.com/decisions/

savetheclaypigeons said:

There is a chart here that breaks down some suppressors by specs

http://www.olivebrancharmory.com/decisions/

Click to expand...

I don't want to pick on this because it is useful information, but this really helps highlight why making silencer decisions can be so frustrating.

That site provides sortable tables of the various suppressors, divided by class. Unfortunately it is all based on manufacturers specs and different manufacturers use different standards. So you have one silencer rated at 38db of reduction, and the next reads 136db (which can't be the reduction, it must be total volume in some specific test case) in the same column. You have weights for some but not all, and so on.

Between approval times, limited inventory, and everything else it may not be possible to do better, short of a year long project with a lot of money dedicated to tax stamps.

I strongly recommend the Sparrow SS for its easy take apart for cleaning, something you can easily put off for 700-800 rounds with the Sparrow, but will be difficult for others after only 300-400 rounds.

For 5.56 and a collection of ARs I really like my GemTech Halo because it mounts quickly on the "standard" A2 flash hider so you don't end up needing to buy a bunch of expensive QD mounts or constantly remove the flash hider to screw on the can. Although most makers use crush washers these days so you will likely have to replace the crush washer with peel washers. Took me a while to get all my ARs done, but now the can can be used with any of them. Its not just ARs, anything with the A2 standard flash hider works -- my Tavor is great with the Halo on it.