Does a flash hider make a significant difference on a .22lr rifle?

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Hugo Schmeisser

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The new Ruger 10-22s with flash hiders certainly look neat, I understand Ruger is mostly using the FHs as suppressor thread protectors, but I always wondered if .22lr produces enough flash to bother moderating it. What say you gents?

PS: Mossberg now puts a Barret .50-style recoil comp on their .22lr "plinkster" rifles, and that's just silly. But then apparently those flat-brimmed baseball hats are here to stay as well. Nobody's gonna go broke underestimating the taste of the modern citizen.
 
Do they make a difference? In my experience with a 16" barrel and shooting in the dark, while you might be able to see a little light coming out of the muzzle, it is generally dull and dim orange and really isn't a flash such as you get with the igniting powder and gasses from a caliber such as .223 when fired from a 16" barrel with no hider. For the .22, you really have to look for it to notice it.

Much more bothersome than the flash that I have seen in two different semi-auto .22 rifles is that you get more light coming from the ejection port that from the muzzle, much more.

With that said, flash hiders are good thread protectors for when you aren't using a silencer. They also do a very good job of protecting the crown.

If it comes with the gun, great. However, I would not pay to have a .22 barrel threaded to take a flash hider as the flash hider does just about nothing from what I have seen.
 
Perhaps I'll pop a few rounds off in the dark of the indoor range and see how much flash there really is ... but in past experience, there isn't much from any common .22lr round from even a long-ish pistol.
 
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