Getting ready for a much quieter 2018 hunting season

[Gtscotty]

After few suppressed rabbit and squirrel hunting trips a few years ago, I was sold on hunting with a suppressor. I finally got my lightweight titanium .30 cal can in around Christmas time. The last step to get ready for Elk/Muley/Antelope season this year was to get my two main hunting rifles threaded for my can.

Both my .30-06 X-Bolt and my 6.5 Creed Kimber Montana have barrels that are normally too thin to thread for a standard suppressor thread pattern. Luckily our very own MachIVshooter is a master on a lathe, so I sent my barreled actions out to him to be cut, threaded and fitted with a threaded collar to provide a good shoulder for my can to seat against.

Here's how my barreled actions came back:



I wound up going with a 20" barrel length on the Kimber, finished in a 1/2"x28 thread. The X-Bolt had to be chopped to 18.5" to get enough meat for a 5/8"x24 thread.

Kimber



X-Bolt



I picked up some cheapo thread protectors on Amazon that fit pretty well. All in all I'm really happy with how the rifles came out, tomorrow will be my first chance to try them at the range, I'm going to chrono some ammo I worked up for them when they were both 22" and see how much velocity I lost and if they still like those loads.

A big thanks to MachIVshooter, just a really cool guy to talk to/work with who puts out great work!

 

[horsemen61]

Very cool op color my jealous I’d love to hunt suppressed but it’s not in the cards at the moment

 

[Ks5shooter]

Very cool

 

[marksman13]

I all but refuse to shoot an unsuppressed rifle these days. Very nice looking rigs. Congrats.

 

[PapaG]

This repressed Illinois (no, you can't have full autos, suppressors, or fun) resident is extremely jealous. Have fun for us, too.

 

[ontarget]

Very cool.

 

[Gtscotty]

I got out to the range today and chrono'd some of my established loads in my newly shortened rifles, here are the before and after velocities:

Browning X-Bolt .30-06

165gr SGK/H4350
22": 2,920 fps
18.5" w/can: 2,825 fps

180gr SGK/H4350
22": 2,800 fps
18.5" w/can: 2,716 fps

180gr NPT/H4350
22": 2,780 fps
18.5" w/can: 2,681 fps

180gr AB/RL16
22": 2,760 fps
18.5" w/o can: 2,646 fps
18.5" w/can: 2,665 fps


Kimber Montana 6.5 Creedmoor

140gr AB/RL16
22": 2,760 fps
20" w/can: 2,765 fps

127gr LRX/RL16
22": 2,915 fps
20" w/can: 2,897 fps

Altogether, I lost right around 100 fps or a hair less on the .30-06 chopping 3.5" off. There's still plenty of velocity left for my purposes, and the effective barrel length with the can on comes to 25 3/8"... Not too bad!

The 6.5 Creedmoor was a bit of a surprise in that the 20" barrel with the can attached didn't seem to give up much velocity at all to the 22" stock barrel configuration.

I didn't really have enough ammo to shoot for groups, but I think I'm going to have to tweak the loads a bit for the .30-06 to get back to my accuracy nodes. No biggie though, both rifles carried and pointed well with my suppressor on the end, I'm very pleased with both setups thus far.

.30-06 cooling between strings

 

[cdb1]

Excellent work MachIVshooter.

 

[FL-NC]

Very nice. I have been waiting for a can to be approved for 518 days and counting. I'll stop now before I go into a full-on rant.

 

[farmerboy78]

That' a huge chunk of sh*t to wait that long, I'd wear there phone out

 

[Demi-human]

I have been waiting for a can to be approved for 518 days and counting.

This is why I haven't got one yet. I know, the sooner I get to waiting for it the sooner it will get here, but I am not very patient, at all. It will be another thirty to sixty days for my Valkyrie barrel from Brownells and it is nearly killing me!

A suppressor was going to be the purchase this year, but I found a great deal on a receiver kit.

(Of course the year is young yet. Muhahaha.)



Very interesting about the velocity change, or lack there of, with the six-five.

 

[MCMXI]

@Gtscotty, very nice! Are the "adapters" permanently attached with some type of thread locker? Also, it looks like you have a 1/2-28 direct thread interface for your can i.e. you're not using a 5/8-24 to 1/2-28 adapter. Is this correct?

One more question, what's the bore size for the 6.5 CM 1/2-28 adapter on the muzzle?

 

[Gtscotty]

@Gtscotty, very nice! Are the "adapters" permanently attached with some type of thread locker? Also, it looks like you have a 1/2-28 direct thread interface for your can i.e. you're not using a 5/8-24 to 1/2-28 adapter. Is this correct?

One more question, what's the bore size for the 6.5 CM 1/2-28 adapter on the muzzle?

How do you put in the @-a user name hyperlink? I wanted to put one in for MachIVshooter in my original post, but couldn't figure out how.

The way he threaded these, there are no adapters. The actual barrel on the Kimber is threaded 1/2"x28 with a recessed crown, then he makes a collar that has the same inside thread pattern, spins that on, rocksetts it in place and turns the end of the collar closest to the receiver down to match the barrel OD at where they meet. The collar has a turned finish as opposed to bead blasted like the barrel, you can see where it ends in the picture. The only reason for the collar is to provide an adequate mounting shoulder for the can to square against on a barrel that may be just thick enough to have the threads themselves turned. I think the OD of the shoulder portion of the collar on the 1/2"x28 is around 0.7", and on the 5/8"x24 it's around 0.825"



The can I got for hunting is a Liberty Sovereign, one of the nice things about it is that it comes with two direct thread adapters and a brake that all lock into the can body with a taper lock system. I don't really care for the radial brake (heavy, super loud, kicks up debris when prone), but the ability to switch between different direct thread sized is really handy.



Next to my Saker 762, the Sovereign is about the same size but 10oz lighter.



With the different direct thread options I've wound up using this can on a bunch of different rifles, the Saker is pretty much relegated to hard use ARs at this point.

Very nice. I have been waiting for a can to be approved for 518 days and counting. I'll stop now before I go into a full-on rant.

That's terrible, have you called the hotline to see what the issue is? On NFA tracker, it seems like the FBI background check is holding several folks up for long periods of time with no reason given. My wait on this can was 150 days pending to approved and a few weeks in the mail, arriving at my dealer in mid January.

 

[MCMXI]

How do you put in the @-a user name hyperlink? I wanted to put one in for MachIVshooter in my original post, but couldn't figure out how.

Simply type the @ character followed by the user name e.g. @MachIVshooter , @MCMXI , @Gtscotty As you input a members name you'll get a drop down list with member's names that have the appropriate arrangement of letters.

The way he threaded these, there are no adapters. The actual barrel on the Kimber is threaded 1/2"x28 with a recessed crown, then he makes a collar that has the same inside thread pattern, spins that on, rocksetts it in place and turns the end of the collar closest to the receiver down to match the barrel OD at where they meet. The collar has a turned finish as opposed to bead blasted like the barrel, you can see where it ends in the picture. The only reason for the collar is to provide an adequate mounting shoulder for the can to square against on a barrel that may be just thick enough to have the threads themselves turned. I think the OD of the shoulder portion of the collar on the 1/2"x28 is around 0.7", and on the 5/8"x24 it's around 0.825"

Yes, I realize the reason for the collar but didn't realize that the collar is a separate piece that threads over the new muzzle thread .... very cool!

 

[MachIVshooter]

Thanks for the kind words!

I didn't really have enough ammo to shoot for groups, but I think I'm going to have to tweak the loads a bit for the .30-06 to get back to my accuracy nodes

Yeah, some are more affected than others. My .25-06 saw almost no change in POI or accuracy with the suppressor. My .220 swift, on the other hand, had a 1.3" POI shift @ 100 yards with the same can. Not even sure on the .17 Rem. Threaded it months ago, but haven't zeroed it with suppressor yet

 

[farmerboy78]

This is why I haven't got one yet. I know, the sooner I get to waiting for it the sooner it will get here, but I am not very patient, at all. It will be another thirty to sixty days for my Valkyrie barrel from Brownells and it is nearly killing me!

A suppressor was going to be the purchase this year, but I found a great deal on a receiver kit.

(Of course the year is young yet. Muhahaha.)



Very interesting about the velocity change, or lack there of, with the six-five.

I have an upper that craddock precision built, love it!