Thread: Another suppressor question

Hey team, not sure if this has been discussed before.

I have two different makes of suppressors. Without disclosing the brands, for obvious reasons.

The rifle groups exceptionally well with one suppressor and the groups opens up with the other one. Exact same hand loads.
And no, the projectile does not clip on the second suppressor.

The first one weighs a lot more than the second one. That tells me the harmonics of the barrel changes due to more weight on the front vs less weight.

What's the easiest way, without doing load development all over again to get the gun to group with the second suppressor?

how much of "opening up" are you talking????
in effect you have ,as you suggest,changed barrel harmonics so all bets are off.
luckily my rifles havent done this.
have you double checked the bedding???

From a tight clover to 2" at 100m. Nothing to do with bedding as it groups excellent with the heavier suppressor.
Group is 5x shots at 100m with heavier suppressor.

POI also changes between the two. The heavier shoots +- 80mm lower at 100m. The barrel is a heavy varmint profile, so wouldn't expect that sort of difference, but it does.

Originally Posted by DELTA NZ

From a tight clover to 2" at 100m. Nothing to do with bedding as it groups excellent with the heavier suppressor.
Group is 5x shots at 100m with heavier suppressor.

I have exactly the same problem, my old supressor groups a lot better than my new (heavier) supressor. And groups best with no supressor

I seem to have tracked it down to a spot on my tikka where the barrel touches, i suspech more weight on the barrel increases the effect of said spot.

Im gonna cut said spot out and see if it fixes it.

My barrel is slightly thicker than the factory and its cerakoted so i geuss that makes it touch a bit more.

But yeah, your one is the other way around so maybe random harmonics

Originally Posted by DELTA NZ

POI also changes between the two. The heavier shoots +- 80mm lower at 100m. The barrel is a heavy varmint profile, so wouldn't expect that sort of difference, but it does.

Thats wierd, the abovementioned Tikka (308 sporter has a shilen barrel) has less than 0.5moa diffrence between no supressor and the light supressor. The heavy supressor about 1.5moa from the no supressor impact.


I had an old mossberg ATR that was 12moa between supressor on and off haha.

so your sort of seeing what I am pointing towards......how does it group WITHOUT suppressor??? if its worse or similar to the light one...MAYBE the downward pressure of heavier can is helping somehow... are you shooting both suppressors using the hugyourself/offhand on toe of stock??? if so try offhand on forstock...JUST BECAUSE MAYBE its jumping around a bit more with less weight up front.
what Im driving at is trying to find the why its different....might be the weight forward,might be harmonics,might be rifle moving.... try it and see.

I'd be checking whether the bush at the back of the suppressor is touching the barrel one one of these vs the other. Some say contact is Ok. I think there should be clearance.

Different mass. different harmonics. different poi/grouping.

Why do you think barrel tuners are a thing?

Yep what zeropak said I would be checking that too

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The heavier one is a over barrel, not touching the bush at the back. The lighter one is forward only.

Originally Posted by STC

Different mass. different harmonics. different poi/grouping.

Why do you think barrel tuners are a thing?

100% agree. What's the easiest way to get it to group without going through load development again?

I don't think Harmonics would make that much difference. There's something else going on with that barrel forward suppressor. Not sure what, Maybe alignment, I know you said there was no bullet contact with the suppressor but in my experience even restricted travel can cause muzzle blast to upset the projectile.

One is weight shift on barrel harmonics other will be volume of the suppressor and gas pressure difference especially on the projectile leaving the end.

Are both threads equally tight and lock the suppressors hard against the barrel, or is there a gap? I would have placed my bet on harmonics, but that seems less likely on a varmint weight heavy barrel. Puzzling indeed.