Silencer Saturday #380: Suppressors V. Brakes On Competition Guns

Good afternoon everyone and welcome back to TFB’s Silencer Saturday, brought to you by Yankee Hill Machine, manufacturers of the new YHM R45 Multi-Host Suppressor. This week we'll be talking about rifle silencers and their placing competition shooting. There are many pros and cons to consider. So let's go through them.

Silencer Saturday @ TFB:

• Silencer Saturday #379: The Ultra Lightweight TiOn Dragoon 7.62 QD
• Silencer Saturday #378: IWI Get Into The Silencer Game
• Silencer Saturday #377: BOE Suppression Mod 1S
• Silencer Saturday #376: The Curious (Legal) Case Of George Peterson

NRL Hunter

2 weekends ago, I shot my first NRL Hunter match with my brother. I have a full series coming about that match, explaining what it was like to shoot one as a beginner. Spoiler alert: it was awesome. I had a great time.

But one thing that surprised me about the match was how few shooters were using silencers. My non-scientific guess would be that about 3/4 of the shooters were using muzzle brakes in lieu of a silencer. Suppressors have become very popular with rifle hunters, and this is a match that's supposed to simulate hunting conditions insofar as that is possible.

As much as this is attempting to be like a real hunt, it's still very influenced by the trends in PRS. This makes a lot of sense, though, because PRS rifles are built to be extremely accurate from all sorts of weird shooting positions. The trend in that game has been towards more and more aggressive muzzle brakes for a few years now.

Precision Rifle Blog has a great, long-running series looking at what items are most popular among the top PRS shooters in the country. That data shows 80% of the top 200 shooters are running brakes instead of silencers. In short, data and testing from Precision Rifle Blog show that muzzle brakes outperform silencers recoil reduction. Brakes also do a better job of keeping the view through the optic close to the point of aim during recoil. With data like that, it's obvious why brakes will be popular. (If you found this kind of data and info interesting, please go over to Precision Rifle Blog. It's a great site!)

Why Choose A Silencer?

So then why would anyone choose to run a silencer at all? There are still some good reasons to pick a can over a brake. The most obvious is noise reduction. None of us is getting any more hearing back, and if you've shot for a lifetime, the accrued hearing damage can be significant. Many of us would choose to give up a little performance in order to protect what we have left of our hearing.

Teams vs Solo

Another reason why silencers may be chosen is the format of the event. When I shot the NRL hunter match, I did so as part of a 2 man team. One of us would shoot while the other would spot, and then we would switch which one of us was doing each job. Communication between the shooter and the spotter are obviously important and silencers make that much easier. We still wore light hearing protection, but that made it much easier to communicate during the stages than wearing massive earmuffs or even doubling up plugs and muffs.

In contrast, PRS shooters shoot solo. They don't have to deal with the muzzle blast of a teammate's gun near their face. Brakes tend to be worse for the people around the gun than the person behind the gun, So this is a major differentiating factor.

Sometimes, on a stage, the props or terrain will amplify the sound back toward the shooter. For example, shooting through a pipe or up against a wall can be very loud because the brake ejects sound out to the sides. Those barriers reflect the sound back toward the shooter.

Another beneficiary of silencer use are the range officers. These guys spend all day on the line, watching people shoot and being near the noise of the guns. Remember how we said that brakes are more uncomfortable for people around the gun than behind the gun? That includes the range officers. At the NRL hunter match, one range officer commented that we were “civilized” because we were both running silencers on our guns. The argument can also be made that a happy RO is more likely to give you the point if you have an iffy shot, but that's hard to prove.

Splitting the Difference

Another reason why you shouldn't rule out a silencer entirely is the increase in products that blend muzzle brakes and silencers. SilencerCo’s Anchor Brake has been doing this for a long time. All the way back with their early silencers, like the original Harvester, SilencerCo has been putting a muzzle brake at the front end of the silencer. Just like any other brake, the gases exiting the front of the silencer hit the flat surfaces of the Anchor Brake and push the rifle forward, counteracting recoil. Newer silencers include this feature like the Omega 300 and the Scythe-Ti, too.

This is not a feature unique to just one brand, though. Dead Air offers the E-Brake for the Nomad, Sierra, and Sandman families of silencers. Barrett has the QDL for use on their .50 BMG rifles. Liberty Suppressors offers the Sovereign.

Another way to get an endcap brake from the aftermarket. RecoilX sells a .33 caliber add-on brake in a variety of fitments. I don't have any first-hand experience with these but the design looks like it would function well, and I think I saw one on a gun at the NRL Hunter match, but that sighting was not confirmed.

Thanks for spending some of your Saturday with us here at TFB. We'll see you back here next week for more silencer fun.