Suppressors are great for training and other uses such as hunting to protect your hearing and keep noise pollution down. Not only do they protect your hearing but it is easier to have conversations between strings of fire without having to yell load enough to hear each other. In many circumstances the suppressor can quiet the gun enough to be hearing protection safe without other forms ear protection.
About a year ago a customer told us about a great resource he found to compare the performance of suppressors. A website called pewscience.com was created by Jay, a sound engineer in 2019. He tests suppressors and posts his data on his website. He posts data such as decibel level at the shooter's ear, decibel level at the muzzle and the back pressure that suppressors produce. This is all great data to have available to make a better informed decision on which suppressors are going to fit your needs. He has posted results for over a hundred suppressors on his website and continues to update the list frequently. There are way too many suppressors out there for him to have tested them all but he does have a pretty comprehensive list and has posted data and most of the popular suppressors. Suppressor ratings posted by manufacturers should be taken with a grain of salt as their testing conditions might be a little different than other companies when they test their suppressors and they will likely be biased towards their products. Jay's testing is more fair in comparing suppressor performance because he tests them all in the similar conditions. He also does not work directly for one particular suppressor manufacture, so he is more likely to not show any more bias towards any particular suppressor when posting the numbers. There is compromise with a suppressor's performance just like with anything else. In order for the suppressor to have a higher rating of suppression, it will likely produce more back pressure in the firearm. With a bolt action rifle, higher back pressure isn't as much of an issue because the operator is the one cycling the bolt. Now if you are suppressing a semi-auto, then higher back pressure will cause the action to cycle faster and can cause malfunctions or batter the gun with the increased bolt velocity. Because of this you may have to settle for a certain decibel level or go to a suppressor with a flow through design in order to get a suppressor that produces less back pressure. Generally, the longer or bigger a suppressor is, the better it will perform. The trade off is that it is long and maybe even be a little heavier. In order to have a shorter or lighter suppressor, you will have to sacrifice some performance in how many decibels are reduced.
Again, this data is graphed and charted on his website for users to compare to make the best informed decision for what is going to fit their needs. When you are ready to dive into purchasing your first suppressor or adding another one to your pile, stop into Axmen Firearms and we can explain the process to you. We have been submitting our applications by way of eforms for over a year now. This means that we can take your fingerprints, photos and submit your applications for you right in the shop, with no appointment needed. This leaves you with no homework of having to figure a place and time to get your fingerprints taken and then getting your passports photos taken yourself.
Have a great and safe weekend!