Pistol Caliber Suppressors – 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Buying

Overview:

Our goal is to help you buy the right suppressor the first time! Buying a pistol caliber suppressor can be just as complicated (if not more) as buying a rifle suppressor. In this video Rob shares his experiences and regrets with pistol caliber suppressors, along with his 5 tips to make you aware of these potential issues.

Skip To Video Topic:

00:00 - Intro
00:30 - 5) Attachment Devices
01:32 - 4) Modularity & Large Bore Suppressors
02:50 - 3) Running Wet vs Dry
04:11 - 2) Do-All Suppressors
05:30 - 1) Lack Of Applicability

Transcript:

Hey everybody, Rob Orgel. In today's video, I want to cover pistol caliber suppressors. Now in many cases, that would mean something like pistol suppressor. To me, I like saying pistol caliber suppressor. Now here's the top five things I wish I had known before buying a suppressor, putting in that $200 and that $800 suppressor, and then waiting my two, four, six, eight, 10 months before I get my suppressor and find out why it's not all it's so cracked up to be. So let's count them down starting from number five. Attachment devices. So you'll see on pistols that they're blowback operated. What that means is when you cycle your pistol, the barrel will tilt up. It does this to unlock the action. As it tilts up, when you add weight to the end of that suppressor, you prevent it from unlocking and tilting up. So pistol suppressors need a booster or a Nielsen device. And what that does is give back pressure to the pistol to help it unlock. In rifles, we don't like back pressure. In pistols, we need back pressure. So this Nielsen device is going to be thread pitch specific and it is interchangeable. This allows us to screw our suppressor onto our pistol. Now personally, I like using other systems such as pistol caliber carbines where I can use a three lug style of mount. A three lug style of mount has three different lugs on the side of it. You drop it in, give it a slight rotation and it locks into place. We'll show you what that looks like and why I prefer it as compared to the Nielsen device. That's number five. Mounting solution. Number four. Modularity and large bore suppressor. Anyone at the gun store and everybody buying their first suppressor says, "I'm gonna buy a 45 caliber suppressor. The reason I'm gonna do that is I'll be able to suppress my entire gun collection." Now hindsight, I wish I had not done that. It makes sense because it gets the maximum mileage out of your suppressor. However, progressing further down your career and I'm sure you'll argue with me and throw comments in the comment section about how I don't know what I'm talking about, but I don't shoot 45 ACP anymore. I've never been a fan of 40 caliber. For me, pistols really live in that nine millimeter flavor. Sure, I've got some 10 millimeters and some 357s and some 44s and some other cool things, but they're not the thing that I use the most and they're definitely not what I use in defensive situations. Having said that, if you predominantly shoot nine millimeter, as most of the industry tends to do these days, it's better to buy just a nine millimeter suppressor. This will get maximum suppression of your nine millimeters, which probably you're using most anyways. If not, if you're 45, 40 guy, then hey, by all means get your 45 ACP suppressor and suppressor whole collection. But once you fall in love with that suppressor, if you want it to be even quieter, you'll get the nine millimeter version as well. That's number four, get an oversized bore for your suppressor. Number three, wet versus dry. Now this is one of those confusing topics that people go back and forth about and the truth is I don't care. Putting lithium pulling grease or lithium gel or wire pulling, all the fancy stuff you can put inside your suppressor to make it a little bit quieter. Yes, it is a little bit quieter, but after like five, 10, 15 rounds, all of that gets removed. This is what's known as like a median or a barrier. This gets absorbed and then it comes out the end and it gets aerated and it's just, it's not good and it kicks a ton of junk in your face. So I'm not a red dot optic on pistol. Comment in the section below if you want to know why I don't put red dots on my pistol, but if you are a red dot pistol kind of guy, you'll find that when you shoot it, it's gonna kick a bunch of stuff under the screen of your red dot and that will cause several problems. I'll stop it there as regards to red dots on pistols. Just know that I'm not a fan anyways. So in the end, I would say the running it wet versus dry and do note that some suppressors cannot be run wet. Many pistol suppressors can, but some cannot. So make sure you check your owner's manual before you do it, but just know it's not something I like to do and when you give me a decimal rating based on wet, once I shoot the first 10 rounds and all that lithium grease is gone, I'm not going to replace it. So I'm going to really care about its dry suppressor rating. Number two, that multi utilitarian type suppressor, the one that goes on your 338 Lapula Magnum and then goes on your 9mm. In my opinion, it's too extreme. Most rifle suppressors weigh substantially more than pistol suppressors. Having said that, dual sport motorcycle can go on the road, it can go on the dirt. I get it, but it's not the best at either of those worlds. So if you're only allowed to have one suppressor and you want to suppress your whole collection, I can appreciate why you would buy that suppressor. But in America, we can buy multiple, well in the America I know, some America's like certain states, you can't have suppressors, but in America I live in, you can buy as many suppressors as I want. So I would recommend getting one rifle suppressor and one pistol suppressor. And if you want a dual with a 45, you know my thoughts on that. But this way you have a very capable rifle suppressor and a very capable pistol suppressor. One that can do both, usually doesn't suppress rifles very well, given its bore diameter of say 9mm or 45 ACP. And then the weight of a rifle suppressor going on to a pistol, they just don't pair well. So it's my advice that if you want a dual, get yourself a 30 caliber rifle suppressor and get yourself a 45 or 9mm caliber pistol suppressor. Don't do the rifle pistol. In my experience, it has not voted well. That's number two, rifle and pistol combination suppressors. Number one, lack of applicability. Now a lot of you are going to say, "Well, what are you talking about?"

I don't do this. This is fun on the range. But setting this up is not realistic to me. I don't foresee a situation when I'm going to draw my pistol in a defensive situation and say, "Hold on, take my muzzle protector or my thread protector off, put my suppressor on, and then engage a target." It's fun on the range, it's fun to play with, it's fun to let your buddy shoot, because it is very quiet. But I don't see myself using this. Now you can say, "Rob, there's a holster that holds my pistol with the suppressor attached to it." If you have that much room in your pants, that's wonderful. I don't find that to be the case. It's very uncomfortable and we're all looking for that more comfortable compact pistol. Adding a suppressor, even if it's a little tiny suppressor, is very, very uncomfortable. I mean, look at how we're fighting over the Glock 43 versus the Glock 48. You're talking about like a half-inch distance difference and there's a comfortability aspect of that, both in shooting and in carrying every day. Adding four inches to your gun is a lot if you're going to carry it all day. So while holsters may exist, just know that I'm not really a fan of screwing a suppressor onto my gun and carrying it that way for a myriad of reasons, but we'll just leave it at the lack of comfort. So if I can't use pistol suppressors on my pistols, what are they for? I use them on pistol caliber carbines or sub guns. So there's AR9s, which I'm not a fan of AR9s, but APC9s from Bruger and Tomit. That's a phenomenal gun with a three lug adapter and then you can get, where's one of them? Here you go. This is an Omega 9K with a three lug adapter. It's very small. It adds very little to essentially what's like a rifle and it can stay on my weapon. I don't have to take it off to reholster it. So I like my suppressors to be paired with a rifle or pistol, pistol caliber carbine, or maybe a pistol that has the pistol brace. All of those are good to go for suppressors. As far as actual pistol goes, I'm really not a fan of having a suppressor on it other than having fun on the range. So I don't find pistol suppressors to be applicable to pistols, which leans me back into three lug and other tight mounting solutions, as we mentioned earlier. Hopefully this saves you some time and helps you understand the crazy world of suppressors and how weird it can get and how fast. And I really hope this saves you giving an extra 200 bucks to our government and an eight month wait and however much you paid for your silencer. These are the things I wish I had known before I started buying pistol suppressors. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the video. It's free to like, comment, and subscribe and it really helps us defeat that anti to a algorithm that says guns are bad. They're not bad and I know you already know that. Throw a comment in the comment section below to say guns are good or the video is greater. Hey, this helped me or Rob, you know what you're talking about. All of those helped me and it's great. Having said that, as always, stay safe and keep training.