Suppressors 101: Mini Suppressors – K Cans and What You Need To Know
Video Overview:
In this video, we take a dive into mini suppressors also known as "K Cans" , focusing specifically on 5.56 caliber. Rob shares his own experiences and insights to help set realistic expectations for these compact suppressors, discuss why they are ideal for shorter weapons, compare them to full-size suppressors, and highlight important considerations like barrel length restrictions and back pressure. In the near future we’ll be posting head-to-head testing of the Grunt Mini, Polonium 556K, Velos 556K, Surefire 212 Mini, KGM R556A1, B&T Rotex K, Huxwrx Flow K, Griffin Explorer, YHM Fat Cat, PWS BDE, and AAC M4 Mini.
Video Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:54 - K Can Hosts
02:18 - What Rob looks for in a K Can
02:50 - Data charts on our website
03:19 - K can expectations
04:10 - K can examples
05:06 - Upcoming K can showdown video
05:37 - Support our channel
Video Transcript:
Hey everybody, Rob Orgel with Silencer or Syndicate. In this video I wanted to hit the wave top perspective of K suppressors or mini suppressors as it pertains to 5.56 caliber. Now I think a lot of us might make this mistake because guess what, I made this mistake and my first rifle suppressor's actually right here on the table, it's the Surefire 212 Mini and it's questionable if it's even called that but it's Surefire's mini suppressor which was out before the RC models, the RC1, even the 5.56, it predates the 5.56 suppressors. So while it is a 5.56 suppressor, it was called the 212 Mini suppressor and it is not very quiet. So I want to share my experiences so that we can set an understanding and a good expectation of what your mini or K suppressor is going to be like. So first, it's my opinion that K suppressors belong on short guns. If you've got a long rifle, I could see having a long suppressor or a longer suppressor to accommodate maximum suppression but if you're in the business of clearing rooms and keeping your weapons short, then I can appreciate wanting to keep the overall package with suppressor short. So for my perspective, I like my K suppressors on smaller weapons and certainly many manufacturers will tell you if you're on a 14.5 or a 16 inch gun, you'll get more out of your K suppressor because it doesn't have to tame quite the amount of abuse. Unlike the short guns, you're putting out quite a big fireball. So for Rob's perspective, and yes, I refer to myself in the third person to specify that this is just my opinion and you're allowed to have a different opinion and you're allowed to use a different purpose of that suppressor. This is just what I like. So for me, I keep my K suppressors on shorter weapons. I don't compare my K suppressors to full size suppressors because it's not a fair comparison. Full size suppressors will usually be like six inches, seven inches, eight inches long and they'll usually do a great job with muzzle blast and sound suppression. And even in many cases have low back pressure. The K suppressors, because they're small, you would assume that means lower back pressure, but that's not necessarily the truth. In fact, one of the highest back pressure suppressors I own is seated on the table right now. It is in fact a K suppressor. So its size doesn't have a ton to do with back pressure. So what do I look for in my K suppressors? Well, one, I really don't like having barrel length restrictions because as I mentioned a moment ago, I liken on my short guns. So if I've got a seven, five gun and people will tell you not to suppress that weapon, I understand, but if I choose to suppress that weapon and my K suppressor says 10 inch minimum, don't surpass that 10 inch minimum. If you've seen our video about how to have your suppressor explode, surpassing barrel length restrictions is a good way to do that. So please know the barrel length restrictions. If you're not sure, all the suppressors you see on the table on our website, we have all the information about are they six millimeter rated? Can they do six arc, six creed? Can they do a barrel length restrictions? Can they do full auto? All of that information can be found on our website if you want a centralized location. For a lot of these, I actually had to call the manufacturers and ask because on five, five, six silencers, they don't always tell you if six millimeter is okay. Some do, many don't. So I actually had to hop on the phone with each and every one of them in order to create that list and spreadsheet that you'll find on our website. So feel free to check that out. Now having said that, let's zoom out and then really focus in on the expectations. Hey, suppressors are not meant to be crazy quiet. They're meant to take some of the bite out of the bag. So imagine if you've got this 10, 11, five, 10, three, or even worse, a seven, five, and you're moving through rooms at night, rooms, closed quarters, muzzle flash, concussion, doesn't have a lot of space to go. So it gets amplified in those spaces. So having a suppressor can substantially take the bite out of that, but compare it more to a seven inch or a 10 inch unsuppressed to a seven, 10 inch with a K can. And then if you want to put a full size can on as well, put that in a separate class because it won't perform quite the same. So if you put any of these head to head with full size suppressors, often you'll be left a little bit disappointed with its capabilities, but it's not a fair comparison. So to talk to some of the things we have on the table, just for reference, we've got the Grunt Mini, we've got the Polonium 556K, the Velos 556K, which is their short version, the Surefire 212 Mini, this is the KGM556A1, which is their short low back pressure. This is the Rotex K, which is a full back pressure suppressor. We have both the titanium and the Inconel. For today, we're just running the Inconel just for safety and convenience reasons. On the workbench, we'll incorporate the other one and add in its weight comparison so that you can see the full spectrum of all 12 suppressors. Then we've got the Huxworks Flow K, then we've got the Griffin Explorer, the YHM Fat Cat, the PWS BDE, where I removed the optional baffle stacks, which is the two additional baffles, and this brings it into that K class of suppressor, so I figured we'd use it in this lineup as well. And then finally, another old school suppressor, which is the AAC M4 Mini. If you wanna see our comparison video, we're gonna release that out very soon, and it's going to be the head to head, all 12 silencers. This video, I just wanted to set an expectation of what K suppressors are for, and that we shouldn't hope that they sound like full-size suppressors, because in my experiences, they won't. If you wanna help us support this channel, it really goes a long way when you do the like, comment, subscribe thing. That really tells YouTube that you're interested in what we're doing, and it will put it in front of more people. So please allow the video to play all the way through. Please do click on the likes and shares and all that stuff, it doesn't cost you anything. And if you truly wanna support the channel, the best thing you can do for us is check out some of our swag. We've got coffee cups, we've got shirts, hats, all that cool stuff. Anytime you purchase that stuff, it really helps us pay for the ammunition, the range time, and all the expenses that come with doing all these tests, because right now, we're not making any money, we're just having fun sharing information. So the best way to support our channel is by checking out some of that cool gear. As always, like, comment, subscribe, and stay safe on the range.