I have an original Liberty Mystic. I had never seriously considered upgrading to a Mystic-X, because for what it would cost, I'd be most of the way to another can. And the original is still a pretty solid can.
I was working up a couple of loads in a Ruger PC Carbine yesterday. I first shot them unsuppressed from the bench at 25 yards and got one ragged hole, maybe an inch or so in diameter. I then put the can on and shot again. The size of the hole opened up noticably, plus I was getting other hits all over the paper, and maybe a couple off the paper.
I have had a couple of baffle strikes in the past, but at that time did not note any accuracy degredation (see photo below). I'm not sure if something has changed, or if it's just an issue with the combo of this gun and can. I'll bring the can out and try it with a few other guns this week and see if that's the issue.
At the same time, the experience has me reconsidering having the can upgraded. I had not seriously considered upgrading before. I don't see any advantage to the Mystic-X over the original Mystic for how I use the can now. I'm not planning to use it with any magnum rifle calibers. I've shot some .223 through it, but I have dedicated rifle cans for that role. I primarily use it on 9mm carbines, subguns, and occasionally on pistols. Getting rid of the larger diameter locking collar would be a good thing, but that alone had never been worth the cost of the upgrade.
Just to verify, the mounts on the Mystic-X are the same as the old ones, correct? I don't really want to replace all of the mounts I already have.
Also, looking at Liberty's site, it looks like I can upgrade to an Infinity-X setup for not much more. Aside from weight, is there any difference between the Mystic-X and Infinity-X? Going for the lighter can seems like a no-brainer to me.
And then I see Liberty offers an upgrade to the Cosmic. This would greatly reduce the possibility of baffle strikes in the future, at the tradeoff of some performance I assume. But it does offer a bit more flexibility. So has anyone shot the Mystic-X and the Cosmic side-by-side, both shooting 9mm? How did they compare? Similar, or very noticable difference?
Just kicking around some ideas.
Or maybe I'll just try to touch up the baffle strikes and make sure I'm not inadvertently scraping bullets there, and apply the cost of an upgrade to a new can anyway.