Hi guys,

I just picked one of these up and had a few questions.  I thought I would check here first in case any of this has been discussed.

First, this bad boy is small!  It is less than 6" long and 1.5"OD.  Very nice.  They claim to have a decibel reduction of 30db in this little package.  I'll shoot it tomorrow.

My questions are:

1) It is not reccomended with a barrel shorter than 12".  Does anyone know why?  Is it just the initial blast they are trying to avoid?

2) It is a bead-blasted stainless finish.  I would rather have black.  Does anyone have any experience blackening stainless?

Thanks in advance.

www.smallarmsreview.com

i think the shorter barrels cause more pressure inside a can.

duracoat from lcw [url]www.lauerweaponry.com[/url] should work great for blackening your can.  great people to deal with!

i bought a Coastal .223 can from lcw in sept but can't get a sign off.  i'll probably go corp soon and get it over with.  

Gemtech does not reccomend short barrels or boat tail bullets in thier silencers. The reason given is because of the asymetricle baffle design the boat tail of the bullet get a side pressure applied to it as it passes the baffels which can cause yaw and baffle stikes inside the silencer.

It has to do with stabilizing the bullet.

Here's the deal.  A rifle cartridge needs a certain length of barrel to burn most/all of the propellent.  When you use a short barrel on a .223, you end up burning a lot of the powder outside the barrel; this is the reason for the extreme muzzle flash/blast.  When you put a suppressor on a short barreled .223, your burning all of that powder inside the can, which creates more pressure, more heat, and damage caused by impingement of the burning powder on the expansion chamber and first baffle of the suppressor.  Many manufacturers avoid the problems associated with short barrels by using superior alloys, such as Inconel, in the construction of their suppressors.  Tac-Ord states that your suppressor is manufactured entirely of 300 series stainless steel; thus the reason for the disclaimer.

Sorry [:(]

All great answers guys!  Thanks.

I'll call Steve Lauer to to the darkening and just stick with my 16 inch and 20 inch barrels for using this particular can.

Thanks again and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

[url]http://www.smallarmsreview.com[/url]

To add just a bit more to David and Rabbit's posts, and this from Gemtech, is that with short barrels a lot of blast pressure will come out that adds to the unstable yawing of the bullet as it exits (from the initial burn and unburnt propellant).  On the longer barrels this effect is reduced.  This is why the barrels I use the M4-96D on are 11.5" minimum as Gemtech will not warranty the can when used on anything shorter.  They said at 7", every round produced a baffle strike.  You could probably get away with shorther than 10" if you had a large/loose ID bore in the suppressor.