Baffle Strike (with pic)

[Machineguntony]

Baffle Strike

I was hoping that the gentlemen who are experienced in silencers would give me some feedback.

Is this a baffle strike? What caused the bullet to strike the front of this suppressor?

I didn't even know that the suppressor was damaged until someone pointed it out to me. I mostly use this silencer for full auto in all my MP5s, but about 10% of rounds are shot through a pistol, specifically a Sig Mk 25. I never felt it when the bullet struck the silencer.

Can I still safely shoot this suppressor? Do most manufacturers cover/repair this damage?

Is there anything that one can do to prevent this in the future?

Is a baffle strike more prevalent with full auto?

 

[Theohazard]

Is this a baffle strike?

Sure looks like one to me.

What caused the bullet to strike the front of this suppressor?

Bullet stability issues are always a possibility, but most likely your can got misaligned slightly.

With pistol cans, the weakest part of the can is where the tube is attached to the piston housing. I've personally seen a torture test where the can got so hot that it came loose at that point and sagged a little bit, and therefore it suffered a massive baffle strike that blew the whole can off the end of the pistol.

On your MP5s, you're getting the can hotter faster, but you're using a fixed mount, so there's less physical stress on the can per shot; there's no piston bouncing back and forth and the barrel isn't tipping up with each shot, causing extra stress on the can right where it meets the piston housing.

This could definitely happen on your MP5s, but this could also happen on your SIG if you were doing multiple mag dumps and you got the can up to the same temperature as if you were shooting full-auto. It takes a lot of shooting to see this happen on a can as strong as a Mystic, though; I'm talking hundreds of rounds in rapid succession through a pistol.

Another possibility is that the can came loose a little on the threads while you were shooting, causing it to mislign just enough to cause an endcap baffle strike. I've seen this happen too. Though I'm guessing you're using a 3-lug mount on all your MP5s, so if that was the cause it must have happened on your pistol.

Can I still safely shoot this suppressor? Do most manufacturers cover/repair this damage?

I wouldn't shoot it if I were you. Send it back to Liberty, they'll almost certainly fix it free of charge.

Is a baffle strike more prevalent with full auto?

A baffle strike is more likely the faster you shoot; excessive heat can cause the can to warp or fail, or it can simply back off the threads enough to mislign and you don't notice it right away because you're shooting too fast.

And, given the same amount of rounds in a similar time frame with a similar amount of heat build-up, the failure I mentioned is more likely to happen on a locked-breech pistol with a tilting barrel. That's why you should be careful if you ever put a can on a Glock 18.

Is there anything that one can do to prevent this in the future?

Make sure the can doesn't get too hot. You'll know when it's too hot, the finish will change color a bit and sometimes the can will start smoking. At this point it will be hot enough to melt an oven mitt. At this point don't cool it down by dunking it in water or anything, just let it air cool.

Also, make sure it doesn't start to come unscrewed while you're shooting.

There are other possibilities we can explore also, but those are the first I though of, and they're the first ones I wanted to run by you.

 

[rjrivero]

Mp5? Tri lug mount?

 

[Machineguntony]

Thanks, Theo. You are, without a doubt, the resident silencer expert.

 

[Theohazard]

Thanks Tony! I have to say, I know enough about silencers to know that there's a lot I don't know about silencers, so if anyone else has any ideas, feel free to chime in.

Also, do either of the possibilities I mentioned sound plausible? The Mystic is a tough can, so my money says that it probably unscrewed a little on your SIG when you were shooting and that's where you got the baffle strike. Are you using a factory barrel threaded in 13.5x1 LH, or do you have an aftermarket 1/2x28 barrel? (I've heard SIG has made factory 1/2x28 9mm barrels, but I've never seen one and I hear they're extremely rare.)

 

[Machineguntony]

I wish I knew what caused the damage. Your theories sound very plausible. I'm sure something got out of line, somewhere. I am going to take it back to the dealer this week and have them examine the suppressor. Maybe the manufacturer will repair it.

I'm using a factory threaded barrel. I'm not sure what kind of threading it has.

I'll let you know what they say.

 

[Theohazard]

Your SIG almost certainly has 13.5x1 left-hand threads (all the threaded MK 25s I've seen had that thread pattern). Many people claim that the left-hand threads combined with most pistols' right-hand rifling make it less likely for the can to back off, but I've never seen any good evidence that this is true. I think it has more to do with the fact that the metric left-hand mounts index differently on the barrel and have an O-ring around the end of it keeping things tighter. So even though a silencer will tend to back off less from a left-hand metric thread than a right-hand thread, it's still possible that that's what happened to your Mystic.

And the Mystic is longer than a normal 9mm can, so that will make any alignment issues even worse.

 

[Willie Lowman]

I have 13.5x1 left hand threads on my Sig and it will shake the can loose in 15 rounds without fail.

I have experienced end cap strikes with my Uzi a few times. I didn't feel anything. I noticed that bullet struck the ground half way between me and the 25 yard target I was shooting at.

You simply have to make sure the darn can is tight. Theo explained it all very well in his post.

I have seen guys use a strap wrench, heavy gloves, even a wave washer to tighten and hold a suppressor on. I have had Teflon tape recommended to me but I haven't tried it yet. Just remember if you go to extreme measures to tighten an can on your barrel, it will be next to impossible to get it off when it cools down.

 

[Theohazard]

I have 13.5x1 left hand threads on my Sig and it will shake the can loose in 15 rounds without fail.

Exactly. Don't let anyone tell you that a LH metric thread won't let a can come loose. Sure, it might be a little better at keeping the silencer on, but it can still come loose.

To keep my Octane from backing off, I use a single drop of blue loctite on the middle of the barrel threads. After it's dry, the can will be tight when screwed on and it won't come loose, but it still won't be too hard to remove. This works great unless you're shooting rapidly enough that everything heats up and melts the loctite. At that point the loctite acts as a lubricant and just makes the can back off even easier.

I plan on trying some high-temp loctite, but I haven't gotten around to it.

 

[Machineguntony]

I always thought that with a baffle strike, you feel the bullet striking the silencer. Nope. There's no way to know until you look at the silencer later. Do you guys check or look over your cans after every shoot?

Good news is that I brought the silencer back to the dealer. They said that the manufacturer will certainly fix it.

 

[jclayto]

Tony, I had a strike several months back on my .22 can. It was being used on an uzi with a .22 conversion and managed to loosen up a bit during a magazine dump. I also imagined I would be able to feel a baffle strike, but only noticed it on visual inspection.

The warranty info from my manufacturer explicitly reads that baffle strikes are not covered, however, they fixed it free of charge. I believe this will be the case with most manufacturers. Good luck!

 

[Theohazard]

I always thought that with a baffle strike, you feel the bullet striking the silencer. Nope. There's no way to know until you look at the silencer later.

It depends on how bad the baffle strike is. With little ones, it can be impossible to tell. But with bigger ones it might sound or feel different from the previous shot. And with catastrophic ones that blow the whole can off the end of the gun, you can definitely tell.

Do you guys check or look over your cans after every shoot?

No, just if something sounds different for whatever reason and I just want to make sure.

Good news is that I brought the silencer back to the dealer. They said that the manufacturer will certainly fix it.

Great! Not surprised at all, Liberty has a good reputation for customer service.