Question on AWC Thundertraps..............

[25fan]

At my place of employment we currently have two thundertraps for .308 and one for a .243. One of the .308's and the .243 have had similar issues. Both of them have had simillar accuracy issues. Firstly the .308 was all over the paper. One hole gun w/out the suppressor, junk with it. As the gun got hot the worse the group evolves. We had a 243 as well that would not shoot. Out of curiosity I removed it from the vault and started ruling out possibilities. With the suppressor it is junk, and the more you shoot it(as it gets hot) the more you have to adjust the crosshairs up to be reasonably close to the target. W/out the suppressor the gun is a superior shooter. Interesting point here. The difference between point of contact with and without the AWC can on the 243 is about 2 1/2 feet. I screwed another suppressor (different brand name) and shot a 5 shot 1/2" group. Removed the can and point of impact was only 1" and still shot superbly. Upon looking as good as I could I didn't see signs of bullet strikes. Have any of you experienced similar problems with these or other cans?
Thanks

 

[Zak Smith]

It is typical to get up to several inches (at 100 yards) of zero shift when a suppressor is mounted. If you get more than a foot, there is something mechanically wrong. The most likely thing is that the suppressor bore is not aligned and true to the barrel bore, and even if there are not visible bullet strikes, the path could be too close or it could just be "grazing" something in the suppressor. If you remove the bolt, mount the suppressor, and look down the barrel from the breech end, you should see a shadow of the front endcap of the suppressor and it should be a perfectly circular shadow, centered about the bore. If it is off to one side, then you can tell it is not aligned right.

It could be a problem with just the suppressor, or it could be a problem with the barrel(s) and thread/shoulders, and maybe the accurate suppressor just doesn't expose the problem. Ideally, AWC should be able to figure out exactly what's wrong if they had the barrel and suppressor, but they should be able to check just the suppressor.

Disclaimer: my company makes suppressors.

 

[1911rocks]

25Fan

I had an identical problem with my Surgeon Scalpel. I was thinking, eccentric bore in the Suppressor. I tried different ammunition, same story. My suppressor was a Gemtech HVT-THD. After consulting with Gemtech and Surgeon in a conference call the "Brain Trust" suggested that it was eccentricity of the bore. The culprit....the QD mount. Long story short, Went to a Thread on mount problem gone, relatively. A 175gr Sierra HPBT with a 200yd zero with no can was 1.75" low with the can, no problem. Just my experience.