Let’s talk silencers, barrel length and cartridges a moment in the context of hunting. This isn’t really a question per se…but rather just an open stream of thinking here.
I am super happy to say that I have two silencers (a Q Thunder Chicken and a TBAC Dominus CB)…and I’ll probably have a third in the not too distant future.
This was the first year I had the opportunity to hunt silenced and I gotta tell you, I don’t think I’m ever going back!
My primary hunting rifle at this stage is a Christensen Arms Ridgeline Carbon, 24” barrel in .308, topped with a Leupold VX3 3.5-10x40. 150 grains of bullet delivered at 2850 fps pretty much means anything this side of the Big 5 in Africa or the great bears is well hunted. Add the Dominus (7”) silencer to it and I now have a 31” hunting rifle. (!). That’s a loooong rifle…and the weight is around 9# scoped with the silencer on.
Getting the rifle back down to, say, 7# scoped & silenced I think is doable…5# naked rifles are definitely out there. Add Scope, rings and silencer to a 5# gun and we’re pretty much right back at 7#. But that also means a chopped down barrel…quite probably down to 16 or 18”. (*16” + 7” of silencer takes us to 23” OAL…I have plenty of 20” barreled rifles…but those aren’t designed for a silencer.)
Cut a 308 down to 16” from 24” and velocity loss will probably be in the 250-300fps range. (*I’m sure someone has done the experiments here) and now we have a 30-30 - which is fine for eastern woods hunting but rather neuters the .308 for longer shots. Maintaining the 308 velocity therefore means going to a heftier cartridge…300 PRC, for instance, to get the velocity back to what a .308 delivers in a 24” barrel.
Here’s the part that gets me: a 300 PRC in a 16” barrel is going to be super loud. The Dominus is right on the edge of hearing safe in my 24” .308…I’d be willing to bet that’s nowhere near enough silencer to shoot a PRC without plugs/muffs (*which is exactly the reason I wanted to get the silencers in the first place). The T-Chicken definitely suppresses more sound…but I have a very hard time believing it (*or just about any silencer) could suppress enough sound from a 16” PRC to do the job without plugs.
All of this circular logic rather takes me back to the beginning and makes the point of “there’s no free lunch”.
Thoughts? What are you guys thinking?
I am super happy to say that I have two silencers (a Q Thunder Chicken and a TBAC Dominus CB)…and I’ll probably have a third in the not too distant future.
This was the first year I had the opportunity to hunt silenced and I gotta tell you, I don’t think I’m ever going back!
My primary hunting rifle at this stage is a Christensen Arms Ridgeline Carbon, 24” barrel in .308, topped with a Leupold VX3 3.5-10x40. 150 grains of bullet delivered at 2850 fps pretty much means anything this side of the Big 5 in Africa or the great bears is well hunted. Add the Dominus (7”) silencer to it and I now have a 31” hunting rifle. (!). That’s a loooong rifle…and the weight is around 9# scoped with the silencer on.
Getting the rifle back down to, say, 7# scoped & silenced I think is doable…5# naked rifles are definitely out there. Add Scope, rings and silencer to a 5# gun and we’re pretty much right back at 7#. But that also means a chopped down barrel…quite probably down to 16 or 18”. (*16” + 7” of silencer takes us to 23” OAL…I have plenty of 20” barreled rifles…but those aren’t designed for a silencer.)
Cut a 308 down to 16” from 24” and velocity loss will probably be in the 250-300fps range. (*I’m sure someone has done the experiments here) and now we have a 30-30 - which is fine for eastern woods hunting but rather neuters the .308 for longer shots. Maintaining the 308 velocity therefore means going to a heftier cartridge…300 PRC, for instance, to get the velocity back to what a .308 delivers in a 24” barrel.
Here’s the part that gets me: a 300 PRC in a 16” barrel is going to be super loud. The Dominus is right on the edge of hearing safe in my 24” .308…I’d be willing to bet that’s nowhere near enough silencer to shoot a PRC without plugs/muffs (*which is exactly the reason I wanted to get the silencers in the first place). The T-Chicken definitely suppresses more sound…but I have a very hard time believing it (*or just about any silencer) could suppress enough sound from a 16” PRC to do the job without plugs.
All of this circular logic rather takes me back to the beginning and makes the point of “there’s no free lunch”.
Thoughts? What are you guys thinking?
