Ask About Suppressors

Look your firearm up in the thread pitch tables on this page. The short version for the most common guns: a US Glock 9mm with a factory threaded barrel is 1/2x28, an AR-15 in 5.56 is 1/2x28, an AR-10 in .308 is 5/8x24, a .45 ACP 1911 is .578x28, and a .22 LR Ruger 10/22 or Mark IV is 1/2x28. But caliber does not determine thread pitch, and the same model can change between generations. Bring the gun in and we will put a pitch gauge on it, free, in about two minutes.

Yes, and most people do. The can has to be rated for the largest cartridge in the group, and you need a way to attach it to each host — either matching thread pitches, or the same quick-detach mount on every gun. The usual setup is a .30 calibre can with the same brand's muzzle device on each rifle. It covers 5.56 through .308, moves in seconds and returns to the same zero.

HUB is a 1.375x24 female thread in the back of the suppressor. It is not a mount — it is a socket that accepts a mount. Buy a HUB can once and you can fit a Dead Air Xeno adapter, a SilencerCo ASR adapter, a Rugged R.U.M. or a direct-thread adapter to it, and change your mind later. A HUB can also outlives its manufacturer, because anyone can make a mount for it. If you are buying your first suppressor and think you might buy more guns, this matters more than almost any spec on the box.

Those are SilencerCo's three rear thread sizes. Alpha is 1.125x28, Bravo is 1.375x24, Charlie is 1.375x32. Bravo IS the HUB thread. Charlie is the same 1.375 inch diameter with a different pitch, so a Charlie mount will start into a HUB can and then gall the threads. If you take one thing from this page, take that one.

Smaller through bigger, never bigger through smaller. A .30 calibre can will run .308, 6.5 Creedmoor, .300 Blackout and 5.56. A 5.56 can will be destroyed by a .308, and the bullet may leave sideways. Bore diameter is necessary but not sufficient: the can also has to be rated for the pressure, the barrel length and the rate of fire. Every manufacturer publishes those limits. Read them and believe them.

If the barrel tips up when the slide locks back — a Glock, M&P, SIG P-series, XD, Beretta 92 and most other semi-auto pistols — then yes. Hanging a can off a tilting barrel stops the gun cycling without one. A fixed-barrel pistol, a pistol-calibre carbine, a rifle and a .22 do NOT need one, and fitting a spring piston where it does not belong can hammer the piston and the barrel threads. Rotating-barrel pistols like the Beretta Px4 should not use one either.

Yes, in one way that matters: it has to come apart. Rimfire ammunition is filthy, unjacketed lead and wax foul the baffles quickly, and a sealed can will eventually seize solid with lead. Buy a .22 can that the maker says is user-serviceable. And never fire a centerfire cartridge through a rimfire can — a .223 will fit down a .22 LR bore and wreck the suppressor instantly.

No, and anyone who does is misleading you. SilencerCo and SureFire publish absolute sound levels, Griffin publishes reduction figures with the host and ammunition named, and Dead Air, Rugged, HUXWRX, Q, Otter Creek Labs and KGM publish no dB at all. The only widely respected independent measurement is PEW Science's Suppression Rating, which is a hearing-damage-risk figure computed from the full pressure curve and is specific to the host and the ammunition. Treat any cross-brand dB comparison as marketing.

Usually yes, slightly. Adding weight and a gas disturbance at the muzzle commonly shifts point of impact — sometimes an inch at 100 yards, sometimes more. It is consistent, which is what matters. Zero with the can on if you intend to shoot with it on. A quality quick-detach mount returns to the same zero each time, so you can keep two zeros and switch between them predictably.

No. A suppressed centerfire rifle is still loud enough that hearing protection is sensible — it moves the sound from damaging to tolerable. The honest word is hearing-safe, not silent. The two combinations that genuinely do get quiet are .22 LR with subsonic ammunition and .300 Blackout with subsonic loads. With those, the action cycling is often the loudest thing you hear.

Titanium is lightest and costs most — worth it on a hunting rifle you carry all day. Stainless, Stellite, Haynes 282 and Inconel are heavier and take far more heat and abuse — buy those for carbine courses, short barrels and high round counts. Aluminium belongs on pistol cans only, where pressure and heat are lower. It has no business on a rifle can.

Yes. Barrel threading runs through our off-site machine shop, and we will cut the pitch that matches the suppressor you intend to run — so tell us what can you are planning on, and the thread will match the mount instead of the other way round. Not every barrel is a good candidate; some are too thin at the muzzle to leave enough material. We will tell you that before we take your money, not after.

As of October 9, 2026, a suppressor transfers on a Form 4473 with a background check, the same as a handgun. No Form 4, no tax stamp, no waiting for approval. You must be 21 or older. If the check clears you take it home that visit. The full detail, including voluntary registration and how SBRs and SBSs differ, is on our Suppressors and NFA page.

Thirty dollars, plus the ten dollar Tennessee background check. Forty dollars total, exactly like any other firearm transfer. The old $125 NFA rate covered Form 4 processing that no longer happens. SBR and SBS transfers remain $125.