Posted by Charles on 11/1/2018 to
Why a Silencer Gas Setting?
The reality of using a silencer on a gas operated firearm - The amount of gas in your face is directly related to how much back pressure the silencer creates. Secondarily, gas in one’s face can increase or decrease depending on how fast the firearm’s bolt unlocks and extracts a fired cartridge. The velocity at which the bolt unlocks and extracts a fired cartridge increases on average 20 to 30% due to silencer back pressure. It should be noted that gas in the face is not a significant issue with bolt action firearms because the bolt stays locked until the silencer back pressure has dissipated.
Possible solutions have been and are continuing to be developed by small arms developers.
The back-pressure issue - It can only be addressed by a change in silencer design that reduces the amount of gas that gets trapped within the silencer thus reducing back pressure. This reduction in trapped gas results in less gas being forced rearward out of the chamber into the shooters face upon firing and cartridge extraction.
Two examples of manufacturers who are utilizing gas flow through silencer designs are OSS Suppressors and NEXGEN DEFENSE.
The bolt velocity increases due to back pressure issue - It should be noted that bolt velocity is critical to reliability in a gas operated firearm. Too much or too little bolt velocity will result in less than optimal reliability. The solution then is to mitigate the effects of silencer induced back pressure. This can best be achieved with a gas regulator that can accurately meter gas flow into the firearm’s operating system to achieve optimal bolt velocity while minimizing the adverse effects of silencer back pressure.