Last Saturday I went to my outdoor range and fired close to 2100 rounds thru my Surefire Mini suppressor. At the end of the session the suppressor would not come off. Believe me I tried everything…it was unbelievable. Yes I put even more rounds through it to try and heat it up…no success. However due to operators error, I forgot to tighten the lock ring on my final attempt and fired a MK262 thru it…the can flew 25 yards, hit the concrete, and landed in the mud. My first thought was “Shit I am out a grand.” However when I retrieved the mini it was A-ok. Had minor scratches but other than that no problems.
Some people say that Surefire cans are overpriced and aren’t as quiet as the competitions, but I had a first hand experience and to an extent understand why SOCOM chose Surefire. BZ Surefire.
markm- I am actually going on a private shoot on Oct 1st, I will have to police my brass, If you want I will send it to you if you cover shipping. I will shoot 1000 rounds of Priv M193 and 500 MK262. I can not guarantee I’ll get all 1500 but I can get close. PM me if your interested.
steyr- In the Surefire instructions it says, “If possible, the suppressor should be removed and re-installed while still slightly warm to prevent carbon fouling from solidifying as the unit cools, making later removal more difficult.” I do not follow your logic in metal expanding, wouldn’t expanding metal loosen instead of tighten? Also I did not know you could shoot of the suppressor, as there is no mention of that in my version of the manual.
Using gas pressure to remove the suppressor may work, as long as the can is still seated and aligned properly, but I certainly wouldn’t be comfortable doing it myself.
If that really is documented by the manufacturer as an acceptable means of getting the can free from the mount, I would imagine they also advise only resorting to this in an emergency. That is a potentially very dangerous situation.
I can accept the math but I’ve seen too many struck baffles to be that brave.
Interesting, I suppose the carbon fouling angle makes sense. It has been my experience that expanding metal binds tighter. This is why some “hot” machine guns lock up.
I can see the thin metal of the suppressor heating up faster than the barrel. A suppressor gets red hot fairly quick. A barrel or muzzle device takes a while.
Therefore the suppressor will expand more than the muzzle device mount, thus loosing it.
Makes sense to me.
I think I would spend about a week trying more conventional ways of getting it off.
Then call surefire and see what they have to say before I tried to shoot it off and risk $1200 and a 7 month wait.
