Got my first kill with a suppressed rifle

Let me start off by saying I am very resistant to change. I don't like doing things the old way because I have the mindset of "if it was good enough for pappy its good enough for me" but because I like familiarity when it comes to equipment. I have been fairly resistant when it comes to suppressor, I have shot then on pistols and rifles and have not really cared for them as I feel it makes the barrel of the rifles way too long, unbalances them and are aesthetically unpleasing (nice word for "ugly).


Yesterday found myself in a situation where two of us were on a road walking one way and two pigs were coming down the other. By the time I figured out what they were (they were spotted black and white, at first I thought they were dogs) they were 40 yards away. Buddy has a bow and I have his suppressed bolt action 6.5 creedmoor, when they turned to look at us he shanked one, as the arrow hit the pig on the right the pig on the left took off ( I had already expected this scenario and was ready) and I dispatched him with a shot to the ear.


Takeaway from this was two things :


The lack of recoil was similar to my braked rifle where I could actually see impact of the bullet before the sight picture was thrown off AND....

unlike my braked rifle it did not blow my buddies eardrums out as he was standing shoulder to shoulder next to me. This I felt was a important aspect of the situation.




After that we retrieved the pigs and took the rifle to a ridge where I was able to blast 3 caliche rocks apart at 300 yards with the rifle, seeing the impact the entire time.




My attitude on them has changed a bit, I still believe they are unwieldy and can turn an otherwise fine rifle into some kind of ugly modern musket, but the benefits are def. there

I love mine. I was hunting MLD with a good friend at his place, we were in a UTV. We came around a corner of brush and there were three does about 70 yards away. His orders were to take any slickheads that we could. My 6.8 snapped three quick times, and a couple of minutes later all three were in the back of the gator, and none of us had ringing ears.

We hunt hogs a lot at night. We went out to my friends buddy’s spot a few weeks ago and his buddy was shooting a 6.5 creedmore with a break . We lined up on a group of hogs and I only got one shot off before I was backing up and moving the hell out from beside his muzzle . To sum it up I hate hunting with guys that are using suppressors

Come on around to the quiet side.

Cut em down to 16-18" and they aren't any longer than a typical hunting rifle.

I think you might be confused about which is which?

That makes no sense. Supressors reduce the noise. Breaks reduce recoil by forcing blast out the side, therefore, making them louder behind the muzzle.

Most guys who run suppressors full time shoot shorter barrels, 16-20", which makes them about the same length or even shorter than the typical 24-26" barrel. The longest barrel on any gun I have is 20" and that's only because I haven't cut it shorter yet...all the rest are 8.5-18".

They are just like any tool... once you learn more about them and how you want to use them, there's usually a choice to better fit what you want to do.

My first suppressor was an AAC Cyclone on my M&P-10. Loved the noise suppression and cheap price, but the weight and length it added made it difficult to shoot as a typical standing rifle shot given the suppressor turned it into a big lever.

My second suppressor (detailed in my tagline) is half the weight, quieter and a good bit shorter than the Cyclone. While I've not shot it yet on the M&P, it is awesome on my Bullpup as my primary hog rifle as a standing shooter or shooting from a rest as I've shot Porky both ways now.


The suppressor also allows for a definitive "thump" when you hit your target.


I'll never go back to shooting an unsuppressed rifle again as there's absolutely no reason to. I'm getting my 30.06 deer rifle threaded and I'll be done as I'm .30 across the board.

^^This right here.

My 24" barreled rifle doesn't come hunting with me nearly as much any more due to adding another 9" on the end of it makes it feel like wielding a broom around in the truck, blind, etc. I picked up a 6.5cm at the end of last year and had it trimmed down to 16.25" and it's MUCH better for 90% of my Texas hunting.

Here it is next to my factory rem700 30-06 with 22" barrel and it's only about an inch and half longer than it. Perfect length without having to go the SBR route.

"Becuase it's the way we've always done it". Is never justification for anything.

When you trim a barrel to 16” and add a suppressor to a total length of 24-26”, do you get the velocity of it being shot out of a 16” tube or a 24” tube?

Velocity loss was another one of my concerns with cutting down a barrel

You're at 16" velocity, plus suppressor velocity. Which is 5-30 fps depending on a number of factors.

5-30 FPS total or 5-30 FPS per inch of suppressor

Total

just so you know you can get a Bad AZZ suppressor that is about 6-8"... none of my suppressors are over 8.5"

You're going to lose a significant amount of velocity going from 24 to 16. IMO it depends on what you're going to do with the rifle. If you need the velocity/energy downrange, then step up in caliber to make up for it. Instead of a 6.5 Creedmoor or .308, go to a .300 WSM, 7 Rem Mag, or .300 Win Mag at 18" and you'll still have plenty of poke.

If you're gonna do something like that, you'd better speed up the burn rate, instead of the usual H-Retumbo or H-1000.

20" 7mm-08, Tiger Shark, 162 gr ELD-X, and H-Varget makes 2640 fps MV. I've yet to see anything live through it. If I cut it down to 16", I'd be about 2540 to 2560 fps, still a killer.

Very true. I think my harvestor is 8.8" or something like that, but the next few will be shorter...

As for speed, I don't currently have access to a chrony, so I'm not sure what my current speeds are. My purpose of my short 6.5 was for short to mid range hunts on whitetail and hogs, but still be handy in a truck, buggy, or deer stand. If speed is what you are really needing, do as QSYB said and just up the juice. If I need more punch, I put the suppressor on my 7wsm.

I’ve got a thread on my .300 but I’ll stick with the brake on that gun

put me in the "I hate shooting unsupressed" camp

When I make a shot at a deer or other animal, I can't ever recall hearing the sound.

Got my suppressor this summer. I won't shoot un-suppressed ever again, unless I go somewhere that it is illegal to own/hunt with one (i.e. Canada).

Listen closely to the 1st shot here. This was with my M&P-10/Cyclone combo. The sound is more pronounced live, it lets you know it's usually time to move on to the next contestant.