Really starting to appreciate this guy's videos. Not a ton of talking, cameras and mics at a variety of distances, no pretense of anything being scientific, just showing the clips and giving his feedback of them.

The Ridgeback Defense Rhino S is seriously impressive, especially for a company I've never heard of before. At $800, it's considerably cheaper than most of the competition in it's class. Kind of tempting, honestly.

The CAT WB continues to boggle my mind as to why people are so hyped about this thing when other cans are quieter and less expensive.

The Ekron still impresses me a lot. For the money, I think it's damned quiet, and I feel like it's quieter than the WB with less backpressure. The flash testing under NODs was impressive as well, there wasn't much to speak of. For overall signature reduction with low backpressure, I'm still thinking it's what I'm going to go with.

Anyway, great video and a neat comparison with a whole bunch of cans.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: P220 Smudge,

Great videos and reviews he did, thanks for sharing… I have the Hux 556 ti, 762 ti; RC2 and RC3 so those are my only personal experiences with 5.56 cans. I’ve been liking the Hux more over the Surefires personally.


ETA, just got the Hux KAC SR25 muzzle device so looking forward to trying the 762ti on a 308 caliber

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hk91308,

this is a great video thanks for posting. A couple of thoughts 1. more than half of these suppressors are from companies I have never heard of. P220Smudge will probably tell me I need to get out more. But really the explosion of new names is amazing. 2. While there are some cans that are obviously quieter or louder the vast majority seem in about the same range to me. 3. And that includes the fact that many of the "K" cans don't seem much worse than some much longer ones. That's obviouly worth looking into. Like P220Smudge the Cat seems to perform poorly. I thought the Dillion was sortof in the same camp lots of hype and not much to back it up but in this video that seems not true. I like the Huxwrx based on this and other things I've been researching but the mount situation just plain leaves me stumped. I have a ventum and its ho hum but does get me hub.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hrcjon,

quote:

Originally posted by hk91308:
I’ve been liking the Hux more over the Surefires personally.

I think Surefire has been surpassed lately. OSS/Hux with the flowthrough concept plus additive manufacturing in stuff like titanium, inconel and stainless has pushed things in a direction Surefire didn't anticipate or adapt to. Maybe they'll catch up at some point, but unless you're looking to clone a particular rifle or still want the RC2 because it's bomb proof, there isn't really a compelling argument for picking a Surefire. At least not in my opinion. Maybe if you're deep into the mount ecosystem the way hrcjon is, but with the Hub adapter B&T is getting sued over (and will probably win, if I had to guess), it basically doesn't matter anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
this is a great video thanks for posting. A couple of thoughts 1. more than half of these suppressors are from companies I have never heard of. P220Smudge will probably tell me I need to get out more. But really the explosion of new names is amazing. 2. While there are some cans that are obviously quieter or louder the vast majority seem in about the same range to me. 3. And that includes the fact that many of the "K" cans don't seem much worse than some much longer ones. That's obviouly worth looking into. Like P220Smudge the Cat seems to perform poorly. I thought the Dillion was sortof in the same camp lots of hype and not much to back it up but in this video that seems not true. I like the Huxwrx based on this and other things I've been researching but the mount situation just plain leaves me stumped. I have a ventum and its ho hum but does get me hub.

I mean, I wouldn't say you need to get out more, but I will say it's a hell of a great time to be in the market for a new suppressor. There are so many excellent choices, and seemingly all out of nowhere in the last year. I will agree that a lot of those cans sounds pretty close, or at least, don't really seem to stand out from the pack. I also agree that a lot of the K cans are quieter than they would traditionally seem to have any right to. It seems like the new standard is a sub-6" can for 5.56. Anything longer than that just isn't necessary. That Ridgeback S hits the market next month, and I may very well go ahead and get one of those just based on this video. It sounds so good, and for a pretty small can, too.

I have really liked the Hux cans I've shot, and I understand why they do their mounts the way they do, but I'm not a huge fan of proprietary mounts. Not these days when Hub gets you into whatever you want.

quote:

Maybe if you're deep into the mount ecosystem the way hrcjon is,

Once the HUB options arrived Surefire is toast until they figure out something that is competative. Hub, 3d printed, flow through etc...
I was initially very dissapointed in the original B&T adapter because it truly sucked and I thought I was stuck. But Surefire's product is mint and the second gen B&T is workable. So its truly hard for me (even as a diehard surefire user) to think that you would buy one of their current cans. I remain suprised that we haven't seen some newer offering because some of these new mfg. (see my comments above) seem to be able to get off the ground and running in very short amounts of time.
P220Smudge needs to give me the right amount of counseling to buy from a brand new unheard of mfg. I'm struggling, but with help I might be able to overcome...
But in any case the options seem amazing in this space of 556 cans.
Not related to this but I have been on the witchhunt to get my short barrel APC9's to have less gas and maybe the end of the rainbow has arrived (see my very old post on this issue) as 3d printed mfg allows new models in very short order. Pretty soon anyone will be able to print one of these in their garage(ish)...

That video is excellent! Disappointed that the SilencerCo Velos LVP wasn't included in this comparison though...Just sayin'

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
P220Smudge needs to give me the right amount of counseling to buy from a brand new unheard of mfg. I'm struggling, but with help I might be able to overcome...
But in any case the options seem amazing in this space of 556 cans.

I know the response to my excitement about Stealth Additive has been basically nothing so far, but I am incredibly impressed with what they do. After shooting the Ekron on their 10.3" URGI, it was a done deal, I was getting one. I wound up getting the .30 cal version, but besides being slightly overbored and .4" longer, it's the same can. That Ridgeback Defense Rhino S really does have me interested. It sounds great in those videos and in some conversations I've had with the reviewer in his video comments and on Reddit, he strikes me as a really fair and reasonable guy, so I give his input some weight. The Centurion Maximus L also sounds great and is a newer company that kind of came out of nowhere. It's pretty damn quiet, and looked to have among the least muzzle flash in that portion of the test, along with the Rhino S.

Really, it would be hard to go wrong with a lot of the current choices in this space. I wound up picking the Ekron because while there are cans that are quieter, they have more backpressure. There are some cans that are lower backpressure, but are heavier, or more expensive, or louder. There are cans that are shorter, but they're more expensive, or louder, or have more backpressure. It really does have a great balance of features and doesn't give up a hell of a lot in any one area. That, and the guys at the industry booth including the owner were great to talk to, very personable and no hint of the arrogant attitudes I ran into at a lot of the other company booths. I left wanting to give them my business.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
Not related to this but I have been on the witchhunt to get my short barrel APC9's to have less gas and maybe the end of the rainbow has arrived (see my very old post on this issue) as 3d printed mfg allows new models in very short order. Pretty soon anyone will be able to print one of these in their garage(ish)...

My friend picked up a Flow 9K that sounds great and is very little backpressure. If I think of it this weekend, I'll ask him if he's noticing any fouling building up in his AP5.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
That video is excellent! Disappointed that the SilencerCo Velos LVP wasn't included in this comparison though...Just sayin'

Well, while I believe some of those, he was given to review, I know he paid for quite a few of those out of pocket. There's only so much budget.

I’ll just say the videos you posted convinced me to take a look at the Ekron. I plan on getting a few suppressors that were tested in that video to replace several surefire suppressors I’ve been using, including the Ekron in each caliber.

quote:

My friend picked up a Flow 9K that sounds great and is very little backpressure. If I think of it this weekend, I'll ask him if he's noticing any fouling building up in his AP5.

I'd be interested to hear what he thinks. My dealer has one I've been looking at the gate for me being the 3 lug seems unobtanium from hux at the moment. But the situation on my MP5K is not anything like the apc9k. I tried a few options and none really get the job done on the apc the DA Majove9 reduces it a lot from the half dozen other choices I have, but its still not tolerable to me. I finally had a engineering dialog with B&T on what to try and I've got the two options they suggested here but not yet tested.

quote:

Originally posted by xmod:
I’ll just say the videos you posted convinced me to take a look at the Ekron. I plan on getting a few suppressors that were tested in that video to replace several surefire suppressors I’ve been using, including the Ekron in each caliber.

Yeah, I'm really excited to pick mine up. I'm currently trying to decide if I want to go deeper into Plan A muzzle devices or just go ahead and start making the switch to Plan B titanium muzzle devices and mounts. Mostly, this will live on a gun equipped for NV with a bunch of extra shit on the end anyways, so anywhere I can shave weight, I want to. I checked, and they've made some iterative changes with it since his iteration of the Ekron, namely a bunch of pinhole ports on the outer front rim of the can. Mine has them also. This is a newer Ekron 30 in this set of images.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
the 3 lug seems unobtanium from hux at the moment.

https://ottercreeklabs.com/product/resilient-3-lug/

We're both using these. It weighs just about nothing, pairs really well with titanium cans, and that's the best price I was able to find online.

Smudge,

Did you get a chance to shoot a Dillon can at the EVT range day? I'm looking to get one more 5.56 can while they're all available and wait times are short. I think eforms and availability will both be a mess for a while come January.

The Dillon, Ekron, and Flow 556ti are my top 3 right now. All of them sounded great in the video, but I would love to get your thoughts on the Dillon if you had any.

I did not. I don’t believe it was out yet, or they weren’t there. Regardless, EVT is holding another suppressor range day October 25th. I haven’t bought my ticket yet, but the guys in my shooting group and I have gone to each one since spring of last year, so we’ll make an outing. If Dillon is there, I definitely want to try it out. I think for the cans that use “Purposely Induced Porosity,” it’ll be important to get there and shoot them before they’ve got hours of fouling filling up that porosity, so I’m going to try to find a Dillon early in the morning. If so, I’ll definitely share my impressions of it.

I think it’s smart to get any cans you want now. I’m thinking it’ll also be the same situation with mounts. I’m leaning strongly towards migrating to Plan B and need to get after it now.

I recently purchased flash hiders to replace and update all of my AR’s including a sig Rattler upper. I plan to use the Surefire HUB adapter for the suppressors, but I do need to get a few now.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
I did not. I don’t believe it was out yet, or they weren’t there. Regardless, EVT is holding another suppressor range day October 25th. I haven’t bought my ticket yet, but the guys in my shooting group and I have gone to each one since spring of last year, so we’ll make an outing. If Dillon is there, I definitely want to try it out. I think for the cans that use “Purposely Induced Porosity,” it’ll be important to get there and shoot them before they’ve got hours of fouling filling up that porosity, so I’m going to try to find a Dillon early in the morning. If so, I’ll definitely share my impressions of it.

I think it’s smart to get any cans you want now. I’m thinking it’ll also be the same situation with mounts. I’m leaning strongly towards migrating to Plan B and need to get after it now.

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm really probably splitting hairs on those three cans. All three will be quieter, lighter, and less gassy than the Saker 762 I'm using on that gun now.

quote:

Originally posted by bryanZ06:
Thanks for the feedback.

Absolutely.

quote:

Originally posted by bryanZ06:
I'm really probably splitting hairs on those three cans. All three will be quieter, lighter, and less gassy than the Saker 762 I'm using on that gun now.

Oh, I totally get it. It's a hell of a lot of money to spend on what amounts to a muffler for your gun and makes it easy to go in analysis paralysis. I told myself about this time last year that I was fine with traditional style suppressors and didn't need to fall for the trick of the week with the flow-through thing. I've seen the light on that. They can absolutely be just as quiet as traditional style suppressors at the muzzle, but even quieter at the ear because you're not getting that extra going on coming out the port. I've seen it myself as the shooter, and also standing to the right of the shooter having hot-swapped my Ecco Machine Phoenix onto his MP5 clone right after shooting my new flow through can. There was an audible thump out of the port with the traditional can that the flow through just didn't have.

If I were trying to pick between the three, I'd be asking myself what the Dillon does that's worth the extra $300-400, depending. It's shorter and quieter than the other two. But for that, PIP cans need to be cleaned ideally every thousand rounds to maintain their max effectiveness because those pores clog with carbon. They also cannot be rebuilt in the event of a baffle strike. There are a number of Reddit threads about PTR Vent cans that had to be reported to the ATF as destroyed because of baffle strikes. They'll tell you outright that they're not repairable. Haven't seen that with a Dillon... yet. Their manual for the DRC556 says to clean it at the muzzle end of the can every 1,500 rounds and that a "full head-to-toe cleaning cycle of the suppressor is recommended around the 5,000 round mark." Hux manual says the Flow every 2,500-3k rounds and more frequent cleaning may help extend it's life. The Ekron's cleaning schedule is 3-5k rounds and they say it's because there's no hard stops in the can, and they give you a recipe for what amounts to "the dip" as far as I can tell. 45 minutes in an ultrasonic or let it soak overnight and then rinse out. They say their cans actually suppress better the dirtier they get, up to a point. I plan to find out.

With the Dillon and the Ekron, you're into Hub mounts, but with the Hux, you're limited to their muzzle devices. To me, that's a downside for the Hux. After the Explorr, I'm not doing any more proprietary mount cans.

The manual for the Dillon also explicitly says they warranty manufacturer defects on correctly maintained cans and nothing about repairs due to baffle strikes. Hux is the same, they only cover manufacturer defects and go even further to say that cans are "sold “as is” with no further implied contractual rights or warranties beyond those expressly stated herein" and then say that "FLOW series suppressors are able to be repaired in most instances." I have seen some talk about how mostly, that involves just printing you a new core, and off you go. Stealth Additive has an explicit unlimited lifetime no-fault warranty. Basically, no matter what damage happens or how, they'll cover it.

Some specs, smallest in size to largest:
Dillon DRC556 - 5.35" x 1.75" @ 14.9 oz (without mount)
Ekron 5.56 - 5.9" x 1.77" @ 9 oz (without mount)
Flow 556 Ti - 6.8" x 1.8" @ 11.4 oz

So, while the Dillon is quieter, I wasn't sure the downsides to PIP were worth the added cost to me. It's shorter, yes, but not by a hell of a lot, and it's almost six ounces heavier, which I care about more than a half inch in length. The Flow makes more sense to me vs the Dillon unless you're chasing the absolute quietest, and the numbers it puts out are close to the Ekron with a worse warranty and proprietary mounts. If my ears are indicative of what it may test out to if given to Pew Science, the Ridgeback Defense Rhino S may be damn near as quiet as the Dillon at half the price. If so... we may have a new reigning champ. But, it's not on the market yet, I know nothing about Ridgeback Defense, and with all the upsides to the Ekron, it became the clear winner to me the more I looked at it. The only downsides I could find in reviews were of older iterations with massive flash and sparking, and that's been reported as fixed for months now and the night vision flash test seem to confirm it. It's not as quiet as the Dillon, but I'd say it seems quieter to me than the Flow. Again, in person, it was phenomenal. With all of that, plus the warranty, it just has a lot of good with basically no major downsides that I could determine. Just a solid all-around choice.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:

It's a hell of a lot of money to spend on what amounts to a muffler for your gun and makes it easy to go in analysis paralysis.

I'm there now.

I was 99% decided on a CAT AC556, but wanted to sleep on it. It was out of stock the next morning when I went to check out.

Since then I've looked at the FOR Reece, Dillon, Hux, and SAW Ekron. I'll keep going down the research rabbit hole and see where I end up, but I'm FINALLY going to pull the trigger on something soon.

Let’s us know what you go with and what you think when you get it to the range! I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with any of those choices, honestly. I think at this level of manufacturing in late 2025, we’re more or less splitting hairs in terms of performance.

Since we're talking about the best current 5.56 can, I stopped by the shop today to throw some more cash on my Ekron and they were telling me about the Exigent Defense Vanish. It's supposedly as quiet as the Dillon, but about half the price, and noticeably lighter. I had each of them in hand, and while it wasn't a heck of a lot longer, it was a lot lighter. Now, that was without a mount, and you'd want to probably pair it with a titanium mount, so you'd make up a little bit of weight there, but even then, you're still $600-700 cheaper than the Dillon.

I asked and they can get me the Rhino S. My buddy who bought my Scorpion is asking what my cash price is on my Bren 2. I may very well dump it and turn it into a titanium 5.56 can and a B&T Print X Tiger .22 and be pretty well set on printed titanium suppressors before the new year. Not the worst situation to be in.

This saga continues. A full post by P220Smudge about 4 cans none of which I recognize by name. None that likely existed what 12 months ago???
Can you get a 3d printer in your garage for really cheap money, cause otherwise how is this possible.
Can I name 20 or even more 5.56 cans by name off the top of my head, why yes I can. Is any can that P220Smudge mentions ever in that list, why no. I feel that I should buy something additional in this window of great ATF responses before the SHTF. The what is really problematic. But based on everything I can figure out on what's important to me I think I'm just going to get the Hux. I'm going to cry every day about the mounting situation.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
Can you get a 3d printer in your garage for really cheap money, cause otherwise how is this possible.

Haha, no, you cannot.

Dillon doesn't make their cans, purportedly the company that prints PTR's cans for them does for Dillon also. There are supposedly only a handful of additive manufacturers in the country that have the machinery necessary to do this on a huge scale, and they contract with designers who come up with stuff and then get it printed. There was footage of some of these companies demoing some cutaway cans at SHOT the last few shows with some really wild internals to try to garner business as private label manufacturing, I'd have to believe at least some of what we're seeing is the result of that.

This is also where some of these newer small companies are able to compete, because they can design and rapid prototype and have runs of cans printed and they're off and running. I do know that Otter Creek Labs bought a DMLS printer, and I know that Stealth Additive Works owns their own stuff. In fact, Stealth Additive Works is something Zane Jesser started as a side venture because he already owned an additive manufacturing business. He isn't even a shooter, as the guys at the booth were telling me, a friend of his explained how suppressors worked to him, he looked some over and went "oh, this could be so much more efficient" and designed the Ekron basically on a dare. So, again, a smaller business doing moderate volume can design and print enough cans to keep up with demand if they have the know-how and startup capital to get a DMLS printer.

Will we see more of this? Bet your ass. The old business model of a handful of companies owning basically the whole industry? That's over.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
But based on everything I can figure out on what's important to me I think I'm just going to get the Hux. I'm going to cry every day about the mounting situation.

Hux makes great stuff and the Flow 556 is a great can. I think you'll be happy with it. I agree, the mounting situation sucks, but I get that they have a whole system and that's how they want to do it.