I'm a surefire guy for AR style weapons. So I ordered a new RC3 just to see what the reduced gas really means. as truly hate gas to the face. The can got to my dealer today and I took a quick look at it. On the surface mostly seems like an RC2 with a funny endcap. I've no other flow-through cans, but my local crack dealer is always complaining about having to clean the ones used in the rental area ( Huxwrx) all the time (the recommended interval is 2500 rds).
So I wondered what the surefire might need and the manual is the same as my other surefires, clean at 10K rounds with CLR. I didn't have time tonight to do anything more than just look at it. Hopefully the ATF will not take forever on the F4... Will update this once I get to shoot one.

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Hopefully the ATF will not take forever on the F4

Fingers crossed, man. Did you file as an individual or trust? There's guys getting cans back in under a month who filed as individuals.

individual. But I think my local FFL (crack dealer) is deciding after breaking way too many other mfg cans in the rental area to just switch to mostly surefire. So I may get to shoot one before my F4 comes back.

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breaking way too many other mfg cans in the rental area

What kind of silencers and what kind of failures is he seeing? Always neat to hear about that stuff, even if manufacturers' recommendations are being sometimes ignored.

Congrats on the RC3. I am not hot for one, as I have a OSS, to satisfy the low pressure need of a particular host. Honestly, I think I'd be keener on one of the new KAC cans, just because that's a brand that's not represented in my collection. My current RC2-equipped rifle, luckily, runs pretty dang good; not much of a gas/pressure issue.

I am sure the RC3 is bad to the bone. I look forward to your feedback. As a SF silencer fan, your notes will be interesting.

Surefire is definitely proud of the RC3 -- based on the list price. That's a jump from the RC2 pricing.

I've never had an issue with gas back at me. The only time I've ever noticed anything is a few drops of oil on my cheek for the first shot after lubing, if I over-hose-down the BCG before shooting. This is both for the SOCOMs and the TBAC cans I own.

I'm pretty confident the RC3 will be a nice can. I haven't purchased cans in a few years -- the price seems high.

The price is comparable to the peer offering from KAC. I agree that it's expensive. I guess it's the price you pay to be on the "cutting edge".

The cutting edge is sometimes referred to as the bleeding edge.

A few years ago I was fortunate enough to tour the ThunderBeast suppressor factory in Wyoming. I tagged along with a buddy who is a good friend of Zack, while we were on the way to a big match in northern Wyoming. Since neither of us were engineers looking for manufacturing secrets, we got to see the CNC machines up close, while operating. We handled some raw and semi-finished parts. TBAC's floor supervisor shot the shit with us for quite a bit on suppressor design and function.

Later that year, I happened to be in the LGS when the OSS stopped by to drop off their latest uber can -- touted as low backflow, no gassing to the user, quiet as a mouse fart. A couple weeks later I attended a Rifles Only course hosted by this LGS. We tested the OSS again our SOCOM and TBAC suppressors. I didn't experience anything spectacular with the OSS unit. Definitely no reason to change from SOCOM and TBAC.

My thoughts from above, from a substantial amount of observation of other shooters' cans in the field, and from at least 20k rounds of my own suppressed fire:
- As the drag racing guys say about engines -- there's no replacement for displacement. A bigger volume can is quieter and has less back pressure.
- Baffle design is important, but there's only so much they can do for a given suppressor diameter and length. Similar to a car's muffler.
- Given a specific can's volume, its performance characteristics are give and take. Increasing one feature generally decreases another.

I am pretty confident that the RC3 and the current KAC (& similar) cans are very good. I am not confident that they will perform significantly better than my RC2 cans. Or may TBAC cans.
Evolution -- yes. Revolution -- no.

I think mostly I have the same strategy on cans as fritz. I run surefire on centerfire semi's and TBAC on bolts. I have no complaints on that. Both have delivered on outstanding products for my use. And I really don't follow the product lines of anybody else as I'm probably not going to buy their stuff anyway. On the guns I run the most tuning has left me with perfectly acceptable operation. But in this case I'm just being a addict. I have a pretty decent collection of surefire cans and lots of rounds down them in many different guns and I want to see if this is really a step up the evolutionary ladder or not. Yup its pricey for sure! why? no idea?

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really don't follow the product lines of anybody else as I'm probably not going to buy their stuff anyway

I feel more-or-less the same, but I think knowing about failures of other makes/models is good trivia, especially when advising other folks' purchases.

if you mean at my local crack store. They had issues with the Huxwrx which in my opinion only was the result of them not getting the required maintenance program spun up before a ton of rounds went downrange. But I'll ask a bit more when there next. The other was sig. straight up mechanical failure near the locking collar. Not sure what model I'll inquire. It seems a bit hush hush though so I may not get the full scoop. Lots of stuff gets broken on their rental range and some of it seems a bit funny to me (example they destroyed a SCAR (one of my favorite guns and one I have shot a lot) in a way that as described I don't actually believe)
As a separate issue of note I know one of the customers launched his surefire RC2 downrange as they did not properly lock it. I don't know if this was a simple stupidity or there was some issue with the sealing surfaces being carbon fouled or whatever. I'm trying to get the real info on that one too.... Net damage to the rc2 landing on a concrete floor was some minor finish scrapes.

KSGM your favorite topic. My crack dealer made me watch this today. Myself all my muzzle devices are the 4 prong ones as the suppressor sound testing over at pew science made the rest particularily the warcomp problematic. But look at the flame front? maybe could use it offensively.
OOPS...the pasted link doesn't go the what I wanted. Standby...

I haven't watched the video, but I have seen the thumbnail, and read others' comments on it. It is quite interesting, how much difference the muzzle device inside the silencer makes. I see no reason for these differences to be exclusive to SF cans, but that's certainly the only one we really hear about, thanks to the Pew Science testing of the RC2. It is especially interesting, considering Surefire's prioritization and boastfulness of flash suppression; you'd think they'd make special mention of the fact that certain muzzle devices completely eliminate that performance aspect.

I use a brake, on my 10.5" with the RC2. I opted for the brake for two reasons: Even though the RC2 has the durability reputation, I figured I'd let the brake soak up some of that blast baffle abuse; the wear on the brake baffles is evidence that it serves that purpose. I also absolutely hate the "ping" emitted by most open tine hiders; I can hear the difference even with the can installed. I will never shoot this rifle without the silencer attached, so the brake's performance (good and bad) in that regard is a non-issue. I even have a 556mini and 762mini as backups, in the event something happens to the RC2.

I have not observed the flash from the brake/RC2/10.5" setup in a critical manner. I can tell you there's no problem from behind the gun, that I can tell, but I have yet to view it perpendicularly. I should make that effort.

Apparently there's been another video "test" performed; this time including the brake. The RC3 with brake doesn't experience the flash. Wild that the closed tine hider suffers, while the brake doesn't. So, Warcomp=noisier and closed tine hider=flashier; does that sum it up?

In the promo videos Surefire put out they describe flash as one of the better aspects of their cans design. And they continue to say that for the RC3.
But holy crap batman on that flame front in the videos.
My local crack dealer has agreed that some time we can turn off the lights in the range and run my RC3 (in jail) to see what it actually looks like but its Xmas season so is busy season for them so not for awhile.

I watched bit of the other flash comparison video, by "Big Tex", and it's all really quite minimal, so long as you don't use the wrong mount.

The problem as I see it as someone with a decent sized surefire inventory is that surefire has never said boo (that I know about) that the different muzzle options have way different results on sound or flash or whatever. I'm pretty pissed about it, but I can't imagine how pissed one would be if you issued like 10K of the wrong device...
Edited to add, the ones I have on SBR's etc that are threaded I don't care I'll swap my inventory around to end up with what makes the most sense. But I have done a few pin and welds and those I can't change.

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issued like 10K of the wrong device...

I know the LMT New Zealand "reference rifle" has a warcomp. Presumably because that's what NZ has on their LMT rifles. There's one example of the "wrong device" issued in large numbers. TBH, the closed tine hider appealed to me, both aesthetically and because it wouldn't ring. I never got one because they never seemed to be available (when I was looking); I am glad things ended up the way they did!

I now see surefire has added an official proclamation on the issue. Which is nice so you know something the mfg. says but they sure as f*** have had to know this in the beginning. I mean its better than the deadair silence but its completely unacceptable in any other context. Luckily I'm mostly ok in my inventory, and I think like KSGM, my suppressors mostly live on a single gun.

Makes you wonder what kind of testing they actually did.

I am inclined to believe that they did quite a bit of testing. I, like hrcjon, think that they knew about the poor performance on certain devices, but neglected to make folks aware.

Found this video series this morning. Very cool comparative data. RC3 beats the KAC PRT, when it comes to reduction in backpressure (as perceived through fire-rate comparison), but at the apparent cost of a wild heat buildup. Flash comparison is interesting too.