Back in April, I went to the East Valley Tactical Suppressed Range Day at Ben Avery in Phoenix with the guys. Lots of vendors and manufacturers, a lot of the big name brands were there. You know them. Recap thread here. I shot a lot of cans that day, nothing impressed me the way the Stealth Additive stuff did. I know, sounds super shill, I'm just being honest.

I emailed them a few weeks later asking if they had any plans to do a 9mm can, because while rifle cans and .22 cans are great, what I've been shooting the most of is 9mm through PCC's. It's quiet, it's cheap, it's a reasonably close analog to a suppressed rifle for training purposes, and under NODs, it's an absolute giggle. We traded emails and then texts over the next few months, and then to my surprise, I got an email for an invoice. With Matt Liebe of Stealth Additive's blessing, I can tell you the following:

The Kalil is the evolutionary dead end that led them to a can they'll be bringing to market soon called the Shiloh. They look pretty similar, but they made some rather notable improvements on what I have here, which is one of two Kalils produced. It is 5.9" long, 1.77" in diameter, weighs 7.77oz. Mount is the Resilient Gen 2 titanium tri lug because anything else felt like a disservice. With mount, it's 10.2oz. Pictured below with my Ecco Machine Phoenix TL (ten baffle version, 6.5"), along with a few hosts. Haven't shot it on the Inox yet because... I don't yet own a piston. I know, kind of silly, but all things in time. I opted to have them leave it unfinished, raw titanium for grins. It's a girthy can, and the tone is great. Matt says it's rifle rated to .308 and no barrel length restrictions, but I'm probably only ever going to use it as a pistol can.









After a several range trips, a PCC match and a little over 500 rounds through it with a mix of 115gr, 124gr, and 147gr subs, I can say it's very quiet, and there's little to no backpressure as far as I can tell. A/Bing it on the Scorpion vs the Ecco was pretty dramatic, you can feel the difference. I really should have cleaned the Stribog first, because it's really hard to tell how much of the fouling that's in it was already in it vs what the Kalil blew back into the action. It doesn't seem any dirtier than it was before I started testing it. The Ecco Machine Phoenix is a great can, and hot-swapped out with a YHM R9 and a Rugged Obsidian at a prior range trip, everyone around concluded that the Phoenix is quieter. To both the shooter and standing several feet to the right of the shooter, the Kalil was noticeably quieter than the Phoenix. On my Stribog, and my friend's AP5, the Kalil was what I would call hearing safe. It's the first can I've tried on the Stribog that didn't hurt my ears without ear pro. No random ringing afterwards, either. We also compared it to his new Flow 9K, and it was quieter than the Hux. I could hear the difference in backpressure between the Kalil and the Ecco when he swapped, it was a bassy thump out of the ejection port with the Phoenix. I don't know how surprising this is to anyone, but I was shocked that 124gr PMC Bronze was not only subsonic, but so quiet that the shot timer wouldn't pick it up unless the RO had it right up on the ejection port. I guess it'll be 115gr stuff for 2 gun matches with "Open PCC" as a choice.

Further testing and comparison will be done as soon as fire restrictions on BLM lands lift. If anyone cares, I can post footage of flash testing through NODs. Of the video I've gotten, a little bit of port flash from the first shot in a string is the first I've seen. No idea if it's a sparky boi, or if subsonic 9mm will even do that with titanium dust.

The can that Stealth Additive will be bringing to market, according to Matt, will have slightly more backpressure, but is even quieter than the Kalil. Based on the features and it being much lighter and even quieter, I'm kind of tempted to eventually pick one of those up as well. If what he told me is correct, it should be sub 3oz, which is insane. The Stubby they've recently brought to market is 2.4oz and can be used on a Glock without a booster and still cycle. SAW is doing some neat stuff.

They didn't give me this one for free (I paid approximately a Polonium for it) and they didn't ask for me to write a review or post on media. I asked if they minded my talking about it, and Matt said to go for it. I'm not bought and paid for, I'm not a GunTuber, I'm not a social media shill, I'm just a guy who got excited about some suppressors and asked for one in a caliber they weren't making yet, and they hooked me up before they were really ready to bring anything to market.

I have since sold the Scorpion to a friend, and I'm planning to pick up an Ekron 5.56 to live on my 11.5" URGI. There are other titanium cans that are a little cheaper and if I want to spend another $400ish on a Dillon, I can get shorter and quieter, but nobody currently has Stealth Additive beat on the backpressure from what I'm seeing. Nobody comes close. Several times, I've pulled half-empty mags just to look at the rounds on top and there's no fouling on them with this can. It's a massive difference between it and the Ecco. Really looking forward to doing more testing since most of the guys in my NV group have 9mm tri-lugged hosts and their own cans. If the weather keeps doing what it's been doing, I should have some interesting comparison footage through NODs pretty soon.

It didn't feel entirely appropriate to post this in the Lazarus 6 thread, but this is the Ekron vs the Lazarus 6. A little quieter, even less backpressure. They've made some improvements on the flash signature reduction since this video as well. I am super hyped for the Stealth Additive stuff.

P220Smudge I hope this is not wondering too far off topic... I thought in the first part of that video that the dillion and the Ekron seemed pretty close in sound and quite good. Impressively so in fact.
So I wondered if Pew had done either, I found the Dillion. And then my 'what to make of it' meter went off the charts. I have a surefire mini and I consider it loud and obnoxious and only to be tolerated due to its size. And Pew says the Dillion is about the same. It makes me wonder despite all the various sophisticated setups for these videos that somehow the sound system is losing the real bark of these short suppressors on 5.56 guns. Edited to add I only care about shooter ear numbers in my assessment of any suppressor via Pew.

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

Not at all, the whole backpressure and experience of it thing is definitely on topic. They are pretty close. All three cans are pretty damn close, imo.

As far as the Pew stuff goes, I don't think the numbers tell the whole tale as far as what cans are going to do for the shooter's experience. Jay doesn't tune his guns at all, and each host is unchanged from test to test. While this means it's pretty apples to apples, it also means that's not super representative of what the end user's experience may be. Granted, with a flow-through can, the draw is that you don't have to tune the gun, but still. I also see the numbers from the shooter's ear are for paid members only, despite there being a bar for "absolute ear suppression rating" on the chart I think you're referencing. I think that's where the real difference is going to be.

Also on that chart are the Vent Spiritus and Cat WB, which both score much higher than the Dillon, but in this video, they're noticeably louder. I either shot a clogged up example of the Spiritus, or the Ekron just flat smokes it because it was uncomfortable to shoot without ear pro on.
https://youtu.be/M73qxsjgiQE?si=kecD4gone7D1S8Oj&t=148

I can tell you for certain that standing about where the camera is in the video, I hung out for about thirty minutes of shooting with no ears on, and the Ekron was used on a 10.5" 5.56 and an AK, and there was zero discomfort. I wouldn't make a whole day of it, but it was shockingly fine. I'll be honest, I know a lot of guys are huge fans of Pew Science, and the hivemind on the various subreddits dickride him endlessly, but I don't look at him as the final word on this stuff. This isn't the first time his numbers haven't really jibed with what the overall feedback is on something, and so far, it's that the Dillon is currently the quietest 5.56 rifle can on the market. I think mics in videos like this can give you an idea in a good A/B, but obviously, they can't tell the whole tale, either. Where I'm hearing the difference that I'm reading as overall volume reduction is in how much residual echo there is from can to can.

Well, after debating and debating, I went to my dealer yesterday intent on getting an Ekron 5.56 in FDE. All they had in inventory was an Ekron .30 in FDE. It was the display model. I don't have a .30 cal can, and after about thirty seconds of deliberation, went ahead and paid for most of it. Form 3 is filed, I'll pay it off when I get approved and go to pick it up. I could've waited for a restock, I could've ordered exactly what I wanted, but I was feeling impulsive and decided I didn't want to wait.

I have some mild regret in deciding to go ahead on the .30 vs the 5.56, but I'm telling myself I'm not going to be able to tell the difference and I'll have a can I can put on a .300BO or .308. Trouble is, I don't have a .300BO and don't want to pay subsonic ammo prices for one, and I don't have a .308 in a host I'd like to suppress. I guess it'll give me options, anyway. I mainly just want a super low backpressure can for my 11.5" URGI, and this oughta fit the bill. That range day, and shooting everything including a short AK with this can on it and not wearing ear pro and all of it being comfortable, plus shooting the Kalil on the Stribog with no ear pro has me feeling pretty reassured.

So there it is, I'll finally own two cans from the same manufacturer.

I bought a flush mount Plan A Hub adapter when I first put the Polonium in jail. The Griffin linear comps I bought and mounted are too long to fit the Polonium with that mount, and I wound up having to buy Griffin's XL mount for it to get it on my rifles. The added length and weight have bugged me ever since. I need to take one of my rifles down there with that unused Plan A mount and see if this can will mount with it. If so, that's at least one thing I won't have to screw with. I think eventually, I'll end up going with Plan B everything, perhaps even including the sub guns, and then I can move my rifle rated prototype can to whatever, and the Griffin Explorr can live on the PS90, and maybe any longer rifles I eventually set up where I don't need more than a K can and don't want a boat anchor hanging off the front of my gun. The taper mount being built into the can kind of locked me into their ecosystem for anything I want to use it on, but I'll soon have enough rifle cans in Hub to where that will matter very little, I think. It'll be nice to pull that XL mount and get rid of it.

Oh, a friend of mine picked up a Hux Flow 9k. It comes with a Hub booster assembly and I believe a piston for 1/2x28. He asked if I wanted it. I may very well get it off him. I kind of want to see what this can would sound like on that Inox 92 Brigadier. Problem is, I'm pretty sure that threaded barrel is 5/8x24.