It’s been a while since we did a Silencers 101 segment, and given the increased interest in suppressors — and the recent news from ATF regarding the NFA — a lot of people who are thinking about buying their first can have a lot of questions. One basic one is about the different materials that suppressors are made out of, what the differences are, and why you would choose one over another.
There are four primary materials that most silencer makers use.
Aluminum
Let’s start with aluminum. As you know, aluminum is lightweight, pretty strong, inexpensive, and easy to machine. Most of the least expensive silencers on the market will be made out of aluminum and then anodized.
The benefits are lightweight construction and low cost. On the downside, aluminum isn’t as durable, especially when it gets hot or is exposed to debris.
Out of the muzzle of your gun, you have a lot of high-pressure gas. It’s very hot, and there’s debris mixed in. These are little bits of gunpowder and sometimes jacket fragments and other material that will erode aluminum over time.
A design like this JK Armament suppressor, where it’s all modular and I can actually switch out the first baffle, which is called the blast baffle, and rotate these around, is really cool. If you’re using it on a powerful gun, that will make it last a lot longer.
This one is made for .22 Long Rifle. It’s never going to wear away on .22 Long Rifle, but with aluminum, you have to be a little careful as to how you clean it. You can’t just throw it in an ultrasonic tank for a really long time because it will start to degrade the material. You can’t scrape it with a steel brush, either. That will scratch and degrade it, too.
On this suppressor, when I got it from JK, I set it up with a 17-4 stainless steel blast baffle first in the stack. That’s because the blast baffle takes all that hard use due to those gasses. But because of that 17-4 stainless blast baffle, I can also run this can on a 5.7 or .22 Magnum gun.
Stainless Steel
That brings us to the next material, which is 17-4 stainless steel. That’s a high grade stainless steel that’s very durable at high temperatures.
This is our next least expensive material. A lot of great suppressors are made from 17-4 stainless.
This happens to be a .22 suppressor, one that I’ve had for a really long time. Because it’s 17-4, it’s rated for 5.7, .22 Magnum, short barrels, full-auto fire, all of that. I can also take it and scrape the carbon and lead deposits off. I can throw it in an ultrasonic tank as much as I want.
That’s why there’s missing spots of Cerakote on this old AAC Element 2. It’s spent a lot of time in an ultrasonic tank and the Cerakote has gradually worn away, but the stainless steel doesn’t.
There are a lot of great 5.56 suppressors made from 17-4 stainless steel, as well as some really hard-use 9mm suppressors. It’s a really good material if you want to use it and abuse it. If you’re going to run a training class with an AR-15 shooting a high round count, it can handle that, but it’s still an affordable option.
Inconel and Haynes 282
Next, I’m going to jump to Inconel or Haynes 282. Inconel and Haynes 282 are very similar in their applications. They’re exotic, name-brand superalloys that are nickel-based and can withstand extremely high temperatures for long periods of time.
It would be extremely difficult to damage an Inconel suppressor on just about any non-belt-fed firearm. You can get Inconel suppressors to temperatures upwards of 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit with no problem.
Inconel’s great if you want to go through a bunch of magazines at heavy rates of fire, especially with rounds like 5.56 out of short barrels. Inconel or Haynes 282 would definitely be the suppressor material to choose for that.
Keep in mind that they’re more expensive and hard to machine. Most of the Inconel suppressors now are 3D-printed. It’s a little easier to deal with the material that way, and you don’t have the waste that comes from machining away very expensive metal.
On the downside, Inconel is heavier, but it gives you ultimate durability.
Titanium
Now we get to a premium material that’s extremely lightweight: titanium. For suppressors, we’re usually talking about Grade 5 titanium, either machined or 3D-printed. It doesn’t really matter for the purposes of the material itself.
Titanium is super-strong structurally in terms of handling high pressure, yet it’s very lightweight. Your lightest suppressors on the market are probably going to be titanium.
Although aluminum technically is slightly lighter, it’s not nearly as strong. So when you get into centerfire applications, titanium cans are usually the lightest that can still handle full-power rifle cartridges and shorter barrels.
Titanium suppressors can also be ultrasonically cleaned. It’s just a much more durable material than aluminum. It’s probably my favorite suppressor material.
The one thing to keep in mind about titanium is, like aluminum, it can erode if you get it too hot…750 degrees or hotter. You want to watch your temperature on a titanium suppressor. It doesn’t matter if the manufacturer says it’s full-auto rated. Titanium can handle full-auto, but only for short periods until it gets near the 750 degree mark.
That’s just a characteristic of the material. Once it gets past 750 degrees, if you’re still firing, that’s when the material gets softer to the point where the debris begins to comes out of your muzzle. That means you’re starting to erode the metal.
You’ll see that in some videos where people are doing it on purpose. All of a sudden, you start seeing sparks coming out the front like a sparkler. That’s actually your silencer wearing away.
Titanium suppressors will handle whatever you throw at them as long as you watch that temperature. And at 750-plus degrees, you’ll have to work to get it up that high. You’ve got to be shooting pretty hard.
But a titanium suppressor may not be able to handle the load of a training class where you’re shooting an AR, reloading magazines, and going through a lot of rounds in short amount of time. So keep that in mind. If you’re doing that kind of shooting, you’ll want a can made from 17-4 stainless steel, Inconel, or Haynes.
Titanium is lightweight, yet strong construction. Aluminum is low cost and lightweight construction.
Other Materials and Hybrid Designs
There are a couple of other, sort of random materials, but they’re pretty rare. We’ve seen some 3D-printed polymer suppressors lately. There are a couple of rimfire suppressors that are 3D-printed polymer.
Now, without the $200 tax, if you’re spending $75 to $100 on a silencer and it lasts you 500 to 1,500 rounds and then you throw it out, that may be a viable option. That might make sense, especially if you’re dedicating it to a little squirrel gun or something with a small caliber that you don’t shoot a lot.
We’re also seeing some suppressors that are all aluminum except right at the bore, where they’ve put little stainless steel inserts. Again, that’s where most of your debris and wear occur. So they have the low cost of aluminum with some of the durability of stainless steel.
With deregulation and the explosion of interest in buying silencers by people who never considered it before, we’re seeing a lot of cool innovation in the silencer market now. If you have any questions about these materials that silencers are typically made out of, please leave them in the comments below. I’m happy to answer.
See SNW’s other Silencer 101 videos here.