Look inside a dirty silencer...
(Before I get too deep into this story, know that every silencer/suppressor will accumulate deposits. Just sayin’…)
Tony Arcement describes himself as “Just an old guy who likes to shoot…” He’s an accomplished PRS competitor and an engineer, so we were pleased when he agreed to evaluate the Pantera in competition. For those of you who are not familiar with competitive shooters, any change to any component of their rifle platform is a huge commitment in time and money.
We retrieved the Pantera after Tony ran just over 1,000 rounds of 6mm Lapua hand-loads (~3050-fps) and here’s what we found when we opened it:
He had never cleaned it! When told it was intended to be easily disassembled and cleaned, he replied, “Roger that, now that I know. Luke just told me to shoot the snot out of it…” (For those of you who are not familiar with engineers, they're not like normal people; they're very literal.)
The large chunks of deposits seen here came loose when we disassembled the Pantera. (The goopy stuff is dish-washing liquid.) This suggests at least one explanation of some otherwise inexplicable baffle-strike failures of conventional suppressors. All suppressors will collect deposits which can dislodge and affect the bullet.
The only part we couldn’t salvage was the Scrubber; we had to dissolve it out of the tube. Here’s what that looks like.
You’ll find a video showing how to disassemble the Pantera here. A video showing how to clean it is in the works. Here’s a sneak peek at the secret ingredient we use to remove the deposits:
Oh, and if you want to know what Tony thinks about the Pantera, here's the direct quote:
"I like it."
