Gun Stuff: Murphy Rules

SureFire’s combination flash hider and silencer adapter allows easy attachment of the SureFire FA 762 silencer. The adapter replaces the Black Rain muzzle brake at lower right.

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, a flash-hider on my Black Rain Ordnance AR in 300 Blackout prevented attaching that company’s silencer (called a “can” among us hip silencer experts). So, I visited my local gunsmith, Patrick Murphy, who quickly removed the pesky thang, and I was ready to slap the can in place and take care of business.

Wrong…

The Geissele silencer alignment rod is precision machined to a sliding fit in the barrel and silencer. Proper alignment ensures that the bullet will pass through the silencer without striking interior baffles or the end cap.

Let me digress to supply some background. Because silencers fall under provisions of the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA), to acquire one, you must go through a Class III federal firearms dealer, submit a properly filled-out BATF Form 4, pay a $200 tax—then wait the best part of a year for the transfer to be approved.

Obviously, this test and evaluation couldn’t be put on hold for nine or ten months and still meet my publication deadline. However, I had another option. I couldn’t legally possess the silencer, but my Class III dealer could.

Fortunately, he is a good friend, and he offered to bring the Black Rain silencer to the shooting range—keeping it in his legal possession—and allow me to shoot the rifle with silencer in place to complete the test.

That’s where Murphy raised his ugly head (No, No—not my gunsmith—this was the infamous Murphy of the fabled Murphy’s Law). I had not seen the silencer Black Rain sent until we were on the firing line with rifle and ammo laid out and a target ready downrange.

That is the moment we discovered that the Black Rain folks had sent me a .22 caliber can. This, of course, was not conducive to a good result if we had tried to shoot a .30 caliber bullet through it.

So we packed up, and a perfectly good shooting session went down the tubes.

Time for Plan B.

Now, I would need to get a replacement can (in .30 caliber) and try again. But rather than twiddle my thumbs during what would certainly be a several week delay, I had a back-up plan.

Among my miscellaneous “stuff,” I had a SureFire flash hider/silencer adapter that fit the threaded muzzle of the Black Rain rifle. Since I have a SureFire FA762 .30 caliber silencer on hand, I was able to fit it to the Black Rain rifle with no problem.

Installing the adapter involved screwing it onto the barrel finger tight to see where the index notch lies, then selecting the proper shim to bring it to bottom dead center. The final step is to clean the threads with acetone, apply the provided thread locker and torque it in place.

Once the installation was complete, the SureFire silencer slipped into place, and I twisted its locking collar to the lock position.

I am a bit paranoid about silencer baffle strikes after having experienced one last year. So I checked alignment of the silencer to the rifle bore using a Geissele silencer alignment rod, and finally, I am good to go.

I’ll let you know how it all turns out.

Story by Stan Skinner