It was a few years ago I reviewed the Advanced Armament Corp. SR-7 .30 caliber silencer. I still have that can, and it is still holding up well. I decided it was time to get serious about suppressing some of my AR-15s in 5.56. There are a plethora of quality silencers for the AR platform. I placed a call to AAC and a brand new SR-5, along with the BlastOut 90 tooth QD mount and BreakOut muzzle device to help tame the BlastOut brake when running it without the silencer. The SR-5 comes from AAC with the BlackOut 90 tooth QD flash hider but honestly I prefer to run a brake on my rifle, not only does it help out tremendously with recoil but the baffles in the brake help dissipate the blast, saving a bit of wear and tear on your can.
While the SR-5 may be a bit heavier than many silencers on the market, keep in mind it has a full Inconel 718 baffle stack, which increases longevity of the silencer by a large margin. In my opinion, a little extra weight is worth the durability of the build.
Using two rifles from Barnes Precision Machine, a 16″ Patrolman’s Carbine and 11.5″ select fire demo rifle we put about 3000 rounds through the SR-5. Most of those rounds were during law enforcement demos, and the rest ran by friends of mine. Throughout the test, we mostly ran the 90 tooth AAC BrakeOut QD muzzle brake but we did use the standard 90 tooth AAC BlackOut QD muzzle brake that is included with the silencer.
While I prefer a muzzle brake on a rifle, it is no secret anyone on your starboard or port during live fire will suffer from the redirected muzzle blast, that is why I opted for the BlastOut QC device that will mount to any of the AAC 90 tooth mounts and helps direct the muzzle blast downrange. This is a must if you are running the BrakeOut without a silencer and are training with others in close proximity.
Running standard 55gr 55.6×45 ammunition by my sound meter, showed the decibel numbers to your ears is about 94 db. While that is far from silent it does tame the 5.56×45/.223 enough to be hearing safe. This is a nice benefit when at the range and a must if you are using a rifle in 55.6/.223 as a home/self defense. Throughout the review the silencer held up well, and did not affect accuracy or reliability. Though I did have to swap out the H2 buffer in the 11.5″ select fire to a H4+ buffer when running the rifle in full auto with the silencer. Adding the back pressure increased bolt speed enough to cause erratic ejection which is an indication of a problem. Swapping in the H4+ buffer slowed down the bolt speed enough to correct ejection.
Specifications
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Acknowledgments