Took my 556-RC to a carbine class this last week. Cut down the gas with a MicroMOA block, which did work well aside from a small training issue. Only pic I have, the RC is in the background. It was a gnarly class for being on the move constantly so barely snapped a few photos myself.
A couple of notes:
1. Shooting on my precision carbine (getting it very hot) then getting that rained on, I was able to lock the mount up pretty tight! Couldn't get it off after it had cooled. Put some fireclean between the can and mount, let it sit, and finally someone else was able to unlock it. I highly recommend a little lube behind the gas seal rings. I fired a lot during the class and have had no other issues once lubing the mounting faces.
How does this compare to a 556-212? I have one, as well as said FH, and I use FIREClean pretty religiously on the mount. I know 200 rounds isn't 1200, but I fired 200 rounds, got the weapon/can pretty darn hot, and it came right off for me this last week.
2. Perfectly pleased with the RC's sound reduction. I kept muffs on the entire time, but it was a pleasure that day or night shooting, there was no blast coming back on me from the gun or being next to a vehicle or barricade. It's just so much nicer to shoot suppressed when you're under cover or up against things.
No kidding. Inside cars I bet it's a godsend!
3. I have a very nicely gassed gun suppressed. I'm not sure I could go with any smaller of a MicroMOA plate. I THINK the one I'm using now is .56 or something like that. .49 iirc did not work suppressed, it's 12.5" DD carbine length barrel. I'm absolutely certain other cans would allow for smaller ports on this gun (make more backpressure) so SF's points about lower backpressure do seem to be legit.
I had a Noveske 14.5" middy w/Switchblock that was a VERY VERY soft (too soft) shooter with an H buffer and mil-spec spring using a Surefire 556-212. They gas their SB's for AAC M4-2000's, as a template, I believe, and this underscored the point that SF has low back-pressure. I can't wait to try my SOCOM Mini!
4. Getting in and out of vehicles with a suppressed 12.5" was perfectly fine. I see no need to remove this can for most uses. Although I did have to be careful to not burn anything if the gun was still hot (EDIT: this was only really a concern when getting in vehicles that specially were not mine). In the future I may consider a dedicated thread-on can for a different carbine.
I bought a Bowers cover. $35, and it worked great. AFter you rip off a mag or two, it can start to "walk" on you, but it's easy to tap it back into place. I did not get mine to melt, nor was it a real issue. IT totally killed mirage, and I could grab the suppressor with a thin glove for 5-10 seconds without any issue.
5. This course specifically had components about using a carbine close up, and immediately following that with precision aspects. Because the 12.5" was suppressed, I found it easy to maintain focus on wind and holds. Took this 12.5" from close range, then immediately plop down on my gear bag and with 10 rounds in a specific drill go from 100, 200, 300, 400, and ended up with hits at 500, before making three attempts at 600 where I was never able to come up enough, had I known my holds better I would have gotten there (EDIT: This gun has an Aimpoint H1 2MOA). This was on military e-sized targets (echo, 20x40") or smaller. Under the tin roof, had the gun not been suppressed, I feel I probably may have not had the same trigger control and focus.
6. My POI shift at 100y on this gun is 1" down. Can't argue with that.
I have had the same suppressor give me 8 MOA, 2 MOA, and 4 MOA shifts on weapons. It's all about the barrel, IMO. My DDM4 has a bit less than 2 MOA shift, my two Noveske's were 4 and 8, with the 10.5" gun being the 8 MOA shifter. Go figure...
7. SIGNIFICANT night / low light shooting. There is a 3-5" tiny pencil flash from the 556-RC on a 12.5". Perfectly pleased with that as well. At no point did I see the flash as a shooter. I will note that I did have one issue where coming around the side of a minivan, had to transition to the left, I had a steel target about 35y from me, using ambient light from other shooters I was able to put 4-5 hits on it very quickly. Use my strong hand to reach up under the gun and turn the light on, all I saw was smoke. The gun had never moved. So shooting low light like you shoot (light then move) this wouldn't really be an issue. But it was interesting to see how 200lum from the inforce WML turned into about 50lum on the target and the rest lighting up the cloud around my muzzle.
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