Originally Posted by
okie
First and foremost, I want to reiterate that the human ear is incapable of judging whether something is hearing safe or not. Tone and peak can both hide a very damaging pressure wave so that you're completely unaware any damage is occurring. I would never intentionally habitually shoot any supersonic centerfire round without some form of hearing protection.
The other factor here is that port pop is a big source of noise with semiautomatic centerfire rifles. Far more than most people even realize. Moreover, it's the biggest source of noise to the shooter's ear when shooting with an effective suppressor. Silencers like the Bantam don't have much if any back pressure, so they don't increase port pop. It's no different in principle than using a 30 cal can on a 223 to reduce noise at the shooter's ear.
Again, I want to reiterate that the Bantam looks to be a very good suppressor for what it is, and I would absolutely buy one. I wish the company didn't do the whole smoke and mirrors routine because they have a pretty nice product at a reasonable price that can stand on its own merits. I think as an SBR can it's just about perfect.
PS, Paco is right, though. Wouldn't be hard to replicate as a traditionally manufactured silencer. You could even replicate the helical skirts if you really wanted to, though it wouldn't be advantageous. They don't really do anything as far as I can tell, but I know from experience why they're necessary, or at least advantageous, to the 3d printing process. Especially if they were using FDM to prototype, which is very common.
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