Anyone seen OSS Suppressors? Looks like a great option for rifle suppression.

I was out at Free State this weekend, and was talking to them about suppressors in general.

They said that they had a newer company called OSS come out last week with their roadshow truck, and apparently Free State is going to be a dealer for them now. These are a completely clean sheet design from "traditional" suppressors, and at first look it really appears to me that these guys are doing a lot of stuff "right" as far as their designs go. Of course, I don't actually know that much about suppressors, so I figure'd I'd post here.

The highlights:
This is a three piece system.
1. FHMB, or Flash Hider / Muzzle break. You get of these per weapon, specific to that caliber.
2. BPR, or Back Pressure Regulator. You get one of these, and it can mount over ANY caliber FHMB. This mounts "backward" with the body of it going back over the barrel and only adds .63" OAL to the weapon beyond the tip of the FHMB. The BPR alone will drop a .556 round to 148dB if it's cold.
3. SRM, or Signature Reduction Module. This attaches to the front of the BPR and adds another 4" of OAL. With the entire system in place, it will drop a .556 round to 138dB cold.

If you buy all three components as a set, the only part which is serialized for NFA purposes is the BPR.

The system doesn't use traditional baffles at all. Instead, it used a stacked series of internal turbine vanes to cause the expanding gas to travel something like 44 linear inches before it exits the front of the device. This has the added (and huge, IMO) benefit of reducing the amount of extra bolt velocity you get (on an AR). With the OSS system, they claim that you only end up with 6% higher bolt velocities instead of the 25% - 60% with traditional suppressors. This means that you also don't wind up with blowback in your face and an overgassed weapon.

They claim a minimum 10,500 round life before any degredation of performance at low cyclic rates (20 RPM), with a minimum of 4,500 rounds before any performance decrease at 850RPM. And when performance does begin to degrade, you only replace part of the FHMB, which is about $40, since there are no traditional internal baffles to degrade.

Basically, you can buy one "system" consisting of an FHMB, a BPR, and an SRM. You pay one tax stamp on it. Later, if you want to put it on another caliber (say, moving from 5.56 to 7.62) you need only buy another FHMB (which are about $350) for the other weapon. No new tax stamp, and you just move the rest of the components over.

Free State has some nice literature on these, as well as a couple of demo unit cutaways so that you can see how the internals work. The OSS website is also good:

http://www.oss-online.com/the-system-2.html

And I found a couple of youtube videos on them as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE6uro6oH3w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oXMrvDU7-Q

These just seem like a really nice solution to suppressing a rifle to me. What does everybody else think?

Interesting but a bit pricey at $1,600 for a complete setup. They also measure the db reduction using a different method than other manufactures so it makes suppression reduction hard to compare.

Yeah, definitely not the cheapest thing around, but does seem like a good, robust system. I *really* like the fact that the only real wear part is $40 and five minutes to replace.

As far as the dB reduction, I was wondering about that too. From what they said in the videos, it appears that their method is actually more stringent than the traditional way of doing it - at the shooter's ear, and inside a small enclosed space. Granted though, I know absolutely nothing about measuring sound in that manner.

I was at Freestate when they were testing the suppressor and will be ordering one as soon as I can. I can only compare it to my SDN6 and the OSS is much quieter.

Interesting....will have to read more when I get home. I was leaning towards the AAC SDN6

pwoolford said:

I was at Freestate when they were testing the suppressor and will be ordering one as soon as I can. I can only compare it to my SDN6 and the OSS is much quieter.

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Jealous. Wish I could have been there for that.

Also, FWIW HK is using these to build the MR556A1-SD and MR762A1-SD.
http://www.hk-usa.com/military_products/mr556a1_sd_general.asp

Just reviewed looks awesome! Free state has some of these in stock?

I don't think they have any in stock right now, but they have the dealer materials including some cutaway dummy ones so you can see how the system looks and assembles.

I will wait until a few people get them and put a large number of rounds through them.

A lot of money and a LOT of time, for a new product.

oh look, it's full of acronyms. that'll help with fooling people that they have some sort of government contract or something.

seems ridiculous to me. pass.

The more I look into this last night....the more I'm leaning away from it. I think the concept is neat, but is expensive as fauk. My suppressor will mainly go on my 300blk and my 308 bolt gun. The primary purpose of this suppressor is to reduce the back fed gas, the 300blk should have lots of pressure and this thing is way overkill on a bolt gun.

I was also wondering about the sound signature in front of the gun. Looks like they are strickly measuring the sound at the shooters ear. It appears that the gas is being vented out the front of the suppressor which makes me wonder about the sound level coming of the front. Could this be why they changed the method of measurement? I am guessing its going to exceed 140db if measured in front of the shooter.

Definitely looks like a neat concept, and I was tempted to get one just to see how it would be, but then realized that this would not work with my applications. Most the guns I tended to run suppressed are SBR and with that BPR regressing quite a bit from the end of the barrel this just wouldn't work on a SBR and I suppose depending on what kind of gas block you have it may not have the proper clearance. Hence I went with the 762 saker.

It must been quite good for HK to adopt it in their MR556.

Nope. I'm about to take a #2 so I don't feel like explaining it, or arguing. Suppressor fans are the worst next to lube fans.

I watched the first video and it came across as junk science. On the octagon shape, "the heat rises up and away from your optic so you always have a clear sight picture and you no longer have heat mirage." Heat rises from a tubular body but goes sideways on an octagon?

The premise of the entire system is that unlike baffles, their system uses vanes "like a jet engine". Vanes on a jet engine spin and work in conjunction with combustion within the body of the engine. What does a jet engine have to do with the operation of a suppressor? The "deflector" is the only part that need be replaced to return the suppressor to new operation - why would the "deflector" wear out, as in physically it wear away? References are made to heat differential in a baffle suppressor causing wear, gasses traveling back down the barrel because it is the path of least resistance, and on and on. I'm open to a new system, but the why of how they achieve these claims are fuzzy to say the least.

Maybe the system works and they are just doing terrible job explaining how. H&K seems to have enough faith to market it as part of the MR556A1-SD, but it looks like the technical details were lifted verbatim from the OSS page.

Uh. I recall these suppressors discussed in-depth on both suppressor talk and weaponsguild. Consensus is to save your pennies and buy from a company that's going to be around when you need parts in two years.

It looks like complete ********. But then again, the ATF's definition is if it reduces the sound signature in any measurable way... So... Yeah.

EDIT:
Taken from their new website:

Q: What is available for civilian purchase?
Currently we take special orders for Military and Law Enforcement in most calibers. For commercial purchase we are offering suppression for 5.56 through 7.62 in an AR platform, with many more ideas in design and testing stages.

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Translation: we sell exclusively to people who spend money that isn't theirs, and don't have to wait to get it, so they don't give so many shits when it doesn't work like it's supposed to work. We'll sell you one if you're really good, civilian.

Curiosity got the better of me, I have a .30 caliber model coming in.

Praeger said:

I watched the first video and it came across as junk science. On the octagon shape, "the heat rises up and away from your optic so you always have a clear sight picture and you no longer have heat mirage." Heat rises from a tubular body but goes sideways on an octagon?

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Supposedly, that's backed up by testing. What testing, I don't know.

The "deflector" is the only part that need be replaced to return the suppressor to new operation - why would the "deflector" wear out, as in physically it wear away?

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Apparently, because that's the part that first intercepts the muzzle gasses and blast - just like how the first baffle in a traditional stack will wear faster than the rest of them, the tip of the FHMB wears out eventually. Fortunately, since it's NOT a baffle as per the ATF it's user replaceable.

Maybe the system works and they are just doing terrible job explaining how. H&K seems to have enough faith to market it as part of the MR556A1-SD, but it looks like the technical details were lifted verbatim from the OSS page.

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I do think that they're suffering from an inability to describe how the thing works. I read some discussion of the system on the snipershide forums, and it was clear that folks there didn't understand the thing in the least. I got a peek at the cutaway one that they had at Freestate, and when you see the internals and how the system assembles it does actually make sense. Now, I'm not a professional at this stuff, but once upon a time I did take a bunch of physics and thermodynamics and other classes of that type in college. Plus, I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. Once.

That said, based on having seen them in person I'd give them a chance. Plus, I don't think HK would market anything that's that crappy as part of one of their rifles.

awptickes said:

Uh. I recall these suppressors discussed in-depth on both suppressor talk and weaponsguild. Consensus is to save your pennies and buy from a company that's going to be around when you need parts in two years.

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There's definitely wisdom there. But, if HK is still selling these things in a couple of years, I think there'd be a fair amount of stability at that point.

It looks like complete ********. But then again, the ATF's definition is if it reduces the sound signature in any measurable way... So... Yeah.

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They did do testing of it, and I've both seen video of them being fired and know people who work for Freestate whom I trust who were impressed with their suppression capability. Regardless of how it comes across on the internet, they DO actually work.

Translation: we sell exclusively to people who spend money that isn't theirs, and don't have to wait to get it, so they don't give so many shits when it doesn't work like it's supposed to work. We'll sell you one if you're really good, civilian.

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Or that they're going after the big money targets first so they'll have some operating cash to fund civillian models and sales.

Hansohn Brothers said:

Curiosity got the better of me, I have a .30 caliber model coming in.

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Cool. Let us know when you get it and how it works. Like I said, the folks at Freestate were impressed with them, but I'm curious to hear more real-world experience.

Hawkeye said:

Or that they're going after the big money targets first so they'll have some operating cash to fund civillian models and sales.

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That being said, I've seen a lot of absolute horse-shit perpetrated on the American tax-payer.

It looks like a lot of "patented" wear-surfaces that can only be made by the manufacturer. Combined with all of those threaded parts, it looks like it'll be a problem in a couple years.

awptickes said:

That being said, I've seen a lot of absolute horse-shit perpetrated on the American tax-payer.

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This is truth.

It looks like a lot of "patented" wear-surfaces that can only be made by the manufacturer.

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I'm not asking this to be confrontational, but how is that different than any other suppressor? I mean, if I buy a traditional suppressor with a baffle stack (which is a wear item), and I wear it out, who else can I go to other than the manufacturer for a replacement? As in, does anyone else except for Silencerco, say, make baffles for an Osprey?

And on that subject, I like the idea that they've made the main (or only, as they claim) wear component of the thing into something that the ATF will allow to be user-replaceable.

Combined with all of those threaded parts, it looks like it'll be a problem in a couple years.

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There aren't actually a ton of threads. More than a standard suppressor, yes, but the FHMB is (semi)permanently attached to the weapon like any other muzzle device. Then the BPR threads on to that and the SRD threads on to that. So yeah, you've got three sets of threads instead of one, I suppose. I guess that's the tradeoff of the design.

Still, having such a long lifetime on the wear component and having that be so cheap and easy to replace seems like it might be an ok trade.

I suppose that with all of this time will tell as people start using them.