Integrally Suppressed or separate SBR suppressor?

RedTide · Mar 14, 2018

I am looking to change to 300BLK SBR and get a suppressor for my HD carbine so, should I ever need it, I am less likely to damage my hearing (which is an important part of my vocation). Eyeing the following options:

**Option 1) Purchase an integrally suppressed upper.
Pros: One tax stamp, easy to change out/revert to 5.56 by swapping to old upper, less worries about 29" OAL, never have to worry about leaving the can away from the rifle in an emergency
Cons: Can't use suppressor with anything else

**Option 2) Purchase 300 BLK SBR upper, can separately
Pros: Easy to change out/revert, can use suppressor with 308/5.56 rifles
Cons: Two tax stamps, must have at least 10.5" barrel

Seeking opinions. Are my thought patterns above correct? What am I missing? I am a Class 3 cherry, so please feel free to throw in ideas or shoot holes in my logic here. Thanks!

j_h_smith · Mar 14, 2018

Personally I like to have my suppressors available for any host it will work with.

YMMV.

j_h_smith · Mar 14, 2018

Personally I like to have my suppressors available for any host it will work with.

YMMV.

protegeV · Mar 14, 2018

j_h_smith said:
Personally I like to have my suppressors available for any host it will work with.

YMMV.

Seems it be a trend today. Must be a PI day thing

I agree though. Never got the draw of integral suppsressors

j_h_smith · Mar 14, 2018

protegeV said:
Seems it be a trend today. Must be a PI day thing

I agree though. Never got the draw of integral suppsressors

For the niche firearm, I wouldn't have a problem. But for what the OP wants, I think an integral suppressor would be a mistake.

Just one man's opinion.

outrider58 · Mar 14, 2018

Separate can gets my vote.

teratos · Mar 14, 2018

Integral cans are often quieter. I’m in the process of building a 9mm integrally suppressed upper. The can will be 12” and will be a reflex design. Given the design/volume and the fact that it will be a delayed blowback design, I’m hoping it will be at LEAST as quiet as an MP5SD. That will be worth it. Cost of can INCLUDING stamp (minus barrel) ~$350

RedTide · Mar 14, 2018

Thanks for the advice. Available funds will play a part too, but always beneficial to hear from those who have walked the path before.
:thumbsup:

DutchV · Mar 14, 2018

I don't have any integrals. If you were only going to have one, that would be the way to go. As soon as you get a can, all your guns need to be threaded and have adapters installed. It starts to add up.

Good luck only having one, though. As soon as you shoot that one, you'll be saving your lunch money for another.

woodline · Mar 14, 2018

Things to consider:

1.) Will you be crossing state lines with the rifle? If so, an SBR requires paperwork to ATF, and a suppressor does not. Point to integrally suppressed. (Also, make sure SBRs and/or suppressors are legal in your destination!).

2.) Do you want to suppress more than one firearm? My gut feeling is that you will, but maybe not. If you want to buy one can and be done for awhile, best not to do integral at first.

3.) Integral uppers, depending on design and how they were built, can have features that you won't get on SBR + Suppressor. Think the gemtech integra chamber evacuator feature. That said, .300blk is not exactly a gassy cartridge, so you probably won't notice it as much as you might with 5.56.

4.) With an SBR (or pistol), Maryland HBAR requirements are not an issue. There is back and forth on what FSA2013 HBAR requirement applies to, but SBRs are exempt regardless of how you feel about cartridges other that .223/5.56.

Overall I would not do an integrally suppressed upper for a first can purchase, but I'm sure you will be happy either way. If you really don't want to do a two stamp gun and/or be tied to a 10.5" barrel, consider going the AR pistol route. You lose out on a real stock and a vertical foregrip, but gain quite a bit of flexibility when it comes to the rest of your setup. No ATF notification if you want to take it out of state, either.

Good luck on your NFA journey!

teratos · Mar 14, 2018

DutchV said:
I don't have any integrals. If you were only going to have one, that would be the way to go. As soon as you get a can, all your guns need to be threaded and have adapters installed. It starts to add up.

Good luck only having one, though. As soon as you shoot that one, you'll be saving your lunch money for another.

Very true. I’m on a mission

erwos · Mar 14, 2018

The only time I would go with an integral suppressor on a rifle is if it needed to make OAL in MD, such as the X95 SBR, and I didn't have a more clever way of doing it. Problem is, a lot of the more interesting guns in that category either have folding stocks or they turn into banned-by-name guns when they turn into non-SBRs.

RedTide · Mar 15, 2018

Again, thank you for all the thoughtful replies. A lot of good insights and new perspectives, exactly what I was hoping for. I'll probably go separate...it seems like the consensus and it does make sense.

DutchV said:
Good luck only having one, though. As soon as you shoot that one, you'll be saving your lunch money for another.

Indeed. I have a good bit of time shooting suppressed when I wore green (gray? wtf color are ACUs?) and and let's face it, there's no way I'm not going to immediately want to start threading everything I own.

fbi_surveillance_van said:
If you really don't want to do a two stamp gun and/or be tied to a 10.5" barrel, consider going the AR pistol route. You lose out on a real stock and a vertical foregrip, but gain quite a bit of flexibility when it comes to the rest of your setup.

I thought about the pistol approach, but I am pretty married to a VFG. It's what I trained on the most and have the muscle memory with, to include that it's comfortable in CQB/maneuvering for me. I'm sure I could retrain myself, but, for this particular firearm, I don't want to have to think about anything outside of keeping my family safe. Frankly, that was part of the brainstorming behind the integral...it's always set up that way. But I concur with many opinions here that a separate can is likely the most practical answer.

Biggfoot44 · Mar 15, 2018

Normally I would be in the Seperate Can camp.

BUT for this, I could see an intrigal . IF your primary consideration is to minimize the OAL , you could have the integral can to bring up to 29inches , and still have effective bbl length for .300 .

woodline · Mar 15, 2018

RedTide said:
I thought about the pistol approach, but I am pretty married to a VFG. It's what I trained on the most and have the muscle memory with, to include that it's comfortable in CQB/maneuvering for me. I'm sure I could retrain myself, but, for this particular firearm, I don't want to have to think about anything outside of keeping my family safe. Frankly, that was part of the brainstorming behind the integral...it's always set up that way. But I concur with many opinions here that a separate can is likely the most practical answer.

Sounds like you know what you want then! Do you have it narrowed down to one or two integral uppers? There are a decent number on the market these days.

RedTide · Mar 15, 2018

fbi_surveillance_van said:
Sounds like you know what you want then! Do you have it narrowed down to one or two integral uppers? There are a decent number on the market these days.

I most likely am going with separate SBR and suppressor. That may have been unclear from my late night typing. (If I am to be honest, I'm lucky to finish a story without having taken 12 tangents along the way after a cup of coffee at midday!)

But to answer, I did have a few I was looking into but nothing I was really settling on yet. I wanted to get some good advice on this issue before I set my mind on something....because then it takes an iceberg to get that Titanic to deviate.

erwos · Mar 15, 2018

Biggfoot44 said:
Normally I would be in the Seperate Can camp.

BUT for this, I could see an intrigal . IF your primary consideration is to minimize the OAL , you could have the integral can to bring up to 29inches , and still have effective bbl length for .300 .

In this particular example (which I interpreted as an 8" barrel on an AR), you'd probably be better off pinning the muzzle device mount. I did this on a 9mm SBR using a 3 lug mount, and it's great. I think where the pinned suppressors really come into their own is on bullpups - especially SBRs - where your options for substantially increasing OAL are pretty limited.

engineerbrian · Mar 15, 2018

I'd rather have a seperate can too for all of the reasons above. If OAL is an issue you can try an AMTAC over the barrel can, it only adds a few inches.

Integrally Suppressed or separate SBR suppressor?

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