Tacticools, talk to me

I've always been interested in building a suppressed subsonic .300BLK rifle to play with, but I've heard that the AR-15 platform is inherently noisy(-er than other rifles, at least) just due to its gas-operated BCG design.

Because I'm a nerd and a perfectionist, this irritates me. If I'm building a quiet weapon, I want a fucking quiet weapon.

What other rifle platforms are out there that are "like" the AR in terms of customizability, but would be quieter and still semi-auto?

 

I haven't looked but is subsonic 300 BLK ammo common or will you be loading your own? To keep it quiet, you might be own your way to building a really cool bolt rifle.

 

There are silent buffer systems that help with the action noise but nothing is going to be Hollywood quiet. Adjustable gas block will help get it tuned to cycle just right so it not slamming the buffer but still functioning reliably. The right can makes a difference, too. A lot of moving parts to this question.

 

Any platform like/similar to an AR will not be video game weapon silent. Those actions in real life will produce noise. The MP5 is fairly quiet. And, $$$ and hard to find AAC Honey Badger is also...from videos. Never seen one in person.

 

Agreed. And you won’t find anything more customizable. The AR has is the modular platform out there. You might find an AK in .300blk but who wants one of those? Buy a .300blk complete upper, slap a can on it, and put together your lower how you like. I think JP Enterprise makes a good one but I’m sure there’s others.

 

It’s still pretty quite in the AR platform BUT if you want quite.

300blk bolt gun. I’ve got one that shoots hand loads and makes less noise than a suppressed pellet gun

 

If your killing stuff from 2000m who cares how loud it is? They'll be dead before they hear the report.

 

Want.

 

I have a AR 300 blk with DD suppressor and it’s really quiet
Its not the kind of gun that I would want in a bolt but hey get whatever blows your skirt up. If you pm your number I’ll send you a video.

 

Sig MCX platform may be a bit quieter. Definitely less gas.

 

it basically boils down to semi auto is always going to have action noise. If you want truly quiet you need to have something where the action stays closed and you then work the action to chamber a new round. This can be bolt action, lever action, pump, etc. Semi Auto will always have more noise. of course you could have an adjustable gas block and turn it off, but then your semi auto will just be a single shot and you'll have to "work the action" (pull back the charging handle) each time you pull the trigger.

I'm in the process of having a Ruger 44 mag lever gun threaded (waiting on the call from the gun smith to start the work) and thing that will be fun. 300gr bullets at 1050fps should make a nice smack when they hit the target. and you can run the lever pretty quick on the Ruger 96 rifles. much quicker than a bolt gun. But not as accurate.

 

chris, go for a 300blackout with a piston driven system. Use
Subsonic ammo and a suppressor.

best bet is to go the AR-15 pistol route.
10.5” barrel

 

Thanks for all the info guys! Yeah, I'm definitely not expecting anything to ever be Hollywood/video game/James Bond quiet.

I'm realizing that I may actually have a misunderstanding about how the AR cycles that might be biasing me here: where does the gas block vent its pressure once it's driven the bolt backward? Does that gas then vent out the muzzle (and thus still through a suppressor) or does it exit somewhere else, possibly causing a separate report?

That venting is where I've been imagining most of the extra noisiness to be coming from. However if it vents through the suppressor and all the ancillary noise is just from the various internal parts banging around, that does indeed feel both a lot more unavoidable with any semiauto and also a lot more tunable.

 

Totally, I've been assuming I'd have to go the SBR route just to keep the round subsonic at the muzzle. Is piston operation smoother/quieter than gas the whole way?

 

It vents in your face. Some charging handles have a gas buster feature to dissipate it a bit. It depends on the can, barrel length, gas length, gas block tuning, and luck.

 

as already stated, the action noise is unavoidable. buffer spring set ups are online for quiet, but, if you want to go truly as quiet as possible then the AR platform is not going to be it.

but what do you need to be that quiet for? my subsonic 300 blk is damn quiet, even with the action noise, and i can keep pulling the trigger quite a few times. well, 10 times. because of California.

 

Bro...Put 1 in the pipe and roll 11.

Eff the man...Fight the power!

 

The gas is vented out of the bolt carrier through two holes (you can see them in the ejection port). With a can mounted there is a crap load of additional gas to that can't get out the muzzle. Hence previous comment about in your face. An adjustable gas block that lets you turn it waaay down is useful.

 

Gotcha. Ok. Does that change any with a piston-driven setup?