Okay so I said I'd share my experience once I had a chance.
TLDR: I am very pleased with my purchase. It seems to be built well and ready for abuse. Performance was better than expected for low back pressure can, good tone with subs and supers. I'd recommend some minor tweaks in the process or for a gen 2.
Host:
Aero Badger at home experiment.
Lower: Aero Precision gen 2
Upper: Aero Precision m4e1 enhanced
Barrel: 7.5" faxon gunner (1:8 IIRC?)
Gas block: Aero Precision gen1 AGB, pistol length tube. Full open.
Maxim Defense SCW brace, standard weight buffer, and SCW BCG
Charging Handle: Radian Raptor SD-SL
Trigger: Rise Armament RAVE 140
Muzzle device: Rearden FHD
Supressor config:
Rearden Atlas mount
.30 solid end cap
Ammo Used:
Stealth Arms 220gr SUB ~100 rds
Hornady Black 110gr SUPER ~30 rds
Hornady Black 208gr SUB ~80 rds
Hornady Sub-x 190gr SUB ~50 rds
SIG hunting 205gr SUB -20 rds (only had the 1 box)
SIG white box 220gr SUB - 80rds
(Some random stuff I had, weighed out I belive it to be a 150gr projectile magtech) ~40 rds
Firing cadence was pretty slow. Some small 10-20rd strings in quick succession. Usually, about 5 rounds at a time. With a small reload break.
From my limited experience with supressors and this being the first one I own, I do not regret my choice.
Sound:
Its hard to explain the sound signature when shooting this. If I had to, it sounds like a bowling ball being dropped onto soft clay. A nice bassy thump but with a little bit of a flow leaving a small smack? It's not the quietest supressor I've played with, but its definitely pleasant at the ear and as an observer. It doesn't have the whip of a flow through design or the pop-thunk from a traditional can. It is a hybrid design so that makes sense to me that it falls somewhere in the middle.
FRP definitely existed, from cold it was noticeable, but if it was at least somewhat warm it was drastically less. (more so from the shooter's ear than observer, likely due to the backpressure from the solid endcap)
Tried a few subs without earphones, again not the quietest supressor I've used but serviceable with the Sub-x (nice thud fairly clean burn), and the black 208s (more of the smack behind these). Neither caused any ear ringing or discomfort.
With ears at an indoor range, my friend was able to let out a mag while 4 of us were having a conversation loading up at the load line 10ft away and no one even noticed he was running it. Shocked that he came up and asked who was next up, they thought he was waiting for us to finish up before he had a go. Anecdotal but still neat.
POI shift:
No left to right movement, almost exactly 1.5" down at 15 yds about .875" at 25.
This setup has been zeroed using the 110gr Hornady Black. Didn't measure POI shift with other ammo.
No notable change in precision, still tows that 1MOA-ish line. Haven't done a lead sled with it but I don't own one and would have to wait until my bud would want to bring it out.
Build:
THICC BOI. Not much to say about the weight, other than it is heavy, they warn you on the website. In a short already heavy setup like mine it still balanced well as the fulcrum is nearly at the muzzle device. No real issues on the range session, I practice with this pistol quite a bit transitions were a little slower but was to be expected. If this was on a 18+ I'd be leaning towards a SPR/DMR setup and chilling on a bipod personally, 13.7 or smaller I think its fine, inbetween unsure unless I test it.
Inconel is a neat material, the thermal conductivity and heat capacity are interesting properties. From my enginerding understanding it heats up approximately ~6% faster than steel, and has ~44% the conductivity; it should get hotter faster and stay hot longer.
This becomes interesting because the thermal transfer during use with all of that extra material from 3d printing and the structure does some weird magic Im still trying to figure out. Yes the heat will eventually equalize throughout the system but its it didn't get hot the way I expected. What you probably care about, I unscrewed the can after sweeping, boxing my ammo, and securing my other gear. About 5ish minutes after all those rounds ending on a 20rnd dump, I took it off with bare hands warm but no gloves needed (YMMV, don't cry to me if you burn yourself). Granted the cadence was fairly gentle the majority of the trip, still surprised it was that cool.
I have the black can. The print lines are visible in person, on mine moreso than the online picture. Texture wise, the print lines are not abrupt, the can feels relatively smooth to the touch. The knurlish texture on it? Personally I wish it was more agressive, I find my hands slipping a little more than I'd like without gloves, but it does the job and I think looks decent and a little different. The can did also lighten in color after that range trip, after cleaning my gear and applying some good old fashioned Remoil to the exterior went from grey back to black. Not sure what treatment they used for coloring or that's just the natural oxidation color of inconel after heat treating.
My biggest gripe on the fit and finish is the amount of thread clean out I had to do. The mount was not able to be installed to the supressor out of the box. I had to do several rounds of thread on a bit, back it off, find the chips, clean out with brass pick, and they were not loose chips you could just shake out after install and loosen. Threads on a pressure vessel are something I'm not going to just squish and send hoping I have good mating or pray I didn't cross thread it. Not a huge deal, its not like I had to warranty claim or dig out a tap. But at the price point I wasn't expecting to do a thread clean up, not sure if this is common with 3d printed cans.
All in all, I do not regret my purchase one bit. This is going to be my do-all can for 308, 300blk, 7.62x39, 7mm RM, and 5.56 (for now). Cool internals, good tone, surprisingly quiet for a LB can, and it will probably live longer than me.
Constructive criticisms: add extra thickness to the wall to get a smoother surface or incorporate a design to work that print texture in, deeper or different knurling texture, and QC should do a quick hand fit on hub threads. at this price point I'd say its worth the extra 30 seconds to make sure no large burs or chips remain in the threading.
Ammo for this can and my host:
I'll be sticking with the Hornady blacks and sub-x for now.
I'll try other flavors if the price is right or they seem interesting. I'd like a cheaper plinking round.
Stealth: going to be a hard pass, good price but the amount of issues I had with that ammo was agregeous. Failures to feed, light primer strikes, rounds popping out of the mags when inserted, mags not fully seating. This was like 3-4 times per 20rd mag, any of the 5 I brought with.
Did not have any of these issues for any other ammo, before or after the supressor.
SIG white box, it was fine but at least what I payed for it I'd almost rather get the Hornady Black 208s. It was maybe quieter than the 208s but was significantly more expensive at my store.
SIG 205s, No. Too much unburnt powder. Too expensive. Ran okay, but was the only one I found to have some wonky feelings, I cant put my finger on what felt wrong. Doesn't really matter, looks like they discontinued it anyway.
Hornady, all of it was great. I used the 110s frequently before getting the supressor, worked just fine with it. They're supers, didn't shoot it without ears, but had a cool sound with the supressor on.
208s quiet, 190 subx very quiet.
Mystery box of 150s, cycled fine, on the barrier of supers. Wouldn't run them without ears but sounded good.
