If the firearms industry is laced with drama, then the drama in the silencer division is like Shakespeare: ‘a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’. I have been vocal about avoiding drama, sticking to the facts and writing about people and companies that are doing great things. But while tracking down some information on a semi-related news story, I ended up receiving a yet-to-be released press release on an emotion-filled subject.

Recently, Operators Suppressor Systems (OSS), based in Murray, Utah posted a video comparing their suppressor with a SureFire SOCOM in a round of what appears to be destructive testing. In the video OSS portrays their suppressor as “beating” the SureFire SOCOM in a battery of testing.

SureFire punched back with a press release refuting OSS’s testing claims.

From Soldier Systems Daily:

Fountain Valley, CA — Recently, a suppressor manufacturer released a video showing what they claimed to be a “government agency test,” in which their suppressor outperformed the SureFire SOCOM556-RC suppressor. In response to this so-called “government agency test” video, SureFire would like to make clear to the public that the test in this competitor’s video was not a test conducted by SOCOM or any other government agency. The test was conducted in-house by the manufacturer of the competing suppressor, with a few members of the Military and Government in attendance. Additionally, the exact opposite results were obtained in actual SOCOM testing in which the competitor’s suppressor was evaluated alongside a SureFire SOCOM556-RC. In this test, the competitor’s suppressor failed, whereas the SureFire suppressor completed the test without incident or causing malfunctions of the MK18.

SureFire suppressors are proven performers and have been in use with military special operations forces, government agencies, and law enforcement all over the world with excellent results and feedback. This video appears to be nothing more than an attempt by the video’s producers to manipulate and mislead the public and potential government end-users. That said, we at SureFire take it as a compliment that a competitor would go to such lengths to attempt to disparage our product. Combine this with the unmatched loyalty of our customers, and we see this as nothing more than confirmation that SureFire remains the industry leader.

For those of you looking for some context, this SureFire press release is in response to a video (OSS vs. Best-in-Class SOCOM Baffle Suppressor Torture Test) released last week by Operator Suppressor Systems. You can check the video out on osssuppressors.com at the bottom of the landing page.

Now, answering SureFire’s statement, OSS has released their own response:

OSS Video of US Govt. Agency Torture Test – Part 2

MURRAY UT – Last week, Operators Suppressor Systems (OSS) announced the results and a video of recent testing by a US Government agency that compared an OSS Flow-Through™ suppressor with the best-in-class baffle suppressor.

This week, some have had questions about the test agency, their methodology, and the results highlighted in our video. For those who are interested, OSS would like to provide additional background and details on the tests, the results and the video.

The Tests:

Last fall, in OSS’s ongoing collaboration with the US Government and Military, prototype OSS suppressors were tested and experienced a handful of heat-related fails to outer housings and internal components.

Armed with the testing data, the OSS R&D team refined and tested material and geometry mods to some suppressor components. Final prototyping was completed at the end of last year, and on January 6, 2016, the US Government agency responsible for determining “the next generation of small arms signature reduction” for SOF and tactical operators conducted a new test.

This test’s protocol and methodology was established by the agency and supervised by the agency’s personnel.  Representatives from the various branches of the US Military were also in attendance and monitored the test.

It was held at OSS test facilities in our Murray UT headquarters. OSS has invested in advanced testing equipment in Murray, and as this state-of-the-art equipment was not readily available to the government agency, they requested that their test be conducted at OSS. OSS personnel participated solely in weapon handling, test firing (as seen on the video), and data recording.

As described in the video, this was a brutal torture test to determine suppression performance under the most extreme conditions – 240 rounds per cycle with eight 30 round mags of semi- and full-auto fire for at least six cycles!

At the request of the testing agency, the commercial off-the-shelf baffle suppressor was purchased, and the OSS suppressors were randomly selected from inventory, as were the Daniel Defense Mk18s.

The Results:

Although only highlighted in the video, the dramatic difference in performance between the OSS suppressor and the baffle suppressor was, in the words of several of the government attendees, “Remarkable.”

The reason is simple.

Baffle suppression creates significant backpressure. And over a firing table like the one used in this test, critical problems can arise:

·       Blocked gas and increased particulate accumulation can create weapon malfunctions

·       As particulate collects on the weapon and baffle suppressor components, sound and flash suppression erodes

·       Expanding energy creates extreme heat, especially under full-auto fire

OSS’s patented Flow-Through suppression does not increase backpressure, and allows for effective expansion of gases, transfer of energy, mitigation of heat, and suppression of sound and flash.

These conditions were witnessed during the test and highlighted in the 3-minute video. The complete raw video of the test cycles is available for viewing via Dropbox here.

Tomorrow:

OSS’s patented Flow-Through suppression is a leap ahead and undoubtedly disruptive advance over existing baffle technology — the type of advance the US Government is working hard to test, validate and procure across various branches and services (see recent CSASS announcement).

We’re proud to have earned the opportunity to have OSS products tested, improved and proven against the best-in-class competition.

We’re excited to offer the same technology and performance in OSS’s new ELITE line of 5.56 and 7.62/.30 Cal suppressors.

And as more learn about and experience the unmatched performance of OSS, we know they’ll understand what we mean when we say “Don’t Get Baffled.”

About Operators Suppressor Systems

Founded in 2007, OSS designs, manufactures and distributes advanced weapon suppressor systems that meet the demands of military, SOF, tactical and sport shooters around the world.

For more information visit www.osssuppressors.com.

Media Contact:

Randy Carothers

Email: rcarothers@osssuppressors.com

I’m sticking with my ‘No Drama’ policy: SureFire is a proven industry leader in Military and Law Enforcement suppressors. On the flip side, OSS has received recent fame for being partnered with Heckler and Koch’s (H&K) Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System (CSASS) contract bid with the U.S. Department of Defense.

What interests me here is the use of Destructive Tests in the firearm industry – real scientific testing. I have been coordinating with a few manufacturers and independent testing laboratories on a TFB story that will focus on the use of destructive testing in guns and silencers and the data they can provide to eventually make better products for consumers.

But in the end, everything has a breaking point. And I’ve reached my drama limit for the week.