Griffin Armament came out with a new pistol suppressor piston that they call CAM-LOK. This is a piston for tilt-lock barrels. The CAM-LOK system converts your suppressor into a sort of 3-lug style design. I bought a CAM-LOK piston for my SilencerCo Osprey45 and three CAM-LOK barrel adapters for three different calibers. Why hasn’t anyone done this before? It’s awesome!

One Can, Three Calibers

CAM-LOK is a simple concept. It is a two-part system consisting of a replacement piston and a barrel adapter. The barrel adapter makes all thread pitches uniform and more importantly incorporates interrupted threads which act similar to a trilug system. While it is not the same as the H&K Trilug the concept is familiar. In fact, it looks more like A-Tec Silencer’s A-LOCK system however their system appears to be for rifles whereas Griffin Armament implemented their design for handgun pistons. You push the piston over the CAM-LOK barrel adapters and once it is seated, you just twist and the threads tighten. My Alaskan Takedown lever gun barrel has interrupted threads so you just quarter turn and remove or install the barrel in a matter of seconds.

As I said earlier, I purchased three different barrel adapters. I got the following:

1. 1/2×28 for 9mm
2. 9/16×24 for .40S&W
3. .578×28 for .45ACP

I installed the 1/2×28 onto my Glock 19X threaded barrel, the 9/16×24 went onto my Glock 22 threaded barrel and the .578×28 adapter went onto my FNX-45 Tactical.

I got the CAM-LOK piston for my SilencerCo Osprey45 since the suppressor can handle all three calibers. Without the CAM-LOK system, I would have to change out to a different piston for every thread pitch. I don’t even own a piston in 9/16×24 but I bought a .40 S&W threaded Glock barrel just for this test.

Final Thoughts On The CAM-LOK System

The CAM-LOK works great. There is a slight issue that once you know about, it is not a big deal. When the CAM-LOK piston is pushed all the way down onto the shoulder of the barrel adapter, the threads are out of place by a hair. It won’t turn. You need to back off just a little bit and then you can turn the piston onto the barrel adapter. This makes sense since there are still threads. If the piston is pressed up against the shoulder of the barrel adapter and then you start turning, there would not be space for the piston to move as you tighten on the threads.

CAM-LOK piston shoved all the way onto the barrel adapter shoulder. This will not turn.

Take a look at the photo above and the photo below.

CAM-LOK piston backed off the barrel adapter shoulder. This will turn now.

Another issue, according to Griffin Armament, is that the CAM-LOK system is not for fixed barreled systems.

Use of the CAM-LOK™ system with a fixed spacer on a fixed barrel firearm will cause damage to the suppressor.  This is for use on handguns with tilt barrel pistols only such as Glock, HK, SIG, 1911, S&W M&P….etc.   A fixed firearm would be a 9mm carbine (PCC), a bolt action, etc.

That is a bit unfortunate. I was hoping to use my Osprey45 on my .44 Mag lever-action without having to screw it onto the barrel. Griffin Armament says it will damage the suppressor. However, I do not see how that is possible. More than likely it might damage the piston. The piston is very thin walled and this is to accommodate larger caliber adapters like .45 ACP.

The CAM-LOK system is not terribly expensive. The piston is $79 on Griffin Armament’s website but I found it cheaper on Hansohn Brothers’ website. They have pistons for the following suppressors:

• Griffin Armament
• SilencerCo, Rugged, Dead Air Odessa
• Dead Air Ghost and Wolfman
• AAC Tirant-45/M
• CGS
• SilencerCo Osprey
• Sig SRD

The barrel adapters are $59.95 and come in the following options:

• 1/2×28
• 1/2×28 special
• 13.5x1mm LH
• .578×28
• 16x1mm LH
• 16x1mm RH
• 9/16×24
• 14.5x1mm LH

Unfortunately, I do not have enough ammo to really test long strings of mag dumps to see if the CAM-LOK comes undone liked I have experienced with traditional pistol can pistons. Maybe when ammo availability goes back to normal, I can revisit this.