Griffin Armament makes a variety of silencers and related accessories. One of the most interesting is their A2 Adapter. It allows any silencer with 1.375×24 rear threads to mount to standard AR flash hiders. I got my hands on one and tried it on several different guns, and thought my experience would be worth sharing.

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Disclosures are important in any review. There is little to disclose for this review. My wife bought this for me as a birthday gift through normal retail channels. I do not have a relationship with the manufacturer. I do, however, have conflicts of interest in the silencer industry so I generally do not write about silencers directly. But this is a manufacturer-agnostic product that can work with any compatible can, and I do not believe my conflicts change my views on this particular product. Take that for what you will.

What is it?

The Griffin Armament A2 Adapter allows compatible silencers to mount on standard AR flash hiders like the A1 and A2. That’s right: the ones that come standard on pretty much every rifle, no special flash hiders required. I have a ton of AR-15 rifles, many of which have A2 flash hiders. Swapping out birdcages for silencer QD mounts gets expensive quickly when they cost $75-150 each, and you have enough compatible guns to outfit a platoon.

Griffin Armament also produces the GATE-LOK HUB Mount, which also works on A2 flash hiders but is a QD system.

How does it work?

The A2 Adapter has two pieces. One has an elongated cutout that slips over the flash hider. We’ll call it the collar. The other attaches to the silencer. We’ll call that one the mount. The collar sits in the groove around the circumference of the flash hider once it is in place. The mount slips over the flash hider and tightens against the collar, which holds tight against the groove in the flash hider.

I installed the A2 Adapter on a SilencerCo Omega 300 with little fanfare. It tightened right onto the suppressor. I put the collar over the flash hider and screwed the silencer into the collar.

 

What are the risks?

Any time you mix parts between manufacturers you introduce some risks. There can be tolerance differences and other fitment problems when different people make different parts. The Griffin Armament website has this statement:

This A2 mount interface provides a high quality mounting interface for Griffin Armament GATE-LOK Flash comps, Hammer Comps, and mil-spec A2 birdcage flash hiders.  PLEASE DO NOT ASK OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPT what other companies mounts work with this device.  There may be others, but we can only tell you that it works with our devices and mil spec A2 flash hiders.

Another concern to keep in mind is the crush washer. Almost all A2 flash hiders use a crush washer to time the muzzle device, which is convenient for installation but often will not tighten down perfectly square. That is an issue when a silencer depends on the muzzle device being square to the bore lest there be endcap strikes or other issues.

With all of those concerns in mind, I opted to use a .30 caliber silencer. That provides extra wiggle room to avoid potential problems. Still, though, I check the fitment thoroughly on each gun before firing. I have yet to find any issues but I would suspect there may be issues with a 5.56 can.

Fitments

I have used the A2 Adapter on several different guns, but I used it the most on my FN M-16A4 Military Collector. It feels wrong to change the muzzle device on that gun.

The Springfield Hellion flash hider is also compatible. It is not a true A2 design, but it has a correctly located slot for the A2 mount.

I also used it on the Anderson Dissipator and it worked great on that gun too.

Another setup that worked fine with the adapter is the Brownells 733 upper. It has an A1 bird cage flash hider with slots all around the outside, rather than just the top like an A2. It works just the same with the A2 adapter.

I also tried to use the adapter with a YHM Phantom flash hider but was unsuccessful. The extra length was too much for the adapter to accommodate. 

Apart from the possible risks inherent in mounting a silencer on a flash hider that was not designed to host them, there are some other trade-offs with the A2 mount. It is obviously a longer attachment than pretty much any dedicated suppressor mount. It is also heavier than some. Those may be worthwhile tradeoffs for someone with a pinned and welded A2 flash hider, or an issued gun that they are not allowed to change parts on. Or, for someone with a pile of retro ARs, this is a way to throw a silencer on them without ruining the aesthetics.

Conclusion

The Griffin A2 Adapter is a very cool accessory for a select kind of gun owner. It is not as small, light, or streamlined as a dedicated silencer mount. But it is an awesome way to put a silencer on rifles not otherwise set up for that kind of use. If you have a bunch of traditional ARs that could use a suppressor once in a while, this is a very nice tool to have around. It is also a good way to let a friend try out a silencer on their rifle without invasive changes.