“Seriously?”
“That’s it?”
“I’m retiring my old suppressor…”
All that gushing followed a single pull of the trigger on our custom rebuilt Remington 700, now chambered in 300 Winchester Magnum and sporting an SWR Specwar 7.62 silencer. Work the bolt. Shoot again. Six hundred yards downrange the steel rings. Grins all around! You’d have thought it was Christmas from the expressions on our faces. Trigger pull after trigger pull, the quite roar never got old.
We moved the Trifecta mount from the muzzle of our Proof Research barrel and attached it to a King’s Arsenal .308 bolt gun. Same results. Same grins and high fives – as if we had something to do with how well this silencer performed. Who knew that trigger squeezes on a bolt gun would create such excitement in a semi-auto fixated group?
Hopefully you’re following our Grandpa’s Gun Reborn project stories. They document the virtual resurrection our old Remington 700, recently rescued from the back corner of the closet. You know how is, no case, covered in dust that really once belonged to Grandpa. Now rebuilt, instead of being neglected, it’s in the pride and joy league, the first to be shown off to any gun buddy, tactical hunter or even the non-shooter!
When we started thinking a suppressor would be the finishing touch for the long range precision rifle rebuild, we wanted something that would perfectly complement our now ridiculous Remington. With lots of good options available, we chose the SWR Specwar 762.
The service I’d observed where when Silencerco went far beyond their responsibility to service a customer who happens to be a friend of mine weighed into our decision. Their outside the box thinking that lead to the Osprey silencer was also a winning point for the company, not to mention their educational initiatives that have contributed to mainstreaming suppressors (check out Silencers Are Legal). A track record of quality work was a given.
This isn’t my first can, but it is my first from SWR or Silencerco. If you’re new to the world of suppressors, it never gets old opening the box when you finally lay your hands on it. Oh, the packaging is impressive, but this cylindrical hunk of metal evokes emotions tied to some great movies. Or if you’ve been-there-done-that, you know the excitement of acquiring something almost anyone could have, but not everyone will.
A little background for those not glued to the internet for silencer industry news is in order here. Founded over a decade ago, SWR operated successfully out of South Carolina until acquired by Silencerco in August of 2011. SWR packed up and moved operations to Silencerco’s Utah headquarters, with SWR’s President Henry Grahm taking the position of COO at Silencerco.
Getting bought out was a good thing for SWR and the Specwar. SWR had been developing it, but with Silencerco now behind them, the process sped up. SWR also got access to Silencerco’s proprietary manufacturing technics and extra research bucks!
Another direct impact of the acquisition was market dominance. Founded in 2008 by Joshua Waldron and Jonathan Shultz, Silencerco grew, and grew fast. Innovation, maybe the most abused word American business today, is the measure of all things at Silencerco. Unless a product offers something new, substantially improved or uniquely creative in the silencer industry, Silencerco will not release it. The numbers tell the story, and this year Inc. 500 recognized Silencerco as the 202nd fastest growing company in America.
The evidence for innovation is inside the nine inch long Specwar 7.62. The baffle design is conical, with its specific shape and spacing the result of numerous optimizing revisions. What the baffles are made of, and how they are made, is unique.
The material is a “Proprietary PolyMimetic high temperature alloy.” More specifically, it’s Stellite. Without delving deeply into metallurgy, Stellite versus the more commonplace Inconel or stainless steels, Stellite’s wear and erosion qualities at high temperatures are impressive. It’s used in machine gun barrels, outlasting Inconel and stainless in full auto tests even when red hot. And where most .30 caliber cans are rated up to .308 loads, the twenty-four ounce Specwar 7.62 is rated all the way to .30 caliber magnum rounds like our 300 Win Mag. Higher pressure, higher heat capability, and better corrosion resistance all add up to a better mousetrap. The end result is excellent suppression from a suppressor with a very long life expectancy.
The design and materials combined yield a new market leader in sound reduction. Out of a twenty inch barreled Remington 700 using M80 ammo, Silencerco tests measured 137db. OSHA standards indicate hearing loss becomes an issue at 140 decibels. For hunting, plenty of people wouldn’t give a second though to forgoing hearing protection when using this silencer. For repeated rounds downrange, I still wear hearing protection. Call me paranoid, but you only get one set of ears.
Silencerco is fanatical about maintaining accuracy when their suppressors are mounted. They created the “TrueBore” manufacturing process to ensure repeatable accuracy from the final product. Rather than mass production, individual part manufacturing ensures that the baffle core is concentric to the entire suppressor body. Warping and stress from welding are mitigated through Silencerco’s manufacturing processes and fixtures. Vice President Mike Aland outlines the processs: “Each baffle core is straightened, fitted to an outer tube, and finally EDM wire cut to give us a straight bore aperture that is perfectly concentric to the suppressor mounting surface.” That “EDM wire cut” amounts to vaporizing metal via an electrical current. Heady stuff for most of us, but cutting accuracy can be +/- 0.0002 of an inch! Accuracy in manufacturing pays dividends in shooting accurately.
The other piece of the accuracy puzzle is the silencer mount. Silencerco maintains that you give up nothing in accuracy using their patented ASR (Active Spring Retention) mount. Spin the suppressor onto the mount a couple of rotations, then secure with a quick twist of the locking ring. The lock up between the silencer body and the mount is rock solid. Little did we know we’d test that construction. More on that in a minute, but it’s solid for sure.
The Specwar 7.62 just doesn’t move when properly mounted. Man-handle the gun it’s mounted to, and you wouldn’t know the can wasn’t a part of the barrel. We’ve used the Trifecta mount, but will switch to Silencerco’s three-chambered break shortly. The Trifecta broke the mold on three pronged flash hiders and mounts. By varying the length of the prongs, Silencerco eliminated the tuning fork like ring common to the design. A 5.56 Trifecta mount is available allowing you to mount the 7.62 Specwar to sub thirty caliber barrels, netting sound suppression in those calibers to levels similar to .308 suppression.
Between the Specwar’s design and mount, we’ve seen zero accuracy impact running with the suppressor versus running without. Impressive.
This story comes full circle. Our Specwar got damaged when a friend of SHWAT™ cross threaded the can to the mount and a 180 grain 300 Win Mag round didn’t clear the exit hole cleanly. In aviation, that’s called pilot error, yet Silencerco was eager to fully repair it and have it back in our hands in a matter of days. Yes, they knew I was writing this review, but I’d seen them take this stance before when a friend’s Osprey was damaged by a factory load that was way over pressured. And he wasn’t writing a review.
No wonder they are growing so fast. That and the street price point of the Specwar 7.62 at seven hundred and change. No doubt you’ll see this silencer move around to other guns here at SHWAT™. Look for it, and us, at Tac Pro Shooting Center’s Precision Rifle class soon!
Read the rest of the story!
Part 1: Conception – From Dust Collector to Long Range Precision Rifle
Part 2: Trigger Time with Timney Triggers
Part 6: Proof Research – Carbon Fiber-Wrapped Precision on Our Long Range Rebuild
Part 7: Long Range Rifle Precision Rifle Boss – Building with King’s Arsenal
Part 8: SWR Silencerco Specwar 7.62: Quiet Roar for 300 WIN MAG
