I’m the proud owner of a Thunder Beast Arms Corporation 22S-1 that I rescued from silencer jail a few months ago. So far, so good, but I’ve held off on reviewing it as I wanted to beat on it a bit more in the interest of thorough coverage. Having now spoken with the TBAC guys about their new serviceable can, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to break it . . .
The new .22 Take Down addresses two concerns I had when I purchased my 22S-1 — cost and serviceability. The 22S-1 is fully welded so my only hope of cleaning out the accumulated gunk inside is to fill it with solvent, let it soak, and shake it out. Given that it sits on my rifle pretty much all the time, I bought it because it weighs basically nothing, and TBAC talked up the precision it offered, I figured it was a decent trade-off.
The other concern I had was price. The 22S-1 will set you back $450 ($386 from Brownells) which is a pretty good chunk of change for a dedicated .22 can, even if it will handle .17 HMR and .22 WMR. While at SHOT, I had the opportunity to sit down with Zak Smith of TBAC to chat about their new .22 can which firmly addresses those issues.
The Take Down is constructed of an outer tube of Grade 9 Titanium filled with 17-4 stainless steel baffles. Like their S-1 and L-1 cans, it is a direct thread silencer that uses 1/2-28 threads. It maintains the same one inch diameter as its cousins in the lineup. Unlike those two, the Take Down is a bit heavier at 5.9 oz where the S-1 is 3.2 oz and the L-1 is 4.1 oz. It splits the difference in length between those at 5.6 inches. The L-1 is 6.2 inches and the S-1 is 4.9 inches.
Here’s where it gets cool. The Take Down is rated for an additional caliber, 5.7 x 28. Annnndddd Zak tells me that to torture test it, they ran three, thirty round magazines of 5.56 through it on full auto. Obviously, it isn’t rated for that type of work, and you should never do that, but it does speak to the lengths TBAC is willing to go to test their cans for reliability. This can is definitely geared towards those who want to mount a silencer to their pistols, and want the ability to clean up the mess that dirty rimfire ammo leaves behind. MSRP is $395. Here’s to hoping that real world pricing is below ~$350.
These sorts of products is why we need to pass the Hearing Protection Act. There is no reason why I should have to pay a $200 tax on a $400 product then have to wait nine months to take delivery.
Subsonic ammo out of a .22 rifle makes about as much noise as a good spit.
This thing is a solution in search of a problem. And an expensive one at that.
Yeah subsonic ammo out of a rifle isn’t very loud, but it still makes decent noise. A 22lr can allows me to shoot in my backyard without disturbing the neighbors.
Yeah, but with this thing, I can run the full range of 22LR ammo out of my 10/22 without ear-pro and without pissing off the neighbors.
Honestly, if it didn’t require a tax stamp, I’d buy one just to have one. I shoot enough .22 to justify dropping less than $500 bucks to make my like easier. (A suppressed 10/22 would also be a great way to introduce skittish shooters to the sport.)
Have you ever actually owned or fired a suppressed .22, because it is night and day difference even with subsonic
I have never actually owned or fired a suppressed .22 because I can find so many better ways to spend $600+. That, and the thought of sending our government $200 for the “privilege” of exercising a constitutionally-protected right makes my stomach churn.
If noise is that big a deal, you might want to consider Umarex. A good air rifle is as accurate as a .22 and every bit as useful.
Many countries allow you to simply purchase them over the counter. Even Britain issues permits freely because they’re afraid of lawsuits for hearing loss if they don’t! Go figure on that one.
High time we steam rolled over these morons in Congress, stood united and said change the law or we’ll change you, period. That comes with us demanding that the NRA get off their collective butts and start moving.
Maybe we’re doing this all wrong.
Firearms are the only consumer product that the government all but requires to be hearing-destroying. Technology exists, and it has for over a century, to reduce this noise to hearing-safe levels, but the government regulations make it expensive and onerous to do this.
A suit for hearing loss might actually go somewhere. I wonder how many we could get onboard for a massive class-action suit.
That may be a very novel way to challenge the suppressor portion of the NFA. I would love to see how Lynch responds to a class-action suit that names her personally.
I am still waiting for Teflon coated baffles or something similar. As a long time (10+ years) owner/shooter of .22 cans, the biggest pain in the ass is trying to get them clean. The older cans were more like what you don’t see won’t hurt you – and other than getting heavier they still perform well. The newer “serviceable” cans are headed in the right direction, but if you do any volume of fire, say, Call of Duty volume, you are asking for trouble with all the baked-on lead on the baffles. Even sonic cleaners have a hard time powering thru that stuff.
I’m in the market for a couple more .22 cans and just can’t seem to find ones that makes it so the lead doesn’t stick to the baffles. And let me know how that works out with the clickable baffle pieces. Probably need a mallet to get them apart after a brick of subsonic… Show me a review of a month of ownership with a few thousand rounds of sub through it. Show me the cleanup process and how easy they are to get apart/put back together.
The realities of owning a .22 can are not all daisies and rainbows. Like black powder rifles – fun but maintenance-intensive…
Couldn’t you just take a blow torch to them and melt the lead off?
I found the review Nick did on that super-slick coating:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/09/foghorn/gear-review-cryptic-coatings-bolt-carrier-group/
Wipe the baffles and tube with slip 2000 before shooting. Shoot. Wipe clean after shooting and reapply. I have learned not to let the stuff sit in my suppressor. Clean regularly every time you shoot and you’ll have no issues.
Seems like a nickle boron coating would be like a decent solution since teflon may have trouble at high temps. I suppose a nickle boron coating would add $50-100 to the price tag though.
Well, some are certainly a lot easier than others. The types with a removable baffle sleeve (Sparrow, Axiom, etc.) generally come out pretty easily. Monocores are also generally much easier to remove. Nothing really makes cleaning easier, though, except for soaking them for a day or two. Fireclean does help some, I guess, but you have to keep reapplying it.
Without the NFA a .22 can could be made so cheaply it could be disposable, and then you wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning it at all.
A lot of open class pistol shooters apparently commonly lube their comps with Dillon case lube to stop the lead from sticking. Maybe a couple shots of something like that into the can prior to shooting?
this guy wrote an article about baking teflon into baffles and that making them easier to clean. its definitely worth a read if you haven’t seen it yet. http://www.rrdvegas.com/silencer-cleaning.html
“…my only hope of cleaning out the accumulated gunk inside is to fill it with solvent, let it soak, and shake it out.”
Buy an ultrasonic tank, Tyler.
Tell the wife it’s for cleaning her jewelry. 🙂
Nick did a review a while back on a bolt carrier group that had a super-slick just wipe-to-clean coating on it.
As the suppressor companies why can’t they do something like that?
Ultrasonic cleaners will wreak havoc on Ti over time, and won’t remove lead. Non serviceable 22 suppressors are throw away models, or have to have a “jail break” performed.
Meh… Tacsol Axiom already does all that in the $350 range, plus it’s one of the quietest .22 cans on the market, plus they are generally readily available, unlike Thunder Beast, who is always insanely backordered. I guess we’ll see how it meters 3 years from now, when they actually ship out.
In the market and went and looked.
Where are you finding it at $350 in stock?
Kinda on the long side at 5.9″
Middle of the road weight.
Can’t find anything about their warranty. Others have lifetime.
Leaning towards DeadAir Mask
Nothing is in stock, anywhere, right now, because of the executive orders. I guess you haven’t been following the news. Hence why I said, “generally.” Regardless, TacSol will crank out 5000 of them before TBAC even submits their Form 2’s on the first production batch.
They have a lifetime warranty just like every other company. They are also way easier to clean than any other .22 can and have a baffle sleeve. The Dead Air Mask seems pretty good, but like TBAC, they are a small company and they just don’t produce units.
Hi,
Yes, we have a backlog. As a manufacturer whose production has doubled every year for the last 7 years, it is extremely hard to keep up. Our limiter is the labor market in the Cheyenne area for would-be CNC machine operators (we train from the ground up). Even with that growth rate, we’ve generally kept our backlog under about 8 weeks and we were at 6-8 weeks going into the SHOT Show. That is, of course, where most dealers put in large orders so typically the backlog increases due to that step function in demand.
We have a sophisticated order and production tracking system that permits us to give very accurate “ETA”‘s for people that have cans on order. We always cop to our backlog and do everything in our power to crank out more cans while maintaining the quality level and designs we are known for. Three years is a wild exaggeration and in the realm of hyperbole. As I type this, our techs are setting up some new machinery that will permit a production rate on the 22 Take Downs that exceeds what was capable using our older Haas machines, and their production should thus not affect the Ultra line production
Hence my point a few posts ago. If .223 was as dirty as .22 is all AR’s would still be jam-o-matics. But the problem is moot due to the short supply of .22. I mean what? do they use dirt as a buffer/filler in .22 ammo?? Silencers? meh. You still gotta shoot low-power ammo to really get the quiet out of em. This goes for all calibers as far as my limited exp. with mufflers/silencers. If that’s the case just shoot .22 short or CB. and save the $600? I love when they show .308’s and other big bore guns “silenced” lol. They are usualy shooting 1/2 power ammo at water jugs 100 yards away prob aiming 12 inches high. Killing the whole reason you got the larger caliber in the first damm place. What a joke. But sheep still line up to buy em’ cause they want to be joe cool at the “range” If silencers were so great the Army would issue them.
To me, the ideal home defense gun is a .300 Blackout with a 10 inch barrel and a silencer. Deadly, quiet, maneuverable, high-capacity, and… expensive!$400 in tax stamps required.
Silencers have their utility, it’s just not on the end of .22LR barrel.
9-10″ blackout with a pinned and welded shroud, or pinned can with a removable baffle stack could easily be 16″ overall and be a single stamp gun. I saw a few just like this in the SHOT show coverage.
Um… The “army” DOES issue them for units likely to need them. Not every 11B needs a half-foot long can handing off his rifle. However, JSOC units use suppressors judiciously because of the benefits they provide. (One of the biggest ones is the increase in situational awareness you get from being able to run constantly without ear-pro.)
One thing to keep in mind is that .mil is very very cheap. They are not going to issue a piece of kit that nearly doubles the cost of the average infantryman’s rifle when all it really does is help negate the need for ear-pro.
I was talking about the “Real” Army/USMC not the “Fantasy SF” using lowpo ammo and magpul beards. You think troopers, going house to house are wearing hearing protection?? No they arn’t. If it was so great they would issue them en-mass to save on all the “hearing loss” claims that arise post service. The Military is very cheap? Really?…. ever look at what the cost of each mans equiptment?? plus all the support equiptment? plus vehicles, plus housing,plus fuel, plus ammo,plus training and infinum… look at a budget or cost article sometime…. The USG throws money at BS with a Hindenberg sized leaf blower. If it worked they could build it into the damm rifle and be done with it.
Um… James… I hate to break it to you, but yeah, the government cuts costs on EVERYTHING. A little hearing loss is considered far more acceptable than spending at least half a grand a piece on a piece of kit that only brings the noise down to hearing safe levels and is insanely difficult for the average grunt to maintain. The reason .mil does not issue suppressors has little to do with their effectiveness and far more to do with the fact that they do not appreciably enhance the average soldiers ability to accomplish his primary mission.
I still remember when I was on PI and we had to qualify with M16A2s that were older than any member of my platoon. (SDI included)
Silencers rule. A good one will make full power 223 hearing safe, and subsonic catridge sound like a pellet / paintball gun. Once you get a silencer you will never go back, they benefit every type of shooting. Great for hunting where legal, spectacular for target practice. 200 bucks is not much when u buy a 1k can like an omega or mystic which can handle half the guns you own. Yes it sucks to pay a 200 tax on a 400 dedicated 22 can, but man is it worth it to the handling of the 22. But life is too short to complain about a 200 tax from your mom’s basement. 99% of the people that complain about the 200 tax don’t have a trust in the first place, or live were they can’t own one anyhow….