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.