We’ve all seen it countless times. The grizzled assassin sets up behind some futuristic takedown sound-suppressed rifle waiting for the perfect moment. Despite sweltering temperatures, a superhuman ascent up the exterior of a tall building, or a driving rain, not a perfectly-permed hair is out of place. When finally he squeezes the trigger, the resulting sound is Hollywood quiet.
"Hollywood quiet" is such a tired term. Think blood pressure cuff, spray paint, cracking open a cold Coke, or expeditiously deflating an air mattress. That’s what the movies claim. Then you fire a sound-suppressed high-powered rifle for real and are invariably disappointed to discover that you may still need ear muffs lest you spend your declining years answering the phone when it isn’t ringing. However, there is way more to it than that.
Most of the annoying racket you hear from firing your favorite suppressed high-velocity weapon doesn’t come from the gun. It comes from the bullet in flight. The solution is DIY subsonic ammo. The end result will knock your socks off.
A decent .308 bolt gun with the superlative Dead Air Nomad Ti OTB suppressor running subsonic ammo is quite compact while remaining ridiculously quiet. Photo by Will Dabbs.
Details
The speed of sound in dry air is about 1,125 fps. You can create subsonic 5.56mm, but that’s really just an exceptionally expensive .22 rifle. Factory-made subsonic .308 loads are available, but they’re spendy. However, subsonic .308 still carries enough downrange thump to drop a whitetail or a pig. Subsonic 300BLK offers similar performance.
Amazon will sell you a basic single-stage Lee reloader setup for $177. You’ll still need dies and a caliber-specific shell holder, but the gear is quite reasonably priced. I bought myself 1,000 surplus GI bullets because they were cheap. Pick up a few hundred primers and save your cases, and this basic loadout will keep your favorite bolt gun fed until the sun burns out. Of course you can go down the reloading rabbit home and spend a lot more, but this will get you started.
The secret sauce is Hodgdon Trail Boss powder. This high-volume powder is designed to feed large bore cowboy action guns. By titrating your loads up carefully, you can find a sweet spot just under that magic 1,125 fps number that offers serious downrange horsepower and legit movie-grade performance. Bulky Trail Boss powder burns clean and minimizes dead space in your underloaded cases. The process itself is also a great stress reliever. Get the kids to help manage your components for some quality family time.
Running a sound-suppressed .30-caliber bolt rifle with the Nomad Ti OTB in place will absolutely ruin you to noisy guns. Photo by Will Dabbs.
It is Alive!
I run my homebuilt subsonic .308 loads through a nicely-tuned, heavy-barreled Remington 700 precision rifle equipped with a Dead Air Nomad Ti OTB suppressor. The Nomad Ti OTB suppressor is a state-of-the-art rifle can that is 3D-printed out of titanium. The novel telescoping design puts the blast chamber behind the muzzle and extends the overall length of the weapon by a paltry 4.6 inches. The over-barrel suppressor only adds 10.5 ounces to the total package, accommodates up to 1-inch barrel diameters, and is rated for serious cartridges like the 300 RUM and 7mm Backcountry on down. The Xeno combination muzzle brake-QD-mount is stupid easy to use.
The Dead Air Nomad Ti OTB is a legit state-of-the art centerfire over-barrel rifle suppressor. Photo by Will Dabbs.
The end result is pleasantly quiet. I typically stagger factory supersonic rounds with my DIY subsonic sort when introducing newbies to this gear. Emptying five rounds in this manner will invariably produce a giggle and teach a little physics besides.
Subsonic .308 loses energy fairly quickly. This is a pretty close-range setup. However, if you ever coveted a true movie-grade sound-suppressed rifle, this is the path to that glorious destination. The overall investment isn’t terribly onerous, and the end result sublime. If you want to shoot like a movie star, this rig will get you there.