Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

The SilencerCo Velos LBP (Low Back Pressure) is one of the most technologically advanced sound suppressors on the planet. With a 3D-printed core formed out of Inconel 625, the can’s low back pressure technology is carefully crafted to minimize blowback into the weapon while still offering class-defining performance. The Velos LBP has its core fully welded to front and rear modules cut out of 17-4 stainless steel. The result is fully auto-rated, has no minimum barrel length restrictions, and is breathtakingly durable.

Problems

Lots of folks make sound suppressors these days. They all work to one degree or another. Where previously the $200 transfer tax was a prohibitive burden (which was the point), nowadays that’s taking the wife and kids out for dinner at a nice restaurant and a movie. Oddly, the same inflation that makes our paychecks shrink month after month also makes the transfer tax for a registered sound suppressor progressively more affordable.

Engineers solve problems. It is imprinted upon their DNA. In the case of the Velos LBP, this cutting-edge sound suppressor is purpose-designed to address one thorny challenge. The Velos LBP helps keep you from asphyxiating yourself when out-firing your favorite direct gas impingement AR-15.

Welcome to the Weeds

George Sullivan was a patent attorney for Lockheed Corporation when he incorporated ArmaLite back in 1954 as a tiny little subsidiary of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation. He leased a small machine shop to do prototype work developing cutting-edge small arms. ArmaLite never was intended to mass-produce firearms. They were essentially a think tank with a few machine tools.

Sullivan met a Marine veteran named Gene Stoner at a local firing range and hired him on the spot. Along with a few others, these two guys designed the ArmaLite AR10. The AR10 was a radically-advanced battle rifle chambered in 7.61x51mm. In 1956, Gene Stoner and Company miniaturized the AR10 to fire the .223 Remington round. This basic rifle eventually evolved into the M4 carbines carried by US troops serving downrange today.

In Your Face

The beating heart of this radical weapon was its direct gas impingement operating system. Inspired by both the French Rossignol ENT B1 and the Swedish Automatgevar m/42, this system was the very image of simplicity. In the AR15, gas is tapped off at a port located some distance from the receiver. This high-pressure gas travels down a length of stainless steel hydraulic tubing to impinge upon the bolt carrier, which itself acts as a sort of piston. This energy forces the bolt carrier assembly to the rear and cycles the action.

The design is innately accurate and relatively inexpensive to produce. However, it does blow copious fouling back into the receiver. While that makes regular cleaning necessary for reliable operation, it also means that all those combustion gases end up in the shooter’s face. The effect is magnified when using a conventional sound suppressor. 

That’s not such big a deal if you are a flint-eyed Navy SEAL moving with a purpose through the bowels of a ship on a VBSS (Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure) op. However, if you are firing from a stationary point all that gun smoke can all but choke you. It turns out that this can indeed be very bad.

Details

First contrived in 1884 by a Frenchman named Paul Vieille, smokeless powder is the term used to describe the nitrocellulose-based gunpowders that ultimately replaced black powder for use in small arms. “Smokeless” powder isn’t exactly smokeless, but it does produce markedly less smoke than its predecessor. Modern smokeless powders are remarkably complex chemical compounds.

The spunky bits used in smokeless propellants include nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, nitroguanidine, DINA (bis-nitroxyethylnitramine; diethanolamine dinitrate, DEADN; DHE), Fivonite (2,2,5,5-tetramethylol-cyclopentanone tetranitrate, CyP), diethyl glycol dinitrate, and acetyl cellulose. No, I don’t know what all that stuff is, either, but it sounds pretty horrifying. In addition, modern powders typically include additives such as dinitrotoluene that retard the burn rate. Dinitrotoluene is both toxic and carcinogenic. Decoppering additives include compounds of tin and bismuth. Flash retardants are typically potassium-based. And then there is, of course, elemental lead in the base of the bullet and the primer compound.

Adds Up To Be A Problem

All that stuff synergistically combines to make for a sublime shooting experience when we hit the range on a pleasant Saturday afternoon with our favorite sound-suppressed black rifle. These chemical compounds produce consistent downrange performance and remain stable through a wide range of temperatures. However, that’s some undeniably vile stuff. You don’t want to be getting it in you.

I bought my first AR15 rifle back in Tenth Grade. I was surprised by the strong smell of ammonia when I initially unlimbered it. However, ammonia is the least of our concerns. As smokeless propellants are nitrogen-based, they produce various oxides of nitrogen, oxides of carbon including carbon monoxide, and hydrogen cyanide in addition to good old-fashioned ammonia. This is the reason the lawyers insist that “Only shoot in well-ventilated areas” be splashed across your rifle’s operating manual as well as every box of ammunition sold in America. However, even outdoors the effects can sometimes seem overwhelming.

What Does All That Stuff Do to You?

Well, it depends. Protracted exposure to smoke and noxious fumes can lead to a wide variety of organic lung diseases. Cigarettes kill 478,000 Americans per year. If anything, the noxious chemicals in gun smoke are worse than those produced by tobacco. Common smoke-related maladies include emphysema, pneumonitis, chronic bronchitis, and a predilection towards lung cancer.

READ MORE: SilencerCo Integrally Suppressed 9MM Pistol and More

I once met a guy who had the coolest job in the world. For his entire career, he had worked as a sales rep for a company that produced machine guns. It was his job to burn zillions of rounds through some of the most high-speed weapons on the planet and then try to get representatives from military and Law Enforcement organizations to buy them. However, a lot of that shooting was done indoors or in enclosed spaces. By the time he retired, he suffered from a variety of pulmonary maladies along with a wicked case of heavy metals poisoning.

Velos LBP – The SilencerCo Solution

The new Velos LBP sound suppressor is the most robust can SilencerCo has ever produced. It comes from the factory with a Charlie ASR mount, an ASR flash suppressor for your rifle, an internal Charlie flash hider front cap, and all the tools you need to keep the can mounted and maintained. It is specifically designed for 5.56mm/.223 Rem weapons. The Velos LBP is a sealed suppressor that doesn’t require any dedicated maintenance beyond wiping it off from time to time. The Velos LBP weighs 15.2 ounces and is six inches long.

Velos LBP and GDCH Work Together

SilencerCo also offers the Gas-Defeating Charging Handle (GDCH). This is a typical high-end ambidextrous AR15 charging handle with a twist. This patented design also incorporates a replaceable rubber seal that helps occlude the gap in the back of the upper receiver where gas can escape. To replace this gasket you take an appropriate O-ring, snip it so that it becomes a single rubber strand, and press it in place. The cumulative result, when operated in concert with the Velos LBP, is to keep most all that nasty stuff out of your eyes and lungs. 

I shot a full auto M4 carbine with a conventional suppressor and GI charging and then ran the same rig with the SilencerCo Velos LBP and gas-defeating charging handle. The difference was indeed stark. Where I had to pause periodically with the conventional setup to let the fumes dissipate, the SilencerCo rig was markedly more pleasant throughout. I had not appreciated how nasty that rifle was until I had tasted it outfitted with the good stuff. There yet remains a little gas around the receiver, but not nearly so much.

Ruminations

A gas piston-driven rifle like an FN SCAR or IWI Carmel does a fine job of keeping most of that chaos up front and away from the shooter. However, the direct gas impingement AR15 is the most popular rifle in America. It is also, particularly when built up from parts, quite very affordable nowadays. 

If you like to run your favorite black rifle suppressed, and anyone who has ever fired a sound-suppressed rifle does, then the SilencerCo Velos LBP and Gas-Defeating Charging Handle really will keep most of that nasty stuff out of your face. The Velos LBP has an MSRP of $1,174, while the optimized SilencerCo GDCH charging handle is another $114. That’s a whole lot of money. However, a portable oxygen concentrator and chemotherapy for lung cancer make that look piddly by comparison. 

If you’re a distinguished member of DEVGRU or Delta Force then honestly don’t bother. You’ll be moving so much while you shoot that you’ll likely never notice all those nasty combustion gases. However, for the rest of us who tend to run our favorite black rifles from a fixed firing point on the range, this new gear from SilencerCo offers cutting-edge performance and helps keep you healthy to boot.

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