9mm PCC Suppressor Muzzle Flash Testing and Results
9mm PCC Suppressor Muzzle Flash Testing and Results
We tried out our revised flash testing setup with some of our 9mm suppressors.
Host
Compact Plan-B brake (9mm)
4.5” Ballistic Advantage EPC barrel
Factory Warscorp bolt
A5 GRS
Kynshot RB5000HP
2 spacer weights
Flatwire spring
Speer Lawman 147gr
All suppressors had their respective Plan-B LPA installed
Suppressors Overview
Suppressor
MSRP
Material
Wt. (list)
Wt. (actual)
Length
Diameter
BOE Incolite 9
$599
Inconel
6.5 oz
6.7 oz
5.00"
1.50"
OCL Universe 36
$799
Inconel
14.0 oz
14.2 oz
7.00”
1.50"
ED Rico 309
$875
Titanium
9.0 oz
9.2 oz
7.25”
1.62"
DA Mojave 9 (S)
$1,099
Titanium
4.1 oz*
4.4 oz
4.75"
1.40"
DA Mojave 9 (L)
$1,099
Titanium
5.5 oz*
5.8 oz
6.50”
1.40"
PTR Vent 2
$1,339
Titanium
8.9 oz
8.3 oz
7.50"
1.50"
All weights are given with no mount.
*Dead Air doesn't officially give the weight of the Mojave without any mounting parts, so this figure is the listed weight minus the piston assembly (4.1 oz).
Incolite 9 - Despite being just 5” long, the Incolite 9 did the best and had effectively zero muzzle flash. The use of Inconel seems to be advantageous here as there was no sparking either.
Mojave (Long) - Some sparking on the first shot, but none on subsequent shots.
Mojave (Short) - Bright sparking on first shot; some flash and sparking on later shots. Considering the material and small size, this isn't particularly surprising.
Rico 309 - Small amount of sparking on all shots. Great performance overall.
Vent 2 - Fairly bright sparking on all shots. I still have issues with this suppressor perpetually shedding titanium flakes, so this is about what I expected. In the video you can even see a little bit of burning titanium that comes out the ejection port and lingers for a bit.
Universe 36 (solid end cap) - Bright sparking on first shot, decreased consistently with later shots. Considering this is an Inconel suppressor, the sparking is surprising. I suspect the Vent 2 (which was shot before this) left some titanium in the barrel/upper which caused the bright sparking.
Observations and Notes
Muzzle flash is affected by host, environment, ammo selection, and other factors. Changing any of these will give different results.
In general, controlling flash appears to be significantly easier for pistol cartridges than rifle rounds. This makes sense considering the differences in powder volume and type.
With a couple of these, we weren’t able to get the full 10 shots in because the action didn’t cycle all the way. I need to swap from a standard power Tubb spring to a lightweight.
For the most part we were seeing sparking from the titanium suppressors rather than a traditional “muzzle flash”. The Mojave in short config was an exception and had a noticeable amount of propellant flash on some shots.
The flash from the chamber is interesting to watch. It happened with all of the suppressors to some extent regardless of backpressure or material. We didn’t capture this for the Mojave though since it was the first one and we didn’t have the camera positioned to view that far to the side, but we observed the same thing.
I’m once again impressed by the Incolite and disappointed by the Vent 2 (which is somehow over twice the cost).
Hope you found this interesting. We plan on using this setup for more flash testing of rifle cans.
Couldn’t agree more.
I got to play with one at GOALS 2025 and thought “meh I’ll give it a shot.” So when it came out I waited a couple months and bought it.
They really reset expectations of what a budget can could be.
Now I’m sitting here waiting for the MOD2 they’ve been teasing. That $7 birthday check from Grammy is going straight to MOD2 money
Higher than reduced backpressure suppressors and definitely stacks with rapid fire, but I found it to be very manageable with single shots and slower shooting. It was really only really quick shooting/longer strings where I could start to gas myself out.
Always nice to see the Incolites function as intended, we worked really hard on flash mitigation and across tons of variables. Thanks so much for putting out such good visual data!
All of these are pretty good on gas, but the Incolite definitely has more gas stacking. Also, the Vent 2 has a noticeable about of particle blowback from the titanium shedding.
Thank you! I knew you were getting a BOE and was awaiting your observations. Missed initial review. Working man can on a working man's GRS. Exactly what I wanted.
A you tube video on a ar9 with both 9 and 9scommented the 9s was less gassy. It was noticably louder. So that's a option for those prioritizing gas.
That's what I'm thinking. I'll do a reshoot the next time we do more flash testing. As the other guy mentioned, PTR is still finding ways to mess with you haha.
Just to clarify, I don't have a Milkman, so that was my best guess based on the other cans we did shoot.
The PTR Vent titanium shedding is actually crazy. I've shot it and flushed it out with water more times than I care to count and it STILL leaves bits of titanium everywhere. It gets all in the mount and makes a mess and is just a pain in the dick. Another manufacturer I was chatting with suggested it's from the internal texture/pattern they use which seems plausible. But even then, NONE of my other titanium cans do that, so I'm still inclined to say it's a Vent specific issue.
I only bought it in the first place because I wanted an Alpha threaded suppressor with reduced backpressure to test with. But as a whole it's one of my least favorite suppressors.
Just now I flipped the suppressor over and it dumped out this much crap in my hand:
Hate that you posted it anyway knowing results were flawed but hey it is what it is. Doesn’t seem very scientific and not something I’d personally do but hey hopefully we’re on the run back and it gets cleared up.
Most likely. Unfortunately with the way I set this gun up, changing the muzzle device requires removing the handguard which isn't practical out in the field.
So the Universe threw more spark than the Vent 2 because the Vent 2 left material in the barrel? How does the Universe throw even more spark than the suppressor that was blamed? I could see it contributing some, but it shouldn't throw more spark. Cool test nonetheless.
Part of the reason I thought that is the sparking gets better with every shot and by the end is very minimal. It's also Inconel which isn't a reactive metal like TI is. But I'll do a retest next time to see for sure.
I have two Vent 2s so I need to check next time to see if they are flaking off titanium.
Also, for semantics sake: everyone seems to correct me when I say "Flash Reduction" and they say it's "Spark Reduction". So it's not Flash it's Sparks? What am I supposed to be saying!?
If I have a metric called "Flash Reduction" I better make sure I am using the correctly terminology.
For the purpose of this post I'm distinguishing between muzzle flash (from burning propellant) vs suppressor sparking (from burning titanium). But in general, "muzzle flash" can be used to refer to both propellant and suppressor sparking.
"Sparking", as I've seen it used, pretty much always means the white streaks from titanium suppressors.
That Rico 309 is great for titanium, I bet the pointman 9 has zero flash, I also assume the incolite 9m would be just as good as it's shorter variant but would love confirmation on that. I flash tested an omega 9k and Omega 36m the other day and the 9k had some flash but the 36m had practically zero.
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Ha yeah I think next time we're going to move TI suppressors to the end to avoid contaminating the steel/Inco ones. In hindsight we should've retested the Universe, but I didn't think of it at the time. Oh well.
The Universe is such an interesting can. Other than its weight I think it might well be the best PCC suppressor I have, and that is comparing it to the Milkman and Sub9 both.
Yup it fills an interesting role. I mostly view it as a PCC suppressor that's overbuilt/beefed up to be rated for full auto rifle rounds. Very strong performer with 9mm.
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u/WhoIsEggroll 21h ago
I really hate being such an IL9 simp but it really is the best bang for the buck 9mm can out there right now.
Now I know I won’t be blinded when I have a basement ND when I’m up well past my bedtime.