34 • Special Weapons 2008 Special Weapons 2008 • 35

begin to grasp how much a .50BMG rifle will rattle your proverbial cage.

It’s almost a penetrating glimpse into the obvious to observe that this much noise, plus the formidable recoil of a .50 caliber rifle, can create anticipatory flinch. The uninitiated might not anticipate, however, the complex physiological effects that this magnitude of blast overpressure can produce in the shooter and his spotter. Continued exposure begins to blur vision. Then the blast begins to create nausea and dizziness. Muscle tremors begin and then worsen. Continued exposure begins to degrade the entire central nervous system until the individual can no longer think clearly. Therefore, the US SpecOps community strictly limits training to no more than 50 rounds per day. Most folks would be done after 10 rounds.

Suppressor Details

Designed by Robert Silvers of AAC, the Cyclops was born out of frustration. Silvers owned a .50BMG rifle for a decade, but he rarely shot it because of the nasty blast that thumped him with every shot. He purchased a number of .50 caliber suppressors over the years. He tried still more. None of the cans made the shooting experience enjoyable.

He eventually became interested in designing suppressors himself, and began conducting R&D for Advanced Armament. His masterpiece was a suppressor for the .338 Lapua Magnum that was quieter than most mainstream .308 suppressors. It is safe to say that’s astonishing sound reduction. Called the Titan, it went into production in 2007. Silvers wanted to make the quietest possible .338 suppressor in the world, and he certainly succeeded. Once one has heard the seductive sound signature of AAC’s .338 can, it becomes hard to imagine using anything else.

Every goal in suppressor design has its tradeoffs, however. In order to achieve breathtaking sound reduction, the .338 Titan was relatively large and heavy (10 inches long, 2 inches in diameter, and 40 ounces). While the can balanced well on a bipod, I found the suppressed rifle was too muzzle heavy for me to shoot from other positions. While that’s not a problem for law enforcement sharpshooters and individual shooting enthusiasts, the weight was a problem for military snipers. Therefore, Silvers developed an all-titanium version

By Al Paulson

The new Cyclops sound suppressor from Advanced

Armament is the first truly hearing-safe .50 BMG rifle suppressor that I’ve ever tested. That’s big news. The Cyclops also reduces felt recoil as well as the factory muzzle brake. That’s also big news. Only about a third of .50 caliber cans in my experience deliver as much recoil reduction as a good muzzle brake. I’m even more impressed by the fact that the Cyclops reduces the blast overpressure assaulting the shooter’s body to less than 1/1000 of the blast pressure generated by the unsuppressed rifle. This has profound impact on the mission effectiveness of a shooter and spotter, their short- and long-term health, and their likelihood of surviving a given mission. The Cyclops heralds a paradigm shift in suppressor performance, design, quality control and manufacturing techniques.

.50BMG Operations

Operationally, an Army study following Gulf War II concluded that the .50 caliber rifle was the single most useful weapon in the infantry’s tactical toolbox, especially during urban fighting. The first time I fired a .50BMG rifle in the desert, the muzzle brake produced a substantial dust cloud for 26 feet on either side of the rifle that swirled about 12 feet high. Even if one discounts the substantial muzzle flash and severe gunshot noise, here was a 12x52 foot dust plume that said “Here I am!”

In a combat environment, such visual signatures shout, “Direct your mortar and artillery rounds here!” If

the team has just hit a high-value target such as a radar dish or SCUD missile behind the lines, they will be hard-pressed to survive the rapid-response team providing security for the enemy target. A good sound and flash suppressor can hide the location of the sniper team if they’ve used good field craft, as well as mitigate the muzzle blast’s adverse physiological impact on the sharpshooter and spotter. The blast effects spawned by a .50BMG rifle are significantly worse than the effects produced by a .50BMG machine gun.

The .50 caliber M2HB heavy machine gun produces a muzzle blast of 172 decibels (dB). While that’s quieter than a .458 Winchester Magnum safari rifle thanks to the MG’s longer barrel, the blast overpressure produced by the Ma Deuce still smacks the operator’s body with considerable force. This blast rattles

the shooter’s entire body, including the central nervous system.

Sniper rifles in .50BMG are even louder due to their shorter barrels, producing a muzzle blast of about 175 dB without a muzzle brake (recoil without a muzzle brake is terrible). We need to put this much noise into perspective. Without a muzzle brake, a .50BMG sniper rifle’s unsuppressed muzzle blast equals a quarter stick of dynamite at a meter! With a muzzle brake, the rifle is 5 to 7 dB louder at the shooter’s position because the brake directs more of the blast back at the

shooter and spotter.The Accuracy International AW50

sniper rifle, for example, produces 180 dB of gunshot noise at a meter. The muzzle blast of a 105mm howitzer is only 3 dB louder at the same distance. The unsuppressed McMillan TAC-50 rifle with the AAC brake used in this study was louder than 1-pound of TNT just two arm spans away! Now consider shooting 50 rounds in an hour or two. That subjects you to the moral equivalent of 50 explosions just two armspan away. Perhaps now you

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AD

AAC’s CYCLOPS.50BMG Making McMillan’s

TAC-50 Hollywood quiet and muzzle-blast-proof!

AAC’s .50BMG Cyclops suppressor drops the TAC-50’s muzzle blast to 1/1000 of the unsuppressed muzzle blast.

(Right) AAC’s Cyclops sound suppressor mounted on TAC-50 rifle. (Above) Details of Leupold Mark IV 3.5-10x40mm LR/T scope with M2 illuminated reticle.

Continued on page 78

78 • Special Weapons 2008 Special Weapons 2008 • 79

that weighs a mere 18 ounces. As Silvers savored the success of

his .338 can, his thoughts returned to the problem of suppressing .50 caliber rifles. Silvers concluded he’d learned enough about suppressor design by this time to develop a hearing-safe suppressor for a .50BMG rifle.

He wanted a suppressor that would be hearing-safe by a dramatically wide margin, like AAC’s .338 can. But if he scaled up the .338 can to .50 caliber, that suppressor would weigh 9 pounds. Kevin Brittingham, the owner of AAC, thought that 9 pounds would be fine as long as the can produced a sound signature that was far quieter than merely hearing-safe. That’s what Brittingham wanted for his personal rifle. That’s what Silvers wanted for his.

Silvers began by reading a US Army research report discussing their tests of nine different .50 caliber sound suppressors. None were hearing-safe. An important lesson in that report was that troops using .50 caliber rifles in the field really disliked cans weighing more than 6 pounds. This simple fact forced Silvers to begin re-evaluating his entire approach to suppressor design. He decided it would be foolish to disregard the Army’s requirement for a lighter suppressor. User-friendliness became his objective. Silvers began visiting military bases to talk to the folks who used .50 caliber rifles, to learn about their needs and preferences.

This process precipitated a paradigm shift in his thinking. Dramatic sound reduction was no longer his primary design goal. Silvers learned that accuracy, durability and light weight are the most important factors in suppressor design for most military end-users, in that order of priority. He concluded that he had to achieve those design goals before trying to achieve as much sound reduction as possible.

“I didn’t originally believe in that design approach when I started designing suppressors,” Silvers said.

“It’s been an evolution with me, partly because I’ve talked with military personnel about what they want. I’ve now come full circle. I embraced the military point of view as my own philosophy. The .50 caliber can I developed represents what I would want to own personally today.”

He developed a new list of design goals for the .50 caliber suppressor. The can must weigh significantly less than 6 pounds and still be hearing-safe, accurate and durable. The design also needed a quick-detach mount based upon a muzzle brake, so the rifle would still have a brake if the suppressor was removed. His design should be hearing-safe by a comfortable margin, rather than a large margin. Dimensions, baffle design and materials changed accordingly.

“The Cyclops was entirely computer designed with solid modeling CAD programs,” Silvers told me. “I modeled its gas flow with computational fluid dynamics. I prototyped it entirely on the computer and

had an expectation of what the actual results should be.”

Selecting the optimum materials for the Cyclops was simple enough in concept. Pick the strongest possible material. The process was a bit more complicated, however, because the yield strengths of various steels vary widely at different temperatures. You might think AAC would use the material in their 5.56mm suppressors, which provides optimum strength at 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit (which 5.56mm suppressors can reach during sustained shooting). Yet bolt-action rifles rarely heat suppressors to more than 600 degrees, so AAC was able to use a different steel that’s twice as strong as the 5.56mm material, as long as the .50 caliber can remains below a temperature of 1,200 degrees.

Assembly techniques were a critical part of the design process. In order

to have rigidity, durability, reliability and absolutely no movement of the baffles, Silvers concluded that every component had to be fully welded to adjacent components.

“That doesn’t mean screwing end caps onto a tube and sealing them in place with a tack of weld,” Silvers

said. “It means that every baffle must be fully circumferential welded to every

spacer. We used to do all of our welding by hand, and it would take

an expert welder 30 minutes to weld a 5.56mm suppressor. Since then, we’ve gone to

full robotic welding. AAC has two machines. In the case of our 5.56mm suppressors like the M4-2000, we now use 20 times more weld per silencer than the 2006 models. In spite of that, the robot welds the can in 3.5 minutes

instead of the usual 30 minutes.”Since AAC uses 20 times more

welding in about 1/10 the time, the robotic welding system used by AAC is about 200 times faster than an expert welder. The result is a stronger suppressor at a lower cost. Many suppressor manufacturers have avoided welding, however, because the welding process distorts metal. This may warp a suppressor to the point that accuracy suffers. Worse, warping can push internal structures into the bore with disastrous consequences.

AAC uses two methods to eliminate distortion as a problem. They use custom CNC programs for the robotic welders that choose the direction and location of each weld, so that any distortion created by one weld is counteracted by the next weld. The program also changes the heat used to make each weld depending upon the components being welded, to further reduce potential warpage.

The Cyclops bore measures a very generous 0.635 of an inch because military users cannot afford a problem in the field. If you insert a .50 caliber bullet into the front end cap, you can see that there’s a very comfortable margin of space around the bullet. Despite using a very large bore in the suppressor for this extra margin of safety, Silvers still met his sound reduction goal.

AAC goes a step further after welding and any heat-treating of the assembled can. They use the wire EDM process to make the concentricity of the entire baffle stack match the concentricity of the muzzle brake mount to within 0.0002 of an inch. This maximizes both accuracy and operator safety.

The finish on the .50 caliber Cyclops is noteworthy. It’s a rather exotic and expensive proprietary process that produces a Rockwell C hardness in the 60+ range. Called SCARmor, the exact process varies depending upon the materials and the product. On the Cyclops, the SCARmor penetrates the metal and provides extreme corrosion

AD

SPECIFICATIONS

AAC CYCLOPS

Caliber: .50BMG

Diameter: 2.5 inches

OA Length: 15.75 inches

Weight: 5 pounds

Finish: SCARmor

Price: $2995

PERFORMANCEMCMILLAN TAC-50 with AAC CYCLOPS .50BMG

Microphone Placement

1 m left from muzzle

15 cm from ear

5 m behind muzzle

SPL (unsuppressed) 182 168 159

SPL (suppressed) 151 137 128

Net Sound Reduction 31 31 31

First-Round Pop +3 +3 +3

Sound pressure levels (SPLs) measured in decibels (dB) at various locations.

The Cyclops reduces blast overpressure and recoil so successfully that a 90-pound lady found shooting the TAC-50 quite enjoyable.

Rob

ert Silvers p

hoto

OPTECH Continued from page 35

80 • Special Weapons 2008

resistance as well as surface hardness. Moreover, SCARmor won’t burn off. AAC uses this finish in most of their product line now. If an end-user wants a number of cans in a certain color such as tan or green, AAC applies a moly-type baked finish over the SCARmor.

Gun Details

I tested the performance of AAC’s Cyclops sound suppressor on one of my favorite .50 caliber rifles, the McMillan TAC-50 rifle from McMillan Tactical Products. The TAC-50 is user-friendly, robust and accurate. I’ve shot my personal best in this caliber using the TAC-50. This is the same rifle that US Navy SEALs designate the M88 SASR PIP. It’s also the rifle used by Canadian sniper Rob Furlong to nail a Taliban adversary at 2,430 meters, which is the farthest kill ever made with a sniper rifle.

The TAC-50 action is the same basic design used by McBros for their benchrest rifles. The action is made from 4340 chrome-moly steel, which is carefully heat-treated after all machining operations to a Rockwell C hardness of 45-48. The bolt features strong spiral flutes designed to both lighten the bolt and deal with fouling. The full-diameter bolt is fabricated from 9310 steel, which takes well to casehardening. It has two massive, horizontally arrayed locking lugs, which permit the incorporation of an excellent Sako-type extractor. The top of the receiver features an integral Picatinny Rail (MIL-STD-1913) interface. The TAC-50 rifle is available with either a Remington-type trigger set to 3.5 pounds (preferred by the armed professional) or a Jewell trigger

(preferred by many target shooters). The superb Navy stock from McMillan Fiberglass Stocks allows removing the butt to make the rifle more compact for transport. The TAC-50 system delivers excellent and consistent accuracy, and combat effectiveness at very long range.

Shooting Performance

Shooting the TAC-50 with AAC’s Cyclops sound suppressor is a surreal experience. To say felt recoil is manageable is to understate the case. I recently watched a 90-pound lady fire the suppressed TAC-50. After the first round, she looked up with a huge smile and then continued to put rounds on target. Shooting the .50BMG rifle was fun. She also enjoyed the experience because she was not subjected to the blast overpressure of an unsuppressed rifle, which is the moral equivalent of a pound of TNT at two arm spans. Seasoned .50 caliber shooters who have shot this rig were even more impressed, because they had experienced the pounding one gets shooting an unsuppressed rifle. How much does AAC’s Cyclops reduce the rifle’s muzzle blast?

I conducted sound testing using standard 650-grain military ball ammunition at a temperature of 88 degrees Fahrenheit. I measured suppressed and unsuppressed sound signatures 1 meter to the left of the muzzle brake or sound suppressor, 15 centimeters from the shooter’s ear as specified by Picatinny arsenal, and 5 meters behind the muzzle of the muzzle brake or sound suppressor.

AAC’s Cyclops drops the muzzle blast by an impressive 31 dB. The TAC-50 with Cyclops suppressor is just 137 dB, measured 15 centimeters from the shooter’s ear nearest the muzzle. That’s less blast overpressure than a Ruger 10/22 shooting standard velocity ammunition. To be hearing safe, impulse noise must be less than 140 dB. The Cyclops is hearing safe except for the cold shot of the day, which is 140 dB. Even the first-round pop produces less noise than a Ruger 10/22 with high-velocity ammunition.

Final Notes

This is frontier-pushing sound reduction. When combined with the suppressor’s lightweight, advanced design, full circumferential welding, durability, and quality control, I can safely say AAC’s Cyclops sound suppressor is an outstanding achievement. I can recommend the Cyclops sound suppressor with unbridled enthusiasm. n

Advanced Armament Corp.1434 Hillcrest Rd, Dept GW/LE, Norcross, GA 30093;

770-925-9988; www.advanced-armament.comMcMillan Tactical Products, LLC

1638 W Knudsen Dr, Ste 101, Dept GW/LE, Phoenix, AZ 85027; 623-582-0536; www.mcmfamily.com

Leupold & Stevens14400 NW Greenbrier Pkwy, Dept GW/LE, Beaverton,

OR 97006; 800-538-7653; www.leupold.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION

SPECIFICATIONS

MCMILLAN TAC-50

Caliber: .50BMG

Barrel: 29 inches, Lilja Match Grade Chrome-Moly, fluted with 1:15-inch twist

OA Length: 57 inches

Stock: Navy stock from McMillan Fiberglass

Sights: None, drilled and tapped

Action: Bolt

Finish: Gray, tan, olive, black and dark earth, black oxide on action

Capacity: 5-shot mag

Price: $6700

The Cyclops bore is an unusually large 0.635˝ to maximize accuracy and safety when used in harsh combat conditions.

AAC’s QD muzzle brake (left) compared to a typical muzzle brake.

View of AAC’s robotic weld quality.

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