Gemtech’s GMT-300BLK Suppressor for 300 Blackout Rifles

The Gemtech GMT-300BLK is made specifically for 300 Blackout rifles.

Suppressing a 300 Blackout rifle presents a unique opportunity because the exact performance attributes are known in advance. Allow me to explain.

If you’re trying to make a generic .30 caliber rifle suppressor, you’ve got to plan for a wide range of potential pressure and general abuse. You don’t know whether, and how frequently, the user will be shooting any type of ammunition from rimfire all the way up to 300 Win Mag. To get specific, let’s consider the pressures involved with various loads that one might fire through a .30 caliber rifle silencer.

At the low end, you’ll find cartridges like .22LR. That operates at mellow handgun cartridge pressures with a SAAMI maximum of 24,000 psi. Moving up the scale, consider that .30-06 has a maximum SAAMI pressure of 60,000 psi while 300 Winchester Magnum goes up to 64,000 and .308 Winchester tops out at 62,000 psi. On the other hand, 300 Blackout operates at significantly lower pressures, with a SAAMI maximum of 55,000 psi, the same as .223 Remington. Depending on whose numbers you use, the 5.56mm NATO variant tops out at over 62,000 psi.

If you’re only going to use it on a 300 Blackout rifle, you don’t need a larger and heavier .30 caliber suppressor like the SilencerCo Specwar shown above.

What’s all this mean? As with .223 rifle suppressors, the top end of the abuse range for a dedicated 300 Blackout can is known, so manufacturers can engineer a silencer as small and light as possible, using materials that will handle a known level of pressure. Being non-caliber specific, most .30 caliber rifle suppressors have to be overbuilt.

The folks at Silencer Shop recently loaned my such a purpose-built suppressor for testing. The Gemtech GMT-300BLK suppressor is, as the name implies, designed specifically for use with the 300 AAC Blackout cartridge. While you can use it on any 300 Blackout rifle with a 7.5-inch or longer barrel, it was really built for short barrel rifle configurations. It’s small and light as far as centerfire rifle silencers go, so it’s a great fit for short, light, and handy carbines. It’s rated for full-auto operation, but the factory manual clarifies “full-auto” as 4-8 round bursts every three to six seconds. Even if you can afford the ammo, don’t make a habit of full magazine dumps in rapid succession.