With the outer tube removed you can see that the Mist assembly features a one piece G-Core baffle stack permanently attached to a ported 9 inch barrel. The ported barrel reduces the ammunition’s velocity so that most any .22 shell is subsonic.
By Chris A. Choat
Gemtech has been building silencers (or more properly “suppressors”) for over two decades. They actually started business in 1993 and have become a name synonymous with high quality, extremely quiet suppressors. They started with just a few core models and have built their line up to over fifty models of rimfire and centerfire suppressors. This author owns several of their suppressors and I am very satisfied with all of them. They are well built, durable, easy to clean and most of all, very quiet.
When I recently had a chance to test one of their new models I jumped at the chance. The new suppressor is called the Gemtech Mist .22 and it is a complete barrel assembly with integral or built-in suppressor for the Ruger series of 10/22 rifles. The new barrel/suppressor will fit all models of the Ruger 10/22 as well as aftermarket models, which there seem to be several of. The barrel of the Mist is ported and just a little shorter than 9 inches long. The suppressor core is permanently attached to the barrel making it a full 16.25 inches overall for legality reasons. The core or baffles of the suppressor is what Gemtech calls the G-Core Monolithic Baffle Stack. The “stack” is actually not a stack at all but a 1-piece core that does not come apart. This is much better than loose baffles that tend to get put back together in the wrong direction or out of sequence. To clean the Mist you simply unscrew the outer tube exposing the internal core which can then be easily wiped or scraped clean. This, by the way, can be done with the receiver and barrel assembly still
mounted in the stock.
For testing the barrel was mounted to a standard Ruger 10/22. The existing rifle had the somewhat plain birch wood with the classic barrel band at the front of the forearm. With this setup the Mist suppressor would not fit into the inletted barrel channel of the stock as the original rifle had the standard “pencil barrel”. The Mist’s outer tube diameter is .920, the same as the heavy barreled or target 10/22’s. I could have routered out the stocks’ barrel channel but then I would have had to cut off the front end, where the barrel band was located and refinish the stock to make it look right. Instead I chose to just install a Hogue Overmolded® rubber coated stock that was made for Rugers with the .920 diameter barrels. This particular stock does not have a barrel band and thus leaves the barrel free-floating. The stock has a rubber coating over its entire surface which gives it a very positive even “sticky” feeling grip texture.
The mounting of the suppressed barrel is very simple. You just remove the original barreled receiver from the stock and then remove the original barrel by taking out two Allen head screws that hold the barrel clamping block to the receiver. The barrel is then pulled out of the front of the receiver and the new barrel with the suppressor is pushed in. The clamping block is replaced, the screws tightened and the installation is complete.
Before I installed the new Hogue stock I replaced the stock trigger pack on the 10/22 with one of Ruger’s new BX Triggers. The BX Trigger from Ruger is an entire trigger pack that comes as a single unit. You merely push out two receiver pins, drop out the standard trigger pack and then replace it with the new BX Trigger pack unit. The new trigger is advertised as having a factory set pull of between 2.5 and 3 pounds. The trigger that I used had exactly a 3.0 pound trigger pull right out of the package. It also has a very crisp feel to it. Another great thing about the new trigger is that it has a retail price of just $89.95 and can be ordered direct from
www.shopruger.com.
With the trigger and new Hogue stock installed it was time to pick an optic. I had recently bought a couple of inexpensive scopes from a company called Olivon (www.olivonmanufacturing.com). One was the 3X9X40 IR Tracker Pro and the other was their 3X12X56 IR Tracker Pro. The 3X9 has a 1 inch tube and the 3X12 featured a 30mm tube. Both optics have illuminated red duplex reticles with 11 brightness settings and are both waterproof, shockproof and fog proof. I picked the 3X9 scope to mount on the 10/22 and it was the perfect match. The scope has a matte black finish which matches the gun and suppressor finish very well. The illuminated reticle made the gun perfect for low light varmint elimination. These scopes are very inexpensive but don’t let their prices ($85.00 and $125.00 respectively) fool you. They have extremely clear glass and excellent edge to edge clarity. The 3X9 scope proved more than capable on the 10/22.
The optic was bore sighted, a variety of different kinds of .22 ammunition was gathered up and we headed to the range. The rifle was sighted in from a bench at 50 yards as this was about middle ground for the distances that most of the shooting with this rifle would be done at. The ammunition included both subsonic as well as supersonic and was of both the copper plated and lead lubed lead bullet styles. We used CCI Subsonic, CCI Quiet, CCI Mini Mag, CCI Standard Velocity, Winchester Subsonic, Remington Subsonic, Gemtech Subsonic and some Federal High Velocity. All of the ammunition that was tried fed and functioned perfectly with the exception of the CCI Quiet which didn’t have enough power to blow the bolt open enough to eject the empty brass. Although it was the quietest by far it turned the 10/22 into a manually cycled single shot rifle. With all of the subsonic ammunition used the Mist equipped rifle was “scary” quiet. You could literally hear the bullets striking the target. Even with the supersonic ammunition such as the CCI Mini Mags the gun was quiet enough that at 100 feet from the gun you couldn’t tell it was a gunshot when the rifle went off. It was interesting to note that even with the ported barrel the subsonic loads such as the Remington and Gemtech, the rifle functioned perfectly with no failures to feed or eject.
Accuracy of the rifle was checked with the original barrel and then later with the Mist suppressed barrel installed. With every type of ammunition used, all of the loads were more accurate when shot through the Mist suppressed barrel! This is not that unusual as this author has found that most times when a suppressor is installed on a firearm the accuracy improves. Accuracy with the Mist suppressed 10/22 was outstanding. The gun was fired off of a bench using a Harris bipod up front and a rear sand bag. Five shot groups could easily be covered with a quarter and some could be covered with a nickel. In fact, entire 25 round magazines could be fired into one ragged hole.
In conclusion I would say that the Gemtech Mist equipped Ruger 10/22 is probably one of the quietest .22 guns that can be had. Probably the only thing quieter would be a bolt-action .22 rifle equipped with an integral suppressor such as the Mist. The ideal set-up would be a Mist made for the Ruger 77/22 bolt action rifle. The Gemtech Mist .22 Suppressor is made to fit only the Ruger 10/22 rifles or Charger pistols but maybe they will make one to fit the 77/22 at a later date. Installed on a 77/22 the Gemtech Mist would be the ultimate in quiet. The Gemtech Mist .22 barrel/suppressor has a retail price of $550.00. For a suppressor that can be disassembled for cleaning and provides the kind of noise reduction that it does this is definitely a bargain. When you order one, be sure to also order some of Gemtech’s Subsonic .22 ammunition. This is a combination that is hard to beat.
GEMTECH
P.O. Box 140618
Boise, ID 83714-0618
1-208-939-7222
www.gem-tech.com
| This article first appeared in Small Arms Review V20N3 (April 2016) |
