AAC`s CYCLOPS - Advanced Armament Corp.

n OPTECH
AAC’s CYCLOPS
.50BMG
Making McMillan’s
TAC-50 Hollywood quiet
and muzzle-blast-proof!
By Al Paulson
T
he new Cyclops
sound suppressor
from Advanced
AAC’s .50BMG Cyclops suppressor drops
Armament is the first truly
the TAC-50’s muzzle blast to 1/1000 of the
hearing-safe .50 BMG
unsuppressed muzzle blast.
rifle suppressor that I’ve
ever tested. That’s big
news. The Cyclops also
the shooter’s entire
reduces felt recoil as well
body, including the
as the factory muzzle
central nervous
brake. That’s also big
system.
news. Only about a third
Sniper rifles in
of .50 caliber cans in my
.50BMG are even
experience deliver as
louder due to their
much recoil reduction
shorter barrels,
as a good muzzle brake.
producing a muzzle
I’m even more impressed
blast of about
by the fact that the
175 dB without a
Cyclops reduces the blast
muzzle brake (recoil
overpressure assaulting
(Right) AAC’s Cyclops sound suppressor
without a muzzle
the shooter’s body to
mounted on TAC-50 rifle. (Above) Details of
brake is terrible).
less than 1/1000 of the
Leupold Mark IV 3.5-10x40mm LR/T scope
We need to put this
blast pressure generated
with M2 illuminated reticle.
much noise into
by the unsuppressed
perspective. Without
rifle. This has profound impact on the
the team has just hit a
a muzzle brake,
mission effectiveness of a shooter
high-value target such
a .50BMG sniper
and spotter, their short- and longas a radar dish or SCUD
rifle’s unsuppressed
term health, and their likelihood of
missile behind the lines,
muzzle blast equals
surviving a given mission. The Cyclops
they will be hard-pressed to
a quarter stick of
heralds a paradigm shift in suppressor
survive the rapid-response
dynamite at a meter!
performance, design, quality control
team providing security for
With a muzzle brake,
and manufacturing techniques.
the enemy target. A good
the rifle is 5 to 7
sound and flash suppressor
dB louder at the
can hide the location of the
.50BMG Operations
shooter’s position
sniper team if they’ve used
because the brake
good field craft, as well as
Operationally, an Army study
directs more of the
mitigate the muzzle blast’s
following Gulf War II concluded that
blast back at the
adverse physiological
the .50 caliber rifle was the single
shooter and spotter.
impact on the sharpshooter and
most useful weapon in the infantry’s
The Accuracy International AW50
spotter. The blast effects spawned
tactical toolbox, especially during
sniper rifle, for example, produces 180
by a .50BMG rifle are significantly
urban fighting. The first time I fired a
dB of gunshot noise at a meter. The
worse than the effects produced by a
.50BMG rifle in the desert, the muzzle
muzzle blast of a 105mm howitzer is
.50BMG machine gun.
brake produced a substantial dust
only 3 dB louder at the same distance.
The .50 caliber M2HB heavy
cloud for 26 feet on either side of the
The unsuppressed McMillan TAC-50
machine gun produces a muzzle
rifle that swirled about 12 feet high.
rifle with the AAC brake used in this
blast of 172 decibels (dB). While
Even if one discounts the substantial
study was louder than 1-pound of
that’s quieter than a .458 Winchester
muzzle flash and severe gunshot
TNT just two arm spans away! Now
Magnum safari rifle thanks to the MG’s
noise, here was a 12x52 foot dust
consider shooting 50 rounds in an
longer barrel, the blast overpressure
plume that said “Here I am!”
hour or two. That subjects you to the
produced by the Ma Deuce still
In a combat environment, such
moral equivalent of 50 explosions just
smacks the operator’s body with
visual signatures shout, “Direct your
two armspan away. Perhaps now you
considerable force. This blast rattles
mortar and artillery rounds here!” If
34 • Special Weapons 2008
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
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Continued on page 78
Special Weapons 2008 • 35
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Continued from page 35
Robert Silvers photo
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.
The Cyclops reduces blast overpressure and recoil so successfully that a 90-pound
lady found shooting the TAC-50 quite enjoyable.
“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 hearingsafe, 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
PERFORMANCE
MCMILLAN 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.
78 • Special Weapons 2008
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
SPECIFICATIONS
AAC CYCLOPS
Caliber:
.50BMG
Diameter:
2.5 inches
OA Length:
15.75 inches
Weight:
5 pounds
Finish:
SCARmor
Price:
$2995
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
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Special Weapons 2008 • 79
OPTECH
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
SPECIFICATIONS
MCMILLAN TAC-50
Caliber:
.50BMG
Barrel:
29 inches, Lilja Match Grade
Chrome-Moly, fluted with 1:15inch 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
80 • Special Weapons 2008
View of AAC’s robotic weld quality.
The Cyclops bore is an unusually large
0.635˝ to maximize accuracy and safety
when used in harsh combat conditions.
(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.
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.
Shooting Performance
Final Notes
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?
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
AAC’s QD muzzle brake (left) compared
to a typical muzzle brake.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Advanced Armament Corp.
1434 Hillcrest Rd, Dept GW/LE, Norcross, GA 30093;
770-925-9988; www.advanced-armament.com
McMillan Tactical Products, LLC
1638 W Knudsen Dr, Ste 101, Dept GW/LE, Phoenix,
AZ 85027; 623-582-0536; www.mcmfamily.com
Leupold & Stevens
14400 NW Greenbrier Pkwy, Dept GW/LE, Beaverton,
OR 97006; 800-538-7653; www.leupold.com