Allen Engineering Suppressors, by GuerrillaLogistician

GuerrillaLogistician @glogistician on X.com

Love some Gordon clones. #Shootah2024 #Gordonclonerifles #AllenEngineeringSuppressors pic.twitter.com/KkfQcfVHoa

— WendigoWorks (@wendigo_works) June 18, 2024

Who didn’t get to go to Shootah in Utah this year? You missed out on a whole bunch of really cool products and innovations. One thing I didn’t know about and still have minimal knowledge about is suppressors. So, some of you guys will be able to tell me a lot more about them and probably be able to correct me on fatal errors that I will make. This article will be primarily about first impressions and a little bit of history that some of you might find interesting. This will not be about how good the suppressor is, how wonderful it sounds, etcetera. There are far more competent people in this realm.  So, with the fact that I’m an idiot about suppressors out of the way, let’s talk about Allen Engineering.

While in Utah, I spent a considerable amount of time checking out some tourniquets, which happened to be right next to where this company was. If you know anything about Utah, several very well-to-do suppressor companies are out there. I’ve always been interested in one specifically before they got bought out: HUXWRX. Initially, I believe the name was OSS. They are a flow-through can, which differs from what Allen Engineering produces. Many of you will understand far more than I will on how suppressors operate. With that, many of you know, there is back pressure that produces gases that flow into the operator’s face. I’m a left-handed shooter, which means I get a lot of gases from suppressors, and I was looking into this 3D printed suppressor for quite a while, although I haven’t pulled the trigger mainly because I travel a lot and I’m rarely at home.

With that said, they weren’t at Shootah even though they are a Utah-based company. Lucky for me Allen Engineering was there and I went to this table ignorant of the history or the company.  What I saw on the table brought joy as a rifle sat there, and it was one of my young adult dream rifles. This M4 was purpose-built for special operations during Operation Gothic Serpent. I won’t go into the background of Gothic Serpent because I am not an expert, and many people have way better knowledge. I had a friend there before the catastrophe, and that conflict boiled over. In a typical military manner, he came home, married a stripper, and destroyed his life just before the event that was on every TV.  I don’t think anyone would forget Somalis jumping on the rotors of the downed Blackhawk any more than anyone could forget the planes crashing into a building.  As a medic, he probably wouldn’t have been on one of the Blackhawks, but he would have probably been very involved.

That said, I think the book Black Hawk Down and even the movie will give you an understanding of what happened. Like all good wars, far too much political influence probably caused us to fail catastrophically. I will say that the whole conflict brought to light the M4 carbine and its future successors. We could go into the M855 issues with these shorter rifles and much more, but other, more competent people have gone over this far better than I could.

Allen Engineering makes some updated versions of their original 1990s suppressors. As you can see from the photos, these suppressors are almost iconic these days with the smooth front and back end and the grip texturing on the center. These have been a standard in video games and movies for quite some time. However, this was the first time I shot one of these suppressors. I got to shoot their 556 and 308 cans, and I can say two things about this.

From purely a feel on the weapon, it doesn’t drag the front end down as much as someone might think. I have been exposed to several suppressors but don’t own any. One of the things that you will notice about these suppressors is their unique locking system and collar technology. This gives it its distinctive style, unlike many of the modern suppressors you see nowadays.  Add to that, I think this is probably one of the quietest suppressors I’ve shot personally, and I also didn’t get the blowback I’m usually used to from an M4 suppressor. This was quite interesting because I expected a lot more blowback than I’ve experienced from other suppressors like Dead Air. This isn’t a knock on any other products; I just found this very interesting, and part of that I wonder comes from how they have developed their suppressors in general.

Their design comes from a fitment that goes back over the barrel and creates a longer suppressor with a larger main chamber. Other manufacturers have done similar things but allow that gas to expand in the larger open cavity. I don’t feel like AE has gone out of its way to produce something with low back pressure, but I’d love to see the specs on this. I will say that shooting the Gary Gordon clone was a phenomenal experience, and I appreciated that they did this for free.

The simple baffle system works quite well, and I’m always a bit shocked at how functional such an old design is so capable.  It competes with modern 3D-printed technology and suppresses sound, making it very hearing-safe. As you can see from the side view cutouts, ALLEN ENGINEERING has a specific style for mounting the suppressors, which gives them a little more benefit over other suppressors. They have a particular collar system that allows you to mount these and keep your point of aim and end of impact the same whether the suppressors are on the weapon or off, which is something I tend not to see with other suppressors. It requires either a special barrel or part of the collar system along with either a bare muzzle or their specific muzzle device, which ultimately costs more money. But for those people who are looking for a suppressor, they could take on and off a weapon instead of leaving it permanently attached.

The ability to get the same site picture is pretty phenomenal, in my opinion. I’m not sure how many other suppressor companies out there claim this ability, but I will say it is nice to see an older technology that is still relevant from a company that has been producing these for quite some time.  Unfortunately, like all of these older styles, you will have to drop another 180 or so on the collar and break if you want that seamless transition, but considering the price of most modern breaks, that isn’t too bad.

Lastly, if you go to one of these events, they do a pretty big discount of around 100-150 dollars off their suppressors, but it is only good for the show, so bring your funds.  I didn’t have the spare cash, or I would have bought one that day, and I am debating about getting a purpose-built rifle to run this suppressor myself.