three thoughts spring to mind…
- Be prepared to be disappointed. Unless you’ve spent a fair amount of time testing and shooting suppressors, you’re likely going to be disappointed with just about anything you choose. Exceptions might be 300wtf and/or .22 shooting subsonics. Even I have to admit that both of those are giggle-worthy (particularly the former).
- don’t get too caught up by new hotness. By the time you get your can, it’ll be old busted. You can try your best to buy todays new hotness, but u less something has changed with paperwork wait times, by the time you have your can at home, something new will be out. To a big deal, but maybe alleviates any desire to try and buy today’s new hotness. Later on, it won’t be.
- Multitaskers are best. Unless you actually have a very specific (often professional) use case*, and given 1 and 2 above, you’re better off getting something that’ll work on multiple guns/calibers. IMO that’s a short (6-7in max), light (10-12oz max), .30 can that has mounts available to go between .223, 7.62 (x39 and x54), and 9mm. 9mm is maybe debatable, but why not. And I don’t mean 9mm handguns. IMO center fire handguns deserve their own can. Personally I want a mix of brake and hider mounts in both 7.62 and 5.56 and various thread patterns to work on AR, AK, etc.
*personal example of a specific use case. I have a 9mm SBR AR. I’ve had it for years. I use it at home for pest control with the can and subsonics, and I use it (infrequently, granted, with it was more) for PCC matches. So I have a 9mm can that has a qd flash hider mount. I can easily remove it for matches then come home and put the can back on for ‘coons. One thing I’d do different now is install a brake mount instead of the hider but I’m not burning down any scoresheets regardless so it really doesn’t bother me.
I don’t use the can on handguns, I don’t want “modular”, I just want something that goes easy on/off on a gun that serves dual purpose. That’s it. And even if/when I get a .30 multitasker, and even if it can also do 9mm, that future can will probably never go on this gun. The current setup works too well.