This Armalite AR-30M sniper is a smaller-caliber, magazine-fed weapon related to the AR-50 antimateriel rifle. The stock and receiver are built primarily of aircraft-grade aluminum alloy, with the buttstock portion being equipped with a simple adjustable polymer shell for a cheekpiece, and a padded buttplate. The stock may be removed for storage or transport (but cannot be fired without the stock). The free-floating barrel is of chrome-moly steel and is triple-lapped; it is heavy, 26 inches long, and in the case of the .338 Lapua chambering, a huge multi-baffle muzzle brake is standard. (This muzzle brake is an option with the other chamberings.) Most operating parts are also of steel. The receiver contains a V-shaped block in which the action is bedded, which gives the action rock-solid operation to further enhance accuracy and reliability.
The fore end has a groove which can be used for mounting a bipod, sling swivel, or certain other accessories. The pistol grip is identical to that of an M-16A2. All steel parts are manganese phosphate-coated, and aluminum alloy parts are hard anodized. Currently, the chamberings available for the AR-30M are 7.62mm NATO, .300 Winchester Magnum, and .338 Lapua Magnum. Armalite also produced and marketed a small number of AR-30Ms in .30-06 Springfield and .243 Winchester, but these did not prove to be popular with the public and were quickly withdrawn; they are quite hard to find today. Originally, both 5 and 10-round magazines were produced for the Armalite AR-30M Sniper Rifle, but only 5-round magazines are made today.
The new .338 Lapua Magnum SHADOW sound suppressor from SRT Arms raises the bar on suppressors of large caliber. Remarkably small and light for a large-caliber can, both performance and workmanship are outstanding. Previously, I’ve reported that the SRT’s AZTECH baffle is one of the most important designs in the 100+ year history of sound suppressors. While early variants of the baffle were impressive, I also reported that one of the beauties of the AZTECH baffle was that the design offered a number of promising ways to improve performance even more. The latest variant of the AZTECH baffle fulfills that promise. It’s an impressive improvement upon the basic AZTECH architecture, delivering excellent sound suppression and groups as small as 0.19 MOA (center to center). I evaluated the Shadow’s performance on an ArmaLite AR-30 .338 Lapua Magnum rifle.
The first things about the .338 SHADOW to leap out at you are its small size and light weight. The .338 SHADOW is only 2 inches longer that its .30 caliber sibling, despite the fact that the .338 Lapua Magnum produces nearly twice as much combustion gas as the .308. Since the .338 SHADOW only has about 20 percent more volume than the .308 SHADOW, anyone who has not observed the .338 suppressor in use would have to wonder how such a small can could deliver acceptable, much less good, sound reduction or recoil mitigation.
Even if you factor in that the AZTECH baffle is a pressure-driven design, you wonder how such a small gun muffler could work the gases hard enough to significantly reduce gunshot noise without degrading accuracy. To cope with the extra pressure generated by the .338 and yet keep the weight of the suppressor at a minimum, SRT fits a pressed stainless steel sleeve over the rear of the can for reinforcement. It is placed on the suppressor tube by heating the sleeve to expand its diameter while cooling the tube to shrink its diameter. The sleeve is then quickly pressed onto the tube. Once the temperatures have equilibrated, the sleeve remains securely bound to the suppressor tube. After the whole unit is assembled, 12 plug welds secure the baffles and tubes together into one monolithic structure.
Fabricated from stainless steel alloys, the SHADOW .338 caliber suppressor is 10.25 inches long. The suppressor tube is 1.5 inches in diameter. The sleeve increases the can’s rear diameter to 1.62 inches over the rear-most 5 inches of the suppressor. It weighs 41 ounces. The .338 SHADOW is lighter than expected because the entire tube is not the thickness needed to cope with the high pressure in the rear of the can, and because the can only contains four baffles. The suppressor is available in a non-reflective natural finish or in a flat black KG GunKote as standard. The SRT suppressor only adds 7 inches to the overall length of the AR-30 rifle and 26 ounces to system weight. Safe to say, that’s impressive.
It is also worth noting that the SHADOW .338 suppressor heralds a new level of fit and finish for the company. I’ve owned and used SRT suppressors for more than a decade, and I’ve always been very pleased with their performance and durability, but their cosmetics tended to be a bit short of the very best players in the industry. No longer. The SHADOW’s cosmetics are “world class,” especially considering that the baffles are plug-welded to the tube in 12 places. The welds have been finished, so they are invisible. For those who came in late, Doug Melton is the genius behind the SHADOW’s design. Melton has earned his place in the history books as one of the most innovative thinkers in the industry ever. SRT Arms is a subsidiary of a larger corporation specializing in fluidics and material engineering. This is a small company, yet it has made significant contributions to the state of suppressor art.
SRT produces a full line of carbine, rifle, submachine, and .22 rimfire silencers, as well as integral and muzzle .22 rimfire suppressors. They even do custom work. SRT sound suppressors are quite unusual in this day and age in that some can be disassembled partially or completely (depending on the design) for cleaning and maintenance. Suppressors based upon the AZTECH baffle, however, are sealed units so that key structures inside always remain properly aligned. They can be cleaned by simply immersing them in a suitable solvent overnight, draining, and blowing them dry. This is only worth doing every 3,000 rounds or so. That said, I will admit under cross-examination that I’ve used one SRT suppressor for 12 years and never cleaned it. Yet it still performs as well as it did on the first day.
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