7 Turns
10 Turns
How many turns are required to properly mount your Allen Engineering suppressor? The short answer is 7-10 turns. This only applies to the brake mounted suppressors and is a loose rule. What do I mean by “loose rule”? I mean you will not have any major issues with your system if your system does not fall within the 7-10 turns range. We have set the 7-10 turns with a “aim small, hit small” mentality to give you a small range to hit.
When properly mounting your AE suppressor the goal is to get good thread engagement with the mount while preventing exposure of the threads on your muzzle device to the blast chamber. The number of turns will vary between each setup due to the tolerances of barrels, mounts, shims, and the suppressors themselves.
So why 10 turns? You can see in the photo above that 10 turns seats the muzzle device all the way into the suppressor with perfect thread engagement. Any more turns past that will cause the male threads on the muzzle device to be exposed within the blast chamber. Once the male threads are exposed to the blast chamber they can build up carbon and seize onto the mount in extreme cases. However if your system has slightly more than 10 turns it is not a major issue. Just keep an eye on your threads and clean them every once in a while.
The one major concern is if your muzzle device is bottoming out on your blast baffle. This will cause a misalignment of your suppressor and potentially a baffle strike. This will most likely happen if you are trying to use a B-Mount suppressor on an A-Mount system.
So why 7 turns? Like I mentioned earlier, this is a loose rule.Technically anything less than 10 rotations will expose some female suppressor threads to the blast chamber. Having less than 10 turns is very common and many military Mk12s had as few as 2 turns from their suppressors. We set 7 as an ideal bottom range, but if you have slightly less than that you will not have any major issues and is nothing to worry about.
If you are having less than 7 turns and want to try and get within that tight 7-10 window, then you might want to consider adding a spacer to make up the difference. If you are already using a crush washer or spacer, typically the collar has been located incorrectly and may need gunsmith work or a collar specific to your application (i.e.. the MOD1-DD collar for Daniel Defense barrels), if available.
If you are having more than 10 turns then you might want to consider using shims instead of a crush washer or spacer. Also be sure that the silencer you are using is on the correct mount (i.e.. A on A mount). While it is possible to thread an A length suppressor onto a B mount, the brake may bottom out against the blast baffle and give you a false seat that can lead to misalignment and baffle strikes.
This was a really helpful post, particularly with the example pictures.
will exposing the threads on 7 turns cause any erosion to the threads not in use ? on 10 its fully seated creating a “perfect” seal, when on 7 it leaves some threads open.