So I picked up a 16” mid Gunner barrel a while back and have run about 100 rounds through it (75 suppressed) with no issues.  Using a specwar 556k.

Came across a post from a faxon rep the other day that said they don’t recommend cans on gunner barrels.  When I bought it, there was no disclaimer that this was the case.  Obviously would have purchased a different profile if baffle strikes were listed as a concern.

I confirmed this with your customer service, but am still a bit confused as to why there’s no disclaimer listed with these barrels?  As it sits, I’ve got a like new barrel that I’ve been advised not to shoot suppressed, which is not ideal for my purposes.

I’ve got no complaints about the barrel or the customer service interaction, just genuinely wondering why this isn’t advertised, especially because I bought the barrel for a build that will be shot primarily suppressed.

It's known that light weight profile barrels can have issues with the weight of the can on the end.

If you are fine with the accuracy and POI differences with the can on it I wouldn't worry.

@Faxon-Pat any comment on this? I was wanting to get a 14.5" and 18" gunner barrel and would be shooting suppressed.

I just bought a 16" Gunner a week ago and I suppress all of my AR's because, why not. I'm just a wee thousand or so rounds a year guy, just a casual trip to the range here and there and I think the barrel will be just fine. By no means will I ever be able to outshoot a Faxon barrel, or any barrel for that matter.

I feel more confident in suppressing a gunner profile vs a pencil profile. But Mrgunsngear ran a suppressed pencil hard and showed it to not be a real issue for the normal user. My non expertise opinion says it's fine as long as you aren't trying for competition level of precision or want to run mag dumps for the heck of it - and not sure why you would during these times. Would be nice to hear what Faxon has to add.

So there are a few older posts out there that aren't as in depth as we'd like to go on this.  I'll do my best to give a detailed but susinct version here.  First things, first: Running a suppressor on a Gunner profile or even Pencil profile barrel is fine and will function fine.   There are just some caveats that you need to be aware of if you want to run a suppression on a light profile barrel (regardless of who makes said barrel).  Most notably: Light profile barrels will experience barrel whip and some deflection when a heavy muzzle device (I.E. a suppressor) is mounted to them.  This will cause POI shift when comparing to how the barrel shoots unsuppressed.  If you are going back and forth from suppressed to unsuppressed, then this will be annoying since your zero will change everytime you mount the suppressor.  Barrels with a thicker diameter that gives more rigidity will not see as much deflection or whip, so we usually recommend them for suppressor hosts.   In the same vein, lighter cans will produce less deflection and whip, so this will vary greatly depending on the can and your mounting solution.

If you are using a direct thread suppressor then you will also run into the issue that the lighter barrels (with .625" diameter gas block journals) will have less shoulder at the muzzle threads so it can be harder to ensure the suppressor stays concentric (this is less of a concern with oversized cans I.E. a .30 cal can on a 5.56 barrel).  This is less common of an issue, but still worth noting if you are running a direct thread can.  

To get to the root of your question, there is not a disclaimer because it's not really something we advise against or for, but just something to consider when mounting a suppressor.  It's just a reality of using a heavy muzzle device like a suppressor on a light profile barrel.  It is a question that comes up a lot though so we will work on getting an FAQ or some kind of reference material for this posted.  It should also be able to go into a bit more detail than I did here.  You can also always hit us up with questions here or via our CS email or phone line ([email protected] and 513-280-8861 respectively) and pick our brains a bit!

Thank you for the response. The POI shift is certainly understandable I just wanted to make there hadn't been a slew of baffle strikes or some such caused by using lighter profile barrels. None of my suppressors are direct thread FWIW. It's also worth mentioning that the Gunner profile barrels do have a "flare" at the end which provides more of a shoulder for mounting muzzle devices against.

No worries!   We haven't seen any baffle strikes caused by a light profile barrel (though we've definitely seen some from concentricity issues in either muzzle devices or suppressors themselves).  Both the Gunner and Pencil have the "flare" at the end for a muzzle thread shoulder, but it's just not as much as you get on a similar caliber barrel with a larger diameter.  The average Gov't/Socom/Medium profile barrel has a .730 diameter at that shoulder, but the Gunner and Pencil have a .620 diameter at the flare (so you can get a .625" gas block onto them).  This means you are going from about .115" of shoulder to about .060" of shoulder (assuming 5.56 caliber and 1/2x28TPI threading), just to put some hard numbers on it.