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Jesse James Firearms Unlimited is a very new player in the rifle world, and now they have decided to dip their toe into the world of silencers as well. We hear that the inspiration for the new silencer adorning this .308 Winchester rifle is the gas tank off of a motorcycle, and it definitely fits the bill as something new and different in a world of concentric circles and circumferential welding. The internals are very different as well . . .

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On the inside, the can looks like something out of the 1980’s. There’s a ton of internal volume so its guaranteed to suppress the sound of the muzzle blast, but the effectiveness as well as the weight still has yet to be seen.

The biggest news about this can is their claim about its suppression capabilities: 78 dB when measured 3 feet from the muzzle. Considering the sound of a bolt cycling on an AR-15 is over 100 dB, that’s a claim that is raising some eyebrows. The guys from Liberty Suppressors thought so as well, and called Jesse James FU out for a head to head test in Texas. Jesse James confirms that the gauntlet has been thrown, and that they have accepted the challenge. Naturally we’ll be there to watch the sparks fly.

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96 COMMENTS

  1. Knowing what I know about Jessie James, that 78 db was pure marketing horse shit designed to get people talking. Apparently it worked.

    I will say this: If you are looking to make a steampunk rifle, I think you just found your can.

    • Of course he’s not a BS artist. A bullshit artist produces finely crafted works of bullshit, lovingly created individually with care and passion. Heck, he’s not even a bullshit craftsman. He’s more like an automated bullshit factory, producing trainloads of low-quality bullshit for mass consumption.

        • Because he’s a well know galactic douche bag is why. He’s known to rip people off and churn out garbage and think it’s gold because he created it with his own two hands.

        • Mlloyd and Stinkeye have it right. He’s only out for himself. For instance, he was the center of Sandra Bullocks universe for a few years, so what does he do? He has an affair with a porn star (and blames it on Sandra!)

          And pictures of him giving nazi salutes in nazi uniforms…

          Purposely crashed into another racer when he couldn’t win (car race)…

          It goes on… He’s a narcissist.

        • I don’t have any personal beef with the guy. But I can spot someone who’s full of shit from a mile away, and everything I’ve seen about James tends to indicate that he’s a world-class a-hole.

  3. Let’s take what he says at face value, and it performs exactly as claimed.
    Does it make Jesse James any -less- of a douche?

    I thought not.

      • He cheated on his wife (Sandra Bullock) with several different women. Cheating on someone who is that attractive and successful seems to me to be an indication that he’s got an enormous ego. That’s my take on it, at least.

        • Just remember the old rule: for every smoking hot woman out there is a guy who is sick and tired of her crap. That being said, I’ve always thought Sandra Bullock is s really nice lady, and JJ is a douchebag. Anyone who cheats period is a jerk.

        • Yea. I can see that. He is definitely a player “bros before hoes” kind of guy that can’t keep it zipped up. Probably fun to talk silencers and motorcycles with him – not much else.

          Liberty Silencers: Wash your hands after you shake his.

        • So if Sandra is so pure and wonderful how did she end up with the unforgivably horrible James? I hate to break it to you but people are attracted to certain other people for a reason. If James is as bad as you say it must logically say something about bullock. If on the other hand she is not perfect and he is not irredeemably evil that would make more sense.

        • Ok what is going on here? Did I land on the ladies tea and crumpet social page? Or the national enquirer ? People magazine? I don’t care if JJ screwed Sandra bullocks dog and her sister at the same time. 78db is 78 db. He can either prove this in a public test of some kind or not. That said anything less than the 100 db sound of the bolt is going to be drowned out by the bolt right?

        • “Why is Bloomberg a douche?”

          Go to Google Advanced Search.

          In the ‘Any Word’ field, type Bloomberg, Bloomie, and Bloomy.

          In the ‘site or domain:’ field type ‘thetruthaboutguns.com’

          Hit ‘Return’.

          Read.

          You’re welcome.

  4. He’s such an arrogant ass Hope he fails. I was thinking douche too Guess we gotta change his description in wikipedia to include that.

  5. I’m happy as hell to see new ideas coming out. I think it’s ugly but who cares what I think if it works or if it helps transform the industry? New ideas are great even if they don’t work. The flip to the side suppressor is cool too. Even if these things don’t live up to the claims it’s good to get people thinking “what if I just did it like this?”.

  6. I recently talked to a friend of mine who worked with Darpa at various points of his career, and he said something enlightening. Suppressor technology is honestly decades behind where it should be(small arms in general), that they were finally getting some of the higher end research put on them(mostly due to JSOC). The most interesting thing was that there is still apparently a large balance between sound suppression, size, heat retention, and durability.
    While I wouldn’t be surprised someone made a suppressor that size that can match Jesse James claims, I will be highly doubtful it will be him.

    • I dunno. he does know a good bit about exhaust and muffling. As a person, I think he’s a dingleberry, but he knows some stuff really well.

      Now, as to the claim? If he did it, I’d be very impressed. Not because it was him, but because that kind of suppression is pretty much unbelievable.

      • Jesse James is a very good welder, but his idea of a good exhaust/muffler is one that is as loud as hell. I can’t imagine that will translate very well into the suppressor industry.

        • LOL, that’s what I was thinking when I read the comment above. JJ’s knowledge and expertise with mufflers is making really loud ones. Usually just straight pipes haha.

          My take on this can just from the photos is that it has lots of volume in it so I would not be surprised if it’s quiet, However, I do believe it’s very literally IMPOSSIBLE for it to be as quiet as he claims, as the action is louder than that and the crack of the bullet going supersonic is louder than that. Even if the silencer literally silenced 100% of the gunshot sound it should still be much louder than his claim. AND… the interior “channel” through which the bullet travels and out of which the gasses enter each chamber looks really thin. Like the walls of the metal look really thin. It seems like it would burn out and degrade relatively quickly unless they’re using Inconel or something even fancier. If Liberty is going to challenge JJ, they should do both a sound suppression test AND a durability test with a few mags of full auto, etc, and check out the internals afterwards…

          BTW JJ’s rifles are insanely expensive but make some big accuracy claims. I’d like to see a Shaolin Rifleworks, Jesse James, Precision Firearms shootout (and would love to be behind the trigger for it haha). From what I can tell, the Shaolin rifles have more custom work and better parts than the others and I’d expect them to be at least as accurate if not more accurate even though they’re less expensive than PF and WAY less expensive than JJ. I think Nick is going to be doing the testing of a Shaolin .308 and I may borrow a 5.56 from them, but dang it would be cool to get one from each of those other guys (and, heck, why not Les Baer and Wilson Combat and whoever else claims to make a super accurate AR-pattern rifle) all at the same time for a real showdown.

        • @Jeremy I imagine some LaRue would fit in nicely with that bunch as well, sounds like one hell of a showdown. I agree that the JJFU rifles are probably like anything else with some celeb attached to it, just aying for the logo on the side more than the quality.

        • It’s adorable that folks still think a name attached to a product is worth a 100% premium for absolutely nothing.

          I’d much prefer to let my product do the talking. To that end, let’s set something up. We can format it after Biker Buildoff…the last two went so swimmingly well.

          I doubt this will ever warrant a response, but I’ll add our name to the list of those throwing down the gauntlet.

        • LOL a Biker Buildoff type of a thing for AR rifles would be amazing. It’s cool that you guys would be willing to go head-to-head. I doubt most of the others would do it knowingly (and, unlike the muzzle brake shootout, I can’t afford to buy the highest priced ARs on the market just to compare them). …may as well find out, though.

        • Any day, any range, any time. Not sure how I contact the other players, but let’s set it up.

          Would be nice to get LaRue and GAP involved so it was at least an interesting shoot out.

    • Your friend is 100% correct. I’ve given that same speech here more than once, but some folks still think player pianos are modern.

      Silencer “tech” on the market now varies from primitive to pathetically stone-age. It’s easy to see none of it was done using CFD. These hucksters are selling cans that not only are supposed to work on more than one round, they’re supposed to work on more than one caliber. No wonder the results are generally so sad. It’s like making a universal exhaust system that is supposed to work on a 1.5L 4 banger and a 3L V-6. Sure, it’ll kinda quiet things down, but the performance won’t be even close to optimal.

      The tools are all there to do it right and have it incredibly effective, sadly nobody in the business is smart enough to use them. Of course, they’re just getting to cryo, maybe they’ll finally get technical coatings in the next decade…

      I’d do it myself, but unfortunately I don’t have 6 months and an extra $750K-ish to cover the overhead till launch at the moment. Eventually someone reading here will have the means, and will actually execute a modern silencer.

        • SW currently comes with ‘FloXpress’. I don’t think it’s quite as good as OpenFoam/CFD101/ANSYS, but I imagine it’s cribbed from them. Haven’t gone far enough down that rabbit hole to determine origin, I’m no longer in the Bay Area so I’m not that plugged-in to have heard the back story. You know how the idea business goes…

        • BTW, I haven’t done a heads-up shoot-out comparo of all those products, I”m just going by what I’ve found the better products built using. ‘FloXpress’ might be really good in the hands of the right operator, I just have marginal familiarity with it, so perhaps it’s the nut behind the wheel and all…

        • OpenFOAM would be my choice for a CFD package.

          The problem with a CFD study of suppressor designs is that there is a LOT of variables to test to fully cover the parameter space. That’s not an insurmountable problem, but as said above…an expensive one and a time consuming one.

          The other big problem is expertise of he running the sims. Very often in computer modeling, we see folks run the calculation, the computer spits out a number and that’s it. Like so many other things…it’s just a tool. Human thinking about the results should not be, but often is, an ignored step. Turbulence modeling, for example, is not “black box” by any stretch of the imagination.

          As far as CFD on suppressors, though, one could stick with subsonic loads and not deal with supersonic and transonic issues.

          It would be an exciting project to work on.

        • JR, OF is my preferred as well. I know there are a few variables, but in the end, it’s less than designing an intake to cover 1-22K RPM. Yup, it’ll be time and money but in the end there will be a product so much better than anything sold today…

  7. A supersonic projectile from a 5.56×45 cartridge measured 1 meter from its flight path is much louder than 78db. Even if JJ’s can did all the marketing B.S. he claims it does, it can’t affect the sound of the sonic crack once it leaves the suppressor. That noise is made throughout the entire path of the projectile while it is supersonic due to the shock wave it creates.

    In short, it is not scientifically possible to register the sound pressure levels that JJ is claiming using accurate equipment at the shooter’s ear.

    • What about subsonic ammo?

      I don’t know the guy but I hope it is as good as he says, because that would man we are awfully close to the Hollywood silencer. Though I doubt it.

    • Its probably some legalese BS, like yes it is in fact 78dB* 3ft from the muzzle.

      *When shooting a subsonic 22LR through a 28″ barrel

      • Seriously, that looks like first generation Maxim pattern baffles but the vents between the baffles are huge and the holes in the baffles all conspire to prevent any gas from being trapped and delayed. The muzzle blast will blow right through unimpeded. I doubt if the ATF would even classify it as anything but a flash hider.

    • When the market actually sees a proper scientifically designed silencer, it will be art. We’re talking about using waves to muffle themselves here. I promise, it will be beautiful – in the same way as an F1 intake or exhaust.

      • At some point you’d either have to give up or say that the silencer is only tuned for a specific brand of ammo in a specific barrel length on a specific type of gas system. It seems like at that level of precision you’d have pressure waves cancelling themselves out only within a very narrow range of ammunition loads that generate just the right volume and pressure of gas. Which, again, is affected by lots of other things like barrel length and how much gas is bled off by the action, etc etc…

        I’m sure with plenty of CFD time you could come up with something more universal than the above but still more effective than most of what’s on the market today. Something very specifically tuned might be suited to military and police where it’s included with the “weapons system” and specific ammo. Also, thermal management coatings like you mentioned. I actually did a lot of work with aerospace thermal coatings for a few years and even gave some talks at a technical school about it, and I’d like to see some of that enter the firearms market. There are improvements that can be made for freakin’ sure.

        • Exactly. I’ve been doing cryo for 3 decades and DLCs on appropriate parts for over a decade on my personal firearms. Not to mention other technical coatings. I always thought that if it was good enough for an F1 engine that saw 50K cycles in 8 minutes, it was applicable to a machine that saw 50K cycles over it’s lifetime.

          To my mind a “silencer” would be like a highly-tuned intake/exhaust – tuned to a very specific round and very effective because it was built with tech, not guesswork.

      • 16V,

        I hear what you are saying about using wave cancellation to reduce sound levels coming out of a suppressor. I don’t know the details well enough to know if it is possible with practical dimensions.

        Let me ask you this, though. When I was a teenager, a friend removed the entire exhaust system from a small (80 CC or so) motorcycle. The sound level coming out of that tiny engine was so loud as to be painful/debilitating … comparable to any firearm. And yet the simple/inexpensive exhaust system that came with the motorcycle decreased the sound level so well that we didn’t need any hearing protection whatsoever. There was no way that manufacturer of that inexpensive little motorcycle invested any significant amount of resources into designing its muffler. And yet it was wildly effective. Why can’t we do the same with a firearm suppressor?

        Heck, even lawnmowers have pretty darned effective mufflers on them which are fairly tiny in size. Why can’t we do the same for firearms?

        • Many, many decades and tens of thousands of man-hours of trial and error have yielded the exhaust systems we had up to say, 15 years-ish ago. They do work pretty darn well. That’s one of those things where the basic knowledge has long since been diffused into the wider market. There’s been nowhere near that much spaghetti thrown against the wall by silencer manufacturers, and to me it seems a waste if they keep throwing. There are tools available, use them.

          But all the stuff for the last decade is designed on computers. It is still refined by humans to achieve a desired exhaust note, but a good part of how we see cars with excellent mileage, low emissions, and HP/L figures that racecars dreamed about in the 60s is by optimizing everything. And it’s done on a computer.

  9. You marry a man with a porn star ex wife and you get what Sandra got. If he makes a firearm accessory I’m interested in I won’t hold it against him, just as I don’t hold against the scorpion who convinces the frog to give him the piggy back ride.

  11. Jesse James seems to me like a more successful James Yeager. Not sure which one is the bigger d-bag, except for that JJ “FU” logo.

        • I don’t see how anybody can watch Active Shooter 2 and still hate Yeager, even with everything else he’s said.

          • They never got past these four videos:
            1) James Yeager is a Coward (a lie from a coward)
            2) 1911s Suck (which I agree with if you listen to what he actually says about 1911’s)
            3) All Handguns Should Be Glocks (James owns more than just Glocks)
            4) Pack Your Bags (all he did was articulate what the 2nd Amendment is used for)

            Then the ArfCom trolls and COD warriors flood the interwebs with all the BS and people are too lazy to research the original source. I understand having a personality conflict with an outspoken person such as Yeager but most haters can’t articulate what James said that was not true. His lack of PC plays right into my disgust with today’s politics and corporate bureaucratic BS.

        • @ Michael in GA
          There are areas that I just plain disagree with JYs. Just because you post X amount of videos doesn’t make his opinions gold. It’s like worshiping the ground Bloomberg walks on and he’s right because he has money coming out his ass. Fact is, Bloombergs poop stinks just like everyone else and his opinion isn’t shared by the many just because he has more sand in his box.

          One of the things that turned me off on JY (theres others) was his take on .40 caliber and his dislike of them because they are a higher pressure cartridge and they wear out guns faster and yadda yadda yadda.
          Well so fu—ing what! Most of the people out there watching his videos are not weekend three gun shooting participants. Many are newbies seeking information and are not shooting 1000s of rounds out of their pistols.
          I bet money hickok45 isn’t watching Yeagers videos going, ohhhh, he’s so cool!

          I shouldn’t have wasted my time to watch his idiotic .40 wears out guns video, but I wanted to see if he really had anything significant, which he didn’t. I’d be more impressed if he just said pick a caliber, practice with it and carry it.
          That’s more important than “gee, 40 caliber rounds are higher pressure and after a billion rounds, your gun will wear out faster” Oh JY. eat me. Nobody cares. Bottom line, pistol cartridges and handguns are largely ineffective. It’s far more important for daily carry and self defense to pick an effective caliber, practice with it and carry it. I have a suggestion for JY; don’t make videos just to hear yourself talk.

          Ok, with that being said, I have to go get my penis pump and sulk about not having a dad now.

          • How very shallow of you. You came up with a solution to the wear and tear of the .40 by not shooting your gun much but you get all butt hurt because Yeager said .40 sucks. Then you assume that people like Yeager not because of the content of his videos but because of the quantity. You are the type of person that Yeager puts down in his videos and I love it!

    • My wife hates Jesse james kid rock and many others on the basis of being gross duchebags. She is also not a 2nd fundamentalist by any stretch but even she says Yeager is spot on in most cases. She says the worst thing she can accuse him of is is having to much candor. And she is right, even among the POTG a man apparently need to preface every potentially hurtful comment to coddle the frail egos of viewers.

      • I think women are impressed by Yeager’s strong will, at least Conservative women like our wives. Women hate a man that won’t take charge and have conviction of his beliefs. Men, on the other hand that are put off by Yeager hate the weakness within themselves. Most of them are single. Most of them were raised in a home without a father or a man of weak character. A strong man can admit when they are wrong. A weak man will resort to hate of the man that proved them wrong. I have heard James many times say “come take my class and prove me wrong”.
        One thing I respect about Yeager is, you have no question of where he stands on any issue.
        I asked him in a PM on the anniversary of Columbine, If he were the resource officer on scene, would he have waited outside while the shooters completed their mayhem or would he have gone in to save lives. He said “I would have gone in and killed those fuckers”.
        I believe him.

  13. I was really confused until I realized it was Jesse James and not Jesse Jackson. I thought the reverend had a road to Damascus moment and really ran with it.

  15. After they made that FrankenBAR on sons of derp, Ive had a seething hatred for this guy. Strange lookin can thats for sure.

  17. Personally I could care less about JJ, but I’m amazed at how many haters/nutriders he has. Do you guys realize you sound like little girls, why are you interjecting yourselves into another man’s sex life? Are you related to Bullock, do you know either of them personally, were you passed over by her when she married JJ?

    Honestly don’t you all have something better to do than dredge up tabloid controversies from like 5 years ago? Also I hope you know that controversy and haters can be a massive source of FREE buzz and interest, you’re only helping him play the heel.

    • Good for him on his dalliances, he may have thought he liked the vanilla ice cream when he bought it but we all make mistakes. I just think most of his stuff is tripe since day one. He has been pretty shrewd, but more than anything – lucky. His big break was the producer of Motorcycle Mania saw his name was Jesse James – and knew that coupled with his ‘outlaw’ image, it would be good TV. And it was. His products? As white-trash mediocre as OCC.

      The most creative thing I ever saw him do was build a bike with a radial aircraft engine. And he didn’t even do that right, he mounted it so the crank was longitudinal, not lateral.

      • I agree about his products.

        But the Arfcom style haters just make me sick, I used to laugh at them but it just gives me a headache anymore. If you don’t like someone or something just move on, that’s what I do and my stress level is lower than ever. We have more important things to bring down and destroy than JJ, the ATF and the Hughes amendment being chief among them.

        • Agreed. What he does on his time is his business, who am I to judge? He’s never tried to sell the righteous, pious, Jimmy Swaggart holier-than-thou image – so why worry about his extracurriculars? Internet white knights….

          I just judge him by his products, which I’ve always found to be plebian at most generous. The man built Harleys fer chrissake, how much more backward can one get?

      • Hey! I like tripe. It ain’t a good bowl of pho unless there’s tripe, tendon, and god knows what else in it (but usually well done beef, thin flank steak, some weird meatballs, and if you’re lucky a nice braised shank).

        • Dude. Oxtail. Mmmmmmm. Let it soak in there until the end, the marrow giving the broth a nice savory hit. Then when you’re done pick off the little hunks of now-tender meat. so good.

    • Do you guys realize you sound like little girls, why are you interjecting yourselves into another man’s sex life?

      Because it’s fun and entertaining to take a stab at the ridiculous Jesse James. I mean – you realize he wasn’t just “cheating” he was cheating with dozens of people (skanks mostly). Even after Bullock he hooked up with Kat Von D or whatever, he cheated like with dozens of other women (some sources say 19). And he admitted it all. It is just really funny to imagine the concept and verbal use of the word “marriage” and “Jesse James” in the same sentence. Also, he is hooking up with total skanks. Imagine the embarrassment of Bullock with her husband cheating on her with a bunch of “skanks.”

      Honestly don’t you all have something better to do than dredge up tabloid controversies from like 5 years ago?

      Uh – no. I mean, don’t you have something better to to than complain about us dredging up tabloid controversies from like 5 years ago? Seems not. We are in the same boat buddy. Hand me that oar over there. Haha.

  19. Well that looks…interesting? I don’t quite get hating him because he cheated on his hollywood wife. And I like Sandra B. Men are dogs. It has nothing to do with a silencer…

  20. @ Michael in GA
    No, I wasn’t kidding. I had the impression that people thought the guy walked on water.
    Since I avoid anything he says or does, I had no idea my opinion was shared. Thanks for letting me know.
    It’s like galactic Douche Jesse James. I avoid watching or reading anything about him because I can’t stand the guy and regret having watched anything that featured him. However, it’s difficult to not recognize how universally disliked he is.

  21. I attended SHOT with a guy who has been involved in the silencer world for over a decade. He knows lots of people in the industry. (As evidenced by how much time we spent at the Dead Air, Silencerco, Sig, AAC, Anderson, etc booths.)

    He and many others we spoke to got quite a good laugh out of the JJ can. We all noticed the 78 decibel claim. Also, their brochure proudly claimed ‘The least suppression” . . . uh, that may be true.

    It was also pointed out to me that a can is a pressure vessel. The most efficient shape for a pressure vessel is a sphere. But that’s impractical for a can, so the next best shape, a cylinder, is normally used. Jesse’s can is larger and heavier than it needs to be because of its shape.

    Also, the baffle design seems to be out of the 1990s. Like Nick said, time will tell. But I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for them to actually show up to a test.

    The reality is that his stuff is mostly going to be purchased by people who don’t really shoot it much. Its in stark contrast to some of the display cans in the Sig booth that had plastic stuck to them from being put away hot. Ha.

    The finish work on everything JJ does is gorgeous. The engineering is dubious, and thats just fine for most buyers. This is consistent with his chopper business, in fact most chopper businesses, where form trumps function. Unfortunately, that perspective doesn’t really work in the gun world if you actually want to use your gun. A look at his 1911s confirms all of this.

    Don

  22. I walked by the booth at SHOT. Jesse James is an idiot, his booth was swamped by paparazzi, but real shooters kept walking. This guy has no business in the gun world.

    • I wouldn’t say he has NO business in the gun world, but he certainly has no business trying to drag his bike cred into a completely different industry, and trying to bypass earning a whole new rep for himself.

  23. I lot of haters on the forum, personally I could care less what he does with his personal life. Reality is that he creates amazing bikes and guns. Performance is yet to be seen but from an artist point of view; nobody comes close to his work.

  24. Can’t wait to see independent testing of this can. I especially like his claim of 200 m/s bullet velocity increase. From a physical point of view you can’t just add more Newtons without some mechanism to provide it.

    • Shooting with a can increases velocity because it increases the amount of pressure directed at pushing the bullet through the barrel. A longer barrel will do this also, though not always as well.

    • The patent says “silencer”. The BATF regs say “silencer”. Use whatever nomenclature you wish (and ‘supressor’ is more accurate) most folks run with the common term.

      I’m all for pedantry, but there’s a point where there’s two valid arguments…

  27. Leave it to a douchebag to design a can that looks like, well, like a douchebag. Seriously, that thing is hideous.

  28. I see nothing unusual or evolutionary,or exotic,or new ground here, visually it looks pretty much like what I have seen before. Its a add on baffled can. Now some pretty good designers have worked on those solutions,& possibly that direction, has run out of potential.A can of beans also works,temporarily, & messily.

  29. Anyone who knows anything about decibels, ballistics, physics, and suppressors knows that his claims are pretty much horse manure. I don’t give a crap about his shitty personality. His claims just don’t make any sense. That is all.

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