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Silencer Shop Authority: Gemtech Aurora Review

In June 1995, at the tail end of the Bosnian War, an American pilot, Captain Scott O’Grady, was shot down in his F-16 while flying a sortie over Serb controlled territory. For the next six days, O’Grady managed to successfully evade enemy forces who actively sought to flush him out of hiding. For the entirety of his six-day struggle, O’Grady miraculously avoided enemy contact and he never had to fire his issued 9mm Beretta M9. Yet if he had needed to use his weapon, its loud report would most certainly have doomed him.

At around the same time as O’Grady’s downing, Gemtech began development of an ultra-compact 9mm suppressor that could be attached to standard Beretta M9 service pistols and issued to airmen like Captain O’Grady. The timeline of these events, while compelling, is mostly a coincidence. Gemtech’s efforts were actually in response to the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR). The Aurora is the product of that development effort and it has gone on to serve a healthy variety of special operations groups.

The Aurora is a unique suppressor. Rather than opt for a traditional baffle stack, the folks at Gemtech decided to equip the Aurora with a set of eight polyurethane wipes. Though these wipes are known to wear out rather quickly, Gemtech’s stated goal was that the parts last 15 rounds or so (enough to expend an M9 magazine) before needing replacement. In short, any engagements the Aurora might see were expected to be brief.

For most of the past decade, the Aurora has been something of a mythical beast within the civilian realm. Mostly, this is because the ATF has held that wipes constitute suppressor parts, making replacement infeasible for your average shooter. Gemtech also likely figured that the can was just a little too niche for civilian buyers.

Aided by increased demand for silencers of all kinds, the good people at Silencer Shop recently worked with Gemtech to release a limited number of Auroras to the civilian market. The cans have been surprisingly popular as the few times Silencer Shop has had some available, they’ve sold out before hitting the website. With a slightly revised Aurora 2 around the corner, I was lucky to snag an example of the original suppressor for review. The changes between the Aurora and the Aurora 2 will be relatively minimal, so most of this review will still apply to the new models. Keep reading for a closer look at this unique silencer.

Size & Weight

There’s really no other way to say this: The Aurora is tiny. At right around 3.25” long and 1.125” in diameter, Gemtech’s miniature silencer is the smallest I’ve ever reviewed. In fact, it’s precisely the same size as the Innovative Arms Slingshot Micro that I recently examined. But of course, the Micro is a rimfire can and that comparison is hardly fair.

From a weight perspective, the Aurora again trades blows with rimfire suppressors. My postal scale put it at exactly 3.1 ounces with a fresh set of wipes.

While the Aurora is quite clearly intended for use on standard 9mm handguns, its size suggests that it might also be a good complement for sub-caliber pistols. I can easily see throwing it on something like a .32 ACP/.380 ACP Walther PPK.

Materials & Design

Since the Aurora is meant to be a small, lightweight suppressor, it shouldn’t be any surprise that all of the metallic parts of the can are made of aluminum with a hard anodized finish. The non-removable, threaded rear cap features 1/2-28 threads, so metric-threaded pistols are out of luck with the original Aurora. The good news is that the Aurora 2 will come with dual-threaded end caps. By this I mean that one end of the can will be threaded 1/2-28 and the other will sport M13.5×1 LH threads.

In contrast to conventional suppressors, you won’t find a single baffle inside the Aurora. Instead, Gemtech’s silencer uses a series of eight polyurethane (rubber) wipes and three aluminum spacers to create a quasi-baffle stack. When assembled, the whole wipe-spacer unit is coated in petroleum jelly (Vaseline), which serves as an ablative medium and enhances suppression. The beauty of petroleum jelly is that is lasts for a very long time. You can leave the Aurora “packed” for months or even years and the jelly won’t dry out. It also happens to be very messy.

In a silencer this small, wipes are just about the only way to achieve acceptable performance. Durable baffle systems quiet a firearm’s report by controlling gas flow, but they have to allow a certain amount of clearance for the bullet to pass through – lest a catastrophic baffle strike would occur. The inside of the Aurora is far less spacious than other cans, so Gemtech had to be far more aggressive in designing a silencer that stops gas in its tracks.

The rubber wipes accomplish Gemtech’s goal because they’re designed to physically touch the bullets as they pass through. This interaction creates a gas seal around the bullet and impedes forward-moving gasses. It also means that you can NOT use hollow-point rounds with the Aurora. Just don’t do it – they will expand prematurely and at best, you’ll end up with a damaged end cap. While the wipes do wear out in relatively short order, they’re quite effective up until that point. If you think about the original requirements, so long as the wipes make it through the 15-round magazine of the M9, they’ve done their job. Since the Aurora contains eight wipes, it actually takes a good bit more than 15 rounds to fully exhaust the core.

Noticeably absent from the Aurora is any sort of booster or Nielsen device. Whereas the weight of most pistol suppressors necessitates a booster to help “unlink” the can and barrel for reliable cycling, the three-ounce Aurora is light enough to forego such features. That’s a good thing too, because there isn’t any space for a booster inside such a tiny silencer.

Range Report

I’d be a total liar if I tried to say that the Aurora’s performance didn’t blow me away. I was hesitant to use the suppressor without additional hearing protection and as I leaned into my first shot through the can with my USP and Freedom Munitions’ 147 grain subsonics I could feel my face puckering in anticipation of a loud blast. Of course, I was also a bit worried about sending a 9mm round through the Aurora’s obstructed core. The sound that actually came out of the gun took me totally by surprise. It was quiet! Now, my ears did ring ever so slightly immediately after that first round, so don’t make the mistake of thinking the Aurora is hearing safe. You will absolutely damage your hearing if you use this silencer extensively and without hearing protection. However, it’s way, way better than a bare muzzle if you have to squeeze off a few rounds in a pinch.

For the above reason, the Aurora seems like an ideal home-defense suppressor. Mounted to something like a Glock 19, 26, or another similarly compact pistol, the whole package would still probably fit inside a small nightstand safe. You can’t say that about too many suppressed pistols.

From a more objective perspective, Silencer Shop has tested the Aurora and found it to offer around 28 dB of attenuation near the muzzle. That really is very impressive. With the suppressor mounted on their M&P 9, the set up yielded 132 dB near the muzzle and a substantially higher 142 dB average at the shooter’s ear. It should be noted that their test was a five-shot average. Wipe degradation would lead to higher averages over a larger number of rounds. It’s also possible that the wipes may not consistently deteriorate from test to test.

That 142 dB at-ear average isn’t all that surprising. Thinking about it, I am reminded of something I once heard Dear Air Armament’s Mike Pappas say. In talking about Dead Air’s Sandman suppressors, Pappas essentially stated that suppressed firearms have two options when it comes to gas management – release pressure through the front of the can or allow it back into the barrel and receiver. The former option results in relatively poor decibel readings at the muzzle, but it also results in a silencer that sounds better (and is actually quieter) to shooters. With the latter, the exact opposite is true. The Aurora is tasked with the almost impossible challenge of capturing gasses that would normally be allowed to expand into a much larger suppressor. So long as the can’s wipes are in good shape, they impede forward gas movement (and rearward to a degree). The gas must go somewhere, though. Most of the time, this means it heads back at the shooter through the firearm’s action and ejection port.

Aside from its sound quality, the thing that surprised me most about the Aurora was just how long the wipes lasted. For whatever reason, my preconception was that the rubber disks would be spent in less than a magazine. In reality though, the can’s performance held pretty strong for roughly 20 rounds. Even at that point there was a single wipe that held itself together. At no point in my brief 40-round sequence did the Aurora wholly lose its ability to quiet either my USP or my Beretta. At the end, it wasn’t exactly “hearing safe”, but it was still very noticeable.

As I mentioned previously, since the Aurora is tiny and very light, it does not need a booster to function reliably on semi-automatic pistols. Both my Heckler & Koch USP 9mm and Beretta M9 functioned flawlessly with Gemtech’s diminutive can. These pistols both represent two very different designs, but the USP is based on Browning’s cam-action that is so popular in modern handguns. For this reason, I see no cause for concern when using the Aurora on similarly-designed pistols. On the other side of the equation, the Aurora was quite literally developed for the M9.

Something I always wondered about wiped suppressors (particularly those that use more than one wipe) was whether or not they significantly affect each round’s point of impact (POI). In my limited testing with the Aurora I can confidently say that yes, the wipes do cause POI shift. With a fresh set I found that my rounds were hitting roughly three or four inches lower than normal at 20 yards. As the wipes began to break down, the POI migrated up toward my USP’s normal shot placement. Much like the Aurora’s measured suppression, POI shift could vary rather significantly with each test as the wipes aren’t always going to wear at the same rate. However, I doubt any match shooters are competing with Aurora-equipped pistols and for close-in defensive purposes the can’s POI shift is relatively inconsequential.

Conclusion

One of the best things about working with Silencer Shop on these suppressor reviews is that occasionally, a can really, really takes me by surprise. Much like the AAC Mini4 that I reviewed a few months ago, Gemtech’s Aurora boldly challenges what I thought was possible. That is, by using disposable wipes, the folks at Gemtech have managed to take a can that is only marginally larger and just slightly heavier than your average flash hider and turned it into a darn respectable silencer. At the muzzle, the Aurora is less than 10 dB louder than full-size 9mm silencers – so long as the wipes are in good condition. At the same time, the wipes themselves last much longer than I expected with some holding on past the 30 and 40 round thresholds.

While it is a surprisingly good performer, the Aurora is also very practical. I doubt many other silencers could do full-time duty on a nightstand gun that must also fit inside a safe. In fact, it’s small enough that someone could probably even fashion a concealed carry holster for an Aurora-equipped handgun. I’m not sure I’d recommend carrying a suppressed pistol, but then again it is a compelling thought.

Regardless, Gemtech’s Aurora does present some challenges. For one, Gemtech doesn’t currently sell replacement wipes to consumers. They may at some point offer a repacking service, but that has yet to be fully fleshed out. In the meantime, Aurora owners are left to either make their own wipes (legally dubious) or leave the silencer unused. Secondly, the Aurora is a limited production item that is only occasionally available. From what I hear, Silencer Shop is expecting the new Aurora 2s very soon; so if you want one, keep an eye out. Or better yet, give Silencer Shop a call and backorder one. Once they arrive, expect to pay around $375 for one.

 

This has been a review of products provided by and sold at Silencer Shop. All opinions are my own.

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