Greetings and question regarding 110 Carbon Predator in 300BO and extreme POI shift with suppressor

Hello forum,

I recently purchased a Savage 110 Carbon Predator in 300BO. The rifle is very accurate with multiple ammo types, both handloaded supersonic and subsonic loads. Certainly shoots better than me. I added a new muzzle device to the front, and that works well also. No change in accuracy or POI was noticeable.

Then I screwed on the suppressor, a Banish 30 Gold, and the POI shift is extreme, to say the least. At 15 yards the POI shifted almost 6 inches down and 2 inches to the right. I immediately suspected a baffle strike or endcap strike so I removed it and examined everything. I did not see any physical marks or damage to the suppressor. I took a few additional shots, and observed similar POI shift again, and the shifted group size was pretty big. I took it apart and again did a visual check. No visible damage or marks anywhere.

The same suppressor works perfectly fine on my 300BO AR with very minimal POI shift with the same group of ammo and I'm using identical muzzle devices on both rifles.

I don't have a .30 alignment rod, but I used a section of a large cleaning rod to check for any obvious alignment issues. It seems good.

I'm new to this carbon fiber covered 16 inch barrel and the rifle. Does this make sense to anyone here? Thank you for reading.

Just because one rifle doesn't have a poi shift with a silencer on or off doesn't mean anything when you put it on a different rifle (same chambering or not)
Just because one rifle shoots great without a silencer doesn't mean a different rifle will.
Just because one rifle won't shoot worth a crap UNLESS it has a silencer on it, doesn't mean another one of the same chambering will react the same.
I shoot 2 different silencers on 10 different rifles and i have every combination of results i have listed. From next to no POI or group size difference with it on or off to it only either shoots well one way or the other, to it shoots great groups both way, but huge POI shift... of course my largest POI shift with a silencer on or off is 6 MOA, but it shoots great groups both ways. my smallest shift is .1 up and .1 right, and it shoots slightly better groups with the silencer on. I have a semi-custom 7x57 shilen barrelled savage that shoots incredible with no silencer on, but regardless of the load testing i can't get it to shoot with a silencer on.

Don't read into it too much, different rifles just react different to having a silencer on or not.

Adding the suppressor adds weight to the end of the barrel, effectively causing more barrel droop. It also affects harmonics. Stiffer barrels will have less droop.....just goes to show ya that carbon fiber is over rated.

I get your point, and I was expecting some reasonable variances. If I'm doing my math correctly, an approximate 7 inches of POI shift at 15 yards translates into 45 MOA shift. That just doesn't seem real. Thanks for the reply.

My cousins 2 Ultralites shoot about 10” low at 200 with the suppressor on. Zeroed at 200 with it off. One is a 6.5cm and other is a 6.5prc. Accuracy on both seemed to be just as good as with just the thread protector though.

Both of his have atleast double the velocity that your BO has, so Im not surprised that yours would have more of a change in POI. That does seem excessive though.

You didn’t state whether your AR is also a carbon barrel or not, but by your comparison results I am guessing it is not. Pretty much shows that, while lighter, you sacrifice some strength/stiffness by going with a carbon barrel.

Just an update to the forum, the problem was found and resolved.

I'd used the included shims to install the muzzle device that serves as QD to the suppressor. Although I'd followed the instructions, the muzzle device was off-center enough to effect the bullets when the suppressor was attached. I still don't see any physical marks, thank goodness. I removed the muzzle device, and switched to using the accu-washer system. Once I had it torqued on again, I reshot my rounds. Both supers and subs are shooting with minimal POI shift, maybe 1.5 MOA at the most.

Ultimately, it came down to an installation error, I probably over-torqued it and mangled some of the shims. Thanks to everyone that replied. :)