I love surprises. I especially love surprises when it comes to being proven wrong, in a good way. The first weekend of February I went on a great predator hunt in Ozona Texas and I decided to take a few items with me to review a long the way. Look here for the story on www.texasoutdoorsnetwork.com. I had intended on checking out several other silencers but had specifically wanted to use a direct thread 5.56 silencer of a different make. However, the only one available at the moment was the Gemtech Trek. I had my heart set on another can, and when I was handed the Gemtech I was disappointed. I had not heard anything about this little can before, and frankly thought it was heavy and unappealing. However, I found out after attaching the little can to my sons lightweight rifle that the can added a balance I was not expecting. The can is kinda heavy, but it’s also pretty short and full auto rated. I got the impression that this can was built like a tank and would handle anything I threw at it, so I decided to not be kind to it. The rifle this can was on is a parts gun, but the parts work well. It has a FN M4 profile barrel that has been re-contoured to a pencil weight but retains the .750 gas block. It has an SLR Rifleworks 12.5″ Solo handguard and adjustable gas block. Standard BCG, a Mission First Tactical Minimalist stock and a CMC 1.5/3.5 2 stage trigger. For an optic, I decided to try something else, and this combo turned out to be really fun. I pulled the Leupold VX-6 3-18×44 off the .243 AR and tossed it on this rifle. The gun balanced very well and was a real pleasure to shoot in this configuration. The lightweight gun with the gas turned down in conjunction with the can provided a super stable platform to shoot with and was a lot of fun to use.
This can rolled around in a Polaris Ranger all weekend and really took the brunt of some abuse. We shot this rifle the most when messing around and plinking, to the tune of several hundred rounds. I found the can to be hearing safe, built like a tank, and had a minimal POI shift on this particular rifle. It is a little on the heavy side, however on a light rifle that really did not matter until I put the night vision clip on and IR on it. It’s the top rifle in the below picture.
It should be noted, I did scratch the finish on the can a slight amount which is normal when I use one. However, the finish on this can seems to be pretty tough and it came out looking better than most cans that I have checked out.
This little can is not expensive and is great for a dedicated 5.56 rig. If you were looking to buy a can to leave on a gun, this would be my recommendation. It’s relatively inexpensive as it’s listed in the $520 range on the website at Silencer Shop here (on sale as of this writing). On a Recce type build, I think this can is perfect as it does not add much length. The weight is not as much of a factor on this can as I had imagined, and I think anyone would be satisfied with the performance. This is the second can that I had made my mind up before using it that I would not like it, but it completely changed my mind. Without hesitation, this is a great option for a dedicated direct thread can, buy with confidence.
Rifle in the rest below has the Trek
Thank to Silencer Shop for making these reviews possible. Check out the Gemtech website here.
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