Aeron Gen2 Airgun Silencers

With an abundance of dedicated, specialist accessories now finding their way to market, today’s airgun scene is an exciting place to be. Silencers have become an ever more popular add-on for many enthusiasts, and there can be many benefits for their addition to the kit bag. On a lightweight rifle for instance, a silencer can add some weight at the muzzle to steady things up, but of course, the biggest benefit has to be the reduction in muzzle blast, minimising detection and disturbance to any prospective quarry in the field.

Noise suppression is most dramatic on pre-charged pneumatics, where rapidly expanding air can generate a real crack. Silencers absorb and tame any obtrusive report, and they can be the way forward for hunters in particular.

Modern manufacturing techniques and lightweight materials means there’s rarely any detrimental effect to down range performance, and with looks often enhanced along the way, it can be a smart move all round.

New name

Many of the big names in airguns produce their own versions, but one brand name that won’t be quite so familiar, is under the spotlight here. Aeron hails from the Czech Republic, and they manufacturer their own range of PCPs, among other things.

Their Gen2 Airgun Silencers are precision manufactured on CNC machinery, and formed from aircraft grade aluminium. Specified for sub 12ft/lbs airguns, the new silencers cater for the three main calibres .177, .22, and .25, and can be supplied with either a screwfit ½-inch UNF fitting, or to directly slide onto specific barrel diameters: namely 14, 15, or 16mm. The slide-on models just tighten in place via two neat grub screws.

Feel & performance

Internally, the Gen2 features baffles to trap and diffuse spent air as it expands through the tube, and the company make a point of stressing that, unlike many designs available, internal noise suppression components are plastic, and therefore cannot easily rot or degrade.

For evaluation, I fitted my Air Arms S400 with the ½-inch UNF variant, (via a slide-on adaptor just to show the threaded version), and with an old Air Arms design, and their Q-Tec model also on-hand, I was well-placed to see how this new Aeron model fared. An honest assessment has to conclude that the Gen2 was fractionally noisier than both the AA models (with the Q-Tech the quietest of all), but my unscientific test (by ear only), shouldn’t take away from the fact that the S400’s quite significant crack with no silencer fitted, was still dramatically tamed by the Aeron, and that the differences between all three moderators, was hardly huge.

Conclusion

To conclude, the new Gen2 range feel extremely well-made, and are the perfect weight, to affect balance where necessary, without adding much overall. Okay, the test proved that technically, they aren’t the quietest out there. However, factor in the very reasonable RRP, and they have to be seen as a sound investment.