Sig Sauer Secures Patent for Integrally Silenced Pistol

We just discovered an approved patent application that was submitted back in March of 2017, with final approval on July 24, 2018, for a Sig Sauer patent on an Integral Eccentric Firearm Silencer.

So just what is that, exactly? Going through the literature available, the key takeaway is that Sig's designed a silencer and adapter that conforms to the lines of the P320, blessing the silenced pistol with a wide range of holster capability. We can also see that this patent is for a wet suppressor, relying on an ablative instead of baffles for sound mitigation.

RECOIL is told the ablatives would be in capsule form (think small Tide pods) and are easily replaced by the user.

With a silencer this small, one can't exactly count on amazing performance–Ethan Lessard, current VP of Engineering at Q LLC, formerly of Sig Sauer and named on the patent, says, “It is great for police officers. Like, you get two, three shots at hearing safe pressure levels, and it affects nothing else [on the pistol].”

As designed, the silenced 9mm pistol would run 3 or 4 rounds of subsonic ammunition and 2 to 3 rounds of full-power 124 grain ammunition. While that isn't a whole lot by any stretch of the imagination, when you consider an average police gunfight lasts less than four rounds, the idea behind it starts to make sense.

Even a little bit of suppression is better than none at all.

But what about the longevity of the ablative pack inside the silencer? Lessard says an unused pack should last, “forever.”

He says, “It's like a Tylenol PM capsule. You assemble this, put it in your holster, and it lasts as long as the outside of the gel capsule lasts.”

Line drawings in patents can be misleading, so we made this mockup. What you see is a full-size P320 frame with a compact slide (there's a great likelihood that if such a system were actually developed, it would contain a custom slide length).

More from the patent images:

Read the entire approved patent online here.

We hope Sig Sauer actually takes action on this patent and produces these someday, as it appears to be one of the first silencers viable for truly concealed carry.