Griffin Armament – An ARBuildJunkie Manufacturer Spotlight

We had an opportunity to sit down with Chris Snay from Griffin Armament to learn more about the company’s history and how its reach has expanded from being a manufacturer of suppressors to making parts for both the AR platform and pistols.

Q: Chris, can you talk about the beginnings of Griffin Armament and why someone should consider looking into what your company offers?

Chris Snay, Griffin Armament – Griffin Armament is an industry-leading manufacturer of suppressors, firearms, and parts that started as a research and development company. It was formed in 2005 by two brothers, Austin and Evan Green, who served in the U.S. Army. After they finished their careers in the military, they had a goal to provide hard-use products for both consumers and government agencies. 

While we consider ourselves a silencer manufacturer, we do offer a lot of other high-quality products. This was growth that happened very slowly and carefully over time. We started from almost nothing but built ourselves into a vertically integrated company, meaning that we manufacture everything here, in-house in Wisconsin. That includes our AR-15 rails, our charging handles, our iron sights, and more.  

There’s a focus on quality control at Griffin Armament from start to finish, and inspections are ongoing throughout every step of the manufacturing process. I think being vertically integrated also gives us a somewhat unique ability to control our quality at every step along the way before anything ever leaves our facility.

We’re passionate about producing the best for our end-users, and that means genuinely caring about what it is we’re creating, whether thats a suppressor, Rail Shields, a rifle stock or pistol grip for an AR, or a muzzle device. We can focus entirely on what the part we’re making is designed to do. We can make sure that the part we make will perform in exactly the way we intend it to. When a customer buys something from Griffin Armament, that passion, effort, and care we put into what we do is very tangible. 

Q: Can you talk about the suppressors and muzzle devices you offer?

Chris Snay, Griffin Armament – Austin Green, a company founder, and a long-time designer and engineer, used many different products during his time in the Army, as a sniper. He was able to have a lot of hands-on experience and see what worked and didn’t work in real world hostile environments.

He felt this gave him a somewhat unique experience, and he wanted to see what he could do to improve on what he had worked with. Years of research and development have gone into what we offer at Griffin Armament…not only on the suppressors themselves but also on the mounting solutions and muzzle devices we offer. 

One of our best sellers and flagships for 5.56 is our RECCE 5. It’s the little brother of our RECCE 7, which is a 30 caliber suppressor. Both are high-performance, CNC machined, and tig fusion-welded suppressors that are lightweight, durable, and accurate, but also has great numbers at the ear and at the muzzle. The patented baffles also mean less backpressure. These are great suppressors at a great price point that are built for hard use. But really, the RECCE 5 and RECCE 7 are only some of what we offer.  

Not only do we offer a broad assortment of suppressors based on user’s needs, but we are also able to provide a wide variety of muzzle devices, including the Taper Mount. Griffin Armament’s Taper Mount design is a great way to ensure that your suppressor is solid, secure, concentric to the bore of the host firearm, as well as giving you a minimal, repeatable POI shift.  

In addition to suppressors and muzzle devices, Griffin Armament also offers barrels and other accessories for the AR platform. We offer a nitride 416 Stainless steel button-rifled barrel. The Griffin Armament HEDP (High Endurance Dual Purpose) barrel features a gas port engineered to provide optimal reliability both suppressed or unsuppressed and has polished feed ramps, hand lapping. The barrels also undergo magnetic particle inspection and are air gauged.

The Griffin Armament Enhanced 5.56 Bolt Carrier Group is billet machined and finished in a QPQ Melonite. The carrier is machined from 8620 steel and the bolt is machined from 9310 steel. The bolt is heat-treated, shot-peened, and ground after heat treat. The cam pin and extractor are machined from 4340 and features a 15,000 round extractor spring design with a Crane O-ring for long term reliability. Finally, the gas key is installed with Permatex and staked per military specifications. The bolt is also MP inspected and high pressure tested and backed by a no-nonsense lifetime warranty.

Q: Some of your small AR parts have a somewhat unique twist to them…specifically your iron sights, charging handle, and buffer tube. Can you briefly explain those to our readers?

Chris Snay, Griffin Armament – Sure. I can start with the SN-ACH (Suppressor Normalized Ambi Configurable Handle.) 

Griffin Armament SN-ACH Ambidextrous AR-15 Charging Handle

84.95
at AR15Discounts.com
Prices accurate at time of writing

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Being that we have a passion for suppressors and are a suppressor manufacturer, this charging handle features a unique gas check groove and a suppressor gas vent that reroutes gas away from the face and towards the ejection port. It reduces gas in the face of the shooter when using a suppressor. It’s a phenomenal ambidextrous design, and it’s incredibly effective.

We also have our M2 Modular sights, which are currently one of our most popular items. They are low-profile and uniquely modular in their ability to either be mounted at the 12-o’clock position or at 45-degree cant, left or right side. They have a design that runs off of a base that you attach to the Picatinny rail. You then can attach your sight directly onto that base or run an angle kit.

As far as the buffer tube, we call it the Maritime Receiver Extension. It’s a 6-position buffer tube built from 7075-T6. It actually has holes strategically machined into it that allow for the expelling of excess gas, water, oil, and debris. It was designed for when users were coming out of the water; the buffer tube could drain properly.  

Q: How did you come to start working on pistol barrels?

Chris Snay, Griffin Armament -The pistol barrels have done phenomenally well for us and came about because we saw a need for high quality, threaded, match grade barrels. Today, we offer these barrels for just about every Glock model, as well as other pistols. 

They are made out of 416 pre-hardened Chromium stainless steel. They also come with Micro Carry comp, which is a thread protector with a built-in compensator. This allows you to use the pistol for EDC, but then when you’re at the range, you can take the thread protector on and thread your suppressor onto the barrel. 

Griffin Armament Glock Gen5 G19 Advanced Threaded Match Barrel with Micro Carry Comp

$195.95
at AR15Discounts.com
Prices accurate at time of writing

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Q: Anything else you’d like to mention?

Chris Snay, Griffin Armament – I’d ask anyone looking for AR parts and accessories, or if they are in the market for a suppressor, or even an upgrade to their favorite pistol to give us a serious look. I think we have an excellent track record of reliability, and the care and passion of our employees really shines through in what we do.

I’d also note that if you are looking for a complete solution, Griffin Armament is proud to offer complete ARs and complete uppers, that we’re designed from the ground up to function reliably both suppressed and unsuppressed, using components developed in-house. They’re a great value, and like everything we offer at Griffin Armament, I think customers will find them reliable and ready to run right out of the box.

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