Wilson Combat Quell-P Suppressor: Quiet Excellence

The Quell-P sound suppressor from Wilson Combat is optimized for use on 9mm pistols by the industry leader in custom combat handguns. Precision-engineered out of 7075 aluminum, the Quell-P is sized and configured to perfectly complement the most popular genre of tactical fighting pistols on the Planet. Lots of folks make guns. Nobody really makes them quite like Wilson Combat. The company’s Quell-P sound suppressor is cut from that same rarefied cloth.

The Wilson Combat Quell-P Origin Story

The Wilson Combat story really orbits around one guy. Bill Wilson was a watchmaker before he got into custom-made firearms, and that shows. Starting literally from scratch in 1974, Bill built Wilson Combat into the most successful custom gun company in America.

Wilson Combat started with customized 1911 pistols at a time when not just everybody was making custom 1911 pistols. From there, they branched out into long guns, sound suppressors, and even ammunition. Throughout it all, superlative quality and bet-your-life reliability have been their standard.

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Extraordinary guns start with extraordinary parts. Extraordinary parts begin with a solid foundation. Wilson Combat guns are all made from forgings and bar stock. They take their guns seriously. It’s not unusual for a new weapon to have 100 rounds or more put through it prior to shipping. This ensures that the gun is broken in and perfect when it lands in the hands of the customer.

Wilson Combat AR rifles are held to a sub-MOA standard of accuracy. Their shotguns are legendary among competitive shooters and Law Enforcement. In addition to a thriving business building aftermarket parts and bespoke magazines, Wilson Combat also offers its own line of quality ammunition.

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Now they’re branching out into sound suppressors with the same verve with which they have approached their firearms for the past half century.

The Quell-P

Everything Wilson Combat makes is optimized for hard use in the real world. The Quell-P pistol can is no exception. At 6.25 inches long and with a weight of only 9.5 ounces, the Quell-P is the suppressor you can use for home defense, competition, recreation, or duty. Don’t abuse it, and your grandchildren will still be playing with this thing decades hence.

The Quell-P is designed around a set of seven 7075 aluminum baffles for maximum efficiency in a compact package. The can comes with a standard 1/2×28 piston mount and Nielson device for use on Browning-style short-recoil handguns. Expect a 34-decibel reduction in noise. That is a superb performance, particularly for such a compact, lightweight suppressor.

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The Quell-P is hard-coat anodized and sports an outside diameter of 1.375 inches. The Nielson mount is not for use with fixed-barrel pistol-caliber carbines, and the Quell-P should not be used on full-auto platforms. However, this is the can that makes your standard duty pistol so much more capable.

The Good Host

A superlative sound suppressor from a place like Wilson Combat warrants a superlative host gun. That pistol is the EDC X9 2.0. The Wilson Combat mob rightfully refers to it as the future of concealed carry.

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The EDC X9 2.0 is, at its essence, a highly customized double-stack 9mm 1911 pistol. Built around a compact aluminum chassis, the EDC X9 2.0 shoots as good as it feels and looks even better than that. You can tell the moment you pick it up that you are in the presence of greatness.

For starters, everything about the EDC X9 2.0 is, no kidding, perfect. From the removable textured grips to the not-too-deep, not-too-shallow gripping grooves on the slide, both front and rear, everything about this gun is optimized for both carry and combat. The slide moves across the frame like warm snot on glass.

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The standard double-stack, single-feed magazine packs fifteen rounds onboard. However, the gun-bodging savants at Wilson Combat somehow stuffed that into a frame with a smaller circumference than that of a conventional single-stack 1911. I have no idea how they did that. Magic, I suppose.

Reliability is the single most important factor in a modern defensive firearm. The gun needs to shoot straight and feel good in the hand, to be sure. However, if it doesn’t go bang every time you pull the trigger, you might as well be packing a brick.

Wilson Combat’s ERS or “Enhanced Reliability System” is designed to offer optimal reliability regardless of bullet weight, cleaning state, or carry conditions. The gun includes a user-replaceable front sight, a single-lug, tapered-cone, match-grade barrel, and a rear Tactical Adjustable Battlesight.

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If the EDC X9 2.0 could talk, you’d date it.

EDC X9 2.0 and Quell-P: Tactical Synergy

Lots of folks make sound suppressors these days. Even more folks make combat handguns. However, not just everybody makes both designed from the outset to complement each other. The Quell-P and the EDC X9 2.0 fit together like Bonnie and Clyde.

Not only do these things run like a scalded ape, they look cool together. The aesthetics just feel right. We grizzled gun nerds really shouldn’t care about stuff like that, but we do.

Once assembled, the Quell-P doesn’t destabilize the weapon’s exceptional balance. You’d struggle to draw this suppressed pistol quickly from a holster. However, shooting them both together will absolutely ruin you to noisy guns.

Practical Tactical

This rig is the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of guns. The Quell-P and the EDC X9 2.0 make the perfect couple. Once on the range, all of that Wilson Combat secret sauce kicks in. No kidding, I don’t know exactly what these guys did to make a centerfire 9mm combat pistol shoot so much nicer than everyone else’s, but they pulled it off.

Wilson Combat found the Goldilocks spot as regards the chassis. The gun is small enough for comfortable concealed carry while remaining sufficiently large to be both fun and comfortable on the range.

When compared to a GI 1911, the frame is incrementally wider but noticeably shorter. That puts the trigger at an optimal spot for comfortable manipulation. Combine that geometry with some optimized surface checkering, and you get a truly bespoke firing experience.

The front sight is very slightly occluded by the bulk of the can. Tragically, that’s just geometry. However, run the gun with both eyes open, and the front sight will superimpose nicely over the target.

Of course, this rig was reliable with everything we fed it. We would accept nothing less. The ideal synergistic mechanical interplay between the gun and the can is programmed into the design.

The switches are perfectly scaled and positive. Magazine changes are as good as technology can make them. The gun comes with three spare mags.

Canned Performance

Decibel numbers are sometimes tough to translate into the real world. There are lots of factors that fold into practical suppressor performance.

For starters, if you are shooting supersonic ammo, that bullet is going to make a lot of noise, no matter what you hang onto the end of your gun. That’s just physics. Fortunately, Wilson Combat has the solution to that quandary as well.

They offer the nicest subsonic 9mm ammo I have ever fired. Most 9mm loads are made subsonic through the inclusion of heavy 147-grain bullets. That works fine, but physics is physics. Fat, heavy bullets produce more recoil than light, skinny ones.

Wilson Combat’s subsonic 9mm fires 135-grain FMJ projectiles. When run through this optimized smoke pole, the shooting experience is veritably sublime.

You’re never really supposed to do this, but I did kick off my muffs for a magazine. I can honestly report that running these magnificent subsonic 135-grain loads through the Quell-P was comfortably hearing safe out in an open space. My ears didn’t ring a bit afterwards. I’ve shot a lot of sound-suppressed 9mm handguns. This is the good stuff.

Ruminating on the Wilson Combat Quell-P

I’m not gonna lie, the EDC X9 2.0 is expensive—like an MSRP of $3,415 expensive. Correspondingly, the MSRP for the Quell-P is $968.95.

However, this is Wilson Combat. If you want to be packing the suppressed firearm equivalent of an Italian supercar, that’s what it’s going to cost you. If you’re satisfied with something generic and plastic, then hit your local box store. Who knows? I might see you there…

You know true quality when you feel it, and this is a truly superlative firearm. The Quell-P suppressor is made by the same folks to the same lofty standards. A Wilson Combat gun sporting a Wilson Combat sound suppressor, firing Wilson Combat ammunition, yields Wilson Combat-grade performance.

This is indeed an amazing rig.

Wilson Combat EDC9 2.0/Quell-P Suppressor Performance

Group Size is the best four of five rounds fired from a simple rest at 12 meters. Velocity is the average of five rounds measured by a Garmin Xero C1 chronograph.