We take a quick look at Strike Industries’ Oppressor Lite V2 blast-forward muzzle device.
Owning and shooting an AR-15 pistol, or SBR, is fun. Well, it starts out fun, but the muzzle blast gets to be a bit much after a short while. Indoors, it’s even worse.
And, if you happen to be working in a team environment … well, others will grow to hate you.
Quickly.
I’ve even heard of SWAT team members being retired with medical disability due to the muzzle blast of an SBR too close to them. What do you do? The “easy” answer is to put a suppressor on it. But that isn’t always an option. Some departments still won’t allow it. Or they do, but not personal equipment, and they “just haven’t finished the paperwork yet.”
And you? You’re still waiting for your suppressor.
So, how do you mitigate the blast and not make your pistol or SBR longer? Strike it—as in Strike Industries’ Oppressor Lite V2.
This is a two-metal assembly. The mount and interior are steel, but the housing is aluminum. This brings the weight down to 5 ounces. It looks like a really short suppressor, but there’s no front cap or baffle on it, so it isn’t one. But it diverts the muzzle blast forward away from you. So, you get less, the target gets more, and those beside you don’t get the blast from a flash hider or (far, far worse) muzzle brake.
The mounting system is really slick as well. Instead of a simple direct-thread (which means it has to be there all the time), the Oppressor Lite V2 uses a quarter-turn ratchet lock system. Now, to do this, you need a Strike Industries mount—which is not a problem, as the Strike Cloak flash hider is both a mount for the Oppressor and a superb flash hider just by itself.
The assembly is simple. Remove whatever mount or flash hider you now have on your barrel. Clean the threads and degrease the thread of the barrel and the Cloak. Now, apply some strong thread-locker on the threads and tighten the Cloak on. Let it cure, and when you want to use the Oppressor Live V2, simply press it down onto the Cloak until you feel the spring compress. Then, turn and hear the ratchet until it stops. Done. To remove, let cool (oh, it will get hot). Then, press back and rotate the other direction. You’ll hear and feel the system release, and you can then pull the Oppressor forward and off.
The Oppressor Lite V2 is short enough and light enough that it won’t alter the handling of your AR-15 pistol or SBR. In fact, at just 5 ounces, it’s probably lighter than some of the QD mount systems that you need to put on the muzzle in order to mount a suppressor. If you spend any time in the winter shooting on an indoor range, you and those around you will appreciate the effect that the Oppressor Lite V2 brings to the table. And to mount it, you get to use a really good flash hider. (There are other muzzle devices in the strike pantheon and others that the Oppressor can mount on.)
All this goodness doesn’t come cheap, but quality never does. To mount up, you’ll need the Cloak at $45 and the Oppressor Lite V2 at $95. Still, that’s less than the tax stamp you need to pay to lay hands on your very own suppressor, and the Cloak and Oppressor can be shipped right to your door as soon as the charge clears your credit card.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the June 2025 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
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