Something for your ears:
Cool how it puts the camera down range later on so we can hear what that sounds like too. No surprise that .22LR is super quiet.
A good vid for anyone that thinks suppressors (aka Silencers) make only a slight “tick” sound like in the movies.
I wonder if anyone can tell suppressor make and manufacturer by the sound it makes? I suppose there are a lot of variables, but for people that have several suppressors and shoot a lot, I bet that would be child’s play.
Thoughts?
Hat tip: Christopher
Comments
7 responses to “Suppressed Firearms At Various Distances”
When he shoots the pistols from 150 yards with the camera at the berm (starting about 12:40), you can clearly hear the ricochets, especially with the .45, as he’s hitting well short of the berm.
Good video. I never realized how many ricochets I was having until I started shooting suppressed. It’s made me take notice of my backstop much more now.
Considering that semi-auto weapons are not ideal for suppressors, I’ve always wondered what using thin layers of rubber (or some other material) to line the edge of the bolt would do? I figure that a lot of the sound from semi-autos come from the loading/ejecting of the weapon itself. Has any manufacturer tried this?
Most of the noise from a springer air rifle comes from the piston smacking against the cylinder head, and in most cases the piston head is a synthetic polymer which, by virtue of how a springer functions, is also cushioned by the resistance of the air compressed in the barrel until the pellet leaves the muzzle.
In the context of the above being quite a loud noise, I doubt very much that any cushioning would reduce the mechanical noise.
One idea could be to encase the whole thing in a sound damping box, a bit like the PSDR 3 revolver has over its cylinder: http://oda141teamroom.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/psdr-3.jpg – this was to seal off the gas escaping from the barrel gap, but it could work for mechanical noise too.
You could run into cooling issues with an automatic weapon though.
thanks for the info, but what about a conventional firearm? (not airguns)
I mentioned the airgun example because it is a real world example of a spring driven bolt slamming against a part, with the benefit of a synthetic damper and an air cushion – and it still makes a very audible noise.
Another example would be a pneumatic nail gun:
http://www.beaudaniels-illustration.com/technical-drawing-site-2/img/sketch/Hitachi-nail-gun.jpg
The “hammer” impacts a substantial rubber bumper which also has an air cushion element, and it still makes a heck of a lot of noise if you use it without actually hammering anything.
The conclusion therefore is that adding damping buffers to bolts isn’t going to kill the noise completely.
Hollywood really screwed the pouch regarding the perception of a ‘silenced’ weapon.
The ‘suppressed’ firearm is a noisy beast but better than the alternative.
Wish he had had one of the old Cold-war ‘wire-wool’ suppressors from the USSR armory as a comparison to the modern build.
Great Video, very informative – will have to buy a USBE ’45 and make some modifications for a Bars suppressor.