The zombies will never know what hit them:
A shooting test with it attached to a M&P 15-22 rifle:
That is damn quiet! I still can’t help but wonder if we are being tricked though, and he just hollowed out a Maglite and slipped a real suppressor inside it.
You might remember the Maglite suppressors from this season of The Walking Dead. Maybe it’s not that far fetched after all? :P
Thoughts?
Hat tip: Steve
Comments
82 responses to “DIY Maglite Flashlight Suppressor”
When I was overseas in 2006/2007 we used to make suppressors to play with while on perimeter guard. We made ones for our M4s out of water bottles and miscellaneous shit laying around- tape, red bull cans, cloth, etc. They were pretty fun for hunting foxes and stuff.
Someone also made one for their M9 using a minimag light as the inner tube, epoxy, steel wool, and a series of Red Bull can bottoms as Baffles. It worked decent, but neither were Hollywood quiet or comparable to to a real one, but made them much quieter than nothing.
All that shit said, I am going to say that it is entirely possible that this is real.
No you didn’t. An M4 has way more blast than a .22 and would blow a bottle apart. Anyone stupid enough to be constructing a silencer and hunting animals instead of actively watching for the enemy is a tool anyway.
You’re a trolling tool
So… you discharged your issue weapon on a US military base in a foreign land. If this is true, What is your discharge status, or are you posting from Leavenworth?
Speaking of tools, not all bases are in warzones, a vented can wont blow apart if it is sufficiently supported, Hell the “oil filter suppressor” has a wall that is only about .060″. A soda can is about .004″ thick A soda can will contain the blast of a 5.56 You can support a soda bottle with a roll of duct tape. There IS hunting on MOST military bases, outside warzones. Germany was noted for its boar hunting… Are you fools Craftsman or Snap-on???
Have some respect. The only thing you guys have ever discharged is a fat load in a pair of your mums panties.
Your an idiot, and full of Crap! Stupid wanna-be.
Hey my brother did this . He bought an online kit that is made to be put together into your Maglite. He silenced a 300 blackout which is an easy round to silence and it actually worked .
I have designed a handgun that is suppressed in itself. No need for an additional suppresser it does the job all by itself. I have filed for a patent and I won’t go into further detail but I will say that my proto type works. You can be looking for it in about a year.
Oh you just fired your weapons randomly while on “perimeter guard”. lol Fucking liar. Bottoms of red bull cans? Yeah, that’ll stand up to the muzzle blast of a pistol.
its possible and highly probable that this is a real thing, however i dont believe it to be very effective due to my testing. i have a video on my youtube channel of a Form 1 maglite suppressor(that you can find plans for easily using some google-fu.). its a friends suppressor shot on his mac 11 with lage upper. the can was drilled for 9mm i believe (dont quote me on it, ATF). on a 22 subgun at least its not very effective. sure it muffles the report of the firearm but not as much as a dedicated 22 can does and thats all due to physics.
the only rimfire can on the market that i can think of that comes even close to this is the thompson chd. its 1.5″ OD by 6.75″ aka much shorter than this thing.
that being said, i do believe it to be real, how effective is up to the shooter. without getting big into the science behind suppressor design (dater holes, first round pop, freebore boost) this can isnt effective for 22lr. if the baffles will stay in place, 9mm or 45 would be better suited.
There’s every reason to believe it would be effective with a large number of baffles. This is pretty much what most Parker Hale silencers look like internally, and these cans are extremely quiet on a 22 rimfire.
with a large number of baffles, yes. there is a point of diminishing returns with 22lr on a long barrel though. there is a reason why most 22lr can on the market are 22oz or less, even made out of SS. the SS sparrow is a monocore design with clamshells and an outer tube and its still well under 10oz.
also, getting the area between the blast baffle and the threads down to a minimum would help alleviate the FRP issues. a can of that volume would be very loud for the first two or three shots on a rifle simply due to volume.
i meant to say 10oz, not 22oz. been a long day of moving.
Research Hiram Percy Maxim’s work. It is very easy to build an efficient Suppressor Especially for a.22LR. You have to remember, you suppress a SUBSONIC round. Supersonic rounds can not be suppressed, only the blast of the burning propellant can be suppressed
Fucking sweet!! My friend made a silencer once for his 380 auto handgun. He shot it in public and no one noticed. I’ve never seen one made from a flashlight though!!
Well, for one thing, there are two different flashlights. The one in the first video is, as he said, a cheap auto parts store special, while the one in the second video is a Maglite (or close copy thereof.)
One presumes, since he’s showing a functional unit and his unblurred face, that he built and registered the Maglite version, and was just using the cheap light as a demo for the how-to video.
Doc.
OMG I made one of these out of a Maglite for my 10/22 months ago. Didn’t know others had the same idea. Mine looked like a working light to anyone looking at it.
What model of flashlight did you use. I have looked at many and purchased several just to be disappointed to find out it did not have the inside like in the video.
I wouldn’t be totally surprised that someone asked for a Surefire ‘silencer’. Somebody in the prop department googled Surefire, and stopped looking once they saw that Surefire made flashlights. “Okay, we’re making prop silencers from flashlights!”
…..surefire already makes suppressors.
That’s the joke…?
Yes, I know. But why buy a functioning suppressor, if your prop guys can build a look-alike for a lot less hassle?
Sweet, this will be perfect for zombie preparedness.
I always knew it could be done, not sure why everyone got all up in arms about it, I mean you can use and oil filer as a suppressor, why wouldn’t a 7075 flashlight frame work.
Yeah I wouldn’t expect it to handle any real (see: not 22LR) rifle rounds though. Are you sure it’s 7075 btw? I highly doubt this cheapo flashlight tube is 7 series aluminum.
True, the knock off maglite clone I got from HF for 25 bucks was 6061, still good enough for .22lr I would even trust it to 9mm. When I did my form 1 can, I did use Titanium. But In a pinch, I would do this with out thinking about it.
I have made a few and always pay atleast 180 for one that can take 300blk rounds. I’m wondering where you can get one for 25?
Does anyone have any ideas about a fit can for a .223? I’m hunting in a place that is close to town. But having problems with the people around who call the police for every shot fired! I’m just trying to feed my family! It’s either deer meat or tuna fish, cheap hotdogs. I would really rather feed them deer meat. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
My question is how it would work with .223/5.56? The pressures would naturally be higher. What would the suppression be like?
Probably wouldn’t be safe, for the same reason why you shouldn’t use a pistol suppressor on a rifle unless the manufacturer states you can.
It’s commonplace to use a 7.62 suppressor on a 5.56 but never 9mm (which is larger than even 7.62) because of the pressures involved. This is vague information I’m divvying out but I think it’s correct.
Just a thought… If I was to ever make a video about the effectiveness of a homemade can, I would make damn sure the first thirty seconds of the video were a close up of the NFA tax stamp I got before building the can. Otherwise, the video can be used against you in a court of law.
They’re a licensed manufacturer bro. They don’t need no stamp. They don’t even have to notify the ATF that they’re going to be making a title 2 device or weapon. They fill out the form AFTER it’s done.
I don’t think showing internet legality trolls your NFA stamps is something worth doing because it’s really none of anyone’s business. If you were making a video to put online about the effectiveness of a homemade can, and you were making it illegally then you deserve to be caught.
ENDO-Mike, with all due respect, I am not a troll. I did not know that the posters of the video are in fact, a Class 3 manufacturer. Nothing in the video led me to believe what they were doing was legal. My gut reaction to this video was “gee… a bunch of rednecks making NFA devices.” Maybe I am overly cautious, but when a video like this that can be seen by anybody online, not starting with “what we are doing is totaly legal for reasons XYZ” is inviting trouble. Either by copy cats who don’t know that law, or by over zealoys law enforcement who think they just found low haning fruit for a raid. Too many people post videos of themselves doing stupid things on the internet. When those stupid things are done with guns, it reflects poorly on the gun owning community as a whole. We owe it to ourselves to make sure what we do is on the up and up. Personally, I’d rather give the obligatory “we are professionals, don’t try this at home” than have to worry about answering the door to a SWAT team.
I see where you’re coming from, but I prefer not to live my life thinking that the SWAT team could kick down the door because someone at the ATF saw a youtube video and didn’t take two seconds to query the database for my name to see if a business and corresponding stamps or a manufacturers licence pop up.
What’s next, every young kid posting videos of them in their cars on youtube taking a picture of their licence? People doing stupid stuff with alcohol showing ID? I stand by what I said that it’s really none of anyone’s business, and that guilt should automatically not be assumed.
I fundamentally agree with you. That said, I would not give my local ATF office the benefit of the doubt that they would check with HQ to make sure my paperwork is in order before kicking down my door. Nor, would they say it was their duty to check on my paperwork, before kicking down my door. How many videos have been posted on this very site of cops treating people who are engaged in lawful open carry like criminals? Yes, they are innocent until proven guilty. That time honored, constitutionally protected right didn’t stop them from getting handcuffed while taking a face full of pavement.
Another thing I was just thinking of is so what if someone flashes a tax stamp on camera. How do you even know it’s the correct one? Do you need to see up close matching serial numbers in order to shake your paranoia? Even then, how can you be sure it wasn’t doctored with photoshop or something in post production on the video? See this is just getting too crazy. What you’re asking for to me ends up being basically the same as what the people that are anti gun want… a bunch of useless “checks and balances” that don’t end up making a bit of difference. Maybe for any gun related video that’s posted online you’d like to see an NCIS background check on the people handling the firearms? One you could verify in person at your local field office of course. Gotta make sure no felons are handling guns right? See what I’m getting at?
Just to let you know, Class 3 does not mean anything when it comes to manufacturing (simplified).
The “Class 3” that most firearm owners throw around erroneously refers to the VENDOR FFL the business has. It is a Class 3 FFL that merely allows them to SELL and TRANSFER title 2 weapons like machine guns and suppressors. It literally has NOTHING to do with manufacturing. A company like COLT or BUSHMASTER probably do NOT have CLASS 3 FFL’s (for all intents and purposes of this argument to demonstrate my point).
So basically saying they’re a “class 3 manufacturer” is erroneous because that is a type of FFL (gun vendor license).
They’re allowed to manufacture title 2 weaponry on a completely different license.
FWIW: This is also a pet peeve of mine.
Class 1 – Importers of Title 2 items
Class 2 – Manufacturers of Title 2 items
Class 3 – Dealers of Title 2 items
Class 1 and 2 can also sell, but Class 3 cannot directly manufacture or import.
Maybe you just don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about and don’t know when to shut up?
Think it’s a title 7 ffl not 3 that’s for selling nfa
Just to be a little picky, why is it illegal?
Where is the NFA, 68 GCA, or any of the rest of the restrictions mentioned?
Just as where is it said in the First that you have a right to blog?
So the government has a right to restrict your access to suppressors, full auto, etc, but doesn’t have a right to restrict what you say?
Like I said — being picky.
I don’t make the rules, so I’m assuming your first question was rhetorical. As far as I know gun blogging hasn’t been deemed illegal yet.
Yes, because the ATF has so much man power they search the net 24/7 for people making illegal suppressors, and how do they know he lives in the US? No they wont use facial recognition software to determine who he is, and they need a comparative picture to do that anyway.
They don’t need to search the net 24/7. They only have to see it once between upload and eternity.
They have a comparable picture. The DMV submits your license photo for facial recognition now.
He was licensed and legit with the ATF. His name was Keith Ratliff and was behind the FPS Russia YouTube videos. Unfortunately he was murdered in his house back in January of last year (2013).
Hillbillys here in town would stuff 2 liter bottles with toilet paper and duct tape it around a bolt action .22lr’s barrel. It only worked well for the first shot and probably isn’t very safe but I saw more than one varmit silently sent to the other side using them.
no registered suppresser here i come lol
haha this is awesome! Hey does anybody want to meet up to talk about unregistered suppressors or the walking dead or whatever? We could hang out at your manufacturing location and drink a beer and talk about not filling out paperwork and sports and stuff. Just post your address or GPS coordinates or whatever.
HAHAHAHAHA.
Just saying, that was pretty funny =)
Hmmm, he never actually assembles the suppressor……..and you can’t confirm if the suppressor is even real in the second video……..I’m sensing there is much butt hurt amongst some of the comments.
Why would you think the suppressor is fake? What is working that blowback action? Magic maybe?
This is too much hassle, just google fu “oil filter supressor” its easier and less hassle
The econocan will not last nearly as long.
Douche bag southern fried bubba can’t even pronounce “Neoprene.”
This dude is behind FPS Russia and all those videos and safely the guy in these two pages was found bound and gagged and shot in the head I saw it on YouTube….poor guy rip
I have a question along with a statement, so I will try to make it as short as I can. I was a sniper while in the Army, “no I am not one of those guys.” So with all the rifle training and shooting I have done I am nearly deaf in my left ear and over 60% deaf in my right ear. And I wore the issued hearing protection along with earmuff hearing protection. I know laws are there for one reason or the other, and some people have strong opinions that they are either for or against those laws and also about people making suppressors “legally or illegally.” But why do you have to have a stamp and pay $200 just to add an attachment to your firearm so it will not affect your hearing so bad. A suppressor will not take all the sound away like Hollywood would like for you to think. So why, what is the reasoning for requiring a person to pay money just because they don’t want to be like me and have to wear hearing aids when they are 30 years old. Please answer with a real reason other than “because they said so”, I want to know, WHY.
Because it is less about personal safety and more about restricting the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Imagine the fear of government bureaucrats at being zeroed at 40 yards by a silent .22LR. They fear the pink mist, especially when it’s their pink being misted.
Also, in ’39 when the FFA went into effect, $200 was near impossible for most people.
Thank you, finally some one has the balls to say the real answer. I hate these gun nits that feel they have to do things by the books because the government say you have to. Remember the second amendment is there to ensure that a tyrannical government can not take the rights from the people. So requiring that the people have a stamp, and their firearms registered is a form of attack on a persons rights. If you are doing nothing illegal, then what gives the government the right to say I can not take a bunch of off the shelf parts and attach them to my gun, Remember the statement “because the government said so is not a reason.”
“Hillbillys here in town would stuff 2 liter bottles with toilet paper and duct tape it around a bolt action .22lr’s barrel. It only worked well for the first shot and probably isn’t very safe but I saw more than one varmit silently sent to the other side using them”.
A bottle suppressor should work pretty well for the first 3 to 5 shots, with only a slight increase is noisy, which can be remedied by shaking the bottle or running a rod into it to reposition the stuffing, and then adding more stuffing. That way the next round makes a new hole through the material.
They don’t make the weapon silent, they only suppress some of the sound. For example; A .22 WMR will sound about like a .22 short. You hear mostly the crack of the bullet. If you want completely silent operation(everything except the fall of the firing pin and the impact of the bullet on target) then you have to slow the bullet down to less than 1180 ft per second.
Not difficult to do. The hard part is getting close enough to your target to get a shot off, and then exfil. without being detected.
The idea in these videos doesn’t work. The problem is that the aluminum pieces aren’t even the right size to thread for a barrel. If the suppressor is wobbling or crooked the bullet won’t travel down the narrow hole. Fortunately, you can buy a cheap maglite adapter on ebay that will allow a precise fit because it’s threaded 1/2×28 TPI
Then, you can just carry around a maglite and convert it in seconds.
dumbass…watch the how to video first before talking. plus there are adapters for maglights to be fit onto a barrel….Does anyone know WTF they are talking about on here? Probably a bunch of CoD nuts.
i guess nobody saw it but me.at the end of the video you can see the glass is still on the flashlight.he’s shooting blanks.
If he were shooting blanks the glass would blow out too – blanks still make gas.
He still has the reflector cone in there, but no glass.
and if he was shooting blanks, there is a small plug in the blank to hold the powder in . even gust the compression of the bang its self would break the glass
Why is everyone so worried about the legality? Unconstitutional laws are NOT laws, and the constitution doesn’t say one damn thing about how long, short, loud, or quiet you arms must be. Build what you want. To hell with a government that can have whatever it wants but limits the peoples ability to own whatever they want. We are the real government anyways. Grow some balls. III%
Yeah buddy. See you in the news. We’ll see how much water that argument carries.
So, I noticed that with the cheap light the exit is through the base of the light. The one you shot is a maglight and the bullet exits through the lens end of the light. Why is this?
I have a Maglight flashlight that I paid quite a bit of money for. I am in need of another, & with my current one not working EVEN with new batteries, I bought MORE new batteries & new bulbs that were made for this same flashlight. Put them in, & this flashlight STILL doesn’t work!!!! Please let me know what to do to make this flashlight work. Otherwise, I will never buy another, & will let my friends know not to buy this flashlight either!
Disassemble the flashlight to inspect then clean the parts. If any of the plastic pieces are broken then your flashlight will need to be sent back to Maglite to be fixed. Sometimes the metal parts get dirty from the grinding of the button being pressed, being that it is a mechanical switch, and need to be cleaned.
its your switch, its suppose to be the only part not repairable, but barring the plastic guts are cracked or busted up, just pry up the the rubber cap with your fingernail, one shot of pb blaster on the plastic switch should do, click it on and off 20 times or someplace robber cap. if that doesn’t cure it, take the bottom cap offline your swapping the batteries out and stretch your coil spring out using to sets of pliers, if that don’t work, wrap each battery with 1 or 2 layers of toilet paper to take up the slack in the battery section of the tube, that don’t work, buy a new damn light for $20, but those simple fixes should work.
It’s sad, really, that some European countries ENCOURAGE the use of suppressors and we here in the “free” US have to jump through hoops and pay extra to get one.
And even then you have to be careful when and where you use it “even a lot of Leo’s are ignorant of the laws of possession”.
If you want to take it “your lawfully possessed suppressor” from say Texas to Wyoming you are supposed to notify atf before doing so and better not get pulled over while traveling through an unfriendly state in the process.
I’m really interested in which countries you’re picking and choosing gun laws from. Norway has unrestricted suppressors, but civilians cannot own fully automatic weapons or weapons that have “excessive” power. You can only own 4 guns and only one in each caliber, you have to “prove” an NEED for a gun, and self defense generally doesn’t cut it. Plus, the police can come into your house and inspect to make sure they are properly locked up. You can only buy ammo with a license and all guns are registered. I’m sure you’ll find just as strict if not more so gun laws in the rest of the EU.
Its real. Some of you need to get off of COD and get some real life experience. A .22 (no matter the brand) can be suppressed coming out of a 16 inch barrel using less than $.1 in household trash, and possibly more effectively than in that video, albeit, it wont last nearly as long.
Betrayed Vet: I’m answering as a retired Army guy with 12 years in Cavalry units. You have not stated under what conditions you worked other than to imply the noise of firing a rifle with earmuffs caused your problem. There has to be some other reasons that compounded the problem. Have you been caught too close to a tank gun or artillery piece when it was firing? The concussion from either can be devastating to the ears; even mortars can cause hearing problems. True my hearing is mostly shot, but a tank engine running or even the little PC engines can be problems if running in a small area. BV, somewhere along the line you exposed yourself to unknown conditions that helped your hearing loss, if you could identify those conditions, you might have a good claim for VA compensation.
Now it’s cheaper to buy the milled tube or a light that looks like a buffer tube and just get the adapters and baffles meaning stainless steel freeze plugs and a tool to center your drill holes. Works freak with subsonic 300blk on part with my yhm osprey 556 can
ANYBODY MAKING THESE HOMEMADE SILENCERS WITHOUT THE FEDERAL STAMP PERMIT YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW ITS NOT ONLY A FELONY BUT ITS A FEDERAL CRIME, JUST HAVING , MAKING ONE WILL MOST CERTINALLY GET YOU FEDERAL TIME ALSO A HEFTY FINE TO BOOT AND LOSS OF OWNING A FIREARM……
so don’t build a silencer, build your self a suppressor instead and keep it for yourself,dont give it away or sell it. or screw it all, the noise is one of favorites parts about guns
THIS IS THE LAW AS OF 2016:
Silencers are legal but are regulated by federal law and on a state-by-state basis by the Nation Firearm Act (NFA) branch of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). Private citizens can legally purchase and possess silencers in 42 states* without a permit.
To purchase a silencer the following qualifications apply:
RESIDE IN ONE OF THE 42 STATES THAT CURRENTLY ALLOW CIVILIAN OWNERSHIP
BE A RESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
BE LEGALLY ELIGIBLE TO PURCHASE A FIREARM
PASS A BATFE BACKGROUND CHECK
BE AT LEAST 21 YEARS OF AGE TO PURCHASE FROM A DEALER
BE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OF AGE TO PURCHASE FROM ANOTHER CITIZEN
*If you are an FFL dealer, manufacturer, peace officer, or member of a law enforcement agency or other government agency, there are additional states where you can own a silencer.