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How does a silencer work....

13K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  madgunsmith 
#1 ·
I am puzzled here..how does a silencer work..i mean how can a piece of metal make another peice of metal not make noise...whats in the silencer..
 
#3 ·
welp..can i get one for a 22..or custom make one?and spade said somthing abut like...a 22 pistol with a silencer bugilt in?? and this iis just to play around...and while squirel huntin if its quiet the squauils wont know whats goin on :lol:
 
#4 ·
Virtually anything that will slow down and/or contain the expanding gases will work. However, "silencer" is a bit misleading. All the screw-on thingy you have at the muzzle do, is to suppress sound the gases expanding at supersonic speeds give off, and almost eliminate muzzle flash.

There are probably hundreds of ways of producing a suppressor. The most durable is baffles, though. A simple, yet effective way is steel whool. The downside is that it burns up relativly fast.

Suppressing a .22lr is almost easier done than said. It's a small round that doesn't give off much heat. In other words, the expansion rate is smaller, hence, you don't need a big, bulky and expensive suppressor.

Virtually any rifle smith can make one. However, don't do anything illegal and try to make one yourself. Just to point it out, why suppressors should be so hard to get in the US is a mystery to me. Here we used to have a ban in the past, until the police realised that criminals who had illegal weapons really didn't bother with suppressors - and, whatever illegal business you can do with a suppressed weapons, you can do with an unsuppressed weapon. My point of view is that a suppressor for regular gun owners saves the neighbours for a potential headache and should therefor be legal as long as you're allowed to own a firearm.

Integrated suppressors are weapons with suppressors running the entire length of the barrel. These weapons are designed to be as quiet as possible - without adding a 30cm suppressor to the total length. Think of it as a ship with a double hull. The inner hull is obviously the barrel. In between there's a pocket of air, and finally, the outer hull. The difference from a ship, though, is that the barrel doesn't run the full length of the suppressor (~outer hull). Instead it ends, say a third from the muzzle. This is obviously to let the expanding gases have somewhere to go...

Here in Norway there are several smiths that make custom .22s with integrated suppressors. The best one is a BRNO bolt action. All you hear is the supersonic crack and the shooter giggling over his new "toy". For hunting birds and small prey, there's nothing better.
 
#5 ·
I want one of these BRNO rifles now. Badly.

Kamatz is correct. Some versions of suppressor, even when the standard construction type is baffles, are more effective than others. Integral suppressors (Think MP-5SD6) are more effective than screw-ons, which is one of the reasons for having a threaded barrel. The advantage of a screw-on is that it can also be screwed-off, which would be preferable for a tactical rifle because suppressors (Because they trap propellant gases) reduce muzzle velocity and range by a varying scale, depending on suppressor construction.

It also changes the zero of the rifle because it's more weight hung on the end of the barrel, thus altering barrel harmonics.
 
#6 ·
i was actually talking to him about a ruger mkII that i saw on a particular manufactuers website.

Its kinda funny why we cant get silencers any easier. It all stems from a law that was set up in the late 1800's that banned em (as far as i know, that year is close). The tax has been 200 dollars since its inception which if you think about it, in 1899 was a HUUUUUGE amount of money. Especially when guys we're paying 100 dollars for the best rifles of the day.
 
#7 ·
I think it was the BRNO 452 they modded. It's supposedly the best factory made plinking .22s out there. I've not tested one. But everyone I know who has has fallen in love with it and sold off their Rugers and Remingtons.

Well, since it's so easy to buy a firearm in the US it's strange that suppressors are looked upon as evil. Here you'll have to go through hell and worse - well, almost - to buy a firearm. But once you do, you're allowed to own suppressors for all weapons you own legally. Strangely, you're not allowed to own a suppressor if you're not allowed to own a weapon..but oh well...
 
#9 ·
I think you would get in more trouble when the police not only find your shooting a pellet rifle at night and waking up your neighbors... but also have an illegal suppressor on it. :lol: There have been issues with suppressors being legal or illegal for "Air Soft Guns" and "BB Guns" (including pelet rifles). I would error on the side of caution and stay away from supressors all together... unless you get one legally.
 
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