# Universal Gun Silencers



## Staff Deployment (Feb 12, 2013)

Do specific models of firearms have their own individual silencers, or is there a universal silencer that can be fitted to several types of guns, assuming they have the correct fitting?


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## moderan (Feb 12, 2013)

Specific ones. Or a pillow. They're normally fitted to the barrel.


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## Nickleby (Feb 12, 2013)

At the very least, you need a silencer that matches the caliber of gun you're using. According to silencershop dot com, the manufacturers of silencers aren't affiliated with the manufacturers of guns. In some cases there are specific tools you will need to attach/detach the silencer.

 One more factoid that may be out of date--after three shots or so, the silencer won't be so silent any more.


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## Sam (Feb 13, 2013)

There is no such thing as a 'silencer'. That's a Hollywood misnomer. When you have a weapon that fires bullets at supersonic speeds, it cannot be silenced. It's called a 'suppressor'. 

And, no, there is no such thing as a universal suppressor. In fact, most guns aren't factory-made to support suppressors. They have to be threaded individually.


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## moderan (Feb 13, 2013)

The guns, or the "suppressors"?


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## Sam (Feb 13, 2013)

The barrel will need to be threaded using a lathe. A very skilled person might (strong emphasis on might) be able to do it with a hand die, but if the alignment is off by even a couple of mil you'll destroy your suppressor after a couple of shots -- and most likely your gun as well. 

Suppressors are illegal in most countries too. In America you need to obtain a special licence and the police in your state run an extensive background check on you before you're eligible. They are banned _everywhere _in Australia, so the OP will have to take that into account . . . unless his character(s) is entitled to wield a suppressed weapon.


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## Whisper (Feb 13, 2013)

Sam said:


> The barrel will need to be threaded using a lathe. A very skilled person might (strong emphasis on might) be able to do it with a hand die, but if the alignment is off by even a couple of mil you'll destroy your suppressor after a couple of shots -- and most likely your gun as well.
> 
> Suppressors are illegal in most countries too. In America you need to obtain a special licence and the police in your state run an extensive background check on you before you're eligible. They are banned _everywhere _in Australia, so the OP will have to take that into account . . . unless his character(s) is entitled to wield a suppressed weapon.



Thanks for this. I have been interested in the same type of informaiton as well. The story I'm writing is going to eventually involves a man/woman with a sniper rifle (probably with a surpresser). I'm also interested to know if a surpresser is, in fact, going to stop surpressing after a few shots. I've actually heard this before, but haven't researched either as my story doesn't call for it yet. I've been pretty busy resarching other fun facts, such as plagues, martial law, jail cell layout and construction. My notebook is just full of fun facts to use at parties.


Edit: I can now add to my research, What's in a Prison armory


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## Staff Deployment (Feb 13, 2013)

Very helpful. Thank you.


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## Lewdog (Feb 13, 2013)

You can also use a potato as a suppressor.  FYI.  Not that I have ever used one for that purpose or anything.   8-[


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## dolphinlee (Feb 13, 2013)

There was an episode of CSI where a gunman used a large plastic lemonade bottle as a silencer.


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## egpenny (Feb 15, 2013)

The last time my son and I were out shooting he tried the plastic bottle thing, it was a water bottle.  The results were not very satifactory as far a suppression went, but were hilarious when the water bottle exploded.  Said son got a quicky shower.  Once again TVland got it wrong.


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## Whisper (Feb 15, 2013)

egpenny said:


> The last time my son and I were out shooting he tried the plastic bottle thing, it was a water bottle.  The results were not very satifactory as far a suppression went, but were hilarious when the water bottle exploded.  Said son got a quicky shower.  Once again TVland got it wrong.



Ummm, I think the bottles are supposed to be empty.


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## egpenny (Feb 15, 2013)

How funny.  No wonder it didn't work well, great entertainment value though.


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## dolphinlee (Feb 16, 2013)

egpenny, 

you made my day. I love the idea of going out and trying it out. I would be sorry about the fact my original post was unclear, but it seem you had fun - that is always more important.

In the CSI episode they used a big (empty) plastic lemonade bottle.  It was used for two shots. 

I assume that the idea is to funnel the noise rather than to reduce it by much. 

Please let us know what happens if you try it again.


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## Bloggsworth (Feb 16, 2013)

A sniper using a suppressor - unlikely? Water bottle, empty of water but filled with loosely packed wire wool. A suppressor works by messing around with the airflow/soundwaves, like the silencer on a car exhaust, by breaking up the regularity as the edges of the baffles diffract & refract the soundwaves like a miniature anechoic chamber, or the filling absorbs the pressure waves to reduce propagation.


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## Whisper (Feb 16, 2013)

HowStuffWorks "How does a gun silencer work?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppressor


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## Whisper (Feb 16, 2013)

Bloggsworth said:


> A sniper using a suppressor - unlikely? Water bottle, empty of water but filled with loosely packed wire wool. A suppressor works by messing around with the airflow/soundwaves, like the silencer on a car exhaust, by breaking up the regularity as the edges of the baffles diffract & refract the soundwaves like a miniature anechoic chamber, or the filling absorbs the pressure waves to reduce propagation.





AWM-F sniper rifle with attached suppressor


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## archer88iv (Feb 19, 2013)

Random data points that everyone else probably beat me to:

Weapons intended to be compatible with suppressors are generally manufactured with the requisite threading, so modification isn't necessarily going to be required. Modification is also probably not going to be *possible,* either; if I want to mount a silencer on my 1911, I'm going to need to purchase a new barrel. Threading the current one isn't an option; it doesn't have enough extra length.

Some weapons are manufactured with a suppressor as part of the design.

Pistol-caliber weapons do not normally fire a supersonic round and, therefore, can be more completely "silenced" than rifle-caliber weapons. 

Rifle-caliber weapons can be loaded with sub-sonic ammunition, in some cases, to allow them to be silenced more effectively, but the lethality of such ammunition is much-reduced (and the weapon may actually fail to function normally, in the case of an automatic, if the reduced-power round lacks the power to necessary to cycle the action).

Not all weapons need a silencer: small caliber weapons (particularly lever and bolt-action types) may not make any significant sound when firing. (Think .22LR, for instance.)

Snipers don't generally need suppressed weapons because the report of the rifle will be heard long after (relatively speaking) the arrival of the bullet itself.

Yes, some suppressors wear out. The baffles inside can be damaged just like that water bottle discussed earlier. The better ones don't have that problem; it just depends on whether or not a given piece of equipment is constructed well enough to take the abuse.


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## Angelwing (Feb 28, 2013)

Given that there's numerous kinds of silencers, I'd assume that they're specific. Certainly specific to the caliber. 

I've read about how for pistols, using a silencer means that the pistol can't be fired in normal semiautomatic, as the silencer alters the positioning of the slide-or something like that anyways. The shots have to be individually loaded. Maybe this is only for certain types of handguns though. However, I believe it was the Welrod that you had to single load every round-it was a suppressed pistol from WWII.


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## DPVP (Feb 28, 2013)

@Angelwing  most modern guns designed to take a suppressor will cycle. they also have high sights so they can still be used. 
@archer88iv  i find that suppressing a 22 makes a huge difference personally. also snipers use suppressors with the intent of masking where the gun shot came from.  

something no one has brought up is wet vs dry suppressors. depending on the type of suppressor you have it can be meant to run dry, wet or both. now a days most run dry or both but some highly specialized ones are meant to fire just a few shots wet.


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## movieman (Feb 28, 2013)

archer88iv said:


> Not all weapons need a silencer: small caliber weapons (particularly lever and bolt-action types) may not make any significant sound when firing. (Think .22LR, for instance.)



Have you ever fired a .22LR without hearing protection? It's loud.

Whereas a subsonic .22LR fired from a gun with a suppressor can make as little noise as the click of the firing pin hitting the case.



> Snipers don't generally need suppressed weapons because the report of  the rifle will be heard long after (relatively speaking) the arrival of  the bullet itself.



But the suppressor makes the sniper harder to spot, so they may get a chance for a second shot if the first one missed. Of course if they need a second shot they should probably be looking for another line of work .


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## Staff Deployment (Feb 28, 2013)

Snipers often take several shots because of extreme distance. Remember that scene from the Hurt Locker?


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## Angelwing (Feb 28, 2013)

Staff Deployment said:


> Snipers often take several shots because of extreme distance. Remember that scene from the Hurt Locker?



On the subject of snipers on the screen, check out the Ghost Recon Future Soldier trailer where the sniper fires 2 shots from extreme range at the target.


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## archer88iv (Feb 28, 2013)

Lever action .22LR in action: Henry Lever Action .22 LR Review - YouTube

Listen in at about the 1:50-2:00 mark. An automatic .22 is going to make a lot of noise because of the gas escaping at the breach. Likewise, a weapon with a short barrel (for the amount of propellant in the charge) is also going to make a lot of noise. (Think bolt-action pistol or something.) A .22 with a long barrel and a manual action? Silencer isn't gonna make a lot of difference. 

Long story short, the report of a gun is basically just energy that *didn't* get used to send the bullet downrange: it's the gas pressure escaping the weapon after the bullet has already gone. A weapon that doesn't produce excess pressure doesn't make a lot of noise, even without a silencer.

As far as snipers (or just operators in general) being hard to spot, what you're looking for there is what they a "flash suppressor," or possibly a "compensator," on certain weapons; it functions by diffusing the gas leaving the barrel (usually in an upward direction) rather than by damping the sound made by the weapon. Matter of fact, at least for the operator of such a weapon, the *sound* is normally amplified (because the sound is actually directed back toward the user by the vents cut in compensator).

Thing is, any of these devices--a sound suppressor, flash suppressor, or compensator--has a negative effect on accuracy, which isn't something your average sniper likes very much, particularly given that distance and accuracy are two of his best friends.

Finally, an interesting video featuring an actual *silenced* sniper rifle firing first normal, supersonic, ammunition and then specialized, subsonic, ammunition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvLWu-OQJno

Note that, as several have mentioned above, the weapon fails to cycle when firing subsonic ammunition.

Also note: Youtube really is a writer's best friend.


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## movieman (Mar 1, 2013)

archer88iv said:


> A .22 with a long barrel and a manual action? Silencer isn't gonna make a lot of difference.



Sorry, but that's simply not true. I've never fired a .22LR which didn't need hearing protection if you liked your ears, whereas some of the specialized suppressed .22LRs firing subsonic ammo are so quiet that they just click when you press the trigger.

Even if the gun has a locked breech, all that gas that propels the bullet down the barrel eventually comes out of the muzzle, which is why you need a suppressor to slow it down before it's released outside the gun. Sure, you could build a gun whose barrel was so long that the gas pressure would have dropped to inaudible levels before the bullet came out, but no-one would want to carry it and, for most of the time, the bullet would be slowing down from friction with the barrel because the gas pressure would be too low to overcome it.


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## archer88iv (Mar 1, 2013)

movieman said:


> Sorry, but that's simply not true. I've never fired a .22LR which didn't need hearing protection if you liked your ears, whereas some of the specialized suppressed .22LRs firing subsonic ammo are so quiet that they just click when you press the trigger.
> 
> Even if the gun has a locked breech, all that gas that propels the bullet down the barrel eventually comes out of the muzzle, which is why you need a suppressor to slow it down before it's released outside the gun. Sure, you could build a gun whose barrel was so long that the gas pressure would have dropped to inaudible levels before the bullet came out, but no-one would want to carry it and, for most of the time, the bullet would be slowing down from friction with the barrel because the gas pressure would be too low to overcome it.



Like I said, Youtube is your friend.


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## Shylock (Dec 2, 2013)

To specifically answer your question though, a suppressor needs to match the caliber of the weapon, and the barrel needs to be threaded for the suppressor to screw on. Unless there's some new kind of suppressor that can be just slapped on I'm not aware of.

To elaborate...

There are three sources of sound from your average firearm: the mechanical action, the retort, and the snap of a supersonic bullet in flight.

The first (mechanical action) is handled easily enough with bolt action rifles. You still have this problem with semi autos unless you modify the feeding for manual action. The suppressor alone has no affect on this.

 The retort can be dampened with a suppressor, but it still isn't a cure all. The following video demonstrates what I mean. You still have a big echo with good suppressors. 

 To have an insanely quiet rifle, you need subsonic rounds. Which also severely impact the velocity and range of the rifle. But still, it's really, really quiet.

The following video illustrates all of the above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPtxaFSWEfA


By the way, to my knowledge the pillow thing just doesn't work... Well, not in any applicable sense. Only if you're pinning something on the ground, and you smother it with the pillow and press the firearm deep into it, the sound _may _be slightly less massively loud. You're still going to hear it a couple miles away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQHFiS8DFlM

Hope this helps!


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## raindog308 (Dec 30, 2013)

Whisper said:


> Thanks for this. I have been interested in the same type of informaiton as well. The story I'm writing is going to eventually involves a man/woman with a sniper rifle (probably with a surpresser). I'm also interested to know if a surpresser is, in fact, going to stop surpressing after a few shots. I've actually heard this before, but haven't researched either as my story doesn't call for it yet. I've been pretty busy resarching other fun facts, such as plagues, martial law, jail cell layout and construction. My notebook is just full of fun facts to use at parties.



Suppressors are perfectly legal in something like 38 states in the US.  They're not cheap and require extra paperwork.  How they work depends on what kind of gun you're putting them on - typically you need to think ahead and buy the gun with a suppressor in mind.

A key point is that to be quiet, a bullet has to be subsonic.  That puts a limit on how fast the bullet can travel because otherwise if it breaks the sound barrier, it makes a loud sound.  The implication is that if you limit speed, then you probably limit mass to maintain some kind of normal non-rainbow trajectory.  This is why most people suppress .22LR and small rounds.

A properly made (commercially manufactured and sold) suppressor is not going to stop working after a few shots.  Thousands of shots maybe - like everything, they do eventually wear out.  Something homemade would be a different story.

Please don't have your character put a silencer on a revolver :icon_cheesygrin:


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## Xander416 (Feb 5, 2014)

moderan said:


> Specific ones. Or a pillow. They're normally fitted to the barrel.


Pillows don't work, that's a movie myth.



Sam said:


> There is no such thing as a 'silencer'. That's a Hollywood misnomer. When you have a weapon that fires bullets at supersonic speeds, it cannot be silenced. It's called a 'suppressor'.


Actually the name does have merit. While "suppressor" is the generally considered the correct term, Hiram Maxim (who invented the device) did in fact call it a "silencer".


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## The Tourist (Feb 5, 2014)

I think the best entry here is the word "Hollywood."

As a boomer, I've been around bikers, mob guys, gang bangers and lots of Vietnam veterans.  Additionally, I fired IPSC style 1911 pistols and ran with that crowd for a while.

In over four decades I only saw one suppressor.  A guy slightly older than I had a fully automatic machine pistol in .32 ACP.  He had worked in Cuba doing something serious.  He told me that the benefit of the suppressor was not sound, but it gave him something cool to hold to steady the firearm.

Hey, if I wanted to whack someone the last thing I'd worry about was noise.  I think most people would get out of your way as you left.  True to my roots, I would take the cannoli, however...


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