Another firearms mythbuster question

[spooney]

I have some questions about Supressors or homemade suppressors as it were.

We have all seen in movies where the hero tapes a coke bottle onto his gun and suddenly his 45 sounds like an air rifle, is this in anyway true?

Also mobsters hold their pistol into a pillow and shoot, gun sounds like an air rifle, is this true?

The last one is one I don't remember ever seeing on a movie but I remember hearing when I was young, a potato stuck on the end of the barrel will supposedly act as a suppressor. Is that true?

Not going to test any of these myself as that would probably be illegal but if anyone knows it would be interesting to know the truth behind these myths.

 

[dfaugh]

We have all seen in movies where the hero tapes a coke bottle onto his gun and suddenly his 45 sounds like an air rifle, is this in anyway true?

Also mobsters hold their pistol into a pillow and shoot, gun sounds like an air rifle, is this true?

1) is true--for the first shot at least, but would probably affect accuracy.
2) is true (but usually pillow is in contact w/ subject.

#3 would probably/possibly leave you with a handfull of smoking metal, and pieces of scrapnel flying all of. Barrel obstructions are a no-no, and dangerous.

 

[armoredman]

Under BATFE rules, the potato would then have to be registered as a suppressor...

 

[peashooter]

I tried the potato once, only once. I was young and stupid and stuck it on the end of my 22 Lugers barrel. I carved it out so as not to plug the barrel. It did work and my wife teased me about saving the mashed potatos for dinner.

 

[VaughnT]

The soda bottle works just like a regular suppressor in that it traps the gas from the discharge. It doesn't work repeatedly, and it's not as quiet as a normal suppressor because it isn't baffled. But it will work once. Accuracy is affected.

The pillow thing works in much the same way as the soda bottle. The feathers act as baffles trapping the muzzle blast/report. The muzzle has to be in contact with the pillow, and foam pillows don't work for diddly! It is NOT a great suppressor and your pistol won't sound like an airgun.

 

[stoky]

I know a guy that stuck a potato on the muzzle of a .30-06 in hunting camp. It split the barrel lengthwise about a foot and a half from the muzzle back. The split pieces flared out like an Elmer Fudd cartoon. The miracle was that no one was hurt.

 

[akodo]

there are some members here who have actually tested this, it was on another long thread, which I am too lazy to look up.

I don't know if pillows were covered, however, just an empty plastic bottle like a 2 ltr coke bottle or those smaller personal sized ones were reported to NOT WORK. which makes sense if you actually look at a supressors internals. it is not jsut a little open space to catch the air, it is a series of ridges and baffles to slow the air down.

They also said potato and loaf of bread = no go.

However, plastic bottle filled with styrofoam peanuts, that is an entirely different story

 

[smince]

In the 80's, SWD made an adapter to screw onto MAC threads and screw a 2L Coke bottle on the other. Worked for one, maybe two shots with pistol rounds.

I think BATFE made them stop and the ones out there had to be registered(?) but not 100% sure about this.

 

[akodo]

smince I have seen those at gunshows, and the picture on the package indicated you were supposed to fill the bottle with syrofoam peanuts

 

[smince]

When they first came out, just an empty bottle was all that was shown in the pics.

 

[gbran]

There are two things you have to overcome. One is the sound of the initial report and the the other is the bullet exceeding the speed of sound(sonic boom).

If the bullet is immediately going to travel into an object (like a person), it won't achieve sonic speed and the suppressor will work. If the bullet is going to travel some distance and is not subsonic, it will go boom.

 

[MachIVshooter]

If the bullet is immediately going to travel into an object (like a person), it won't achieve sonic speed and the suppressor will work. If the bullet is going to travel some distance and is not subsonic, it will go boom.

Bullets achieve their maximum speed at the muzzle. From the time they leave the barrel, they are slowing down. There is no debating this. Simple physics.

Supersonic rounds are more difficult to supress because the blast does not dissipate into the baffles before the projectile exits the supressor. The faster the round, the more volume will escape behind it. Longer supressors are more effective, but a supersonic round will always be louder than a subsonic one.