Do Suppressors Hinder Ballistic Performance?

[Owen]

Tinker, because of the weight of the suppressor, the zero usually shifts. People that use them often know this, and take it into account, or make a point of always shooting with the suppresor on.

As far as quiet, you still had the crack to deal with, but even then there should have been a noticable difference in report. Only subsonic .22s are anywhere near as quiet as what is portrayed on TV.

 

[WoofersInc]

That was my first and last experience with one. The thing did not make the rifle "quiet" and it screwed with accuracy. Maybe he had a crappy one?

Must have not been a good suppressor. Most good suppressors will not shift point of impact like that. Also a good suppressor will take a AR 15 with regular ammo and make it sound no louder than a standard 22LR, which is a big differance in sound.

 

[Ranb]

The first time I used my suppressed P-22, I was disappointed, it was no where near as quiet (less loud actually) than my 10/22. Then I fired it along side my unsuppressed buckmark with a 5 inch barrel without hearing protection. The difference in the noise level was amazing. Even though my 1x6 inch silencer did not make the P-22 pistol anywhere near quiet, it was truly very effective in how well it reduced the noise.

Silencers work as well on high powered rifles as they do on wimpy subsonic carbines. The only fair way to judge a silencer is on how well they reduce noise, not how quiet they make the firearm as a whole. If you have a silencer that reduces noise by 30 decibels, this is a factor of 1000 times less intensity or 8 times less loudness. Put this can on a 22lr rifle and it will make it seem nearly quiet (<115 decibels), put it on a 338 lapua magnum, then it just might be barely safe to shoot without ear plugs as the large rifles can be 170 decibels and up.

Since they do nothing for action and bullet noise, using them on an AR-15 with supersonic ammo does nothing to affect their ability to reduce noise. While a subsonic 308 can be a full 10 decibels less noisy than a standard load in 308, this is due mainly to the much smaller powder charge which can be as much as three times smaller.

Attaching a silencer alters the bullet trajectory due to changing barrel harmonics as said above, but it is also due to the added weight changing how much the barrel moves upon recoil. My 308 rifle impacts an inch lower at 100 yards when suppressed. My 510 whisper is chambered in a 7.5 pound Encore, putting on the 2 pound silencer lowers the point of impact more than a foot at 100 yards. It does not change velocity or accuracy however. The only time I have had accuracy problem has been due to baffle strikes caused by improper mounting (can unscrewed on 22lr and 9mm pistols) and on my 510 whisper caused by improperly cast bullets that yawed way too much.

I have seen photos of silencers equipped with wipes, but never seen one. I think they are very rare compared to baffle equipped cans. I was going to make a wipe can for my 1895 nagant revolver, but I decided it was too big a pain in the butt to deal with wipes even though they are the only parts of a silencer the ATF will allow me to replace without paying another $200 tax.

Ranb

 

[CleverNickname]

Is it true that the added weight of the suppressor can affect slide function?

The extra weight can impair the cycling of handguns with Browning-style tilting barrel actions. Many handgun suppressors use muzzle boosters to improve reliability.

By the way, does anyone have any diagrams on how to make a home-made suppressor. Just for reference of course.

Why "just for reference"? It's legal to build your own suppressor with an approved form 1.

 

[WardenWolf]

Long story short, not anymore. Back in the day, the concept of sound suppression was more a matter of guesswork than an actual science. They just knew that if you did this or that, the sound of the gun would be reduced. They didn't really understand the behavior of sound waves or airflow at those high velocities. Additionally, machining tolerances were nowhere near as good as they are today, nor was the fitting to the firearm. The end result were devices that either created vortexes that reduced the bullet's accuracy or that skewed their flight path in some fashion.

So yes, early silencers were prone to reducing accuracy and causing other performance-related issues. Modern silencers, made to modern tolerances, and built with a scientific understanding of air movement and soundwaves, do not suffer these problems.

 

[Ranb]

The US Patent office has silencer plans and drawings online. Two of the best places to go for advice on legal stuff and advice are http://www.subguns.com and http://www.silencertalk.com . The ATF homepage is a good place for looking at the regs too. I have posted many silencer drawings on this and the silencertalk forums also.

Ranb

 

[MinnMooney]

I read of a test on that very subject about a year ago. It was in one of the shooting/guns magazines. They found no worse ballistics or accuracy by installing and removing a compensator. In one gun, the compensator actually improved the accuracy a tad.

 

[husbandofaromanian]

I own 2 silencers. A Tac-65 for my 22lr barrel and a Gemtech Piranah for my .223 barrel. My host firearm is a TC Contender pistol. The barrels are just under 12". The difference between shooting with & without a silencer is absolutely AMAZING. It will also get you a lot of attention at the range. Silencers offer 3 major benefits.

1. The ability to shoot without hearing protection.
2. The ultimate muzzle brake.
3. The ultimate flash suppressor.

In answer to the OP. Modern silencers that use baffles do not touch the bullet and actually increase bullet speed very slightly because the silencer acts as a longer barrel giving the gasses more time to propel the bullet even though the suppressor is trying to redue pressure as much as possible with expansion chambers.

To all you purist out there. I call my cans silencers instead of suppressors because thats what my federal paperwork calls them.

 

[Shadow Man]

I call my cans silencers instead of suppressors because thats what my federal paperwork calls them.

They're suppressors, damnit! :banghead:

hehe, I had too...I really don't care what you call your cans

 

[DAVIDSDIVAD]

I would say this not only depends on suppressor/no suppressor, but also barrel length and powder. If you fire low-powder rounds, adding a suppressor won't do very much, might even lower due to the extra friction from the length of it. But with higher-powder rounds (muzzle flash) the suppressor partially acts as a barrel extension, meaning you get a bit more push while the bullet's in the suppressor, which it wouldn't get in the open-air environment after the barrel without a suppressor.
Of course, if your suppressor is screwed on at a slight angle, or not bored properly, it could lower the bullet's velocity or affect its trajectory.

Wait what?

 

[Zak Smith]

Let me just add that about half the top-3 shooters at the Steel Safari (a practical/field long-range rifle match in NM) for the last 4 years have used suppressors. The first-place shooters in 2006 and 2009 used them.

-z