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silencer questions

Spartacus
I know some of you make your own silencers, maybe you can answer some questions;
the can i have for 9mm has one flanged cone piece, 6 baffles and 6 spacers. would adding another flanged cone in place of a baffle and large spacer increase performance? in general, is bigger better, or is there a maximum efficiency reached?
thanks!
tom
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Comments

9 comments

Date Votes
  • cpermd
    You would not notice a difference.

    CP
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  • beantownshootah
    quote:Originally posted by tplumeri
    I know some of you make your own silencers,

    NO we certainly DO NOT! [}:)]

    (Edit, Obviously, I was just teasing. . .of course its legal to build your own silencers if you live in a jurisdiction that permits them and do the appropriate Federal paperwork, or live outside the USA).

    quote:the can i have for 9mm has one flanged cone piece, 6 baffles and 6 spacers. would adding another flanged cone in place of a baffle and large spacer increase performance?
    I strongly doubt it. The silencer market is fairly competitive, and the makers do tend to tinker with designs quite a bit.

    If it were possible to noticeably improve performance with such a trivial substitution, your silencer would probably come that way from the factory.

    Also, without getting into the theory too much, I think you're better off with the extra baffle.


    quote:
    in general, is bigger better, or is there a maximum efficiency reached?

    Both.

    Answering the second part first, you can't get quieter than absolutely silent, and with an efficient enough suppressor it is possible to get there (or pretty darn close).

    All else being equal, and so long as the design is good, bigger is better, since it allows more volume for the propellant gas to expand and cool in, more baffles to be put in, more room for other sound-deadening material or coolant (if your design uses those) etc.

    The problem is there are practical limits to how big a suppressor can be and still be usable in the real world.

    There is always a compromise between efficiency, size and weight, and eventually you hit a point of diminishing returns where the tradeoff between extra weight and size aren't worth the small extra reduction in sound volume.

    Suppose I told you that its possible to build a suppressor that would make your 9mm luger absolutely silent (ie the same noise as a dry fire), but this suppressor needs to be the same size as a 5 gallon water jug.

    Do you think there would be a big demand for these things?
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  • mond
    Its all down to your ammo loads, faster is noise. cones & diaphrams do make a diffrence placed in certain combinations. inside the silncer , should have diffrent sized chambers, small/large/small. I make my own with washers/ cut springs & wire mesh. play around with the internals of the can, until your happy with the puuttt ! or boooooom [:D] diffrent missile energys, slightly require diffrent set ups.
    good luck
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  • Nwcid
    Some of us certainly DO build our own silencers [:)] (saw the face but not all understand). Not a thing illegal about it if done legally. I plan on doing one sometime this summer/fall, depends on how long the paperwork takes.


    As for the original question you got some good info so far. Just like your car muffler a silencer works by internal volume. You are trying to keep the high pressure gas from suddenly escaping into the low pressure air. One way other the more volume is to add baffles to "swirl" the gasses around making it take longer for them to escape the silencer.

    So in theory adding another baffle could help if you making one from scratch. If you are thinking you will make a high end CAD designed silencer quieter then you are probably wrong.

    As stated ammo can make a difference too. If you can reduce the muzzle blast by having a powder that is fully consumed by the time it gets to the end of the barrel will reduce noise too.
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  • roadchoad
    And I am no expert, but I believe that no matter how big the silencer, if the bullet breaks the sound barrier, there will be a loud pop.
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  • Nwcid
    quote:Originally posted by roadchoad
    And I am no expert, but I believe that no matter how big the silencer, if the bullet breaks the sound barrier, there will be a loud pop.


    Correct. Silencers reduce muzzle blast not the supersonic crack of a bullet IF it breaks the speed of sound. I dont believe anyone claimed otherwise.

    Some old style suppressors used wipes to reduce the speed of a bullet (usually pistol caliber) to below the speed of sound. Some current silencers, usually integral use ported barrels to bleed off pressure making the round go slower.

    There are plenty of subsonic ammo's out there. Even with a bullet breaking the speed of sound many guns have a sound that is reduced enough to be pleasant to shoot without hearing protection.
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  • Spartacus
    thanks all! appreciate the education!
    some of you mentioned sound deadening material. would stuffing the spaces with steel wool or fiberglass improve performance?
    guess i need to read up some more before i spend 200 bucks for the right to build one.
    one last thing; buffalo bore is bragging about the powder they use having less muzzle flash than everyone else's. if that's true, it should be quieter as well, right?
    thanks again
    tom
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  • Nwcid
    quote:Originally posted by tplumeri
    thanks all! appreciate the education!
    some of you mentioned sound deadening material. would stuffing the spaces with steel wool or fiberglass improve performance?
    guess i need to read up some more before i spend 200 bucks for the right to build one.
    one last thing; buffalo bore is bragging about the powder they use having less muzzle flash than everyone else's. if that's true, it should be quieter as well, right?
    thanks again
    tom


    Well lets see if I can get it all in here [:)]

    I have heard of using wipes in a silencer but they wear out fairly quickly. I have not shot one but I am guessing they are poor on accuracy.

    I have not heard or seen packed silencers so I can not speak to that.

    If you are going to build your own first thing you need to do is go to http://www.silencertalk.com/forum/ and they have a section just on building. You do have to register even to read but it is worth it.

    Nice thing about building your own is you can change it if you want. The tube is the registered part so if you want to change your internal design you can. The ATF has decided that parts are also "controlled" so you are not allowed to have "spare silencer part" laying around. So if you want to make new internals get rid of your old ones first.

    A simple but fairly effective design is just spaced fender washers. It is an old style but it works and is cheep.

    I am going to be building one for one of my GSG-5's. I am going to use the factory tube from the SD and use Delrin drilled out.

    As for the powder, give it a try. I have been using Tightgroup in my 9mm stuff with good clean results. I load 3.5gr under a 115gr bullet on my integral AR and 147gr bullet for my Glock 34. The big one to stay away from is W231, for some reason it seems to be abrasive to the baffles from everything I have read.
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  • LIKTOSHOOT
    There is a newer designed three point. It shortens the end length and works better than the current designs.

    LTS
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