Obviously guns are loud. VERY loud. In movies we often see people using suppressors to make their guns virtually silent but obviously this is a completely fictional trope. It is my understanding that even with a suppressor a gun that is fired is still extremely loud, so why use them at all? Is there any other practical purpose other than making a weapon a tiny tiny bit quieter?
In: Technology
As usual, the answer is more complicated. With the ar-15 shooting .223, the gun is still VERY loud. an AR shooting .300 blackout, its damn near silent. With most pistol caliber firearms, (handguns, MP5s, etc) it can be very very quiet. With 22 rimfire, it can be damn near silent.
Why do it in a military role?
They often help reduce the need for ear protection.
They reduce muzzle flash (giving away position, especially at night).
They make it harder to locate direction of shots. (important to not be shot)
Even loud firearms are quiet at long range.
With quieter firearms you can be pretty covert in tactical situations.
Another use of firearm suppressors/silencers is to reduce or eliminate the muzzle flash, the bright explosion from the barrel when the weapon is fired. For snipers behind enemy lines, going unseen is often crucial. Firing a weapon without reducing the muzzle flash will make it very easy for the enemy to locate the sniper, complicating the sniper’s retreat.
Correct, much more likely to be used by professional shooters. The portrayal in movies is pretty dramatized, but I wouldn’t expect people not around guns to have any idea.
It reduces the audible decibels to the human ear. This reduction means there is a much smaller chance of hearing damage. Obviously, proper ear protection is still suggested.
The real reason suppressors were made illegal to use unless you go threw some strenuous paperwork is because people used them to illegally hunt animals. Yep hunting animals illegally. And it really works. You can take out a group of hogs without any of them getting spooked.
To answer your question:
Its makes the gun significantly more quiet and can even sound like a bb gun if you use sub-sonic ammunition. Even with super sonic ammo you can REALY tell the difference.
Sound gets reduced quickly by distance. Even if the shot is still loud enough to require hearing protection where the shooter is, a suppressor can make the distance that it will hurt ears, annoy people, or be audible at all by a lot.
Haven’t seen this mentioned yet. There are 2 things that make a gun loud, the small explosion from powder ignition, and the sonic boom generated by the bullet (many rounds travel faster than the speed of sound).
Suppressors heavily mitigate the explosion, but do nothing about the sonic crack. Combine a large enough suppressor with ammunition that travels at less than the speed of sound, and you can get “Hollywood quiet”. Many rifle calibers act like pistol calibers when loaded to these velocities.
The military likes them a lot as well because it is 10x easier to communicate with your fellow service members. Having a squad of 12 Marines all mag dumping will leave you deaf. Everyone with suppressors you’ll be ok
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The main reason is that even if it doesn’t make the weapon silent, it reduce the sound enough to not make it as dangerous for your ears. So when you shoot you want to ears protection, otherwise you will damage them. This is especially true when you are indoor. In self defense or military application, you might not have or want ears protection as it limit your ability to react to sound in your environment.
A supressor slow down gases, which mean that it will create less dust if you shoot near the ground, making it harder to spot your when you shoot prone. It also reduce muzzle flash and a little bit of the recoil.
All of this together also mean that shooting a suppressed gun will give the shooter a less violent feedback, which will make him shoot more accurately. Now of course this vary depending on the gun and the shooter.
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