How Silent Are Gun Silencers? DEBUNKED
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- Опубліковано 16 чер 2024
- Is it a movie myth or factual physics? Do silencers or suppressors really silence gunfire just like in the movies? Compare news coverage. Spot media bias. Avoid algorithms. Be well informed. Download the free Ground News app at ground.news/debunked
Learn the science behind what makes a gunshot sound and the whip crack of a bullet. Join us and understand the physics behind this common movie trope.
Do silencers really silence gun fire?
Do silencers make guns silent?
Do Silencers work?
Do silencers actually exist?
Do silencers reduce range?
Do silencers make guns less accurate?
Do Silencers really work?
Do Silencers on guns really work?
Are gun silencer like in the movies?
Can revolvers have silencers?
Can shotguns have silencers?
Can glocks have silencers?
Can bullets go past the speed of sound?
Are guns loud because bullets break the sound barrier?
#debunked #funphysics #learnscience
CREDITS:
Stu K - Researcher / Writer | Illustrator | Producer | Presenter
Jacob T - Researcher | Writer
Ross G - Illustrator | Editor | Animator
MUSIC CREDITS
Epidemic Sounds
SOURCES
www.chem.purdue.edu/chemsafet...
www.electricalworld.com/en/De...
silencerco.com/blog/differenc...
armamentresearch.com/british-...
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
science.howstuffworks.com/que...
www.silencershop.com/blog/pos...
science.howstuffworks.com/5-s...
nationalinterest.org/blog/buz...
www.silencertalk.com/results.htm
uk.isotunessport.com/blogs/al...
crimefictionbook.com/2015/04/...
• Silencer gun test
www.silencercentral.com/blog/...
hearing.health.mil/Prevention...
audiology-web.s3.amazonaws.co...
• Commando's Choice: The...
• PSS 7.62 mm self-loadi...
www.defensivecarry.com/thread...
Do Cars Really Explode Like The Movies? DEBUNKED ua-cam.com/video/1iEBC-I0vbs/v-deo.htmlsi=eRxIIYfVZ0CgQuXP
How about a suppressor with an inbuild speaker. Every time you pull the trigger it plays a loud fart noise. Let*s call it a gas switcher.
depends
Not all bullets are supersonic.
Subsonic ammunition does exist.
@@localbod first of all I know that, second, where did you get that from? NO ONE said anything about subsonic/supersonic ammunition, that is totally irrelevant here
@@haberjon00o I was replying to Debunked Official.
If I was responding to you I would have used @haberjon00o.
Not everything is about you.
According to Hollywood, Silencers have a very important advantage: When someone gets hit from a silenced gun, he dies instantly and without any screams, even if you hit him in the arm. But people wo geht shot by an unsupressed gun will almost always scream for some seconds and may live long enough to return fire.
Ive only been hit with a birdshot shell (it was a hunting accident) and I had a thick work jacket on with a flannel under it and lemme say, most of the pellets didnt even make it through my jacket. Only 9 of the pellets made it into my skin and I think only 2 drew blood. Dont get me wrong, I could feel it hit me. But it felt more like a wave just tried to push me down. Ive never been shot with an actual bullet but I have seen a drive by or two (I work in a not friendly neighborhood) and one guy was hit and died instantly with one bullet. Another was hit like 5 or 6 times and he layed there for a good 30 to 45 seconds. Ive seen a guy get shot point blank with a buck shot shell and survive it. Gunshots are weird sometimes
Suppressors...
Hollywood really has done their research
You just defined "Silencer" to the most honest level.
Also, if you cover their mouth while trying to snap their neck, they won't even attempt to make any noises to either try and get help or at least alert the others the person they were waiting for has arrived. So, the safest thing for someone to do is snap everyone's neck while covering their mouth, even if there are others in the room, you won't get shot or anything while trying to snap someone's neck because they have to wait for you to kill the person before they get their turn to attack, because remember, you can only attack one at a time like in turn based games.
HPM invented the silencer because his father went deaf testing his machinegun. But thats not all, HPM also invented the car muffler, and this is because they function exactly the same way
Hirum Maxim, being a prolific inventor, also designed some cookware. He was told by someone that the surest way to fame and fortune was to make something that would "enable these fool Europeans to kill each other faster." He invented the first recoil-operated machine gun.🤣🤣
Maxim isn't actually the inventor of the automobile muffler but he did advance muffler technology so much that all modern mufflers are just improvements on his designs. Considering how similar suppressors and car mufflers are in how they work it's not surprising that in some parts of the world suppressors are called "firearm mufflers".
@@darthhodges The Reeves brothers may have been awarded the first patent for a muffler, but Maxim started his research before they did and still had a commercial muffler on the market before they did.
@tibzig1 'enable these fool Europeans to kill each other faster?!' . . Definitely sounds like something a communist jew would say!
But there is ammo that shoots slower
US Legislators: “but the movies?!?”
Regular US Citizens: “I just like to keep my hearing.”
This.
And to not annoy the neighbors, though not a problem here, gunfire, the good kind. No artilery around here yet though the 54 cal muzzle loader is close.
@@frosty3693 i am really hoping this bs suppressor ban gets overturned so i get to have one before i inevitably bail on this shty blue state
There noise reduction devices not silencers And it depends on what kind of ammo you use there not quite.
@@tbos5676
which is why .45ACP is the best type of round (and the cheapest) to use when using suppressors.
You forgot to mention that Silencers/Supressors also reduce the Muzzle Flash of the Guns, also a nice to have
Forgot to mention that suppressors can add a little effective barrel length giving a little more speed than may add a few dozen meters before tumbling.
@@curteaton Wouldn't that reduce the speed tho? Since the Gases are hindered to expand, therefore not being able to power the Round that much, even if the Barrel is a bit longer
I would think it would actually push the bullet more because when you shoot a gun normally the gasses are going who knows where when they leave the barrel, but with a suppressor the gasses are now being directed through the suppressor even though it is filling the baffles in the suppressor gasses are still following the bullet thus giving more muzzle velocity. At least that makes sense to me.
@@super1million11 I mean, it does sound logical, I have just never heard that it _increases_ the Muzzle Velocity, more like the opposite, but I could be wrong ofc
Formulation of powder to suppress flash is more important than sound suppressors or flash suppressors.
You forgot to mention its almost impossible to suppress a revolver. There's a gap between the bullet cylinder and the barrel , except for the Nagant 1895, where at least some gas escapes, causing noise even before the bullet leaves the barrel. So that gun in Corruption is totally bogus.
How you grip a revolver with your support hand is critical. Escaping gasses between the cylinder and barrel are no joke. A .22 can sting and leave a powder burn while a .44 can blow your finger off.
You have to cover the gap with your hand to reduce that part of the report.
It's possible to do but impractical. You can clamp the frame to enclose the cylinder. Some German dude did it a long while back with a 45 cal Smith and there's a dude here on YT that did one.
That is not completely true anymore. There are a few revolvers that have tight enough tolerance to allow a suppressor to be used. They are rare but exist. However, they are not silent like the wellrod or wellwand. They just lower the noise level, so it does not deafening you when it's fired. But yes, if you want a better option to protect your hearing, an automatic is a much better choice, a lot cheaper too.
I had a Tula Arsenal Nagant. The forward motion of the cylinder and extended case on the ammunition was a great idea but the Russians never could build anything as refined as the Swiss. It was a really cool revolver but had a god awful trigger pull.
John wick has left the chat
🤣
😂😂😂 Come back John! We love you!
@@DebunkedOfficial😂
James Bond left a long time ago too 🤣🤣🤣
😂😂😂😂
Gotta love the "eye-socket against the scope" scenes
yeah one way to give yourself a black eye if you have a more high powered gun like a 50.cal
@@Settings208 Getting "scoped" by anything other than a .22 is going to leave some serious bruising and if you get scoped by a .50 you're losing an eye or at least the orbital socket.
Or Enemy At the Gate when they've got their eyes 6 inches from the scope.
Funny enough, I found out this one myself, when I was 8 or 10 and given a rifle (.22, I think) to shoot some tin cans. They took the rifle after the first shot, of course. If only I knew back then...
I watched a hunting chef show last week & the very knowledgeable host ringed his eye with the scope! One usually only needs do that once & never repeats the act.
I have some experience with silencers and suppressors ranging from the Eighties. For the past decade I've been a range safety officer at a public rifle range in a western US state where silencers are almost as common as in France or Finland. My experience is that some silencers are quieter than others, and some silencers sound different because of how they deal with the shock wave and expanding powder gasses. Yes, silencer-equipped guns are still loud.
Speaking of silencers, captive-pistol technology has been used in the USA since the early 1960's for 'silent shotgun shells' and for a "silent" mortar. The 40mm grenade cartridge is a relatively quiet weapon and earned the M79 and M203 grenade launchers the nick-name "blooper." There's more than one way to get a lower firing signature.
Disguising the sound isn't really necessary because failure to recognize gunfire is a frequent event. The JFK assassination happened 60 years ago and witnesses thought that the rifle shots were automobile or motorcycle engines backfiring. That carries through to this day--pick and incident and many people will make like turkeys and rubberneck looking for the source of that strange noise.
Silencers are not the only parts of gunfire that Hollywood infuses with a healthy dose of dramatic license. Hollywood has been dramatically inflating the effects of gunfire for more than a century. Film makers get away with that too--unless the audience has either first-hand experience with firearms or video presentations such as this debunk the myths. Thanks for adding to the body of public knowledge.
welrods and De Lisle you tend to only hear the impact of the bullet hence why they sentry removal tools. I have a Nagant Revolver and with the can it sounds like a cap gun and in an internal range no one outside the range room can hear it firing. if I had the setup the kgb used you would only hear the impact of the bullet and the click of the action.
@@toomanyaccounts User instructions for the Welrod tend to muffle the sound of the bullet impact--press the muzzle against the target!
Can't you tip half the powder out of a. 22 cartridge or simply use sub sonic ammunition, then adjust the mechanics for the reload cycle and also attach a silencer and then pew?
@@SofaKingShit Removing powder from a rimfire cartridge is difficult for a number of reasons--but then you could simply buy the appropriate loading at your local gun store. The lower-powered 22 cartridges will have a lower signature--and if the bullet stays below the speed of sound there is no miniature sonic boom (more like a crack with bullets--supersonic aircraft displace more air when breaking the sound barrier). That's before the silencer is attached. as for adjusting the mechanics, see your gunsmith or armorer. For one thing, there are many variables in mechanical function of firearms. Back in the early 1920's it was a big deal to get any autoloader to function, so silenced firearms were initially manually operated or were single-shot weapons. The Welrod is a manually-operated pistol and since the major mechanical noise from pressing the trigger is from the striker, there's no clatter from the action until the Welrod's bolt is manipulated.
@@SofaKingShit would be easier to handload for subsonic or different powder burn rates if the ammo to that spec is not commercially available.
I wish you mentioned the fact that a suppressed subsonic .22 is possibly the quietest gun you could find. It’s honestly pretty cool how quiet those things are
An oil filter on an AR is pretty damn quiet too.
It needs to be a .22 subsonic round bolt action also that is the quietest suppressed gun I have ever shot!
B&T makes an incredibly quiet 9mm gun/suppressor combination with wipes instead of baffles. paired with subsonic 9mm ammo it is insane how quiet it is. ua-cam.com/video/Pv916w3vd_Y/v-deo.html
I agree. I think of it as quieter and about as effective as a dieseled 22 air rifle.
Can it do any damage though?
Another use for supressors in real life during covert ops is that they greatly reduce (but not eliminate) muzzle flash on a gun which helps make the shooter harder to spot.
I have heard that they hide the muzzle flash from the shooter, thereby preserving night vision.
I was under the impression that this was one of the primary reasons to run a suppressor in a military environment. Found it odd that he didn't bring it up.
Aaaaand of course the most important example is missing. There are videos here that address exactly that. If you combine sub-sonic ammo with a suppressor you will get exactly what these guys claim isn't possible. An almost silent gun.
The suppressor on my hunting rifle also dampens recoil, which I see as a valuable added benefit.
@@Mike-vs1gf it's used in military, because they're actually dampening the sound. Or spreading it so it's hard to detect the source of the shot.
Main problem with most of the "myth debunkers" - they never saw an actual use of these outside of the range. Yes, you can still hear a shot with silenced weapon - when you're near it in relatively quiet surroundings like ranges used for videos. Now imagine big city or ME bazaar instead and no microphone filters - only background sounds can easily reach over 100dB, we don't hear that just because we got used to it. In such surrounding you won't distinguish 90-120dB of a silenced shot even from 10 meters. Now imagine it's done from 40-50 or even 100m - people will understand that there's shooting going there by falling bodies rather than because of sounds. That's one of the situations silencers are used - when you need to minimize distance to the enemy before they'll understand there's fighting. Another one - suppressors spread the sound in such a way, that distinguishing shooters position by source of a sound is pretty hard even if you know there's a shooting.
That's why russians invented their 9x39 rifle - loudest sound it makes it's mechanical bolt movement. And it's meant to shoot targets at 100-200 meters (if you have russian friend claiming it's for 400+ meters - send him to get some selffucking) - noone around the target WON'T hear the shot at all. Their bigger thing - VSSK rifle - intended to penetrate 16mm of steel at 150-200 meters or make a sure kill at 600.
Ear defenders with a silencer?! Blimey, that would definitely change Bond’s look.
depends upon the caliber, the powder load/bullet grain, action of the gun, integral or external, how the silencer is built wheter baffles be rubber etc as well if the silencer is wet or dry
@@toomanyaccountsYeah this video didn't even mention wipes
I fired a suppressed Uzi smg back in the day, and iirc the sound of the bolt cycling back and forth was louder than the report. Suppressor didn't use simple baffles, it had a double helical thingy as well as a couple other odd-shaped internal components. Also, we fired subsonic bullets.
The end of what you wrote is the key, subsonic rounds. Regular rounds sound more like a crack than a bang out of a suppressor.
Aaaaand of course the most important example is missing. There are videos here that address exactly that. If you combine sub-sonic ammo with a suppressor you will get exactly what these guys claim isn't possible. An almost silent gun.
@@EbonyPopeYou really need a integrally suppressed gun like the Welrod which also employs rubber "wipes" which partially seal the bullet hole in front of the baffle. The best silencers use **multiple** wipes to contain as much of the gasses as possible. Those silencers are actually befitting of the name.
@@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017 Yes but that was my point. And even similar examples exist which is easily found here on YT. They didn't even do basic research for this video otherwise they would have mentioned it.
Good video. But one thing was missing: We don't really get a good feeling for how loud the noise actually is without and with a suppressor. This could have been achieved by giving us some reference sound while firing shots without and with a suppressor, e.g. by recording the sound of a person talking while shooting, or letting a person shoot standing next to a car with running engine.
That was what I was waiting for, but the video ended.
You can't really get proper reference through the video, because speakers can't produce sound that loud.
@@voidseeker4394 I get what you're saying but we're not asking to be able to recreate a 170 db sound but we just want to hear the sound difference. Like the difference between a firecracker going "pop" and a stick of dynamite going "BOOOOM!". I hope that makes sense.
@@JockoVstill not easy. The microphone will compress the peak sound level.
@@TommyTombstone Set the microphone further away so It's not blowing out the volume. Set it a mile away if needed so it's a faint "poof". I just want to hear the difference.
A 32 db decrease may not seem like a lot, but since the db scale is logarithmicit's actually quite a lot.
A 3 db decrease roughly halves the the sound of the energy produced, so doing that 10-11 times in a row is quite significant.
For reference, a normal conversation is around 60 db, a vacuum cleaner 80 db, a car horn 110 db, and a jet engine 120 db.
This is when people try to sound smart, but actually don't have idea what they're talking about...
@@PtrkHrnk That’s what stupid people say when they don’t understand.
And a TF or FC dragster is louder than all of them! LOL Glad you informed everybody that a 3db drop or increase is a roughly 100% change in noise level. The outdoor channel has a show about movie weapons & scenes. A muffler cut the report from a Beretta 92 by over 12 DB but they failed to note how much that really is.
Yep, 32 dB is a little over 1500 times reduction (1,584.89). The scale is defined as 10 dB = 10 times the power. with 3 dB being around 2 times by math. To find the exact amount on your calculator its 10 ^ (dB / 10)
I’ve always thought of them as a safety device more than anything
...and you would be right!
Correct. Saves your hearing.
If only legislators were that smart. The Canadian government seems to think that allowing suppressors would turn everyone into assassins but apparently in the UK most ranges won't let you in without one because ears can't be replaced
Except not in the US. You must pay the fed $200 for this safety device that saves your hearing, makes your gun less concealable, and more difficult in tight quarters because the US government believes that a suppressor makes the gun more deadly.
@@crissd8283it makes it easier to get away with murder, so that might be why
suppressors are also used to make muzzle flashes significantly less noticeable visually, making it harder for the enemies to spot your position during fire.
As someone who works with these things on a daily basis, it's refreshing to see accurate information being shared about them.
The noise of the Welrod Mark IIA.32-cal. silenced pistol being fired has been characterized as being no louder than the snapping of a finger. Developed by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), the Welrod was manufactured in two calibers --.32 (as displayed) and also in 9mm Parabellum.
It is audible up to 15-20 feet in quite, so not as far out as John wick, but it is still insanely quiet
Also: the silenced Sten Gun.....then the silenced Stirling......both exceptionally quiet....more noise from the working parts as opposed to bullet noise...along with the Welrod, the silenced Stirling was still in service in the eighties, probably still is....
The Welrod is the source of H'wood's silenced gun sound. They took the quietest silenced firearm sound and applied it universally.
@@SgtMjr After Alec baldwin incident, I am convinced that my 10 year old know more about guns that all of Hollywood combined.
@@dnagpal The Rust murder had the Weapons Master illegally bringing in live ammo, safety crew firing off live rounds with the movie guns, Hannah Gutierrez Reed hid her bag of cocaine and seems to have loaded a live round when she was hungover and smoking weed. A five year old should know that booze and bullets are a bad idea.
You can get Hollywood quiet with small subsonic calibers like 22lr, however, you are also ballistically neutered to slightly more than a BB gun.
You can also do that with a .45 ACP, which is actually a far better candidate for a conventional silenced weapon, as while the gunshot decibels are loud, they are mostly low frequency, which led to hard to hear gunshot sounds without the big crack. Specialized subsonic rounds like the 9x39mm or .300 Blackout also do the job well for it.
The .22lr is much more than a bb gun lol. A properly placed shot from one will kill instantly even at relatively long distances, whereas a bb gun is not likely to be lethal except at very close range.
@@georgesakellaropoulos8162 CCI quiet 22LR shoots at 710fps. About twice the speed of a Daisy Red Ryder.
My Gamo BB gun fires BBs at about 1000fps.
Silencers don't dampen the ballistics of the round. You've been video-gamed.
A very accurate explanation of how suppressors work, keep up the amazing content ! 😊
Thank you! And thanks for commenting ❤️
The video was uploaded 8 min ago, and your comment was posted 4 min ago so you can’t have watched it properly yet…
@DJurre358 I watched the parts i wanted to see and it certainly was to my enjoyment that he explained the silencer term 😁
@@uncommonsimon5775well ok
@DJurre358 Have a great day mate ! 😄
We used Silenced Sterling SMG's in reconnaissance (we only had a few in the whole squadron) and they were quite quiet. I was very impressed with the noise reduction of the Stirling when compared to other suppressed weapon systems we had available for missions/training.
It is possible to have a mostly quiet gun, but you'd need to use subsonic .22 (the smallest you can get). You'll still get noise from the action though
get a 45 or 50 cal air gun. you'll have a magnum cal handgun energy that sounds like a roofing nail gun
When I put my suppressor on a bolt action .22, it's far quieter than on a semi-auto gun. I *think* at least some of the sound on a blowback semi-auto .22 is detonation noise coming back through the action. I'm not sure about that but it does seem like there's more than just the clacking metal sound of a blowback action. On a bolt action it's just a popping noise like an air gun, but on a semi it's a clack and louder pop if you know what I mean?
My .50 air gun is as loud as a .22, but my single shot suppressed rifle in .32 S&W long is almost as quiet as Hollywood 😊
The SD variants of the MP5 (the ones with the integral suppressor) are near silent when using subsoni 9mm. The only noise you really har from them is the noise coming from the internals working.
@@dragonhealer7588 check out the texan LSS .50 with suppressor. it has a built in 18 inch suppressor, with option to screw on another. it's comically long and unwieldy, but it's unbelievably silent. you can see guys confused and wondering if it shot after pulling the trigger
I was kind of hoping for a more deep dive into subsonic rounds, but its nice that they were at least mentioned. Its nice to see a non-biased, third party outside pf the US gun debate touch on silencers. Very well done video, thank you!
no mention of Welrod, De Lisle, or silenced bullets like the KGB used. guess what there are hollywood quiet silenced guns used for wet work. One was a cigarette case and you could shoot someone in the middle of a pedestrian crossiing or in subway car with no thinking a gun had been fired
Silencers are also used to hide the muzzle flash, which is incredibly visible (especially at night) and gives away your position after a single shot.
Also, some guns with specific ammo can make the shot so quiet, that the gun mechanism is actually louder than the shot itself.
During WWII, the OSS created an automatic pistol for assassinations that was incredibly quiet - receiver made of stacked mesh washers, holes in the barrel to bleed gas, integral suppressor at the end of the barrel. Its report was said to be about as loud as striking a large kitchen match. But the auto loading system made an incredible amount of noise. So they changed the gun from an auto to a single shot. But you had to get very close to your target - bleeding off so much gas meant very little bullet energy.
Aaaaand of course the most important example is missing. There are videos here that address exactly that. If you combine sub-sonic ammo with a suppressor you will get exactly what these guys claim isn't possible. An almost silent gun. They could have known that if they had invested only five minutes of research.
@@EbonyPope I think the primary purpose of this video was to debunk the Hollywood myth.
@@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017 But it is not debunked which they could have known if they had researche on YT for five minutes. There are videos here that use sub-sonic ammo with a suppressor that sound exactly like in some Hollywood movies. They were lazy.
There are some older styles of suppressors that are much quieter, but they only work for 1 or 2 shots. Basically only designed for assassinations. They use baffles and also something called wipes, that actually make contact with the bullet as it exits, thus slowing down more of the expanding gases making it very quiet. But once you shoot it a few times, those wipes are basically worn down to where they no longer make contact and make that seal around the bullet and it'll lose its sound suppressing qualities.
Wipes are still common and last for more than one or two shots lol
@@orion8981 Um, go ahead and give more details then. I know for some people the internet is just for arguing with each other, but if you know more about the topic, why don't you share the information rather than "hurdur, this guy dumb, lawl"? Please do so. I've never used one with wipes before, so my knowledge on them is limited. I simply know they exist and was sharing that since this video was about suppressors...
Yes, thankyou for bringing up the topic of the use of replaceable wipes. One of the most important pieces of the real life suppressor lore!
I was at the local outdoor range on Monday. A guy had a 9x19 pistol with a suppressor. Basically it was slightly less than my .22LR pistol and without the sharp crack. I asked him about sound with and without, so he took it off and fired, and there was a significant increase along with the sharp crack of the bullet. Suppressed, you definitely heard the action and the noise of the slide. It was no where near silent, but it was greatly reduced, enough I could have shot without ear protection (I did). With muffs on, you hear both, but mainly you hear mechanical sounds when suppressed.
An army coronel, friend of mine, who was (he passed away few years ago) firermas instructor, once showed me a noise supressor which funcioned in a very silent way. He had placed tiny rubber disks between the chambers of the supressor. They didn't last very long as the sound increased on successive shots. It was years ago and I can't recall exactly how many shots he gave. As far as I remember some 10 or so. The wearing of the disk rubber caused them to be replaced after that. He used a semi auto pistol and caliber .45 which is a subsonic round as he put it. I presume in a city environment during the day one could barely notice the low noise it produced. Of course on top of a lone mountain at night it would be another matter.
Some parts of the world call suppressors "firearm mufflers" because the underlying science between car mufflers and suppressors is very similar. That and all modern car mufflers are based on Hiram Percy Maxim's designs, he was contracted to develop improved car muffler designs at the same time he was developing his silencer.
Well they were created by the guy who invented the car muffler. He just took the same design and resized it.
@@dominozaur98 Maxim doesn't get historical credit for inventing the car muffler, other designs (and patents) predate his by several years.
A firearms muffler is basically an expansion chamber & could work with a perforated tube with sound absorbtion material between the PT & the outside wall of the can with no baffles, same as magnflow & borla auto mufflers. The drawback would be the explosion would probably destroy the SA material.
Thanks for addressing this topic. Well made. My favourite movie misrepresenting silencers is “The Day of the Jackal” about the attempted assassination of DeGaulle, based on Frederick Forsythe’s book.
I saw that movie a very, very long time ago and the only thing I remember about it is I thought the book was much better. But then it's very rare for a movie to be better than the book it's based on.
From watching "Six Days of the Condor" I know for a FACT that a silenced submachine gun makes just a little plopping sound. Doesn't it?
@@wilhelmtaylor9863 -- READING "Six Days of the Condor" - this was the novel. The movie was "Three Days of the Condor".
Where we used to go shooting before Phoenix annexed the land, we drove up one day and there was a black van parked with a couple of guys testing out their newly made suppressor. It made a sound similar to whispering the word few with the supersonic snap down range. They managed to make a bolt action 308 silent. It was pretty impressive.
Silencers also suppress muzzle flash making it more difficult to see where a gun has been fired from. That’s also what openings at the end of a barrel do, making the flash quicker and more diffuse instead of a fireball that lingers for longer and therefore easier to spot.
From reports I've read, suppressors are most often used to protect the hearing of the shooters. There are a couple of very quiet guns that fire subsonic ammunition as well. The Welrod is such a pistol from WW2. The H&K MP5 SD is an SMG with an integrated suppressor where the mechanical sounds are louder than the gun shot as well. Funny enough, games get this mostly wrong, though game mechanics will usually trump realism every time anyway.
One film that has an interesting take on suppressed pistol shots is "Bourne Identity". At the end of the film there's a nice set of shots that echo quite realisticly. The shot isn't quiet, it's just so different that hardly anyone will ever recognize that as a gun shot.
Finally someone mentioned the Welrod. It was shown in the video but not mentioned, its VERY quiet from the tests I've seen.
For a supressor to be movie silent you MUST use subsonic ammo, and when you do 22LR for example is more silent then in the movies...
Not sure if they are required by law but I never see a hunting show filmed in Europe using a rifle without a muffler anymore.
As a owner of a few suppressors myself I like to see an accurate video on the subject. Thank you.
Seeing the woman at the end sinking the scope into her eye socket was horrific. She can't see anything through it and will never see again after pulling the trigger.
I would argue the 'suppression' capabilities were quite underestimated in this video. You can easily look for some real references and see interesting results.
Also comparing the crack of a bullet to a blender is quite inaccurate, as our hearing and perception also factor in the duration and pitch.
And I can say, as someone who was caught in the middle of a gunfight, with bullets being shot and hitting my vehicle, it took me a while to realize it was bullets.
My first reaction was to think about the sound of wood cracking while in a fireplace, then firecrackers, and only when the bullets started to hit my car I realized it was bullets.
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Silencers work incredibly well on airguns, especially pre-charged airguns. Because most Airgun ammo is Sub-sonic & the pressure is much less than powder burners you can get near silent performance.
Spring powered rifles do have louder action noise but down range you often only hear a muted click.
I have hunted with a silenced Airgun & the sound of the pellet impacting the quarry is often much louder than the shot report.
It's two things - firstly the supressor does lower the sound - but there is more to it - if you want a really take advantage of it you also need a subsonic ammunition which by design is made with lower powder charge to make the bullet subsonic to avoid the loud crack of going above the sound barrier.
By using both you can achieve very quiet shots and in many cases the sound of the gun cycling can be actualy louder than the shot itself. The added bonus is that the supressor will also help a lot with suppresing the muzzle flash - and it will keep the position of the shooter that way easier to conceal as well.
When I was in high school I found a book at a book fair that book was titled "Small arm silencers" and this book showed you how to make a silencer several different ways. After reading the book several times. I attempted to make one I found achievable. Going to True Value Hardware I picked up a few peace's of PVC and connecters along with a hose plunger. I was able to peace these parts together I rigid it to the end of the Gun Barrel I took it out side and at like 3am I shot a few rounds down range I was amazed on how quiet those rounds were and I heard the sliding of the ejection port but not much more than I fired the fifth sixth seventh round it was much much louder for every shot but those first three shots were very very quiet and at 3 a.m. in the middle of nowhere it's was quiet so I know it is very possible for a limited amount of rounds
Guns have 3 main sources of noise;1/the expansion of the gas,2/the sonic crack but as not all firearms are supersonic that doesn't always apply,3/the mechanical action of the weapon itself which particularly applies to semi/full automatic guns.
The ough of the victim
Expansion of the gas when it leaves the barrel becoming atmospheric.
You actually showed a picture of the Welrod pistol from WWII. It was so quiet with subsonic ammo that it could be heard approx. 15 meters away.
German soldiers hated these guns so much, they apperantly always kept their back towards the wall.
This pistol is one of the best in Sniper Elite by far.
Finally someone mentioned the Welrod. It was shown in the video but not mentioned, its VERY quiet from the tests I've seen.
Yes, but as the by far quietest gun ever, 15 meters is still crazy farther than what Hollywood portrays. And, it shoots a very under powered caliber compared to the "regular" calibers Hollywood shows being silent.
@@andycole5957 Agreed. I would still love to have one.
@@LexusLFA554 So would I, just as soon as they are taken off the NFA list. I was really surprised how effective they are just as a muzzle brake, without sending exhaust gasses backwards and sideways. My state allows me to, but I don't want to be on the NFA list, or have to get ATF permission to take my rifle across state lines for every match, hunting trip, or shooting trip in another state.
@@andycole5957 Gonna be fun in Germany as well 😬
There are a few subsonic cartridges available now, which when used with a good attenuator really can make gunshots quiet...but not Hollywood quiet.
The 'Welrod' in WW2 was test fired in a crowded Officers Mess and was unheard, subsonic rounds and close proximity achieved the purpose of reducing the sound to an 'ambient' noise allowing the shooter to escape detection. They were issued all over Europe and were very successful.
They don't reduce the muzzle velocity either lol.
I think some integral suppressors do.
Actually most silencers INCREASE velocity.
Longer Barrels = more velocity.
A suppressor/silencer extends the time a bullet is pushed by the expanding gas from the explosion.
You could technically call any gun a silencer
the perfect oxymoron
As in silencing permanently silencing pedophiles? Both my nieces were victims, I'd have preferred an ax myself.
The original patent calls it a silencer im fairly certain.
I tried a silencer on my M16 in Vietnam, not in the boonies, on a firebase. The biggest problem I noticed was that since the gases are trapped, when the brass is extracted a vacuum is formed and in the split second the bolt is open, the gases come back to the shooter. Slightly noticeable until the last round is fired and the bolt is locked back and the gases really pour out. With the last shot, my eyes watered so much, I could barely see. Not worth the weight to carry into combat.
It actually is possible to create a silent firearm, but it depends greatly on which calibre and cartridge you use. Some years ago, a clever friend of mine made himself a suppressor for a .22LR bolt action rifle he had. It was so quiet that it was possible to hear the sound of the bullet striking the target well down range. To do so with any kind of centre fire cartridge would have been much more of a challenge, but that suppressed .22 was a gem!
Need more folks like you speaking facts like these so that we can remove these pointless regulations on suppressors. Having to pay an additional $200 tax to the government on top of waiting 9-12mos is completely ridiculous, in my opinion. Thanks for this!
I am no expert on suppressors, but the best movie depiction I have seen has to be No Country for Old Men. The suppressed shots are still quite loud. In fact, the loudness of the shots appears to be intentionally masked by other loud noise like screaming and glass breaking. Chigurh also uses the air powered bolt gun for far more silent killing.
Great stuff, good and easy to understand explanation. However I think you missed a minor point. Silencers indeed barely make the gun quieter, but the bigger deal is that they lower the frequency noticeably, which is the main reason for it being harder to recognize and less harmful than the sharp higher frequency sound of unsilenced weapons.
There's little mention about pairing subsonic ammunition with suppressors to make it as quiet as possible. Subsonic ammunition isn't just limited to a single rifle.
One of the other uses of the reason the silencer is to stop the flash made by the shot of a gun
Very entertaining! I loved the graphic work and the video overall was satisfyingly well-made!
This made me wanna reorganize my whole muzzles for my CoD Load out 😂fr
suppressors are great tools to protect your hearing the fact that they are regulated should be crime
One disadvantage of a suppressor is it reduces the velocity of the bullet, which shortens it's range of travel before it starts to fall to the ground. However, since a suppressor extends the barrel length (and reduces with recoil) it also helps to improve accuracy.
It increases velocity.
@@whereswaldo5740 That's true about modern ones. The older ones decreased it because they had rubber gaskets.
@DoomFinger511 they are called wipers and actually touch the bullet. New suppressors have an increase in velocity. I have a chronograph and three suppressors. And yes legally with tax stamps through ATF
Barrel length has zero to do affecting accuracy, especially in a can where there is no bullet contact. In fact, many target rifles are cutting barrels to 20 inches because the increased time spent in the barrel increases the possibility of pulling the shot off target. 22LR Bullet velocity increases up to about 19.5 inches & starts decreasing after 20 inches, so 19-20 inches is ideal for a 22lr..
A comparison sound would have been helpful just as an example in this video.... Using the same weapon with and without a silencer / suppressor.
It does also depend on the quality and size of the suppressor, a massive high quality suppressor might make the sound of the target being hit louder than the weapon that shot it.
In The Last of Us part II we use a coca cola bottle and paper and it works just fine, hahaha
😂
The new NGSW is standardizing silencers to enable better communication on the battlefield. It's a huge bonus because even an open field weapons range the sound of gunfire is amazing loud. My first experience there was disorientation from the shockwaves of other fired weapons. It's one of those things people don't talk about.
The rifle's extended range also makes better use of the silencer, putting it out of easy target identification range. This keeps the enemy guessing. It's important when keeping the location of the squad or assault group as stealthy as possible in an age of snipers, precision mortar, and artillery fire.
Suppressors on revolvers are a movie trope. There is a gap between the end of the cylinder and the beginning of the barrel. Though small, it is enough to allow some of the expanding gasses to escape creating enough noise to render the supressor useless.
For the most awesome suppressor omitted: a modified M134 Minigun firing .338 magnum that uses a full spindle size suppressor, effectively giving each barrel far more volume to dissipate sound than a suppressor sized for the individual barrel or caliber.
I have an old Video on VHS, that debunks suppressors. Showing (if you didn't know it otherwise) that a revolver can't be silenced, as the gases escape from the barrel, but also at gaps around the chamber. Also the current at the time firearms that could be most closely silenced, were those firing .22 lead projectiles (which are slower and the projectiles do not go faster than the speed of sound). Also a .45 APC round, a large powerful projectile that also is by it's size, slower and does not go faster than the speed of sound.
My favorite misconception about suppressors, is how loud the gun mechanically is. Take a gun and "rack" it back fast and let go. Granted firing the gun makes it go back much faster, but even that sound is super loud and could easily be heard on a different floor of house, let alone across the room. So even IF the gunshot was totally silent, just the action of an automatic firearm is pretty loud. A very few calibers are quiet enough to shoot without hearing protection with a suppressor without causing hearing damage, or at least still ringing the ears pretty good.
Well, as for cal 22 I have made several ”silencers”, the effect of which the sounds of the bullet impact and the bolt/hammer sound by far exceed the sound at the muzzle wth subsonic ammo. As soon the muzzlespeed is greater than the speed of sound you get a bang, fairly moderate for i.e. cal 17, but 308 or 30-06 are almost as loud with supressors as without
Thanks for addressing this topic
Great work on describing this thing. The best thing they do is reduce the damage to the ear/hearing when you practice controlling and aiming at your home range. My range is 20m away at a 400mmX400mm target. I'm just saying. Gulf War Vet 1990-1991.
I remember an episode of "Mail Call" with R. Lee Ermey about Supressor vs. LOUD on the range. He said that a Supressed rifle sounds like the slamming of a car door, unlike the supersonic CRACK! of the unmuffled weapon.
I have shot a newly made Suppressor for a 22LR. It was a 10" Barrel with integral Suppressor. With the first round, I heard the action close to fire and then I heard the bullet wizz thru the Air. After a dozen shots the sound came up to about the level of a soda can being opened.
The only realistic moment from the entire Bourne series was the quiet scene when a person was eliminated at night with a suppressed weapon. The “spak” sound of the weapon and its subsonic ammunition was accurate.
Thank you for solidly based information. I've been around a lot of suppressed firearms as they've been shot and most are anything but quiet. Handguns like the very low pressure .45 ACP are still audible at 1/2 mile outdoors. The report is muted enough to make hearing protection optional. Rifles are still audible for long distances. I have shot one "Hollywood quiet" suppressed firearm. It was a Ruger 10/22 rifle equipped with a suppressor designed for full auto fire on an M-16, shooting subsonic (reduced velocity) ammunition. The ammunition wasn't powerful enough to cycle the semiautomatic action so all that was heard was the tick of the firing pin.
And thank you for your informational comment 👍
there does exist a near-fully silenced gun.
it does take a 22 caliber, sub sonic rounds, and of course, a suppressor.
but the effort you get after that is a gun that is quieter than the steel targets its shooting.
Can't wait for the next movie or stealth game to involve important characters using crossbows in a modern society full of guns simply because of how ineffective suppressing a gun is.
5:00 It should be noted that going from 150 dB to 120 dB means 1000 times reduction in the aspect of energy! In other words, 1000 guns with the suppressors like that being fired at the same time would have the same "loudness" as 1 similar gun being fired without the suppressor.
It's something clear to people who have learned about "dB", but it may leave wrong impression (for example: incorrectly understanding that it's only a ratio of 120/150 (=20% reduction)) on people who haven't learned that.
Halving the energy is reduction of 3 dB, but perception wise a reduction 10 dB will give the impression that the sound level has been halved due the the expression of changes In air pressure(pascals) being expressed as decibels after being logged to give a scale that is easier to relate to.
Favorite movie Assassins with Banderas and Stallone. The 1911 Colt is the assassin's weapon of choice because the muzzle velocity is subsonic. The round arrives on target without the characteristic crack. A smaller charge will achieve subsonic muzzle velocity in other makes of handgun. A gunsmith will modify the firearm so that it has to be cycled manually, as a good chunk of the sound would escape the breech as the cartridge is automatically extracted. Thus the integral silencer. A silenced revolver or bolt-action rifle is quieter for the same reason. A real assassin firing a rifle from cover where noise suppression is vital to the shooter's survival would probably use a silencer with a much larger diameter and a prismatic sight. The silencers on modern cars are eerily effective.
My friends home made silencer silenced a 22 long to a small fire cracker, the 22 short was as silent as the crack of the hammer and the air moving. They can be more effective than you might think.
It would forgotten mostly that you need another ammo too (subsonic bullets). The range is smaller so the loudest sound comes from the mechanic parts of the gun.
I own several suppressors. My favorite is a Suppressor for a .22 Rimfire Rifle. When I shoot sub-sonic ammo all you can hear is the click of the firing pin hitting the cartridge.
On the other hand is the suppressor I have for an AR-15 style rifle. It is still loud and I usually wear ear plugs when I use it.
One thing I know that has worked fairly well was a 2 liter bottle over the end of the pistol... Never heard the shots fired at the storekeeper outside his shop just across the street from my house late at night when he closed his store (25 years ago)... it was before I went to bed, and I do not listen to TV.
Apparently the most effective suppressor was integral used in WW2 by the SOE. its baffles were closed off allowing only a limited number of shots before they needed to be replaced.
I think the later pew pew sound was inspired by the coolness of Star Wars laser blasters
You can drastically reduce the noise of a suppressed firearm by using subsonic ammunition, in other words, ammunition that travels at less than the speed of sound.
It’s a common misperception that suppressors render a firearm silent.
However numerous studies have proved that suppressors can have a very meaningful impact on the protection of other peoples’ hearing (that is to say those in relative close proximity to someone firing a firearm, but not the shooter themselves who should still wear hearing protection). As an example, it could be a bystander standing 10-15m away from a firing range.
The resulting sound would still be quite loud, but much more manageable, especially for bystanders located further away from the source.
The silencer can only work lime in movies or games if you use subsonic ammo. Subsonic ammo can technicaly be any calliber but with a different powder charge, so that upon firing the bullet won't go faster than the speed of sound ( 340 m/s). If you use a bullet that doesn't have a muzzle velocity over 340 m/s and a quality silencer you should get quite a noice reduction. It's kinda like a loud pssst. If you don't use subsonic ammo but still have a silencer, the effect is different. It's quite loud, and you cann hear crackling in the air.
There are other factors too besides subsonic. They are mufflers, NOT silencers but a 12 db reduction is well over 400% sound reduction.
This video repeats the often quoted 85 decibel noise level of the Delisle Carbine. This noise level was obtained with antiquated noise meters. Modern noise meters and microphones have measured the noise level at about 120 decibels. This is very good for a 45 caliber firearm with a large silencer bore that tends to let out lots of noise. I don't have a link to support my claim.
120db is probably the norm. NHRA requires Sportsman class cars to run mufflers quieting them to 90DB at X number of feet away from the side of the car. 90 is still quite loud.
@@bradgriffith4231 The very short duration impulse noise of a gunshot appears to be less noisy than it actually is. This is why some people think that subsonic 22lr out of a rifle is hearing safe when it actually is not. 140 dB is the usual limit for gun fire. There are also time constraints.
And that is why they're NOT silencers but suppressors.
They don't make a gun silent, they only suppress the sound.
There was a gun once, which i sadly don't remember the name of, which was shortly shown in the video though, that was actually able to come close to the mentioned pew sound. They achieved this, by having an integrated supressor, that had leather plates in the muzzle, without a hole for the bullet, leading the bullet to pierce the leather each time, reducing the sound to a minimum. The design was not continued because you could only fire a few shots, before the plates didnt supress the sound anymore, meaning youd have to change out the supressor every few shots
You can see the design at 2:48
Welrod.
There are several weapon/suppressor models available that are barely audible ... including the two revolvers shown at the beginning of the video. There is even one where there is NO audible discharge, but that is NOT available commercially, for obvious reasons. So, some scenarios, such as the John Wick clip, are actually possible.
I knew that the movie sound of silencers was pure crap. Still, I was disappointed at how loud my silenced 22 was. The long rifle round sound from my 10-22 or my pistol was every bit as loud as a non-silenced 22 short. That mistaken efficiency of the silencer is what has kept them illegal.
Favorite movie suppressor would probably be Lone Survivor
I’ve used CCI .22 quiet in my rifle and id say that the point is that it’ll make a sound but it wouldn’t register in most people’s head as gunshots.
I couldn't help but notice in your last scene, that the woman had the rifle scope pressed firmly into her eye socket, causing her head to twitch when she fired. Hardly as professional assassin.
I had a chance to shoot an internally suppressed 22 caliber Ruger bolt action rifle a few years ago. Using subsonic 22 ammunition at 25 yards you could hear the bullet strike the target. The report from the rifle was amazingly low. That said, I totally agree with the general point being made in this video. On larger caliber weapons the sound levels are disappointingly loud. Recoil reduction, reduced muzzle flash and reduced muzzle rise are the main benefits on those weapons.
Usually the reason for larger calibers being loud even with a suppressor is because they are not shooting with subsonic speed ammunition. If you do that even a 45ACP (large 12mm diameter heavy bullet that normally is subsonic) it is surprisingly silent and deadly.
Put supersonic ammy in a 22LR rifle and it is not silent anymore even with a huge supressor. But it will be considerable less loud. With my Ruger KMK 512 pistol in 22LR I could shoot without hearing protection with CCI stinger ammo that is powerful and supersonic and a big supressor. But with subsonic ammo the action of the mechanism was louder then the sound of the bang... (also the pistol would not cycle because the ammo was to weak to load the next round).
A host on an Outdoor Channel gun show was talking about the natural terrain longe range shooting Precision Rifle events now & said that headaches caused by firing well over 100 rounds in an event are eliminated by using a muffler. The concussion, even when wearing hearing protection, still causes headaches without the muffler.
the Welrod (both mk1 and mk2) where truly silent for the first shot but after the first round had penetrated the solid rubber baffles concurrent shots where suppressed but audible up until approximately the 5th round when the baffles had been damaged to the point that they where all but useless. both the mk1 and mk2 could replace the baffles but it was a laborious job and could not be done "on the fly" (the mk2 was easier because baffle replacement was designed into the firearm and it also came with a set of replacement rubber baffles).
Surprised not more movies used the DeLisle Carbine. That thing is decently accurate AND actually near-silent
The gun doesn't have to be all that quiet to be ignored. Consider that a 9mm pistol with a silencer shooting subsonic bullets will be about as loud as a car-door slamming. But inside of your home or in a mall parking lot, there are car doors slamming all the time, and you hear it... .but the you mentally ignore it as quickly as you hear it. That's the thing with silencers -- they can still be heard, but they're just not noticed.
FYI, more states in the US allow silencers than states that prohibit them. They're relatively common. I myself have 3: two 9mm silencers, and one for a 22LR. The one for the 22LR _IS_ as quiet as Hollywood makes them sound. But here's the thing, if you own a handgun, then lock the slide back... now release it. That huge "ka-CHUNK" occurs with every shot, because with every shot the slide will slam shut. So no, it'll never be "silent"... but again, it doesn't need to be. People don't call 911 over the sound of a car-door slamming.
Great video.
Would have been nice to talk little more about super sonic vs sub sonic rounds.
Guns fired with the right type of bullets can almost sounds like in Hollywood (.22lr, .45acp, .300blk,heavy 9x19 147/158gr,..)
I’m surprised the HK MP5SD didn’t get a mention. When used with subsonic ammunition, the click of the bolt cycling is louder.
You can use both subsonic with suppressors which basically makes them silent. And eliminates the need for hearing protection if both are used but ofc depends on the caliber being used.
105dB is hardly silent
When I was a lad in the TA many years ago the range warden got on the nerves of the permanent staff instructor (PSI) by telling him (rudely) that he couldn't train us with SMGs on the pistol range. The PSI fetched a silenced Sterling and one of my happiest memories is of standing on the range, firing from the hip, and watching chips of wood fly out of the posts with the targets on. It sounded like a sewing machine.