On my last forensic post, one of the commenters wanted more information about silencers. So, here it is:
Why do guns make so much noise?
1) When ignited, gunpowder produces a huge amount of rapidly expanding gases. These expanding gases propel the bullet out of the gun. The loud bang noise is created when the bullet is forced out of the end of the barrel at high speed.
2) The second is the supersonic crack of the bullet. It is not possible to reduce the sound level of a supersonic bullet. For a sound moderator to be really effective, it must be used with ammunition whose projectiles travel at less than the speed of sound.
What are suppressors (silencers)?
A silencer is typically made up of a long steel cylinder. The cylinder will be much wider in diameter than that of the caliber of gun that the particular silencer is designed for.
 |
| Click to Enlarge |
The second section consists of a series of metal baffles, with a central hole to allow the passage of the bullet. The function of the baffles is to progressively deflect and slow the flow of gas emerging from the expansion chamber, so that by the time the gases emerge from the silencer, their flow is cooler, at low velocity and silenced.
What can you do to silence a gun completely?
Because two things make a boom noise when you fire a gun, two things need to be silenced.
1) The pressure of gas- if you only silence the pressure of the gas, you will still here a loud sound because the bullet is supersonic - likely to produce a muffled crack, or to sound like a car door being slammed.
2) The second is a sonic boom as the bullet breaks the sound barrier. To silence this bang, you need to use subsonic bullets or ammunition.
What home-made silencers work?
1) A plastic soft drinks bottle can be made into a fairly efficient silencer that will work for a limited number of shots before it breaks up.
2) Wet silencers (not really home-made) but you can find more info here.
What home-made silencers DON'T work?
1) Potatoes at the end of the barrel definitely don't work - unless your plan was to shoot a potato.
2) The pillow doesn't really help, either, though it does have the benefit of minimizing or negating blood splatter during the shooting.
3) In the 2007 film Shooter, a silencer was made out of a can filled with socks. It would have been better if the socks had been left out, since all they would do was take up space that the gas could have expanded into. 4) Most packing materials are useless.
Some really good YouTube videos showing silencers (suppressors) in action. In the second video, the man is using a suppressor however, he is not using subsonic bullets.
Sources: ehow, io9.com, http://www.swrmfg.com/, newsoftpedia.com
Picture source: here
25 comments:
What if I did want to shoot the potato?
Well, Alex, he's gonna hear the bullet coming and split.
CD
OMG, I'm so sorry. That was a terrible joke.
CD
Lord, how do you find time to gather all these facts? I ever write a character with a gun, to heck with the silencer. I'll just throw the split potato!
By the way, loved the techno on your trailer.
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow
THanks, Jules. It doesn't take much time to do the research but it's so important when you're writing to get the facts straight.
CD
A decade of watching CSI and still didn't know most of that!
Clarissa - Thanks so much, as always, for this useful information. You know, it's funny; I haven't included a gun murder in any of my writing, because I know so little about firearms. I think I'm going to make a separate file of your posts about firearms, bullets and so on, and get myself an eddycation on the topic.
But, really? Are we ever going to need to know all this?
CD
Margot, it's never really been used in my novels either. I use guns but most readers don't really want to read all this.
CD
This was so fascinating and informative. Thanks for posting!
You're welcome, Amanda. Glad you liked it.
CD
hi miss clarissa! that was sooo cool. im saving your gun stuff cause i got a spy story im gonna write and its got guns in it. i didnt think about a silencer but that could be good in my story. you always write such neat stuff.
...smiles from lenny
I laughed at the potato joke! Guess I'm terrible!
I don't write mystery, but I did find this information very interesting and informative.
ha! I didn't realise that the bullets make a sound too! Fascinating stuff! :)
Lenny, glad you liked it.
Ann, you liked my potato joke, huh? I'm glad you learned something.
Lynda, I didn't either until I did the research.
CD
This is great stuff! I now feel qualified to give my suspense novel bad guy a silencer. :)
Patricia
Fascinating stuff. Thanks for this.
All the best, Boonie
I've yet to need a silencer in anything I've written, but I'm filing this away for future use.
Good stuff. And I LOVE looking at Daniel Craig, too :)
This was very informative - and you are amazing! Seriously.
Helen
I always wondered about those silencers!
Congrats on the selection over at Karen's blog, BTW!
Patricia, oh, exciting. Can't wait to read about it.
Boonie, you're welcome.
Alissa, good idea.
Carol, isn't he dreamy? He can pull a gun on me any day.
Helen, wow, thanks. I appreciate that.
Talli, thanks. I feel privileged.
CD
Good list! I will use it the next time I want to strangle my readers-- I almost did a month ago:)
hmmm, I always thought a silencer was a series of tiny pillows inside a metal tube. That would have made my mystery novel sound ridiculous!
Clarissa...sorry..I wasn't sure if you got my emails..
I sent you a chapter a week or so ago.. Let me know if you didn't get it, I will resend.
I may be going into spam or something :)
Post a Comment