Disclaimer: This article provides no legal advice. Do NOT try this at home without familiarizing yourself with and complying with local and federal ATF laws. Otherwise, you may find yourself taking up a new residence and making new friends.

 

Suppressors

In my last article, Check Out the Suppressed Shotgun, I introduced suppressors – how they work, and some of the issues involved in working with them.

Suppressors are tubes mounted to the muzzle of a firearm to reduce the sound of a gunshot. The loud report of a gunshot comes from two sources. First, when a shot is fired, burning powder in the cartridge expands and propels the bullet through the rifle barrel. When the hot gasses exit the muzzle, they are supersonic, and that creates a loud report. Second, a supersonic bullet generates a sonic boom audible all along its trajectory until it slows down.

The suppressor tube contains a series of baffles. The baffles slow down the expanding gases and cool them. By the time the gases escape, the sound of the report has been reduced. Depending on the construction of the suppressor, this can be very effective, but it does not eliminate the crack of a supersonic bullet. For this reason, suppressors work best with subsonic ammunition.

 

Types of Suppressors

For the purpose of this article, we’ll talk about two types of suppressors. They are classified by their internal baffle construction. These are 1) Stacked Baffle Suppressors and 2) Monolithic Baffle Suppressors.

The type of suppressor selected has implications for the construction method and its performance. The monolithic baffle suppressor is simpler to construct. The stacked baffle suppressor is more complex, but has considerable advantages in terms of suppressor efficiency.