Muffling gunshots

[40MM]

Hi Guys and Gals...

I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with creating a contraption to muffle the sound of handguns? (I'm obviously not talking about silencers of suppressors here!). Something i could build so it would lessen the sound of the shot from my 9MM or even my .357. Thanks in advance.

[CALNRA]

I believe the very goal of muffing the shots would make anything you use to be classfied as a silencer/supressor and therefore a big no-no in the eyes of the BATFE.

[Hkmp5sd]

As long as it does not attach to the firearm, it is ok. I've heard of folks using a row of tires to shoot through to reduce the sound, but have no idea how effective it would be. Obviously, the supersonic bullet will not be affected by such devices and still be very loud.

[40MM]

I was considering the tire thing but do you think a long, rolled up piece of carpet will work? The reason I'm asking is, i don't want to disturb my neighbors due to the gunshots!

[rogn]

I have heard of people using a 55 gal drum with holes cut in the ends big enough to aim thru with out too much in the way. The outer surface of the drum is lined with foam rubber , which may need to be replaced periodically depending on how much smoke you send thru the drum. I think I remember a commercial GS using this to make life more comfortable in the shop. I have fired thru a large roll of old foam rubber and it does moderate the noise, but nothing will eliminate it alltogether. This is portable and should not run afoul of any laws regarding suppression so far as I know. Should make the neighbors more happy also.

[Bob42]

Well 40MM I don't know where you live, but here in Washington State what you describe is probably illegal. According to RCW 9.41.250 section three (link)
"Every person who... Uses any contrivance or device for suppressing the noise of any firearm, is guilty of a gross misdemeanor". Also, where are you shooting that you are worried about disturbing your neighbors?

[Double Naught Spy]

So Bob42, what you are saying is that accoustic tiles on the walls of an indoor range would be illegal because they are there to suppress the noise of gunfire?

I am going to guess that the law pertains to items attached to firearms, as noted above. It would be a distinction between actual suppression versus noise abatement.

[FS2K]

SHAME ON YOU GUYS!!!! LOL!

Double Naught Spy's suggestion of a sound proof room is the only potentially LEGAL suggestion. 40MM, your rolled carpet idea is illegal, not to mention a fire hazard (have you learned nothing from the GodFather?!?!LOL!)
What CALNRA said is right. Thanks for the link Bob, it was informative.

That all said and done, IN THEORY one of the easiest sound dampening device for a firearm that is not to be called a silencer or supressor for legal reasons is;

A PVC or steel pipe (like an exhaust pipe) and some tennis balls (or any hollow core rubber ball). Stuff the pipe with the rubber balls and shoot through them. You will need to seal the muzzle end however, which means attaching it to the gun...WHICH IS ILLEGAL in most states, even states that allow Surpressor ownership. The rubber balls seal themselves as the bullet passes through them (2 membranes per ball) thus muffling the sound....IN theory.

The liter bottle thing doesn't work. The rolled carpet/towel thing is messy and messes up anything that can be considered as accuracy, therefore USELESS. The most you will get is a cloud of carpet fibers and maybe fire, LOL! Even the rubber ball theory is only marginally effective for sound surpression and only good for one or two shots at best.

So, better not to waste your time and risk your freedom and DON'T mess around with it.

[Ronny]

Aguila subsonic ammuntion in 22LR, primer only. Sounds like someone clapping their hands.

For the larger calibers, apart from building a crazy contraption out of garage trash and duct tape, a legally obtained suppressor is more practical.

[paramedic70002]

I was once told that if you fire through the neck of an empty 2 liter bottle, you can muffle the blast by about 80%. Of course this only works once, and your hand is in front of the muzzle.....

[deadin]

All of this so you can shoot someplace you probably shouldn't be shooting in the first place?

[snolden]

A suppressor is not THAT expensive, for goodness sakes. I can get one from Gem Tech for around 800 bucks including the NFA stuff. One for my .308 FAL would run around 1200 bucks all told.

That is fairly insignificant to using a roll of carpet once or twice then having to find or buy another one.

[tulsamal]

One of the gun writers did a piece years ago about something like this. He had a range on his property but he didn't want to subject his rural neighbors to the sound of high powered rifle fire day in and day out. You keep them happy, they don't fuss about you and everybody is allowed to keep up their preferred behavior. I'm certainly "allowed" to shoot on my 90 acres but I have a neighbor a couple hundred yards away (on the other side of the gravel road) and it would be nice for both of us if I built and used something like this.

Anyway, the gun writer lined up a bunch of tires in front of his bench. The part of my memory that I can't retrieve is what he put inside the tires. It seems like they were somehow lined with gravel but held in there with chicken wire? That doesn't sound like it would work. You could pour cement in each individual tire. Anyway, use your imagination. Then line up half a dozen tires or so. Wire them tightly together. On some type of holding device in front of your rifle bench. Close enough that several inches of the muzzle are actually inside the first tire. You sight right through them. No attachment whatsoever so no legality problems. You aren't going to affect the supersonic crack of a rifle bullet but you can cut down on the muzzle blast quite a bit. It would not only be nice for your neighbors but I think it would make some really loud rifles more pleasant to actually shoot. You could do the same thing with a handgun as long as the recoil wasn't severe enough to cause the gun to bang into the top of the tires. (I looked all over the internet one day trying to get lucky and find the article but never did.)

Gregg

[FS2K]

For all we know, he as a 30lb. rat terrorizing the trash cans between his house and his neighbors, and the only way to take it out is firepower....LOL!

**Oh +1 on the Aguilla "Super Sniper" .22 Subsonics!

And that 2 liter bottle silencer doesn't work too well, and neither does the CSI potato silencer.

[mgdavis]

I don't belive anybody is talking about holding carpet to the muzzle and then firing. Picture the 55 gallon drum. Take off the top and bottom. Line the inside with 3 inches of foam rubber. Now picture that drum laying on its side on top of a couple sawhorses. Put the whole assembly at your backyard range. Now sit at one end, with the muzzle of your weapon inside the foam-lined barrel. Point at a target downrange. Picture yourself squeezing that trigger, the gun going off, and a portion of the noise being absorbed by your barrel. Sounds like a good way to avoid annoying the neighbors to me.

Edit: Whoop, I wish I'd read tulsamal's post all the way through.

[Smokey Joe]

As a related question, how about the technique perfected in Hollywood where the BG shoots the victim through a pillow? Couldn't aim the pistol, of course, but at the ranges it was used (like across a bed) it might work.

Of course, I know, it's Hollywood.

[MD_Willington]

When I was a teen back in Canada we used a pile of empty "tall boy" aluminum beer cans on an old .22 over at my buddies place one weekend just to see what it would do. Worked for ~ 5 rounds, after that the bottom of the can was shot out... We got in crap since beer cans were worth $0.10 a piece returned

I've never messed around with anything like that as an adult... not worth it when you're over 18

[Bill DeShivs]

You could stuff fiberglass insulation in the tires. I would cover it with foam rubber or "Armorflex." remember to drill a hole in the bottom of the tires- mosquitos and water.
You can also buy a 3-4" diameter glasspack muffler for a truck and shoot through that- just don't attach it to the gun.
Or, you could just shoot out an open window from inside the house.
Bill

[guntotin_fool]

some of us live in states that ban suppressors so using a baffle box is the only way to hush the gun. Although some laws are unclear about the wording when using a contraption to muffle sounds, in reality, if you are using a fixed shooting site, at targets with a fixed device to reduce the sound signature, i think you will be fine.

I have made the tire baffle system using chunked up sound foam to fill the tires and using a piece of hardware cloth/chicken wire to hold the foam in place, I would say that at fifty feet, the reduction in apparent sound was close to 50%. Instead of a big bang, it was much more like a heavy thud, still loud, but much less sharp. getting smaller tires, IE 13 inch rims makes it more effective but less accomodating to different shooting uses. Ours was 10 155rx13 tires from a place that did a lot of old honda civics.

WE have a small hut on our property to allow us to shoot even in the winter or in the rain. Where the shooter sits to aim down range, we built a little "dog house" that sticks out where there is a table to hold the steady rest and and about 6 feet past the muzzle. The inside of the dog house is lined with about 10 layers of accoustic fire tile, gotten from a school that was remodeling, they are all used, but still sound. When a rifle is fired from in side the shoot house, maybe 65% of the noise is deadened. It really makes a difference for the people up at the house,

[death2twinkys]

Undoubtly the vagueness of the supressor laws is done at least halfway on purpose to give LE a little bit more give in these situations. The tire idea seems to make the most sense, but you might consider filling the tires with some kind of fiber like old clothers or somthing like that. Since clothe really is a very good sound suppressor, but you would have to pack it fairly tight I would imagine.
I remember right before I moved out of Montana and didnt give a damn what my neighbors thought (they started hassling me before we even started building our house) me and a few friends would sight in our rifles on my drive way, granted we had a few acres and of course shot in a safe direction but it would have been nice to have one of these since my neighbor came over and tried to convince me that I wasn't at home and threatened to call the home owner I laughed at him.

[PointOneSeven]

Pillow works. But you only get one shot unless you use a revolver. Even then, pillow might get stuck in the wheel.

Also, besides limited aiming, the bullets that come flying out of there keyhole. So forget proper expansion.

[tipoc]

40mm,

It's hard to answer the question when it's kind of vague. That vagueness is why folks are talking about everything from rolls of carpet to silencers, to tire contraptions. It'd be helpful to have a better idea of your situation. Are you shooting in your basement, backyard? Is your place in a city or town or in a rural area. How close are your neighbors? What are you shooting? Why do you want to suppress the sound? etc.

Knowing what you want to do and why would help some.

tipoc

[death2twinkys]

I thought the only people mentioning vaugness were people mentioning silenceing laws..

[Dave R]

An alternative is to use Speer's plastic training bullets, which are powered by primer only. You can use your real pistols, and shoot "practice ammo." The report is like a loud cap gun. I shoot in my garage a lot with them. Great for doing "draw from concealment" drills, which you really should do if you CCW, and many ranges don't allow fast drawing. My draw time and first shot accuracy have improved markedly since I started drilling.

If you use a revolver, you can use them without any reloading equipment (although a hand-priming tool and a decapping press would help.) You can use them with semi-autos, too, but you really need about $50 in reloading equipment to use them that way.

I shoot them in 9mm, .380acp and .45acp.

[Samurai]

Asbestos insulation fiber is a miracle-product in this line of work. Spray the inside of a room with asbestos insulation, and it'll be sound-proof. Noone on the outside will be able to hear the firing range inside.

Of course, you'll get cancer and die when you're 30, but noone will hear you die, either!