dose a silencer affect a bullets bath.

"dose a silencer affect a bullets bath."
Yes, it stops it singing.

Not to sound condescending but the term "silencer" is strictly a Hollywood term. In the small arms business we call it a "sound supressor".

In theory, any device attached to the muzzle can degrade accuracy. Flash suppressors, sound supressors, muzzle brakes, and even bayonets have the potential to disrupt the bullet's initial trajectory, either by disrupting gas flow or by changing the barrel oscillation (a transverse wave that runs through the barrel).

Particularly germain to your question, some sound supressors have "wipes" at the exit port. Wipes actually touch the bullet as it passes through. Wipes reduce gas blow-by and allow greater noise reduction... but at the expense of accuracy.

SOME sound suppressors have wipes, as far as I know the vast majority do not. In any case suppressors mostly improve accuracy by reducing the amount of blow-by gases. As far as the barrel vibrations, I'm not sure how suppressors affect those.

"SOME sound suppressors have wipes, as far as I know the vast majority do not. In any case suppressors mostly improve accuracy by reducing the amount of blow-by gases. As far as the barrel vibrations, I'm not sure how suppressors affect those."

Right on. What I have to add is little more than an exercise in hair-splitting. Sovietspyguy, you probably already know this stuff, so please bear with.

Match-grade boattail bullets are stabilized by the muzzle blast just as the bullet leaves the muzzle (it's a commonly-accepted theory at any rate). If we're talking about a finely-tuned rifle with a pristine crown, a *screw-on* supressor can only hurt accuracy.

Integral suppresssors, on the other hand, are built around the barrel and hence should not distort the muzzle jet. Integrals don't use wipes. There are holes drilled along the length of the barrel to bleed off the hot gas and divert it into the suppressor.

Regarding the barrel oscillation, again we have a situation where *if* the barrel has been tuned to optimum (meaning the shockwave in the steel will have a node very close to the muzzle) and then *afterword* you add a long heavy suppressor, accuracy will suffer to some degree. But if the rifle was never tuned for wave motion in the first place... then who knows? The added length of a screw-on (or the added stiffness of an integral) may well *improve* the barrel's wave harmonics.

All of this is academic since few suppressed arms are finely-tuned tack-drivers. The difference would be very hard to measure in an MP5 smg.

Nah, I don't know all of the ins-and-outs of suppressor design, although I'm sure YOU already knew that.

I just spend too much time on various gun forums, trying to separate the truth from the fiction. Until recently I had a hard time believing that a barrel could even vibrate enough to significantly affect accuracy...until I watched some high speed videos that is. The physics behind firearms are a lot more complicated than it would seem as first glance, and it doesn't get any better the more you learn.

Thanks for the elaboration.