I know how much Jamie and Adam like gun myths and I love to watch them so how about a show/segment about silencer myths. The Mythbusters could test if silencers really work, how quite they really make a gun, do they really just screw onto a gun, if they work then whats the science that actually does it, etc. They could also test movie silencers like potato silencer, soda bottle silencer, or using a pillow. And yes I know that silencers are illegal pretty much everywhere but it would still be fun to watch.

Well seeing as silencers are illegal in every state ( i believe) showing people how to make them, there real world effectiveness and so on may not be exactly mythbusters material.

[quote]Well seeing as silencers are illegal in every state[/quote]

Silencers are legal to own in many states in the U.S.A.

Manufacturing a suppressor either improvised or otherwise is another matter altogether.

It is legal to own a suppressor (no such thing as a siliencer)as long as you pay the $200 tax to the Federal government.

Here is a little info on suppressor ownership:

http://www.shootingtimes.com/longgun_reviews/st_straightsuppressors_200807/index.html

BTW, even if you live in a state where ownership is legal, your chief law enforcement officer has no legal obligation to sign your paperwork.

And, each and every legal suppressor has to be serial numbered.

Like, I'm sure that in the county that I live in, the sheriff would sign it, but if I lived in Portland, I'm not so sure the chief of police would.

Me and my bro know the sheriff. He taught a class for my brother's CJ major too.
I remember hearing from him he even recognized my name when I got my CCW

if suppressors did not work why would there be companies making them? a suppressor usually reduces the noise by 30-35 db, but reduces the concussion drastically. with large guns its more a pop then a kaboom and small guns its more a tick then a pop, if that makes any sense.

about ownership... it is legal in most states to buy own or manufacture a silencer (atf term) ive never bought one but i am in the process of manufacturing one. the process is as follows- go to atf website and order a forum 1 packet. when you receive it fill out the fourm 1 in duplicate, print cards in duplicate and certificate of compliance. mail them to the atf with a check for 200 dollars. wait until it returns APPROVED then you make your suppressor. the suppressor must be stamped with your name, city, state and ser number.

it's just that easy

[quote]It is legal to own a suppressor (no such thing as a siliencer)[/quote]

Actually, it's technically more correct to call it a silencer than it is a suppressor. Suppressor is not now, nor has it ever been, the actual name of the device as patented by Hiram Percy Maxim (Hiram Stevens Maxim's son) in 1909 as "Silent Firearm". U.S. Patent Number 916,885

The word suppressor is another word for it, but with an enthusiast origin, and is actually the slang word contrary to what enthusiasts would have you believe. Unfortunately it is also a word used as a hammer to bludgeon anyone using the original/correct word for the device.

At the end of the day, either one is perfectly interchangeable, regardless of what enthusiasts may have you believe.

I don't think it would be too useful to demonstrate suppressors on a TV show since real gunshot sounds are very difficult to reproduce. What you usually get is a kind of 'pop'. Try it yourself with a video camera. Most movie sounds are dubbed in to give a dramatic effect but are nothing like what an actual gunshot sounds like.

its easy to make a silencer u need pvc piping and tennis ball and some other things

I know it works on real guns, but I would like to add in a personal experience.

My replicated P90 electronic air gun that fires BB bullets at around 0.8J energy creates pretty much the same sound with the suppressor on if you are the guy being shot at in a survival game.

It is a lot more silence when you are the shooter or people who are around watching though.

Here is a link to a guys website who built one grom scratch legaly.

http://www.cncguns.com/projects/22silencer.html

Silencers delay the unconstrained expansion of gas into the atmosphere, which is what most of the noise from a gunshot comes from. A suppressor or silencer allows the gas more room to expand and for any unburned propellant to burn.

It can work on airsoft guns in a similar way, but only on those which use a compressed gas to fire the BB. Those powered by springs or electric motors won't be affected by the addition of a suppressor in any meaningful way.

[quote]Those powered by springs or electric motors won't be affected by the addition of a suppressor in any meaningful way.[/quote]

You should check out the Gamo Whisper. It's a spring piston powered air gun with suppressor that claims a 52% reduction in noise.

[quote]It can work on airsoft guns in a similar way, but only on those which use a compressed gas to fire the BB. Those powered by springs or electric motors won't be affected by the addition of a suppressor in any meaningful way.[/quote]

I would agree that it is not meaningful, everyone can still hear the loud noise of the spring decompressing the air cylinder and the motor running.

But in terms of the sound from firing the bullets, it still works on the expansion of gas part.

So the noise is reduced, just not meaningful enough to hide you from others since most of the noise comes from the spring.

Hmm...I've come to understand that piston spring guns don't work by using expanding gas, per se, but that the air in the cylinder served as a sort of linkage between the piston and the BB that amplified the speed of the piston. The air itself doesn't get compressed too much, relatively (so I thought), and has essentially been reduced to a low pressure by the time the BB has exited the barrel, producing little noise.

So I thought anyway...but if they work they work. Gas guns are still more fun though

[quote]So I thought anyway...but if they work they work. Gas guns are still more fun though[/quote]

Well, you are perfectly correct that they don't work in a meaningful sense, the main problem of the noise is still the air cylinder being compressed by the spring and the suppressor does nothing to that noise.(which is much more noticeable than the air coming out of the barrel)

I would not rate it a 52% reduction of noise, it would be something like a 15~20% at most. I don't have any scientific prove on that, just the self experience and people who heard it during the games most claimed it to have less noise, I guess with a 900RPM and 300 shoots, it is not that important to be silence anyway.

I like my P90 without the suppressor though

Gas guns might be more fun, but when it is in the summer here, the gases pressure goes up and sometimes pushes the gun power towards the illegal range, we got reports from firing ranges that people overclocked their gas guns to 6J (2J being the legal limit)