Many people know almost nothing about small arms silencers. All their information in this matter is drawn from numerous films and computer games.
The silencer never completely suppresses the sound of the shot. The ideas of many ordinary people about such a device and its action are based primarily on the work of sound engineers. Many people imagine a shot from a silenced weapon as a barely audible sound, but this is nothing more than a sound effect. Real silencers for small arms are devices that really reduce the sound of a shot by several tens of decibels, but far from completely, protecting the shooter himself from the sound of a shot in the first place.
About the device of the muffler
The classic weapon silencer is a special mechanical muzzle device that can be used with various types of small arms. The silencer is attached to the barrel, or is originally an integrated part of the design of small arms. The main purpose of this device is to attenuate the sound of a shot, at the same time the device for silent shooting (PBS, an abbreviation common in Russia) also hides the flame of powder gases, which complicates the process of detecting the shooter and does not attract additional attention to him.
The latter is especially true for the military, since ordinary hunters in the forest or amateur shooters on a shooting range do not need to hide. But the military, when conducting hostilities at dusk or at night, are more afraid not of the sound of a shot, which is uninformative in the dark, but of bright flashes and sparks. By the bursts of the shot, the shooter can be very easily spotted, and he will quickly turn into a good target for enemy soldiers. Therefore, for the military, it is precisely the concealment of the flame of powder gases when firing is a much more useful function of all silencers.
At the same time, such a device has other useful qualities, for example, an increase in the accuracy of fire. Experts note that both a machine gun and a rifle with a properly installed silencer demonstrate better accuracy of fire than without such a device. At the same time, the recoil of the weapon also decreases. All this together makes PBS very popular in the civilian market in countries where their sale is allowed.
A classic muffler most often looks like a hollow cylinder made of various metals: steel, copper or aluminum, in some cases high-impact plastic is used. Inside such a cylinder, the designers placed special chambers designed to remove the powder gases. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the muffler is screwed to the end of the barrel of small arms using a thread specially made for this.
All types of silencers, including those integrated into the design of the weapon, reduce noise, which is a consequence of the shock wave of the ignited charge, which creates the force that pushes the bullet out of the bore. At the moment of firing, the gases generated enter at once into several chambers located one after another inside the muffler. In these chambers, they lose speed while simultaneously expanding and cooling. Due to this, gases escape from the muffler, significantly losing their speed.
Muffler or suppressor?
Nowadays, not everyone agrees with the very definition of a muffler (eng.silencer), for example, such a term as "suppressor", which some experts consider to be more accurate, has also become widespread in the world. From the English word suppressor (translated as "suppressor"). At the same time, in many countries, shot sound reduction devices are allowed for sale even on the civilian market. For example, such devices are allowed for free circulation in 42 US states. At the same time, in Russia, at the legislative level, any devices for silent shooting are prohibited for sale on the civilian market.
There is a lot of talk about the fact that "silencer" is not the best term for devices for silent shooting. For example, one of the episodes of the very famous American popular science program "The Mythbusters" was devoted to the debunking of the TV view of the layman about such devices. To do this, they used a weapon chambered for.45 (11, 34x23 mm) and a 9-mm pistol. Three shots were fired from each sample of the weapon, the sound was recorded with the help of a professional sound engineer, a specialist in the field of acoustics. The experiment was carried out both with the use of devices for reducing the sound of a shot, and without.
The experiment showed that the sound of a shot from pistols without the use of suppressors is 161 dB, and when they are used, it decreases to 128 dB. At the same time, the recorded difference of 33 dB is a very significant value, especially for human hearing, such a decrease in the noise level makes the sound of a shot safe. At the same time, a normal conversation at a distance of a meter from a person is fixed at 60 dB - this is the basic value of the relative loudness. At the same time, 128 dB, which were recorded when shooting with the use of a suppressor, is really quieter, but at the same time 115 times louder than the basic conversation of two people at a distance of a meter from each other.
The experiment showed that a person will hear the sound of a pistol with a silencer as clearly as the person talking to him at a distance of 34 feet (10, 36 meters), that is, at a distance comparable to the width of a multi-lane city street. Without a silencer, the excellent hearing distance will grow to 50.5 feet or 15.4 meters.
At the same time, any muffler is not a weapon for killers and not a practically silent device, but it is this image that was formed thanks to the cinema. In fact, the military and law enforcement officials love these devices for four main reasons: the additional weight on the barrel reduces recoil and muzzle recoil upward, which means it is easier for the shooter to aim and keep the target on the front sight; the device also significantly reduces the noise level, making it safe for the shooter; reduces bullet deflection and completely removes the flash from the shot. Together, this makes small arms safer, more reliable and easier to use.
The main advantages of using a suppressor for the shooter
As we have already found out, suppressors are of interest to the military primarily as devices that remove the flash and increase the accuracy of shooting. For ordinary users of small arms, increasing the comfort of shooting by reducing the recoil is also important, but the main advantage and advantage of all suppressors is the protection of the shooter's hearing organs. For hunters and amateur shooters, this is the main advantage that many of them do not even know about. At the same time, it is the loud sound of a shot in 2/3 of cases that leads to a weakening of the hearing level of hunters and shooters, leading to hearing loss. And, for example, among sportsmen-shooters, doctors record a sharp increase in the incidence of neuritis of the auditory nerve.
Using an ordinary gun while hunting, we doom ourselves to very loud sounds of shots - usually more than 150 dB. As you know, everything is learned by comparison. For example, the sound of a jackhammer working does not exceed 110 dB, and the sound of the siren of an ambulance rushing to an emergency call does not exceed 120 dB. The use of devices for reducing the sound level of a shot allows you to bring the sound to acceptable values, reducing the noise level by 20-35 dB, most often below the threshold value of 140 dB. This value is the upper safe limit in many countries, for example in Germany suppressors must reduce the sound of a shot to at least 135-137 dB. So the noise level of 160 dB (a shot from a hunting rifle close to the ear) is able to put a person into a state of shock, the consequence may be a rupture of the eardrum.
The influence of the sound of shots on hearing is indicated by numerous studies, it is no coincidence that at the shooting range and at the shooting range, as well as at competitions, many shooters use personal hearing protection (headphones or earplugs). Shooting without such devices after a certain time can lead to hearing loss, and in the future - to deafness. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of hunters do not use hearing protection even in countries where it is absolutely legal to purchase a device for suppressing the sound of shots. They argue this by the need to better hear all the sounds and what is happening around them in the forest. Surveys show that up to 80 percent of hunters never use hearing protectors.
The decision is not the most far-sighted, since numerous modern studies tell us that for every 5 years of hunting in a person, a decrease in hearing acuity by 7 percent is recorded. The greatest problems for hunters are manifested in the perception of high-frequency sounds, notes the Russian Hunting Portal.
At the same time, the use of modern suppressors makes it possible to reduce the sound of a shot by several tens of decibels. This reduces noise to the point where the performance of similar devices can be compared to that of earplugs or headphones. It is not difficult to see that what we all in everyday life are used to calling a muffler, in fact, is not such a device: the sound of a shot is only reduced to a level that is safe for the shooter's hearing. Small arms firing sound is never completely eliminated.
Besides being safe for the shooter's ears, modern suppressors or suppressors of the sound of a shot have another advantage. Many shooters find that firing with suppressor weapons is more comfortable for them. According to their impressions, the level of recoil of weapons drops by 20-30 percent, which is a very significant value.
All this together tells us that suppressors have a very good future, even though they are banned in some countries. Despite the existing restrictions, the market for such devices is growing and experiencing a real boom, which is demonstrated by numerous arms exhibitions. This is not surprising. In some countries, they have already been allowed to be used while hunting, and they help novice shooters overcome the fear of a shot, when a person instinctively closes his eyes when pressing the trigger. But most importantly, such devices protect the hearing well of hunters, shooters, as well as hunting dogs: let's not forget about our smaller brothers.
