At great looking infographic that provides interesting facts about silencers - Devices that suppress the blast created when a gun is discharged.
At great looking infographic that provides interesting facts about silencers - Devices that suppress the blast created when a gun is discharged.
So a silenced 9mm is slightly louder than THUNDER?
I won’t say they are wrong, but that sure doesn’t feel right.
Silencers are very badly named honestly. A “silenced” gun is still very loud, it’s just moderately quieter than an unsilenced one. People watch movies and TV shows and play videogames that make it seem like a silenced gun barely makes any noise at all and think that’s reality. That is very much not reality, it just makes for a more entertaining story.
Are you telling me a silenced gun doesn’t make a sneaky zipping sound? It can’t be true.
Pew Pew!
Subsonic rounds though! I’ve seen videos of subsonic 9mm and .22LR where all you heard was the action cycling.
I don’t have a suppressor, but I got some subsonic .22LR to play with. Couldn’t tell any difference.
I could be full of it… but I think that’s because those rounds are intended to travel below the sonic boom threshold resulting in less noise when using a suppressor.
A unsilenced 9mm out of a handgun is normally around 160db (assuming common ammunition and a common type of handgun). A reduction to 125db with a silencer seems about right.
Edit: Here’s a silencer talk link that goes very in detail. For their chart, 125 db is actually very close to the low end, with many suppressed shots being louder.
https://www.silencertalk.com/results.htm
FWIW I believe those measurements are right at the silencer while the thunder measurement I find is “within a few hundred feet”. There can be quite a significant drop in perceived noise from silenced guns with a moderate amount of distance making them sound like a distinct but not overly loud“thwack”.
A reduction of 35dB is more than eight times as quiet, and 3162 times less energetic.
A few decibels can make an immense difference because decibels follow a logrtihmic scale, and this is especially true at the noise levels of a gun. Don’t be fooled by the seemingly small reduction of even 20dB on an original measurement of 160dB; you’re reducing the amount of sound my much, much more than the ⅛ that you might expect!
Absolutely. To add perspective, typical firearm hearing protection reduces sound by 25-35dB.
I’m sure the full story is more complicated when taking into account frequencies, duration of the spike in sound, etc.
I always try to go with “suppressed” rather than “silenced”.