Here's a question: why aren't guns silent? What's the penetrating power of a subsonic handgun round?
I mean the lethality, speed and quantity of kills one can achieve with a "sportsman" AR, I wonder why they're not quieter, too.
Here's a question: why aren't guns silent? What's the penetrating power of a subsonic handgun round?
I mean the lethality, speed and quantity of kills one can achieve with a "sportsman" AR, I wonder why they're not quieter, too.
1) Because they're powered by explosions
2) Because people usually like that they're in control of those explosions, and the sound is part of the experience
Note the same answers could be given about cars.
Get that weak shit off my track
Ok but that only accounts for a certain percentage of buyers -- I wonder how big the "quiet gun" market would be...
What would be the point? Generally, when I speak to gun owners, they want more stopping power. They want to take one shot and stop their target, not the ability to take multiple shots (on the same or multiple targets) outside of a competition setting.
Get that weak shit off my track
Well until Ross or Nate or Tyler or somebody who actually knows the tech posts, you & I are just debating "what ifs".
There are subsonic rounds - most .45 ACP is pretty well below the 1125ish feet per second necessary to break the sound barrier, but they're still pretty loud. The important thing to note is that .45 is about as big around as commonly used rounds get, and since "power" in a gun/round is determined by the mass of the bullet(usually measured in grains) and the speed at which it is going (feet per second) when it hits the target. Standard .45 rounds weight in at 230 grains, and have a very rough speed of about 850ish ft/sec and again, they're still pretty loud. So, to allow function to remain similar you need to increase the mass of the projectile - this is hampered by your ability to pack (whatever you consider an acceptable # of) rounds into something that you can hold and aim comfortably.
Rifles are a different beast - the whole point of a rifle is getting the projectile to go faster than a pistol - If you have a longer barrel, you have more time for powder to burn efficiently and push the projectile faster. This is why most rifle rounds are substantially smaller in mass than handgun bullets - for example, your AR probably fires 5.56mm or .223 caliber, and the bullet masses at a tiny 63 grain. This round moves at a rather quick 3000ish ft/sec. Compare that to the .45ACP above.
Also, sound suppressors used to be very popular in the US (you can see them for sale in old sears catalogues, &c.) primarily for use in target practice. They got restricted in the 1930's at the same time as machine guns. The thing about suppressors is that they can do two major things - use "wipes" to slow the bullet down below the sound barrier, and have chambered baffles (exactly like a car's muffler) to capture and slow the expanding hot gasses that are pushing the bullet. Usually they're bulky, have only a limited number of rounds before they need to be rebuilt, and not anywhere near as effective as movies would have you believe. Regardless, they make law enforcement and many civilians uncomfortable.
-Formerly Stabulator
Back in 1997 my mom's house was robbed and one of the items taken was a Lorcin .380 pistol. Flash forward 19 years and she gets a call from the local police department asking if she wants her gun back. They recovered it two years ago in an arrest. She picked it up a week later and it was in the same condition that it had been when it was stolen.
Picked up two S&W M&P15 Sport IIs for the family before the California ban goes into effect at the end of the year.
Never had a burning desire to own an AR, but an impending ban is a hell of a sales technique. Anyway, should be fun to do some target shooting. Not something I'd use for typical home defense, but might come in handy in the case of looting post-The-Big-One or generalized civil unrest.
Carlo - I don't have the in-depth gun knowledge, but anything that can impart that much acceleration in a split-second is going to generate a lot of noise.
So it's just straight physics at work, not just some sort of law?
Not that I'd want there to be near silent weapons out there, just curious as to why there aren't any.
Yeah, I think so. If there was an effective way to make a silent gun, the US military would be all over it.
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