Can a 1911 be effectively suppressed? If so what kind of barrel would work best?

C

Correia

New member
Just out of curiosity, has there ever been any efforts to suppress a 1911?

I have had the chance over the last year to shoot some suppressed weapons, very fun despite the stupid $200 tax and the idiotic extra rules. (Try shooting a .308 with out ear plugs sometime :) ) I think that a suppressed .45 would be an interesting and fun range toy.

I know that the gun currently on the market that people would recommend for this would be the USP Tactical or Mk23, but I prefer the 1911. I imagine that over all the years of military service there had to have been some experimentation.

Would a standard barrel and bushing work best? Or perhaps a heavy cone style barrel? I would think that the lockup would still work fine, there are lots of race guns out there with huge muzzle compensators hung off them that seem to work fine. I don't think a can would weigh a whole lot more.

How about a Springfield Operator with a threaded barrel. Oh that would be wicked tough. :)

Mods. I put this here rather than Full Auto, because it is more of a pistol question than a Class III question.
 
I never really thought about it until I saw one of those threaded bushings on ebay and got to thinking about it. To me it would work, except it couldn't be done with a bushing mounted suppressor.

I would say if you had a six inch or longer barrel threaded any of the suppressors that work on the Mk 23 or USP would work, provided the threads were the same size.

A .45 could be effective suppressed provide it stays subsonic, which most 230 grain loads are.

Take the chance, and pay the tax and have fun.
 
Lord yes.

Because the bullet is subsonic and the round operates at pretty low pressure, its a primo candidate for supression.

I've seen suppressed 1911s at several gunshows I've been to.
 
I'd think that you would need a Nielsen device to boost the recoil (cycle properly) and keep the frame from becoming battered.

The suppressed .45 is a very cool cat indeed. (Hint, get a can that has the ability to operate with water added for the extra suppression.)
 
Mark White's Book

White also wrote the definitive Ruger 10/22 book. The book I am referring to is on Homemade Silencers, which, as he explains, are illegal to make without a federal license, but can be made with commonly found materials like PVC pipe or plastic soda bottles.

It has a section on the 1911. The action is usually locked closed and cycled manually for further sound reduction. A lot of sound comes out the open slide of a 1911 during firing.

Regards.
 
Federal Arms Corp. makes threaded barrels for the M1911 and sell fake 'suppressors' / flash suppressors for those threaded barrels.. I don't think it'd be hard to put a real one on.
 
Years ago, I rember being at a gunshow where two tables were set up next to each other. At one table the guy was selling "paperweights" that resembled the body of a silencer. At the other table the guy was selling "paperweights" that resembled the innards of a silencer. Rumor had it that if someone were to put the two "paperweights" together, you would have a "silenced paperweight." I didn't buy one because I would imagine that the BATF would frown severly on such an item. I haven't seen an operation like this in years. Was this illegal at the time or have they just tightened the laws on "paperweights"? Just curious.
 
I needed a real looking silecncer for a photo shoot so one day looking through the Shotgun News I fouynd an ad for RPB industries. They make a bushing coupling that allows a mac 10 dummy supressor to be screwed onto a 1911. You actually CAN shoot through it (I've done so) and the slide will NOT cycle as the "can" is heavy enough to stop the slide from going back.

Also given the set up of the 1911, where the barrel has to move to make it work, a silencer on a treaded barrel would have to be very very lightwieght.

Fixed barrel designs make far better supressed pistols. The best I ever saw was the Ruger mk2. Sounded like an airgun. Phhht Phhht Phht.

Maybe someday when I'm rich and bored I'll pick one up.
 
One of the the suppresed guns I shot was the .22 Ruger. Tink Tink Tink. That was cool.

Also shot a suppresed full-auto Uzi at the last Utah TFL shoot. That was really fun. Just made a kind of chattering noise.

The neatest however was the suppresed Rem. 700 in .308. Shooting regular ammo, all you could hear was the supersonic crack of the bullet, but it wasn't that loud and there was no way to home in on where the sound was coming from. Subsonic rounds had comparable ballistics to a heavy slow .357, and made almost no noise other than the firing pin going "ping".
 
1911s are capable of being suppressed, AWC tells me that they believe the 1911 was just meant to be suppressed by divine inspiration. Their Nexus .45 suppressor has an integral Nielsen device to insure proper cycling. But the barrels are very thin, and once threaded, there's little metal there to hold that suppressor on against the pressure of the muzzle blast. It is possible, in fact I know it has happened, that after a few hundred rounds with the suppressor attached, the end of the barrel shears off at the base of the threads, sending your suppressor flying to land on the ground a few feet ahead of you. I mean look at the wall thickness of a 1911 barrel, and then think of the material removal from threading. Just be sure whatever barrel you use is of the utmost quality, and if possible, have the manufacturer of your suppressor do the threading. Proper alignment is critical.

An optimal setup for .45 suppression on the 1911 pattern guns would be a bull barrel that did not use a barrel bushing, extended beyond the end of the slide, to hold the threads with a little extra metal. I talked with Joe Gaddini of SWR, and he mentioned doing testing with such a setup, but said he wouldn't be producing .45 suppressors. Well, now his website says one is coming soon. Dunno if that's his setup or not, but he makes some remarkably good suppressors.

And even though the .45 is subsonic, it takes an awfully big hole to let that big bullet pass through unscathed. 9mm suppressors typically offer 6 or more decibels of additional suppression over similar designs in .45, largely due to the necessary hole size for bullet passage.
 
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