Do silencers work? Are they worth it?
- Thread starter johnelmore
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Willie Lowman
New member
Hearing tolerable. That's about right.
When I shoot 147 grain subs through the can on my Uzi, I can discern the sound of the bolt going back and fourth.
When I shoot 147 grain subs through the can on my Uzi, I can discern the sound of the bolt going back and fourth.
They are a lot of fun. Trying to rationalize the cost and expense isn't any more difficult than most other emotional firearms purchases. Most firearm purchases are emotional purchases where the rationality is based in hopeful paranoia of being able to one day justify the arms. I wish they were more commonly accepted for hunting in various states, because that is probably the ONE absolutely most rational and beneficial use for suppressors. But everyone without experience with suppressors (including other shooters and hunters) all scoff at the idea of not having a .308 in a short deer stalker barrel go off right next to your 8 year old kid you are taking hunting for the first time.
Just buy one and have fun. I suggest a .22LR suppressor of decent quality that you can service yourself. AAC Element or Silencerco Sparrow, and a Ruger MkIII with a threaded barrel is a ton of fun. You can pretty much forget additional hearing protection with either of those, but a bunch of folks will cringe at that comment. I do think that centerfire suppressors still require hearing protection, but it's not needed with high quality rimfire cans.
Just buy one and have some fun.
Just buy one and have fun. I suggest a .22LR suppressor of decent quality that you can service yourself. AAC Element or Silencerco Sparrow, and a Ruger MkIII with a threaded barrel is a ton of fun. You can pretty much forget additional hearing protection with either of those, but a bunch of folks will cringe at that comment. I do think that centerfire suppressors still require hearing protection, but it's not needed with high quality rimfire cans.
Just buy one and have some fun.
"Do silencers work? Are they worth it?"
Uncle Same sure seems to think so, in more ways than one (both insists on his own best men having them, and insists on ruining the lives of his citizens over them out of fear)
"Hearing tolerable"
Put it this way; many of my guns, it's uncomfortably loud to drop the slide/bolt under the mere recoil spring pressure with your head in shooting position. They're cycling much faster/harder than that in practice, to say nothing of the still hundreds of PSI venting from the end of the suppressor. All the can does is drop it from the 'explosives' noise range down to the 'air tools' noise range. All it means is now hearing protection is sufficient (that's right; some guns can't be made truly hearing safe with hearing protection, simply because your face/skull itself isn't a good enough earmuff, and no one wants to shoot with a ground-crew helmet on)
I see a recurring thread among the folks who claim it's no biggie or is totally safe in their estimation; they almost uniformly are already exposed to dangerous sound levels regularly (our jack-hammer and earbud examples are themselves excellent examples of this). Your ears acclimate; that's not to say that they become protected/resilient, but you get used to your ears being continually damaged, and your sensitivity goes away. Leave for a secluded vacation of a few weeks, and that loud environment will become intolerable, at least for a day or so. I hear the same stuff about shooting without ear protection unsuppressed all the time from the guys who drive rivets in the hangars all day.
Yeah, I imagine a braked AR probably is more comfortable than running an air hammer six inches from your face inside an echoing beer can for ten hours
... I said hours. ...HOURS!
TCB
Uncle Same sure seems to think so, in more ways than one (both insists on his own best men having them, and insists on ruining the lives of his citizens over them out of fear)
"Hearing tolerable"
Put it this way; many of my guns, it's uncomfortably loud to drop the slide/bolt under the mere recoil spring pressure with your head in shooting position. They're cycling much faster/harder than that in practice, to say nothing of the still hundreds of PSI venting from the end of the suppressor. All the can does is drop it from the 'explosives' noise range down to the 'air tools' noise range. All it means is now hearing protection is sufficient (that's right; some guns can't be made truly hearing safe with hearing protection, simply because your face/skull itself isn't a good enough earmuff, and no one wants to shoot with a ground-crew helmet on)
I see a recurring thread among the folks who claim it's no biggie or is totally safe in their estimation; they almost uniformly are already exposed to dangerous sound levels regularly (our jack-hammer and earbud examples are themselves excellent examples of this). Your ears acclimate; that's not to say that they become protected/resilient, but you get used to your ears being continually damaged, and your sensitivity goes away. Leave for a secluded vacation of a few weeks, and that loud environment will become intolerable, at least for a day or so. I hear the same stuff about shooting without ear protection unsuppressed all the time from the guys who drive rivets in the hangars all day.
Yeah, I imagine a braked AR probably is more comfortable than running an air hammer six inches from your face inside an echoing beer can for ten hours
... I said hours. ...HOURS!TCB
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Theohazard
New member
Perfect! I'm going to steal that for future use, just so you knowSharkbite said:
.stumper1300
New member
Are they hearing "Safe"? Not according to the experts, but I doubt the experts are going to claim you will damage your hearing just as fast with a can as without. They are worth every penny IMO.
Are they "Hearing Safe"? No. But they are "safe-er"
Bottom line is, life is not hearing safe.
I had a documented high frequency hearing loss before I turned 21. Thank you Uncle Sam.
I spent years working industrial safety. Yearly physicals including the booth audio tests. Baseline readjusted several times over the years. Always wear hearing protection working or shooting. Or mowing the lawn.
Age damages your hearing, but everything we add to that just makes it happen sooner.
Audio tests have shown the majority of drivers have a (detectable) hearing loss in their left ear (right ear for Englishmen
). From driving with the window down.
Gunshots (and other loud noises) DAMAGE your hearing. it comes back, but never as good as it was before. We don't notice the reduced ability, until it reaches certain points. And by that time, its too late.
Bottom line is, life is not hearing safe.
I had a documented high frequency hearing loss before I turned 21. Thank you Uncle Sam.
I spent years working industrial safety. Yearly physicals including the booth audio tests. Baseline readjusted several times over the years. Always wear hearing protection working or shooting. Or mowing the lawn.
Age damages your hearing, but everything we add to that just makes it happen sooner.
Audio tests have shown the majority of drivers have a (detectable) hearing loss in their left ear (right ear for Englishmen
). From driving with the window down.Gunshots (and other loud noises) DAMAGE your hearing. it comes back, but never as good as it was before. We don't notice the reduced ability, until it reaches certain points. And by that time, its too late.
Theohazard
New member
I agree 100%. I hope nobody misconstrued my comments to mean that I think they're useless for hearing protection. Shooting a gun with a silencer might damage your hearing, but it's still a LOT better for your hearing than shooting without one. And there are definitely a lot of other things in our lives that also damage our hearing, the key is to understand those risks so you can take the appropriate precautions if you so desire. My bottom line is this: If someone decides to not wear hearing protection when shooting suppressed, that's fine; I just hope that decision isn't made out of ignorance.44AMP said:
I love shooting suppressed because it's extremely quiet when combined with foam earplugs. And if I'm in a situation where I'm not wearing hearing protection, I can shoot a few suppressed rounds off and not worry that I'm hurting my hearing too much. So I definitely think that silencers are worth it, that's why I've already started saving up for my fourth one.
buckhorn_cortez
New member
Sound power level (volume) is a base 10 logarithmic progression. 3dB = 2x or 1/2 the sound energy depending upon whether the sound is going up or down in value.
That is different than sound pressure level as that is a base 20 logarithmic progression with 6dB making a 2x or 1/2 change in sound pressure level.
The problem comes in when you try and calculate sound reduction by simply subtracting one value from another. With logarithms, addition = multiplication and subtraction = division.
The suppressors I've sat next to when fired were extremely effective, one being used on a 1911 (and resulting in a report significantly less harsh than a .22LR and overall quieter by a wide margin).
It is definitely true that if a bullet produces a shock wave, it will still produce a shock wave when fired from a gun with a suppressor. But, that may not mean a thing to you depending on your 'audience'. The shooter isn't going to hear the shock wave under any circumstances, so it doesn't make any difference to that shooter that the sonic crack isn't silenced -- if the objective was simply to quiet the report for him/herself. In my experience, the crack of the shock wave isn't all that unpleasant anyway--while perfectly audible, it isn't like muzzle blast.
Seems to me you have to think about why you want to pay for the benefits the suppressor provides. If it's just for fun, I think they're a lot of fun but not for the money. And while I'd be hard pressed to imagine an Italy vacation costing much less than about ten times the cost of a suppressor and the tax stamp, it still not worth it to me just for fun.
A more reasonable excuse to buy one might be for home defense--where I imagine a happy scenario in which you're the only one to fire a weapon. In this happy path of unlikely events, you'd still be able to hear after you fired, and that would be kinda nice. Again, for a 1-in-a-million likelihood, seems like a lot of risk mitigation to me.
"Is it worth it" is really a very tough question to answer. If I have unlimited resources and like lots of toys that are fun and pretty cool--yes, of course it's worth it. If shooting a suppressed weapon reduces the radius of exposure I have to hostiles who otherwise would know my location and activity, and gives me a chance to exit with my life, yes, it's worth it.
If all I need it for is to make YouTube videos of me shooting it and I'm saving for retirement, then no.
It is definitely true that if a bullet produces a shock wave, it will still produce a shock wave when fired from a gun with a suppressor. But, that may not mean a thing to you depending on your 'audience'. The shooter isn't going to hear the shock wave under any circumstances, so it doesn't make any difference to that shooter that the sonic crack isn't silenced -- if the objective was simply to quiet the report for him/herself. In my experience, the crack of the shock wave isn't all that unpleasant anyway--while perfectly audible, it isn't like muzzle blast.
Seems to me you have to think about why you want to pay for the benefits the suppressor provides. If it's just for fun, I think they're a lot of fun but not for the money. And while I'd be hard pressed to imagine an Italy vacation costing much less than about ten times the cost of a suppressor and the tax stamp, it still not worth it to me just for fun.
A more reasonable excuse to buy one might be for home defense--where I imagine a happy scenario in which you're the only one to fire a weapon. In this happy path of unlikely events, you'd still be able to hear after you fired, and that would be kinda nice. Again, for a 1-in-a-million likelihood, seems like a lot of risk mitigation to me.
"Is it worth it" is really a very tough question to answer. If I have unlimited resources and like lots of toys that are fun and pretty cool--yes, of course it's worth it. If shooting a suppressed weapon reduces the radius of exposure I have to hostiles who otherwise would know my location and activity, and gives me a chance to exit with my life, yes, it's worth it.
If all I need it for is to make YouTube videos of me shooting it and I'm saving for retirement, then no.
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Pond James Pond
New member
There was that guy who made a barrel-thread-to-oil-filter-thread adapter and those sounded very quiet.
Cheap, effective, ugly.
Death from Afar
New member
I find the law in the US on suppressors simply bizarre. Here, they are not only legal, but encouraged!
To answer your question, I would rather have a suppressor on a rifle than a telescopic sight. They are that good. your ears are protected, you don't annoy folks and game is not spooked. I have several, one of which is on a HK UMC. The .45ACP is so quiet it is eerie. For randomly shooting critters in your path, its ideal.
To answer your question, I would rather have a suppressor on a rifle than a telescopic sight. They are that good. your ears are protected, you don't annoy folks and game is not spooked. I have several, one of which is on a HK UMC. The .45ACP is so quiet it is eerie. For randomly shooting critters in your path, its ideal.
Death from Afar
New member
Hey thanks man!
dakota.potts
New member
I'm not an expert, so somebody can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
However, I believe most good silencer brands are hearing safe... for one shot, maybe a couple. OSHA rates safe one-time exposure to a sound at 140 dB, which good silencers are able to deliver even in large calibers.
In a situation where you're hunting and take one, maybe two shots it seems to me like the suppressor would indeed make it hearing safe.
For an extended competition shooting 100 rounds or all day plinking, I would agree that it would not be at all hearing safe. The action on some guns alone is loud enough to cause hearing damage. I've actually thumbed the bolt release on AR-15s before, held too close to my head, which produced a ringing in my ear just from the sound of the bolt slamming home.
However, I believe most good silencer brands are hearing safe... for one shot, maybe a couple. OSHA rates safe one-time exposure to a sound at 140 dB, which good silencers are able to deliver even in large calibers.
In a situation where you're hunting and take one, maybe two shots it seems to me like the suppressor would indeed make it hearing safe.
For an extended competition shooting 100 rounds or all day plinking, I would agree that it would not be at all hearing safe. The action on some guns alone is loud enough to cause hearing damage. I've actually thumbed the bolt release on AR-15s before, held too close to my head, which produced a ringing in my ear just from the sound of the bolt slamming home.
Yes they work but "silencer" is a complete misuse of the term. They're suppressors and do just that, suppress the sound of a gun shot. It is still loud as others have said there is no escaping that sonic boom from the bullet breaking the sound barrier.
Are they hearing safe? No. Are they safer than an unsuppressed rifle? Yes. Doesn't make them hearing safe though. Hearing damage which usually results in Tinnitus and does so because the tiny hairs in our ears are what allows us to hear, due to sound being a mechanical wave. If these hairs bend or break they will not grow back or reposition themselves. Hearing damage is accumulative every time you expose your ears to sounds above the safety threshold of the human ear your damaging your hearing. Is it immediate? No not really less it's an extreme situation like a handgun going off right by your ear. The real question you need to ask yourself is do you want to be able to hear in your older age?
I just got my 30CB9 in and i would describe it's sound as between a 22 mag and 22 hornet. Not quite as loud as the hornet, doesn't cause my ears to ring, but it is loud. I will shoot it without hearing protection hunting no doubt because it is sooo much more comfortable than shooting unsuppressed in the woods or hunting and no hearing protection. With earplugs it's very very pleasant. Is it worth the money? That's entirely up to you. To me it was and is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpPFMcDVrUI
Are they hearing safe? No. Are they safer than an unsuppressed rifle? Yes. Doesn't make them hearing safe though. Hearing damage which usually results in Tinnitus and does so because the tiny hairs in our ears are what allows us to hear, due to sound being a mechanical wave. If these hairs bend or break they will not grow back or reposition themselves. Hearing damage is accumulative every time you expose your ears to sounds above the safety threshold of the human ear your damaging your hearing. Is it immediate? No not really less it's an extreme situation like a handgun going off right by your ear. The real question you need to ask yourself is do you want to be able to hear in your older age?
I just got my 30CB9 in and i would describe it's sound as between a 22 mag and 22 hornet. Not quite as loud as the hornet, doesn't cause my ears to ring, but it is loud. I will shoot it without hearing protection hunting no doubt because it is sooo much more comfortable than shooting unsuppressed in the woods or hunting and no hearing protection. With earplugs it's very very pleasant. Is it worth the money? That's entirely up to you. To me it was and is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpPFMcDVrUI