silly question about mcgyver and silencers

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hologon

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I have always had some funny thoughts about silencers/suppressors.

I think when I was very young (8?) I remember watching McGyver or some other type of action hero put a 1-litre plastic soft drink bottle, or a plain old alumninum Coke can to the front of the barrel of a handgun to make an InstaSilencer.

Does this work? I'm assuming that the lack of an exit port would cause... inaccuracy (the bullet punching through the bottom of the bottle would go flying to the side, presumably), so I suppose one would need to drill an exit port and align the two.

But otherwise, would it make for a gorgeous kB!? or just plain not work?

Just a funny idea.

Thanks!

-jon
 
Greetings. The coke can or liter pop bottle jobbies do work ... until they are shot out for a few shots, but are not as "quiet" as the real things. Their great volumn is what does the trick. For awhile, some company was selling an adapter that either threaded or clamped onto the gun barrel and had threads to match those on standard liter bottles. These adapters must now be registered and are an NFA item. The coke cans work but usually one tapes three or so together and crudely attaches to the barrel with duct tape. I've seen this done on .22s only. The pop bottle "suppressors" were used on bigger calibers. Do know that you're violating federal law if you "experiment." Best.
 
Macgyver was one of my unfavorite TV shows. Richard Dean Anderson is one of the biggest campaigners for gun control and would never let his character touch a gun. Yet he made guns when it suited him and his character broke a at least a dozen laws every show.
Yet the cops always treated him like he was some kind of god.

When he had to deal with the bad guys, he was backed by "The Phoenix Foundation", a private army that had everything but tactical nukes. What hypocrisy! And kids watched this junk and believed it was OK to violate the law if you are a "good" guy!

Jim
 
Come on Jim.

The first few years of MacGyver were really pretty good. The fact that the character Mac didn't like guns was for two reasons 1) So he could figure out another "improv" way to take down the bad guys, and 2) because as a kid without parental supervision (his parents died in a car wreck--I believe) he shot and accidentially killed his best friend. You might have noticed on his new series SG1 Anderson carries alot of guns.

I don't remember the silencer being in the MacGyver series--I do remember seeing it in a Jim Balushi(sp) movie where he played a hired killer for the mob. I believe in that movie it was said to be a 1 shot silencer.

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RKBA!
 
I, too, hate McGuyver. He was a wuss in the worst way.

He had no problem making chlorine gas, but wouldn't pick up a gun to save himself or others. He being part of a secret army never occured to me before, probably because half of those lame action characters do, but since you brought it up, it's another reason to avoid the reruns.
 
2 liter bottle, not 1 liter. :D

Don't know about the potato.

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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
 
there is a web site that shows how to build these...
not sure if i should post the url...

dZ
 
Even with a GOOD silencer, the gun shot is still LOUD. People don't recognize that a lot of the noise comes from the CHAMBER as well as the barrel.

I hear that the "quietest" way to go is with a single shot .22 LR or SHORT where the slide is locked and never opens until unlocked. That's just what I've heard.

And it doesn't go "spew" like in the movies.

:)
Ben
 
Yeah! post it! BTW, if you fill the bottle with steel wool, (not too fine, you don't want a fire) it quiets down quite a bit. cut a hole in the bottom just small enough to keep the steel wool in (read large), and duct tape it on the weapon. crude, yes but effective in a pinch. Not that I would know first hand..... :)
 
A potato should have no effect at all. It should just blow apart and would have no effect on any of the 4 things that cause a gun to make noise.
 
actually a potatoe works fine with a .22 LR.
Cut a hole in the end big enough for the barrel and slide it on. At least this is what I've heard. I assume that it wouldn't be very accurate because the bullet would be deflected by the potatoe
 
I remember seeing the potato suppressor bit in the movie "South Central L.A.", where a gang (the 'Deuces') bumped off a couple of rival gang members with potatoes rammed onto the muzzles of a .38/.357 revolver and an M1A/M-14! Thanks to the sound/foley artists, the "spudpressors" were a miracle of organic technology, and would give California legislators another item to regulate (besides, whole potatoes had probably gone out of style as nutritional fare--maybe scalloped or au gratins would be acceptable if the deadly items were 'deactivated' by cutting in three areas completely through the body of the potato before they came across the state line).
In regard to the Mcguyver series, I was astonished in one episode to see that the U.S. government allowed the Phoenix Foundation to have a couple of not-so-safe items in their research/office building (as inventoried on one of the Foundation's computers):
1. 12 pounds of plutonium.
2. One (captured/seized) suitcase bomb (with circuitry, fuze, and explosives intact) claimed by the (evil) creator as "capable of levelling the building" when easily reactivated and set by the same creator.
 
I have also seen the 2 Liter silencer.

About the potato, I think what really happened was, he (Mac)made a hand grenade by jamming a 12ga. shell into a potato primer first, then pushing a roofing nail in from the other end. When the potato hit the ground, the nail hit the primer, and shell went off killing the BG. What ever happened to that show?

Hey, remember in SG1 when that space orb put that energy spear through Mac's shoulder? That had to hurt...
 
Mcgyver and SG1 are fantasy, but Anderson's support for gun confiscation is not. He repeatedly told interviewers that Mcgyver's antipathy to guns was his idea and that it reflected his real ideas. He appeared often with Sarah Brady on TV and in press interviews, touting a handgun and "assault rifle" ban.

Jim
 
The British made incredible silencers in WWII. One used a carbine frame with an integral silencer on a short barrel, it fired a .45ACP with a bolt action and was head shot accurate to 100 yards and inaudible at that distance. The second was a small caliber handgun with an integral silencer that used a series of leather flaps inside the can,it is said that this gun, if pressed against the victims body in a crowded room could not be heard above the level of normal conversation, although only one or two shots could be fired before an overhaul was required this design has yet to be bettered for noise attentuation some 60 years later, I forget where I read about it.

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Mike H
 
The British Welrod pistol was a great silenced pistol of WWII. It was a .32 ACP with a manually operated bolt. Is that the one you were referring to.
 
The silenced .45 was the De Lisle carbine and was based upon a stock and bolt action from the Lee Enfield No.4. Most were destroyed on the orders of Churchill who feared they were ideal assasination weapons which could fall into the wrong hands.

The silenced .32 was indeed the Welrod.

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"Quemadmoeum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est."
("A sword is never a killer, it's a tool in the killer's hands.") -
Lucius Annaeus Seneca "the Younger" (ca. 4 BC-65 AD).
 
I believe that UK shooters can still obtain De Lisle replicas (shooters not deactivated weapons). I know pistol calibre conversions of Lee Enfields are sold in the UK. Suppression is 'friendly' there, and I think barrel length on 'rifles' can be as short as 10".
 
Guys,

You're spot on, the De Lisle and the Welrod. Don't know about those 10" barrel lengths though, and as for the Brits being more tolerant, they can no longer own any cartridge handguns (blackpowder only) and have one of the strictest licensing arrangements in the world. It would be fair to say that they are EXTREMELY anti-gun, which is a pity because they used to make the finest firearms in the world, but now can only turn out junk like the SA80 assault rifle. IMHO the full size Lee Enfield rifles are the most accurate mass produced bolt action rifles ever, there is a 2000 yard shooting trial held at the Bisley ranges each year and almost all entrants use Enfields in .303 British, the distance is so great that the rotation of the earth is a factor that must be compensated for when aiming or so I heard.

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Mike H
 
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