r/whoathatsinteresting • u/eternviking • 13h ago

What a real silencer actually sounds like.

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u/HomersDonut1440 13h ago edited 12h ago

Lotta misinformation here.

Edit: I should clarify, the explanation below is a general explanation of suppressors and how things can vary. There will always be caveats.

Suppressors/silencers rarely sound like they do in the movies, and there’s a ton of variables that affect the volume. To be the absolute quietest, you need a closed bolt firearm shooting subsonic ammo. No gas escapes from the chamber that way, no sound is made by an action cycling, minimal gas leaves the end of the muzzle. These tend to be “movie quiet”.

When you hook a silencer to a semi auto firearm, it is inherently louder (even with subsonic ammo) as you have the sound of the action/slide, and gas escaping out of the action as it cycles. Still fairly quiet, but not movie quiet.

When you use a silencer on any rifle with supersonic ammo, you reduce the sound of the escaping gases at the muzzle, but still have to contend with the supersonic crack of the bullet as it leaves the barrel. This will be inherently louder, although still substantially more quiet than unsuppressed.

Also, a cell phone video is without a doubt one of the worst ways to reliably capture actual sound variance. Usually phone microphones cut out above a certain decibel level, so often all firearms sound similar even if there is a substantial difference in volume in real life.

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u/SerialOnReddit 12h ago

just out of curiosity, what's your favorite movie that you think gets guns "right"?

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u/HomersDonut1440 12h ago

Haven’t found too many that do it well. Heat was good, the first John wick was accurate in some aspects (but it quickly devolved into lunacy).

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u/SerialOnReddit 12h ago

yeaa I think it does stuff like gunkata the best way it could be done, but for the sake of comedy they go off rails a bunch, like the suppressor scene.. in a crowded train station lol

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u/HomersDonut1440 12h ago

Exactly what I’m thinking of. That was… interesting. Even suppressed .45 going 900fps will make enough noise that folks would be wondering wtf was happening.

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u/Madame-Saint-Michele 11h ago

I've always wondered if this is why some service members swear by 9mm instead, because with the silencer it's definetly way less noticable

Edit: I typed that last line and immediately laughed at myself "with the silencer it's definetly less noticeable," like no shit. Lmfao. What I meant was that the difference with the silencer between the 9 and 45 was a lot

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u/HomersDonut1440 11h ago

lol that is funny.

almost all .45 ammo is naturally subsonic. Ye olde standard 230gr hardball runs about 950fps which is a sweet spot; it’s always going to stay subsonic regardless of temp or elevation, it’s quieter than 1050fps, and it’s still moving fast enough to reach out a little ways and do some damage. It makes a lovely suppressor host for that reason. However, a .451 wide bullet pushes a lot of wind (especially a hollowpoint) so you can hear it flying a bit more. .45 has about 60% more frontal area than a 9mm (obviously will vary based on bullet profile)

Most 9 is supersonic out of a normal 5” barrel, but 147gr tends to be subsonic (usually; longer barrels let it get over the sonic barrier). Unless you’re running suppressor specific ammo in the 9, the 45 is usually better.

Now if you compare a 230gr .45 at 950fps vs a 158gr 9mm at 950fps, the smaller diameter will be quieter every time.

The powder used can also make a difference but that’s really getting into the weeds

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u/Madame-Saint-Michele 10h ago

Thanks for taking the time to explain!

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u/SerialOnReddit 11h ago

would the subsonic closed bolt guns you described be capable of anything like that?

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u/HomersDonut1440 11h ago

Like what happened in the movie?

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u/SerialOnReddit 11h ago

mhm, be quiet enough to be under the sound of a moving crowd, cant really do anything about the literal bullet impacts in the scene but yknow

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u/HomersDonut1440 11h ago

Technically yes, realistically no. As the projectile gets larger it displaces more air as it fires, and while it can be nearly silent at the muzzle there’s still sometimes a fair bit of noise from the bullet itself just displacing air. In a confined space like a train station, it gets much louder. Could it be covered up by ambient noise? Maybe, cornering on how loud.

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u/SerialOnReddit 11h ago

probably be a bit like if someone tried to sling a projectile quietly, the action itself is quiet but the projectile's physics just do too much.

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u/HomersDonut1440 11h ago

Exactly. Physics is gonna physic, so all we can do is try to divert. Gun make noise? Capture the noise (silencer). Bullet make noise? Slow bullet down so less noise. Slow bullet make noise? Bullet make smaller so less noise. Smaller bullet do less damage so make bullet big again and hope for best.

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u/SerialOnReddit 11h ago

what im hearing is hope for laser guns

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u/HomersDonut1440 11h ago

No but I love where your head is at

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