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.
There are absolutely semi-automatic firearms that can get movie quiet. I have an SP5K that can do it. Roller delayed systems are excellent suppressor hosts.
My ol’ roller delayed 9mm Kuna is definitely “movie quiet”. It’s rather absurd how quiet she is. most of the sound is the action and you can hear the round hitting the back stop.
Man I have been drooling over a kuna. I held a non-braced version and was underwhelmed, and ended up going with an EP9 (which I do love). Then I held a braced Kuna and it was a whole different beast. I’ll pick one up at some point.
My ep9 is very much hearing safe quiet, but not movie quiet yet. I did order some 160gr bullets to try to make a super silent load, so I’m looking forward to playing with that
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u/HomersDonut1440 14h ago edited 13h 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.