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aroundlsu · April 28, 2009, 10:47 AM

Wow, a book could be written with all your questions.

A silencer (suppressor, can, snuffer) will remove most or all of the muzzle blast from a gun. There are still many other noises a gun makes such as the action cycling, the bullet whizzing through the air, the bullet making impact, the bullet breaking the sound barrier, gas escaping from the ejection port, and the brass hitting the ground.

If you are trying to be stealthy (as opposed to just protecting your hearing or being cool) the sound barrier and bullet impact are the two most substantial noises you can expect. A supersonic .22 sounds like a whip cracking. A supersonic .223 sounds like a small firecracker. Subsonic rounds eliminate that problem but now you have to be concerned about the bullet impact. You can reduce that by shooting soft targets or padding your targets. I have a metal bullet trap I pad with a towel and a thick book.

.45 ACP sounds very good overall since you have no supersonic crack. However 230 grains of lead makes a hell of a racket on impact.

Regarding self defense, you could argue either way on that point. I tend to like to keep my most valuable and difficult to acquire guns near by which means I tend to have my suppressed weapons where I can see them. Which means in the event of a home invasion the suppressed AR will be closer than the Mossberg shotty. But I am going to hate to lose that gun to the evidence locker.

April 28, 2009, 10:47 AM	#3
aroundlsu Senior Member Join Date: December 7, 2007 Location: Louisiana Posts: 156	Wow, a book could be written with all your questions. A silencer (suppressor, can, snuffer) will remove most or all of the muzzle blast from a gun. There are still many other noises a gun makes such as the action cycling, the bullet whizzing through the air, the bullet making impact, the bullet breaking the sound barrier, gas escaping from the ejection port, and the brass hitting the ground. If you are trying to be stealthy (as opposed to just protecting your hearing or being cool) the sound barrier and bullet impact are the two most substantial noises you can expect. A supersonic .22 sounds like a whip cracking. A supersonic .223 sounds like a small firecracker. Subsonic rounds eliminate that problem but now you have to be concerned about the bullet impact. You can reduce that by shooting soft targets or padding your targets. I have a metal bullet trap I pad with a towel and a thick book. .45 ACP sounds very good overall since you have no supersonic crack. However 230 grains of lead makes a hell of a racket on impact. Regarding self defense, you could argue either way on that point. I tend to like to keep my most valuable and difficult to acquire guns near by which means I tend to have my suppressed weapons where I can see them. Which means in the event of a home invasion the suppressed AR will be closer than the Mossberg shotty. But I am going to hate to lose that gun to the evidence locker.