We’ve all seen them and maybe even used them on occasion, but how does a gun silencer really work?
It’s a simple concept really. All a silencer, or suppressor is, is a chamber at the end of the barrel that disperses the air pressure caused by a gun shot, at a much slower rate. The sound from a gunshot is caused by a few things: the ignition of the gun powder and the escape of that high pressure from the barrel of your firearm.
It’s works similar to a balloon being popped. Poke a balloon with a needle and you get a loud pop. Let the air out slowly and it’s virtually silent.
Another example would be a muffler, or exhaust silencer. We’ve all heard the Chevy or Ford truck without a muffler that’s owned by the kid down the street. The muffler does the same thing. It simply allows the air to flow into a much larger space that slows it’s escape down a bit and this makes the vehicle quieter.
Inside the actual silencer, there are different designs, but there can be a series of chambers or barriers that break down the speed of the air pressure flying through it.
The only thing a silencer cannot silence is the noise the bullet actually makes while flying through the air. That should be common sense…but you never know!
