SILENCER

Description

A typical silencer is a metallic (usually stainless steel or titanium) cylinder containing numerous internal sound baffles, with a hollow bore to allow the bullet to exit normally. During firing, the bullet passes through the bore with little hindrance, but most of the expanding gas ejecta behind it is redirected through a longer and convoluted escape path created by the baffles, prolonging the release time. This slows down the gas and dissipates its kinetic energy into a larger surface area, reducing the blast intensity, thus lowering the loudness.[1]

Silencers can also reduce the recoil during shooting, but unlike a muzzle brake or a recoil compensator, which reduce recoil by vectoring the muzzle blast sideways, silencers release almost all the gases towards the front. However, the internal baffles significantly prolong the time of the gas release and thereby decrease the rearward thrust generated — as for the same impulse, force is inversely proportional to time. The weight of the silencer itself and the leverage of its mounting location (at the far front end of the barrel) will also help counter muzzle rise.