Posted on 06/05/2017 10:33:18 AM PDT by w1n1
The guns 'special' rounds were quiet but lacked stopping power
Since World War II, America's elite forces have used quiet firearms for missions where it pays to be silent. Sound suppressors—commonly referred known as silencers—remain in service today. What many don't know is that U.S. commandos once carried revolvers with special cartridges designed to muffle gunshots.
In the 1960s, the AAI Corporation developed the cartridges for the U.S. Army's and Navy's rifles, pistols and shotguns. The U.S. Army Special Forces and Rangers tested the unique ammunition in Vietnam.
While they offered many advantages, AAI's products failed to win any widespread acceptance in the halls of the Pentagon. The rounds were expensive and ineffective at moderate ranges.
According to a 1968 Army report on silencers, "Throughout the history of firearms, gun noise has been of considerable concern to the military." "To the enemy, gun noise reveals presence and, often, the location of the shooter, thus resulting in a counter attack."
To better understand how a suppressor works. In most modern firearms, the sound of the gunshot comes primarily from bottled-up gases escaping as the bullet leaves the barrel—like uncorking a bottle of champagne. A sound suppressor helps muffle the bang by trapping these fumes.
But even with these devices, the gunshot is never entirely undetectable.
In the early 1960s, Army weapon designers looked at alternatives that would completely eliminate the sound of the propellant exploding. They came up with the so-called "piston cartridges". Read the rest of the Silent Revolvers story here.
What was the bullet weight and FPS?
Today we have better suppressors. Coupled with subsonic rounds, there is barely any report.
Fire a subsonic .22 round with a good can and it will sound similar to a pellet gun. The lethality of such a round might not quite be there so making a clean headshot remains important.
Looks like about 140 grain, fps would have to be less than about 1000 fps. Just guessing.
Heck, the outbound backline guys I knew only carried a Bowie Knife. They usually took weapons from a kill or none except the BK.
Tunnel Rats. What was the MOS?
“Fire a subsonic .22 round with a good can and it will sound similar to a pellet gun.”
Don’t shoot the subsonic round from a semi-auto. I used some squirrel hunting once looking for a “silent report” and wound up spending more time “digging” the failed spent shell ejection out of the rifle. Wasn’t enough charge to “kick ‘em” out on firing. Good thing I had my trusty pocket knife.
I wonder if they realized that some of the report was coming from the space between the barrel and the cylinder? Much simpler to suppress an automatic.
Barrel and cylinder space...another good reason to
have bought a Nagant revolver when they were cheap.
Wish I had then.
Looks like the piston kept the gasses inside the cartridge case, so in theory it would work in a revolver.
Best name ever for a suppressed weapon:
The S&W Model 59 “Hush Puppy”, used to kill enemy sentry dogs.
We heard that Tunnel Rats carried .22 pistols firing subsonic rounds. This article describes a cartridge that seems to utilize the `captive bolt’ principle.
Revolvers?
Whenever we went on a sensitive mission they gave us suppressed High Standard pistols and they were not revolvers.
As I recall the rounds we used in VN were 60 grain instead of 40 grain and the powder was the same as a standard 40 grain load. The 60 grain round let the round be subsonic, but still have enough expanding gases to work the action properly.
A fellow ‘Nam vet I hunt deer with was a tunnel rat at Cu Chi. He has severe PTSD. He told me he used a .38 S&W Special Mod 10, and only volunteered to be a rat to help save his brothers.
I was looking at that. Very interesting and unique design. Would like to see some stats on performance in the field. A friend of mine who was a SEAL during that time period said that his fav was the S&W Hush Puppy.
I don’t see how anyone could have been a tunnel rat and not have PTSD. God bless those brave men.
What was the MOS?...Small, Stupid and Scared.
Usually 11B...although a lot of 12 series were used.
11B being Infantryman...and 12 series being Combat Engineers.
Could pretty much be any MOS, though, as it was a volunteer situation.
The only one other than 11B that I knew was a 67N (Helicopter Mechanic), who had volunteered with the 1st Cav, but was assigned to an Engineer unit.
Typically, they were the smaller guys...135 - 160 lbs, slim, wiry types.
I tried it...suffered immediate claustrophobia, from which I suffer to this day...and told the LT to stick it...no way in hell was I going back into that hole.
All I carried was a M48 bayonet and a .45.
As I recall, that was all anyone had, although I knew of one guy that had a pot metal .22 (RG, I think), sent from home.
(Yeah, it happened, back then.)
I am aware of shots being fired by one Rat, with a .45...his ears rang for months, so I'm told.
The bayonet was to dig with, primarily, but could conceivably be used for defense, but that was damned close quarters.
But some could, some couldn't.
In later years, I was offered a sub ride in an inter-service goodwill thing.
I couldn't make it more than halfway down the ladder.
Like I said, some could, some couldn't.
I could not, and I have the utmost respect for those that could tolerate the dank, mildew/mold smelling, stinky ass VC smell, dirt dribbling down your back, snakes, bugs, etc...and the constant fear of the damned thing caving in.
For me, it wasn't the idea of encountering a VC...hell, I did that daily above ground...it was the thought of just being underneath that dirt, enclosed...dark...smelly.
Gives me the "willies", even now, to think of it.
Armored Cav that the VC and NVA could hear coming for miles.
We usually just popped grenades in holes. Watch out for secondaries though.
In this application, a revolver would be quieter than an autoloader because the autoloader’s reciprocating action adds to the total noise of the weapon (but you’d never hear it over the muzzle blast). There are commercially-available slide locking devices made for some of the more popular rimfire suppressor hosts (like the Ruger 10/22) for those occasions when you’d rather have an ultra-quiet single shot than a “sort of” quiet autoloader.
The Weapons Man (blogger) has a more extensive article on the “Quiet Special Purpose Revolver:”
http://weaponsman.com/?p=25023
The S&W forum has a ton of pics:
http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-revolvers-1961-1980/196939-1969-tunnel-gun-new-pic.html
Small Arms Review has a piece on it:
http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=2423
The S-A-R article claims the (tunnel-clearing) shotgun cartridge fired 15 tungsten-steel alloy pellets of 7.5-grains each (112.5-grains total weight) at 750 fps (141 fpe, if you were wondering). Noise was 120db @ 1 meter.
A cross-sectional illustration of the ‘shotgun’ version of the cartridge showing how the propellant gasses remain captured within the cartridge casing:
https://i.imgur.com/zf1ssVn.jpg
If you didn’t follow the blogger Weapons Man, you really missed something. He was an exceptional writer and a snake-eater who knew where all the bodies were buried. Regrettably, he died just a few weeks ago (at age 59) from a massive heart attack. I don’t think you could be a “gun guy” and not find his stuff entertaining, so if you’re so inclined, with his untimely death I don’t think it’s yet certain how long his blog will remain online.
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