Posted on 06/17/2010 9:54:53 AM PDT by OneWingedShark
Yesterday I came across a really intriguing firearm.
The De Lisle Silent Carbine which has an integrated silencer…; while some might quibble over my usage of the term ‘silencer’ instead of ‘suppressor’ I should think that the De Lisle qualifies as the former.
Now, I’ve been thinking about firearm design a bit and I think I may try to enter the gun manufacture business should my state pass a Firearm Freedom Act, which brings me back to the point I was contemplating: silencers/suppressors. After a little research on wikipedia about the design of them I was reminded about a valveless “one way” tube (termed Valvular Conduit) developed by Nikola Tesla that I found on a page about jet engines. Depicted below:
So, since I’m no expert on fluid dynamics, my question is could the Valvular Conduit be used as a suppressor? I realize that, as presented, the overlaps in the conduit wouldn’t allow a bullet passage, but consider if that part of the passage were placed inside the grooves of the rifling and offset enough to allow passage of the bullet and oriented such that it opposed gasses escaping from the weapon. Would/could it work? Would it be effective?
A 1 liter soda bottle with a hose clamp works for one shot on a Ruger MkII heavy. A 16oz doesn’t cut it.
1. Remove front sight.
2. Wrap a piece of duct tape over the barrel
3. Cut a couple slots in the threaded part of the neck of the bottle. The bottling companies conveniently provide marks where to cut.
4. Let’er rip.
The licensing requirements to become a firearms manufacturer are akin to an extreme colonoscopy. They want you to be sincere....
Same here. That’s why I was asking.
My wife made me hand them over to the proper authorities. She feels safe since Obama is POTUS.
Funny, the same thing happened to me. I was out canoeing on a very deep lake near me with my entire gun collection. The canoe capsized and all my guns went straight to the bottom in 1100 feet of water. What a tragedy!
Funny, the same thing happened to me. I was out canoeing on a very deep lake near me with my entire gun collection. The canoe capsized and all my guns went straight to the bottom in 1100 feet of water. What a tragedy!
Sounds like a “New Jersey silencer...”
I see in Figure 1 of your link that the baffles redirect the gas backwards into the stream which you imagine would retard the flow:
This already exists as the 'K' baffle stack design used in several modern suppressor designs:
Now although the example above doesn't precisely match the Tesla design you linked to, the idea of redirecting exhaust gas back 'upstream' one or two segments is already a standard.
One thing you may want to think about is that if you were to reproduce the exact Tesla design you mention, I believe that the reduction in the volume of the suppressor body would work against you. Volume has more to do with suppression than a fancy suppressor baffle stack design. Also, if you insisted on replicating the Tesla design by adding more material and volume to match, you may end up with a suppressor that's far larger, heavier, and more expensive than modern designs and ultimately offers little to no better decibel reduction than the competitors product.
What end users want are low cost suppressors with light weight and small form factor. Effective suppressors have been available for many decades for both pistols and rifles; the game these days is manufacturing a suppressor that's lightweight, inexpensive, and doesn't adversely affect barrel harmonics by being a big donk of metal.
For an integrated design (like your DeLisle carbine or an Hk MP5SD), the problem is even compounded by the limits of specifically designing the suppressor to fit one platform. End users prefer the option to use the same suppressor across multiple hosts. That's why the uniform 'Quick Detach' feature on the higher end suppressor models is a highly desirable attribute these days rather than just a novelty characteristic.
Now, if your resulting Tesla-inspired design enormously reduced report decibel levels to an unheard of low figure compared to the products already out there, then I would imagine that there would be great interest in your design. Short of a landmark achievement in decibel reduction, I think that you'll find that the traits I listed above (low cost, light weight, reduced profile) outweighs everything else for the end users.
Anyway, good luck with your brainstorming. Take note that Dr. Philip Dater from GemTech occasionally holds suppressor design seminars for industry manufacturers at Long Mountain Outfitters in Henderson Nevada.
She was hot .
Go get an NFA trust, and an LLC for research provision under the NFA. Call ATF and fill out forms for an FFL . You’ll want a type 07 FFL. After inspection, pay for a class 02 SOT. Make your own after form 1 approval;)
There is an obvious potential silencer that might work very well and would even be legal under current anti-silencer laws.
Current silencers just dampen sound, and not very effectively. What this silencer would do would be to *counter* the sound, neutralizing it.
The science is well known, as used to strongly reduce the sound of things like pile drivers and jet aircraft noise with an equal and opposite noise.
But the noise produced by a gun is easier, because bullets produce a near identical sound signature. So you just need to measure how sound propagates from a particular gun.
Then you create a “loop” around the gun, mounted with small speakers. They give off their noise in time with the firing of the bullet. There is no delay to capture the noise and duplicate it so the loop can be close to the gun.
Otherwise I can imagine putting a tough plastic bag around the gun which inflates full of SF6, Sulfur Hexafluoride, which is a non-toxic, non-flammable fire control gas, about three times as dense as air. When the gun is fired, the noise propagates very slowly, so sounds much lower, as well as being diminished by the plastic.
Oh, thank you for the info: it’s both interesting and useful.
>Go get an NFA trust, and an LLC for research provision under the NFA. Call ATF and fill out forms for an FFL . You’ll want a type 07 FFL. After inspection, pay for a class 02 SOT. Make your own after form 1 approval;)
Yeah... that’s kinda why I’m holding off until AFTER my state passes an FFA (if it ever does).
The prevailing law against silencers is a federal law.
>The prevailing law against silencers is a federal law.
Which is why I’m waiting for my state to pass an FFA.
{You know the laws that say that the FedGov cannot regulate firearms/accessories which are produced and sold in-state.}
Even if they pass something like that you could expect BATF to come after you. Do you have the resources to fight them?
You can already, just go through the ATF with a Form 4 and pay the NFA tax.
I own about 25 suppressors.
The sound reduction they produce depends entirely on caliber, host firearm, and ammunition.
Video cameras are practically useless for judging the sound pressure from a suppressed gunshot.
Any individual can legally manufacture their own suppressor (in states where this is allowed/permitted) by submitting nothing more than an ATF Form 1 and the $200 registration fee. A Type 07 FFL with Class 2 Special Operational Taxholder (SOT) status isn't a requirement for manufacturing one single suppressor for personal use.
This wouldn't mean that you could fabricate a whole bunch of suppressor bodies and internal components to experiment with, but people do submit Form 1s all the time to turn an old Maglite flashlight body into a homemade suppressor, for instance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.