Sounds of SILENCE:

- For those of us without a single scientific bone in our bodies .. 

QUANTUM MECHANICS,like Shakespeare's play 'MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING' (written in 1599) - seems to be about making something from NOTHING ..

quantum (plural: quanta) is the smallest possible, indivisible unit of any physical property, such as energy, light, or atomic charge

virtual means something that exists in essence but not in actuality.

- Hop-up onto the stage and look behind the scenery .. There really is nothing there.

Winter Sunshine ..

The Simon & Garfunkel song was in 1964 .. THAT'S SIXTY-BLOODY-TWO YEARS AGO .. when I was 20 y.o. - Oh my gawd.

The very quietest rifle I ever owned was a left-handed bolt action .22 LR Anschutz for which my shooting mate Rod-'GunDoc' built a full barrel length 'silencer' from the action to past the muzzle .. something like this pic ..

NOT my Anschutz ..

I checked it out, and if you want to buy a new Anschutz .22, left-handed B.A. in New Zealand nowadays you will need FOUR THOUSAND NZ DOLLARS MINIMUM - up to around NZ$9,000 with a fancy stock .. No idea - but I'd guess a custom made full barrel, expansion-chamber-baffled sound moderator with a 50mm diameter body would be at least another five-ten grand maybe??

I have no recall as to what I paid thirty plus years ago - but that lovely gun made a sound like a quiet handtap when using sub-sonic ammo. I used to think that if it was fired outside on a CBD street, behind someones back .. they wouldn't even turn around .. I sold it.

The most famous "SILENCED GUN" ever has to be the De Lisle Commando Carbine

A Replica I'm sure ..

it is said that the originals are STILL held for use by British SAS troops.

Now my Dad served nearly EIGHT years in the British army through World War II, 1938-45 with the Irish Guards and Nos 1 & 2 Commando Regiments and he never said anything in my hearing about silenced 45 Caliber Carbines .. I did once hear him talking to a Guards mate about a Polish commando who nobody would talk-to because he liked using his F.S Knife on the enemy ..

Silent FAIRBAIRN-SYKES Commando Knife:

Naturally - A Banned Import for NZ

I have had a couple of SMLE "De Lisle Carbine Replicas" pass through my hands over the years - a 45, a 9mm, plus that Anschutz two-two .. very fun interesting guns to play with.

SOUND MODERATORS such as these are mostly called silencers and they work by lowering the gas pressure and slowing down the release of gasses into the air. They don't silence anything like Hollywood Movie Makers pretend.

The usual Screw-On, Barrel-End 'Silencers' do a good job for a reasonable cost - but anyone shooting these things a lot still needs to wear hearing protectors because you only get one pair of ears to last you all the way.

And, If you just screw a silencer on the end of your pistol barrel - there's a good chance that the gun will become a single shot because the action won't cycle fully .. and it won't be very quiet either unless you taylor-make some low velocity rounds with heavy projectiles, and that will change where the bullets hit.

I don't much like the idea of screwing a long heavy tube onto the end of a Browning Action Locking Breech Pistol that tilts up and down with every shot to unlock the breech and feed another round ..

all that weight flicking up and down with every BANG ??

AND .. NOBODY can actually silence a normal revolver by screwing a CAN onto the barrel because there is a 5-15 Thou air gap between the cylinder chamber and the forcing cone at the backend of the barrel that will let all the noise out.

Yes I do know that the Russians had a revolver that sealed that gap .. I owned a Nagant.

- They also make the PSS-Pistol and the OTs-38 Stechkin Revolver that both use versions of the SP-4 CAPTIVE PISTON CARTRIDGE that eliminates ALL Muzzle Blast and delivers a heavyweight 155gn low velocity slug with deadly effect. - Not quiet SILENT but very low noise.

Anyone else notice that somebody seems to have inserted the primer backwards in the cutaway?

If you find an army surplus OTS-38 Stechkin - can you buy it and send it to me?

OTS-38 Stechkin 'Silent' Revolver:

Years ago I invented-adapted and patented (at considerable expense) a "SILENT" captive piston cartridge for 357 Magnum Revolvers .. But nobody was interested. - Copper plated steel slugs & I injection moulded the pistons using granular activated carbon filled polymer - to absorb/exfiltrate the pressurized gas.

Never mind eh ..

The U S Federal Government still classes sound moderators with Machine Guns and Destructive Devices

I'll keep quiet about that

Life is good,

FIREARMS LICENCES ESSENTIAL FOR NZ POLICE.

Marty K.