Silencers and gas vents: A stupid combination?

[Slacker]

Basically, see the topic.

I have a player who swears that it's not impossible "in real life". I say that's crap and he should get over it.

Long story short, I ruled that he had to pull one. (Silencer, BTW. Being as this gun was a heavy sniper rifle, it wouldn't have done anything, anyways.)

Thoughts?

[UncleDave]

Originally Posted by Slacker

I have a player who swears that it's not impossible "in real life". I say that's crap and he should get over it.

I'd like to know how. I'm no gunsmith but I thought the noise from a gun came from two things: the sonic boom caused by a projectile moving faster than the speed of sound, and the soundwaves caused by rapidly expanding gases.

To silence a gun effectively, you need to slow down the bullet to below the speed of sound, AND trap as much of the gas in as you can. I admit it's possible I may be misinformed but that's what I was told.

So, if I am correct, you COULD have both a silencer and gas vent... but all it would do is stop the sonic boom element of the sound. I have no real idea how effective that would be, but my guess is "not very".

Cheers!

[TheElf]

How I would decide in a such scenario? First of all, he uses a semi automatic weapon, so even if it gets *2 recoil for being heavy, the maximum recoil it gets would be +2, that can be handled without any gas vent stuff, so no real need for gas vent, except for style: if you look at a Gepárd M6, it has some such systems, he can have it. In reality: There are heavy sniper rifles, where recoil doesn't have an effect on their accuracy, but still can be a nasty surprise if you fire them. So I would say since they have no positive effects normally, they can be ignored.

Silencer: Big problem here, for many reasons: First of all, a sniper rifle is defined by good accuracy, and a silencer or any barrel mounted accessory that interacts with gases or the bullet itself are risky here, can reduce accuracy, if it isn't part of the design. So any barrel mounted accessory can make the sniper rifle lose its advantages, if it loses accuracy: It fires the same ammo as an assault rifle or a (light) sport rifle, and if you ruin its accuracy to comparable level... Heavy sniper rifles use heavy machine gun ammo.

Having both effects built in a weapon can be possible, if the weapon is designed that way, but you can't attach two barrel mount accessories to the same weapon. If it has both built in, or one built in and a barrel mount still unused (rare) you can allow such combinations

Also: For weapons using nonstandard ammo, and work in a less than standard way, a built in silencer can be very different from an actual silencer: it can just say this guin iis quiet compared to others.

[Gregor Eisenhorn]

With my players I simply say only for Assult rifles and SMG's but I also penalize them by saying no actual silancers can be combined with gas vents. Only a suppressor. And who uses vents on a pistol or any semi auto gun?

Honestly If you are that worried take a turn aiming. Or get a custom grip you don't need vents on a freaking pistol!

[TheElf]

There are reasons to have such things on a handgun or a rifle: Mostly centered around world reality and consistency

[HHH-Man]

On a sniper rifle why would you care about Silencing it? Due to how far away a sniper should be from the target the sound isn't what will pinpoint you it is just the flash. If you look thru most of the modern sniper rifles they start loosing accuracy (Provided a skilled person is pulling the trigger) at around 1000 meters. Most snipers have a target so even with a sonic boom from the velocity of the projectile it doesn't matter your target should be dead or have 5 more bullets coming at him before the first hit. If you are close enough where a silencer would be useful then you are too close to be an effective sniper.

[TheElf]

Depends, I can recommend you to check the Gepárd/destroyer family of rifles, even if their accuracy is good at the range you mentioned, their typcal application is for a very different range.

[sdamon]

Originally Posted by UncleDave

I'd like to know how. I'm no gunsmith but I thought the noise from a gun came from two things: the sonic boom caused by a projectile moving faster than the speed of sound, and the soundwaves caused by rapidly expanding gases.

To silence a gun effectively, you need to slow down the bullet to below the speed of sound, AND trap as much of the gas in as you can. I admit it's possible I may be misinformed but that's what I was told.

So, if I am correct, you COULD have both a silencer and gas vent... but all it would do is stop the sonic boom element of the sound. I have no real idea how effective that would be, but my guess is "not very".

Cheers!

dave.
drilling holes in the berrale of a gun to silence it also lessens the force of the expanding gasses pushing it, therforre makeing the projectile subsonic. so in the process of eliminateing the soundwaves from the rapidly expanding gass, you eliminate both causes of loud report (in hand guns, This will not work for gas operated rifles.)


Silencer: Big problem here, for many reasons: First of all, a sniper rifle is defined by good accuracy, and a silencer or any barrel mounted accessory that interacts with gases or the bullet itself are risky here, can reduce accuracy, if it isn't part of the design. So any barrel mounted accessory can make the sniper rifle lose its advantages, if it loses accuracy: It fires the same ammo as an assault rifle or a (light) sport rifle, and if you ruin its accuracy to comparable level... Heavy sniper rifles use heavy machine gun ammo.

It wont reduce accureacy persay...a marksman should bea able to compinste without difficulty. it WILL reduce its power and range. the RMC and USMC both used supressed sniper rifles with great deals of success.

[Gregor Eisenhorn]

Agreed unless your trying to go unnoticed at shorter distances the idea of silancing a rifle seems rather useless, and it would lessen the accurecy at least a bit. In the end go with whats needed or useful, Full auto weapons get gas vents and no lessening of noise, honestly I never weild a weapon able to do burts or full auto unless stuffs already bad.

Some silenced SMGs might needs a way to reduce recoil as well