Nice Cans

Silence is golden. I've been working on my homemade version of what's commonly called a silencer but referred to as a "suppressor" or "can" by those in the know. Basically, the suppressor retains the hot, fast moving gas behind the bullet, muffles the shock wave and then releases the gas at a slower rate. The sharp crack you hear when a gun fires is the bullet and hot gas breaking the sound barrier.

Sure I could go out and buy one. It's legal in my state and if I weren't going to go financier hunting, that would be the easy (and legal) way to go. But then the Feds would have me in their paper trail. And it would be a rather short paper trail because I want a big can that will give me both a lot of noise reduction and completely contain the muzzle blast so no orange tongue of flame will give away my position. You see, most suppressors are for pistols, not rifles.

So I'm making my own suppressor. They are actually pretty easy to make even without a machine shop. The internet is loaded with plans and even videos - try searching on "improvised suppressors" for a nice starting point. And I don't mind that I'll be saving over a thousand bucks.

Since I don't need my suppressor to last for hundreds or thousands of rounds or look "professional" my task is even easier. I'm also willing to have what's called a "wet" suppressor which gives even more noise reduction over a "dry" suppressor. You see the fluid both reduces the temperature of the hot gas and also gets picked up (entrained) in the gas stream and slows it down even more. Oil or water are the 2 fluids used most often. There are stories that even urine has been used in a pinch.

The .308 caliber Ruger M77 hunting rifle I am using has a tapered barrel with no front sight. So what I did is coat the outside of the barrel with a mold release agent and insert a wooden dowel (snug fit) into the barrel to act as both a plug and a centering guide. Then I slipped a 7/8" ID (inside diameter) metal tube 20" long over the dowel and down the barrel till it was just an inch away from the stock forend. The metal tubing had two 3/16" holes drilled on opposite sides 13" from the tube end and about 14" from the forend. Epoxy resin will be injected into one hole and then flow out the other hole after the cavity between the tube and gun barrel are filled. But before I do that, I wrapped duct tape around the bottom of the tube and then I centered and shimmed the tube on the dowel. Now I could pour the resin and then leave the gun alone until the resin completely cured. The mold release made it easy to just twist and pull the epoxy filled metal tube off. This would be the core of my suppressor.

Part 2, literally and figuratively, coming soon.