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Comment by SamPatt | Hacker News Reader

Suppressors don't make any weapon quiet enough to be useful for hiding the sound of firing up close, as movies portray spies doing.

It's more about protecting your own hearing.

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There are exceptions to every generalization, and this exception is pretty cool. The Welrod MkIIA is a semiautomatic pistol, designed for covert operations and assassinations, that is genuinely movie-quiet.

Ian McCollum (Forgotten Weapons) has an excellent video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d12AjvEsaHg

"When it's properly set up, this is as close as you get to an actual `silent gun`. You can, by all accounts, be within about 15 feet of this thing and not recognize that a firearm has discharged."

I recognized the name because of some video games I played in the past.

Note that it's still 122dB. That's quiet for a firearm, which is normally 140dB or more, but still louder than a car horn.

I think the proper way to read the quote is that you'll definitely hear the sound, but it won't necessarily be obvious that it has come from a firearm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welrod https://www.chem.purdue.edu/chemsafety/Training/PPETrain/dbl...

Wikipedia says 122db, but I don't think that's correct. Other sources say 73db, and describe the sound as less loud than that of the bullet impacting the woid of the target, at least with fresh baffles. (Too lazy to include links, first page google results)

Ah, Wikipedia also says that volume elsewhere in the article.

The linked Forgotten Weapons goes in to detail about the rubber seals, which the projectile pierces through when the weapon is fired.

The rubber partially reseals, but after a dozen shots or so the weapon degrades to the performance of a normal silenced pistol.

This probably explains the discrepancy. It is indeed very quiet, and my interpretation of the quote is wrong.

A modern equivalent based on an M&P 9mm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aljJ2jPTa1c&feature=youtu.be...

It is Hollywood quiet.

That was insanely quiet. I’ve never heard a suppressor that quiet before!

You can't really tell volume from a youtube video for obvious reasons.

You can’t tell the SPL from a YouTube video but you can clearly tell the silencer reduces the attack and sustain of the gunshot noise by a substantial degree. It also doesn’t echo as much.

That's obviously the point of the progression from unsuppressed to maximum suppression; to convey the relative amplitude.

>The Welrod MkIIA is a semiautomatic pistol

It's not. It's a manually operated pistol.

In the game Rainbow Six, there was the description of the MP5SD a mp with integrated silencer and it was said, that it is only as loud as a click from a pen. I always believed that, because the game had a focus on realism, but 120+ DB is more close to reality and a bit louder.

An old colleague had a silenced .22 with sub-sonic rounds and it still sounded loud as fuck without hearing protection (we were dumb young people), but more like a car horn next to your face than an explosion, so my hearing is probably OK.

I also remember that game and the "pen click" description and I thought when he fired it the .22 would just click like that!

While suppressors do not make the weapon quiet, the firearm could be outfitted with subsonic ammunition which by itself is very nearly silent[1] even with larger rifle calibers[2]. Though to be fair the ballistics on subsonic ammunition doesn't even compare to supersonic ammunition which is why they see little practical use. But for a 007 type character who normally engages in very close range that should make complete sense.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fb8CLXll9I

[2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTdMr8tdL4I

Spies should carry crossbows more. They're pretty quiet.

But still reasonably loud. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ciIy3rqVh8

So a traditional hunting bow instead. Or a blowpipe with poison darts.

How fast does the poison act? I bet I could make a lot of noise if I felt a dart hit my neck

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