Legality of airgun suppressors

But the main problem with a suppressor (and even more with a 500 Fps and less ) it robs you of a few 100 Fps and you can say bye bye to accuracy. Everyone i talked to that have tried one (home made or not) all say the same. someone even tried sticking a piece of pool noodle at the end of an airgun barrel (said it worked) lol
The fact is a suppressor on an air gun not talking about the muzzle breaks that comes standard on some of them is for close range, 10 yards or less it does the silencing job but at the cost of accuracy and projectile speed so not really worth having an illegal item.
 
garmic said:
I hate to put it this way but, if they were legal then people would be more likely to use air guns where they weren't supposed to. I'll guarantee that would happen because I would probably be the first, if I knew the chance of being heard was eliminated I would be shooting in the back yard all the time as I'm sure would others.
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Do you work for the RCMP? that sounds like their logic. My car will go over 110km/hr does this mean I'll speed? I could grind the pins off my 30/5rnd mags will I? No I'm a law abiding person that would not risk the consequences.
 
Most of the air gunners that I have heard from want a suppressor to make their guns "back yard friendly", you figure it out.
Also for the fellow who posted that they will cost you velocity, you must play Call of Duty.
 
garmic said:
I hate to put it this way but, if they were legal then people would be more likely to use airguns where they weren't supposed to. I''ll guarantee that would happen because I would probably be the first, if I knew the chance of being heard was eliminated I would be shooting in the back yard all the time as I'm sure would others.
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Well maybe, but I have shot quite a few of these things, and in most cases I couldn't tell the difference between the silenced ones or the not silenced ones. If they are supersonic, you have another problem, and you have the problem of regular slap sounds from the pellets going into many targets, though some are reasonably quiet. I do believe silencers make a difference, obviously on precharged, and also on those spring guns that are designed to burn a little oil with each shot. All I am saying is the noise is not lower from the shooter's point of view, with most of them. One reason for this is the holes on the ones I used back in the 80s were fairly large. Or the same hole was used for 22 and 17.
 
haha49 said:
You can't even put it on airguns now there are a few non restricted airguns that have sound suppression built into them and they were classified as non restricted they were 1200fps and it was built into the barrel. They said it was ok because it was part of the design of the rifle it self not something that was put on after the fact. It's kind of weird if you ask me how they go that's ok but something else isn't and other air rifles with it on it aren't ok.
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Right at the moment there are guns being sold by major sellers, that have built in stuff. There are others that are not legal for sale. There is a lot of crazy stuff for sale out there by people who some day may wish they had known better.
 
f55 said:
Illegal

The first thing i was told when i phoned before moving To Canada from UK was dont bring the suppressor its illegal, of course i had no idea it was illegal and I am glad i did call to because it was inspected when it arrived in Canada.

Theoben Rapid 7 (comes with supressor from factory)
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Theobens used to be sold here with the silencer on them but they were finished with a Cutts compensator kind of cut in them. This meant the blast would exit the gun, and go vertical, though I doubt it would be unmoderated by 1 db. I have thought of making a muzzle brake such as is used on 50 cals, just to force the blast sideways. This might make it more likely that one could get second shots on prey, but not draw adverse attention, or cause any attenuation to occur.
 
bobc said:
Do you work for the RCMP? that sounds like their logic. My car will go over 110km/hr does this mean I'll speed? I could grind the pins off my 30/5rnd mags will I? No I'm a law abiding person that would not risk the consequences.
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I believe that you could gather enough data to prove that point conclusively from 20 minutes on a 401 overpass. I bet you could collect speed/car model data that when combined with info on their engine/weight would indicate it correlates very highly.

A depressingly large number of cities already ban the discharge of airguns, and then you run the usual problems about the drones in black PJs being called in when a kid just draws even a picture of a gun. So for me, when I was into this stuff, the reason I wanted a silencer was the same as with a bow, where they are legal: Game doesn't scare out of the way of the pellet (back then 700 fps was smoking and most hunting was done with 500 fps 22s), and if one misses, one can correct and connect with an undisturbed animal; and in pest work you may get further shots at other animals. It was humane and had nothing to do with breaking the law, or being tactical since from my perspective, spring guns were just as noisy, one didn't get a feeling of stealth, or anything fun.
 
kobs said:
But the main problem with a suppressor (and even more with a 500 Fps and less ) it robs you of a few 100 Fps and you can say bye bye to accuracy. Everyone i talked to that have tried one (home made or not) all say the same. someone even tried sticking a piece of pool noodle at the end of an airgun barrel (said it worked) lol
The fact is a suppressor on an air gun not talking about the muzzle breaks that comes standard on some of them is for close range, 10 yards or less it does the silencing job but at the cost of accuracy and projectile speed so not really worth having an illegal item.
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Wrong on every point. Any distance, if anything improves accuracy, and it does not affect velocity. In fact these things are being sold in the US, were they are also illegal, but they seem to have found some kind of exception because they are added to some guns ostensibly to trap excess blast gasses that might disturb projectile accuracy. Not sure that is such a huge problem, though pre-charged guns do have a lot more gas than barrel volume, compared to conventional guns, so it is a somewhat different thing. But if you look at some of the catalogs the cans are there, and they are marketed as accuracy enhancers, though elsewhere in the same catalogs one finds noise mentioned. Some of the US companies are treading near the line. They are selling firearm power guns, with cans, calling them something else, and they are large companies. Not sure where they get the balls.
 
Pepperpopper said:
Theobens used to be sold here with the silencer on them but they were finished with a Cutts compensator kind of cut in them. This meant the blast would exit the gun, and go vertical, though I doubt it would be unmoderated by 1 db. I have thought of making a muzzle brake such as is used on 50 cals, just to force the blast sideways. This might make it more likely that one could get second shots on prey, but not draw adverse attention, or cause any attenuation to occur.
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Centrefire varmint shooters often put muzzle brakes on their rifles, not for recoil reduction, but to keep the noise of the muzzle blast confined as much as possible to the firing point. I have a few braked rifles, and the noise is incredibly loud to the extent unprotected ears will be damaged. Will a muzzle brake make an airgun noisier? Probably. It sure as hell won't make it any quieter.
 
Decidamp ear plugs reduce the report of firearms.
So do ear muffs.
So does plugging your fingers in.

A skil saw blade meets the CC for a prohibited weapon. (throwing star)
The law is an ass.
~C Dickens
 
ricksplace said:
Centrefire varmint shooters often put muzzle brakes on their rifles, not for recoil reduction, but to keep the noise of the muzzle blast confined as much as possible to the firing point. I have a few braked rifles, and the noise is incredibly loud to the extent unprotected ears will be damaged. Will a muzzle brake make an airgun noisier? Probably. It sure as hell won't make it any quieter.
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Right but they may make them quieter from the perspective of the game. The quieter air rifles aren't noisy enough to mater as far as ears or neighbours are concerned (assuming you are legal to shoot), but they are loud enough that game might move, or might not allow a follow up shot. Basically the right kind of muzzle brake diverts the blast so it is a lot worse for the shooter, and quieter for the target. With an air rifle, for hunting it's a good deal. It's the same concept as a linear muzzle brake, or muzzle cup that makes a gun quieter for the shooter, but noisier for the target, except in reverse.
 
For the guy saying silencers make the gun inaccurate they've never shot an airforce talon air gun. Amazingly accurate even at 50 yards 3 shot groups the size of a nickel. And very quiet
 
The Benjamin/Crosman Marauder is apparently now available in Canada, at least according to the websites of a couple of our airgun specialty retailers. When those guns first came out I recall reading here on CGN that we wouldn't/couldn't see them here because of their integral shroud, which acts as a suppressor. How are they now legal for sale? Are the specs for the Canadian model changed?

They look very interesting. Any opinions or experience with them that someone has to share?
 
Pre ban TX200 has a shrouded barrel, still makes noise but less than others that shoot in the high 900s, The Hw97k s barrel is only 11inches long the whole outer barrel shrouds it, it makes noise too. I would stand off the property and have some one shoot your rifle so you can hear exactly what others might hear, having your head right at the receiver certain makes you think they are loud, next I would work on a noiseless target.
 
that is another set of laws that are stupid in Canada as a muzzle brake can redirect the down range report of a rifle by 80 even 90% and that is often far more then the average suppressor will do... sh!t now those Lib-tards will want them banned as well... granted the people to the sides are going to know you are there.
 
There are so many myths and truths mixed and commonplace I am obligated to clear things up.

An airgun is a firearm (read: requiring a PAL) only if the "maximum" muzzle energy is greater than 5.7J and/or "maximum" muzzle velocity of 500fps.

A suppressor (colloquially called a silencer) imposes a shockwave and/or cools hot gas. Putting one on an air rifle gives the impression to the user its working but its partially diverting noise from the barrel. With or without, audibility will be entirely based on angle and distance as the noise will not be uniformly the same dB around it. In other words, your neighbours are still going to hear an annoying clicking sound, possibly the zipping of air, and definitely the impact of the pellet and ricochets.

Suppressors of any kind do not slow a projectile or change its ballistics negatively. This is confused with special ammo for subsonic shooting because the sonic boom cannot be suppressed. By special I mean for example a 7.62NATO at 2750fps brought down to 1050fps or so and hopefully a lot more grains to increase the ballistic coefficient.

Most of the noise is coming from the trigger group with a spring slamming metal together and vibration, and the rest is based on the bedding. Wrapping a pillow around the action would have a better effect of muffling it nowhere near the muzzle, and then you can't aim but you couldn't aim with crap mounted on the front probably anyway. Unless you place a paper-towel tube to prevent your sightpath from being obscured. It'll feel super-suppressed to the shooter (like a whole -10dB step) but its like those children that cover their eyes and say, "you can't see me." Also you have to contend with the pellets skipping off dirt or bouncing and landing in people's pools, you'd be surprised. Just don't be shooting where you know you shouldn't be, because you probably can't account for the full trajectory unless you're in a crawl-space or basement on the far side of the moon away from whatever laws are making you put a suppressor on it in the first place.

edit: Suppressors will improve accuracy in all cases where you don't need special loads, because you don't have the gas pressure blowing at the projectile randomly as it leaves the muzzle. Having a match crown on your barrel will have an evenly distributed "blowing" effect which mitigates the pressure, or bleed the pressure using ports.

I refuse to discuss suppressors any further.
 
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