Shotgun Silencers

[Corbeau]

A company in Finland, BR-Tuote, will make custom suppressors for shotguns:

As usual, subsonic ammo is required.

 

[tactical lever]

I could be wrong but I seem to recall hear the tunnel rats in Vietnam had some sort of sound suppressor for their shotguns...

The tunnel rats used self contained rounds for silent shooting. It's a captive piston design.

 

[tactical lever]

I read somewhere that the loads have to be way under subsonic for the silencer to do anything - I think it was an article from Gunwriters on the Web.

You won't have to be way under sub-sonic but it would help. You might need a bigger can to contain the excess gases though. If you're powder is done burning by the time it hits the muzzle, you're not going to get as much rapidly expanding gas there. You have to figure into the equation the volume of expanding gases and build it into your design. If you don't have any high velocity air coming out you won't have the noise. (Unless you're super-sonic.)