It has always struck me as odd that, in a country with far more liberal attitudes to firearms than ours in the UK, silencers (suppressors) are almost unknown except in films, where they are always more effective than in real life.
Most .22 rifles used for hunting in the UK are suppressed. If you want something like a .223 or similar for fox control, the police are likely to insist that a suppressor is fitted. For really effective noise control. the bullet must be sub-sonic.
On target ranges, the situation is reversed--you will very seldom see any form of silencer. 
Fred.

FWIW, I have looked into a range silencer for my own backyard.  Has anyone done this?  I have not actually tried it yet, but I'm curious if anyone has any direct experience

Brent

PS.  Is that $200 permit an annual tax or a one time thing?

 
My original thought was to silence my indoor range with some sort of baffled box to shoot through.  No idea of how long or how big it would have to be.  If you shot through a baffled box it would have to be positioned right for each shooter or position.  That is a 6 foot shooter probably could not use the same one as a 5 foot shooter or someone shooting prone or sitting. The design is so problematical I just keep shooting my airgun.

Brent on outdoor ranges.  I do recall Charlie Dells shooting house being pretty quiet when approached from behind or the side and it had no special insulation or baffles. Our clubs high power silhouette range has sound curtains hung on 3 sides of the shooting house and are pretty effective too.

As said the bullet has to be sub sonic to be quiet. The two pistols I saw shot the other day put out some noise from the slides cycling and open breech on recoil. Something single shots would not do. The guy at the gun shop speculated that a 9 mm silencer would be effective on a 32 and 22 as well. I don't know if he has direct experence however. I would think it is caliber specific to be truly effective

The tax stamp as explained to me is one time and per suppressor.  In the 30's when it was first applied 200 dollars was a lot of money. It's not much today.

I doubt if I am going to spring for the tax and suppressor and particulary don't want one hanging off my traditonal Schuetzen rifle unless I set up a barrel just for indoors, It could be a .22 short which would be viable for home indoor ranges. Barrel tax and suppressor would be over a thousand dollars.

Boats

The price of Class III weapons (ie, machineguns) has gotten so inflated because NO NEW ones can be made and put into civilian hands as of 1986. Only "pre-'86" full auto's can be acquired via a civilian tax stamp.

Supressors, on the other hand, can still be new-made and sold to civilians (with the appropriate tax stamp and whatever local laws for your area).

Supressors are still fairly reasonable, and can even be home-shop made WITH the appropriate ATFE permission.  (Do NOT try it without!  ATF has NO sense of humor for honest gun folks "just experimenting" with supressors...  I don't know any gun afficionado with a lathe that hasn't THOUGHT about how easy a supressor would be... but 25 years in "Club Fed" is a powerful deterrent for me...).

If I didn't live in "no supressors for anybody except hollywood" California, I'd DEFINITELY have acquired one or two by now.

God I want this end of the Peoples Republic to secede to Oregon!

I think a single shot with a supressor would be cool... 
In fact, I just got a book for christmas;  The Winchester Single Shot, Volume II, that has some pictures and drawings of a high wall (or low wall... I forget) with a supressor. 

Paul F.

boats;
              I built one of those suppressors Jeff mentioned, the plan"s were from the magazine writer Rick Jamesion. I modified the plans some, I used three plastic barrels with 13" tires , lots of holes thru the tires. It worked but was very heavy and hard to move. A small hole is cut in the end to shoot thru. My suppressor went down the Ohio River in a flood, figure some guy down in Kentucky "wondering what this is"      -----leadball

marlinguy wrote on Dec 27^th, 2007 at 11:50pm:


That might work well, but it would be a real b****rd to lug about in the field. lol.

The only valid reason I have ever seen for a sound supressor on a rifle in the outdoors, is when you have a 'stand' on a field full of Rabbits. You can get a good number before the rest catch on and disappear. Here in the UK the only sound supressor that is legal is for a .22 rimfire, and you have to have a permit for it.

Harry

Twenty five or so years ago Merrill Martin described to me the "suppressor" he used in his basement range as an eight foot long box, about two feet on each side, lined with egg crate type foam, set up so that he could shoot handguns or subsonic rifles offhand through it.  As I recall, he said it was hinged on one side to get access to it for cleanout of any unburned/partially burned powder.

David
Montezuma, IA