I had three suppressor-ready handguns available for this test: a 9mm Glock 19 with a Lone Wolf threaded barrel a. This problem was more pronounced with rifle ammunition, but handguns were not immune.Īside from lower sound levels, suppressed pistols often prove more accurate because the diminished blast makes them a lot easier to shoot. Not all pistol bullets are designed to expand reliably at subsonic velocities, which often left terminal performance lacking. That started to change in the 1970s and ’80s when the 9mm submachine gun was the go-to weapon for counter-terrorist troops and 147-grain subsonic jacketed hollowpoint ammunition became more widely available. Various loads have been used in suppressed firearms since suppressors came into common use in World War II and on into more modern times, but it wasn’t always ideal for its intended use (see sidebar). Therefore, in order to be reliably subsonic, a load must have consistent velocities of less than 1,100 fps. Bullets reach supersonic speeds at around 1,130 fps at sea level with a temperature of around 70 degrees. The solution to this problem is simple: ammunition that doesn’t create a sonic signature because it is moving at less than the speed of sound. If you’re a soldier trying to quietly take out a sentry or a rancher hunting a group of feral hogs, this additional noise could mean the difference between success and failure. The muzzle blast is far less pronounced near the shooter, but the overall sound signature is still loud. Hornady’s Subsonic runs at consistent, proper speed, and its XTP bullet is designed to expand at lower velocities.īut here’s the rub: Unless subsonic ammunition is used, even a suppressed firearm will produce a sonic “crack” as it moves through the air. 22 rimfire, it still sounded like a gunshot. Because of my long experience with them, I knew few were as quiet as those you saw in the movies. I grew up in a home with a pretty healthy collection of firearms-and among them was a handful of suppressors. With few players doing it right, Hornady stepped in and built its Subsonic line of ammunition to meet the demand.
The rapid growth in suppressor ownership left a gap in the ammunition market, i.e., the widespread availability of quality subsonic ammunition designed specifically to work at such low velocities. So how many suppressors are actually out there? According to the American Suppressor Association, the number stood at 1.8 million as of January. Since there have been a fixed number of transferable machine guns since 1986, it is a safe assumption that the vast majority of those Form 4 applications were for suppressors. If we dive deep into the data published by BATFE in 2017, we can see that the number of Form 4 transfer applications went from 7,024 in 1990 to 133,911 in 2016. Suppressors are regulated by the National Firearms Act, which means that every transfer must be approved. I’m not sure who deserves credit for the explosion in suppressor popularity in this country, but there is little doubt of its occurrence.
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