external supressor

R

realm-aw

Guest
My practice bench has neighbors within 200 yards of the bench. Any experience with noise reduction? Maybe shooting through a baffeled tube to dampen the report? I am NOT suggesting an attached supressor. Thanks for any advice.
 
A lot of them I have seen are made out of a 55 gallon drum with about a 10" hole in fboth ends. The inside is lined with fiberglass insulation and held in place with chicken wire. It's also best to wrap the outside with rubber or something like that but not necessary.

Hovis
 
Shooting through several old tires lined up on a rack reduces noise considerably.
 
thanks,

OK, a rack of tires seems like a great starting place. maybe I'll add some fiberglass and mesh wire.
 
A friend of mine and I made one out of a 55 gal. PVC barrel. I cut the ends out and left about a 5" lip around the edge on the top and bottom. We then used egg crate(egg crate part out to collect sound) type foam rubber about 2" thick to line the inside and held it in place with Liquid nails. I have tried it on centerfires but on rimfire match rifles all you hear from 20 yards away is a light thump, like someone took their hand and lightly slapped the barrel. I cut a radius into two pieces of 2X4 to match the barrel and used drywall screws to attach them to the barrel. This was for feet to allow it to set on the bench.
 
Shooting through tires or a barrel works very well, the problem is that you can't see your periphery windflags very well.

Another option is to baffle or redirect the noise.

I chose this route on my last range. I'd put up a sheet of plywood on the side between my muzzle and the neighbor with a couple of added scraps UNDER the muzzle and leaned back at 45 degrees or so, designed to bounce the sound up and away. Some time spent with two people, one to shoot and one to listen and we were able to remarkably attenuate the sound going over to the neighbor's while maintaining a clear view around the area. It's a pain but was worth it to me in the name of good neighborly relations.

I once drew up a V-shaped arrangement of boards vaguely canoe-shaped with upward-facing baffles and of course an open bottom for water. It was ugly but I think it would have functioned well. Before I had to implement it I moved to my current home further from civilization.


BTW, in either case I feel that it's VERY important not to block much of your periphery view, all approaches to your firing lane. I once set up to shoot out of the window of a large building........the sound was almost completely contained by the large room and I had a fairly wide view of my flags but I was too scared to shoot without going and looking out the window all the time. I had nightmares of someone walking into the firing range. Seems silly until you relax and go reload for 10-15min and then go touch one off without looking. :eek: And think of someone walking by the window.

I know of someone who does exactly this though from a SECOND STORY window....

It's just too scary to shoot without a clear field of view.

al
 
safety first

alinwa: Thanks for the reminder about keeping an eye out for unexpected "company" on the firing range. It should not be a problem on my location. The only visitors I've seen are the Whitetails that need to go to the stream for an evening drink.
My constant issue is the wind here on the high plains. Last week we had a day when the average wind speed was 41mph - that was a breeeeezy day! So it seems that a sheet of plywood would be more of a wind catcher than a tube of tires. The prephial wind flags will just have to be adjusted to the new view down and around the tube. thanks for the comments.
 
I've thought about this a few times and the stacked tires idea works. I hadn't thought about the peripheral view issue before though. Even so a series of tires of increasing size might solve that issue - starting with a small rimmed tire (say 14" rim, and working up to a small tractor sized tire ) this would still result in a funnel shaped series of baffles that would block and absorb sideways directed noise , while still allowing more of a peripheral view. Just a thought.
 
My grand daddy always said "There's no problem that can't be fixed with a gallon of gasoline and a match" :eek: :eek: He also said "If problems occur from solution one.....refer back to solution one". :D :D

Hovis
 
With the tires.......

you actually get more reduction if you start w/the larger tires closer, then the smaller as distance increases, shooting into a funnel. As for the drum w/fiberglass & chicken wire, I saw that done. It would be a great way to remove insulation in houses, if you could find a way to reduce the report on the residents. Nothing seemed to rip out the batting faster than a 7Mag. And the shooters remarked there was a lot of concussion. Lots of insulation flyin' around, too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top