[Leo Greer]

on the basis that I don't want to jump into that particular rabbit hole and my barrel is a non-standard diameter

Out of curiosity, what’s your barrel?

 

[Leo Greer]

Exactly why foam rifle rags are my bag baby! Shit, I wish I had pictures of my friend's G36, might have to see if I can dig any out.

Kinda wanna try that out. Sounds freaking ugly (on an M4), but quiet would be nice… “And one book called, ‘Quiet is totally absolutely my bag, baby!’”

 

[Doctor Jest]

Out of curiosity, what’s your barrel?

It's an Edgi bull barrel - so it's 10mm thick rather than the usual ~8mm or so. Dual bore from (IIRC) 6.03 to 5.98. I mean, I could replace it easily enough but I am too cheap and set in my ways.


For reference, the rags do look fugly but combined with natural foliage, haloscreen and nanoscreen etc then the hope is you're neither seen nor heard ^^

 

[RonSwanson]

And besides it’s still an M4—the GB noise is way more than the barrel noise.

The real trick isn't silencing it, it's making it as loud as possible to put the fear in them and make them duck for cover.

It's the reason I find the firehawk hilarious to use people aren't expecting the loud crack each shot makes and the tend to panic.

 

[Leo Greer]

Ah, but then I lose all my shots! That works great on noobs, but the experienced players don’t care. And I find 30 RPS or anything with a big scope does the same. I kid you not, the new players at my local field literally get more frightened the larger your optic is.

 

[SiliconeSword]

The Wolverine BOLT isn't really a perfectly volumed setup as it's somewhat loud in a 430mm configuration, but it's comparable to a 430mm springer at about the same power with heavy BBs, just without the mechanical noise. With the BOLT there's pretty much no mechanical noise besides the solenoid clicking and a valve thing whacking backward and forward, but that's really no louder than a VSR-10 trigger. But with the lack of mechanical noise, you're able to make the gun relatively quiet even at 3J with a suppressor, and at 2J and below the thing gets really really really quiet, like it's hard to tell you're shooting it even.

For voluming, you can under volume a gun and it will still be loud at the muzzle, so I believe there is more to it. Voluming is strictly based off of power, as it doesn't make sense to have a barrel so long it kills power, and it isn't great to have a barrel so short you lose power either. Even if you're perfectly volumed you're still probably having air exit, but that air just won't be able to be used for much of anything in a longer setup. It sort of sounds like it was mentioned that the air inside the barrel in front of the BB could play a part, which I'd bet it does. I think this has been mentioned in real firearms before, but never really much effort went into it as there's no way of changing it really. One point of interest is that smaller calibers suppress better than large calibers, even at about the same power. I'm not sure if it's gunpowder/gas volume, barrel volume, or there being something with larger suppressor holes, but it's a known thing that weak .45 ACP is louder than subsonic 9mm of a similar power in suppressors suited for that caliber. I'd be interested in knowing exactly why, but I'm sure it's one or many of the things I listed.

I have sort of reached the point in the hobby where all I do is split hairs, but it's really more fun than struggling to do basic things and having a bad time at the field with a busted gun. If you're new or don't care that much, you can call it good, but if you've run out of things to do then you may as well try and perfect things.

As for putting a wrap or rag in my guns, I weigh the pros and cons of that added weight, as while I could put $75 of Dynamat over my whole gun, it would very likely double it's weight and probably not reach my expectations. I'll maybe experiment with putting stuff on my outer barrel and receiver, but other than that I think it's unnecessary in a BOLT gun as there's really not much happening anywhere else.

 

[Doctor Jest]

Vis a vis weight: to reach the levels I referred to, my mates G36 was probably twice stock! He even had a full cover over the pistol grip to cut motor noise.......but it was amazingly quiet. A number of times at chrono he was asked to check if the gun was working 😉

 

[Leo Greer]

Unfortunately that doesn’t sound practical for my M4s, especially since I’d be primarily putting foam over the receiver. That, and I’m a runner, so extra weight would bother me. Now that I think about it though, it might be an interesting idea to fill the buffer tube with foam, as well as maybe some small spaces inside the motor grip. With a regular brushed motor you’d obviously never want to foam inside the grip for insulation’s sake, but with a brushless you might could get away with it… I still haven’t managed to make my T238 warm.

 

[Doctor Jest]

If you can imagine something like a basket-hilt rapier, the basic form was essentially a rectangular version of that. It never actually touched the grip, but surrounded the hand whilst holding the grip and still allowed you access to the magazine release catch and selector switch. Add to that a rifle rag with acoustic foam on the outside, and any internal space also filled up with said foam....plus jutte and hessian....

It was heavy.

Did I mention it was quiet?

Jon is only a very slight guy so he could scrunch himself into tight spots and sit there like a slightly wrinkly ninja just blasting people. I know these days it's cool to say "Yeah man, I shot like their whole team innit".......but he was doing that 20 years ago.