The Silencerco Maxim doesn’t look like other pistols because it isn’t. (Gun Digest photo)
Fiction has a hard time with this whole business of silencers (aka suppressors, if you want to look smart), so I’d like to draw your attention to something that’s going to make everything a helluva lot easier. Continue reading
Silencers (aka suppressors) usually receive some goosing up in the physics department when they’re used in fiction. But what about the old pillow-as-silencer trope? Is there any truth to that?
Short answer: no. Pillows do a bad job of containing the explosive gases released by a gunshot. Hell, they can barely contain snoring.
Here’s a handy chart detailing the noise levels of silenced (aka “suppressed”) firearms. This is excerpted from an infographic from Silencerco.
The takeaway: silencers/suppressors aren’t as convenient as fiction would like to think. Get creative in those stealthy scenes. What other ways are there to be silent but deadly? (er, wait…)
