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- What makes silencers and supressors dampen recoil - how does it work?
Hello, I have a physics question. It is firearm related.
It is said that a silencer/supressor has an unintended side effect in that it will reduce recoil. I am not talking about recoil reduction due to added weight; apparently if you stuck a deadweight instead of a silencer/supressor, you would not gain same recoil reduction. Instead, due to the rapidly moving explosion of the propellant, the movement of the explosion hitting the baffles of the silencer pushes the gun forward, thus reducing the kickback. Oh and baffles are basically conical tapers that face away from the origin of the explosion, kind of like V's.
You can take a look at inside of silencer here https://1s18w12tqveh1xfywp1ulx42-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/4-0014.jpg
What I don't understand, is how does that work? My current guess is, as the gas molecules smash against the surface of the baffles, they provide forward momentum. Where I get confused is, unlike a muzzle, they have nowhere to escape, so it seems like after bouncing on the surface of the baffle, they would have no choice but to bounce back on the opposite surface which to me would seem like it would negate some of this recoil reduction, unlike a muzzle break would, where after hitting the surface of muzzle they would fly off into atmosphere around, not on the parts of the gun. Unless, on that initial impact, they lose a good chuck of momentum driving the gun forward, and don't hit as hard on the return movement. Does any of that make any sense to anyone?
If someone could shed some light on why and how this all works, I would really appreciate it, even guesses are welcome.
Thank you.
It is said that a silencer/supressor has an unintended side effect in that it will reduce recoil. I am not talking about recoil reduction due to added weight; apparently if you stuck a deadweight instead of a silencer/supressor, you would not gain same recoil reduction. Instead, due to the rapidly moving explosion of the propellant, the movement of the explosion hitting the baffles of the silencer pushes the gun forward, thus reducing the kickback. Oh and baffles are basically conical tapers that face away from the origin of the explosion, kind of like V's.
You can take a look at inside of silencer here https://1s18w12tqveh1xfywp1ulx42-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/4-0014.jpg
What I don't understand, is how does that work? My current guess is, as the gas molecules smash against the surface of the baffles, they provide forward momentum. Where I get confused is, unlike a muzzle, they have nowhere to escape, so it seems like after bouncing on the surface of the baffle, they would have no choice but to bounce back on the opposite surface which to me would seem like it would negate some of this recoil reduction, unlike a muzzle break would, where after hitting the surface of muzzle they would fly off into atmosphere around, not on the parts of the gun. Unless, on that initial impact, they lose a good chuck of momentum driving the gun forward, and don't hit as hard on the return movement. Does any of that make any sense to anyone?
If someone could shed some light on why and how this all works, I would really appreciate it, even guesses are welcome.
Thank you.