Is it possible to silence a projectile fired from a rifle (or handgun) that is supersonic?
sound from firearms come from 3 sources 1st and loudest is the gas from burning gunpowder slamming into the ambient atmosphere 2nd is the projectile breaking the soundbarrier creating a sonic crack 3rd is the mechanical working of the bolt and other pieces of the firearm. The 1st is eliminated with a suppressor. A supersonic round will still have a crack, but compared to the sound of the gas hitting the atmosphere, that sound is pretty small…and in absence of a gunshot sound, it doesn’t sound like a gunshot. Also suppressors are rarely 100% effective at eliminating the 1st source.
You are right and Hollywood is wrong, as usual. A supersonic projectile is very loud, as anyone who has pulled targets in the military or in highpower competition can tell you. It sounds like the crack of a very large bullwhip. If you don’t wear hearing protection in the butts, your ears will be ringing in short order. On a big range such as Camp Perry the racket from 80 to 100 riflemen is deafening. During 600 yard slow fire, the personnel in the butts experience the sound of the shot as pops in the distance while the sound of the bullets is dominant. The echoes from buildings, hillsides and other surrounding surfaces can make it very difficult to pinpoint the source of a shot. I suppose a suppressor might make it even more difficult, but I have no experience to say for sure.
