Why does no-one suppress a revolver?

On most revolvers the barrel cylinder gap makes it ineffective. However there have been some made that the cycle presses the cylinder against the barrel that possibly could work.

Chuck24 nailed it. The Nagant revolver is the only one I know about that would work with a suppressor.

Nagant revolver is the one to be supressed

Take a tour @youtube

Cheers

They do in the movies! While it can be done, it's just not very effective due to the cylinder gap. Would make some reduction but not enough.

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PTLAPTA!

Fire any Smith revolver in the dark. Look how much flash emanates from the barrel-cylinder gap.

That's going to translate into a lot of noise.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh I see. Thanks for the replies.

The semi-auto Webley might suppress the way that the Nagant does but it's simply not worth the effort. Only in the movies can a revolver go phhhht....

There is an abundance of easily suppressed .22s and 9mms available.

Suppressors are legal in some 39 states, I think.

During the 80's, Cobray (IIRC) offered a service that would re-barrel S&W Model 10's with a threaded barrel and very small barrel-to-cylinder gap. The muzzle of the barrel was threaded to match the Mac 10 9 mm suppressor. It was supposed to work.

I almost forgot. The experimental S&W M29 tunnel gun. It was more of a suppressed cartridge, utilizing a captured piston to propel the bullets. Very neat idea!

1969 Tunnel Gun new Pic

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PTLAPTA!

With the silencer on the revolver barrel's end, as is normal, and
a thick pillow wrapped around the revolver to cover the cylinder gap, I believe I have solved the age old problem.

Also, I like the mental image of such
a silencer/pillow combination.

Being shot once with a .38 Special snubby from 75 yards away also blows grown men backward and off their feet . (If you are Rico Tubbs, that is.)

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Virtue,Liberty & Independence

Evidently, revolvers can be suppressed, but neither easily nor cheaply. Here's an example:

S&W 625 fully suppressed revolver - The Firearm Blog

Regards,

Dave

The Model 1895 Nagant was a cumbersome revolver - it took time and effort to reload it, but it was ideal for using a suppressor. In fact, the Russians often fitted it with the Bramit device, which was a standarized suppressor for recon and scout troops during WWII. The secret police also used it this way for assassinations.

When the gun was fully cocked, the cylinder was pushed forward. The cartridge (which had the bullet seated below the case mouth), went partially into the rear of the barrel, thus sealing the gap. The cylinder's chamber also partially overlapped the rear of the barrel. When the trigger was returned forward, the cylinder was withdrawn, allowing rotation. The gun is more fully covered in my book 101 Classic Firearms.

The example illustrated below was made in 1944 at the Izhevsk Arsenal.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

I think I vaguely remember that suppressed S&W revolvers (Model 10s??) were tried by "tunnel rats," circa 1969. I have no recollection of any results from this trial.

It would probably gas you pretty bad too. AR's are bad enough suppressed, couldn't imagine a revolver.

My all time favorite Hollywood impossible use of a suppressor on a revolver was in Magnum Force, when officer Davis shot a fellow officer in a parking garage and then twisted the suppressor and pulled it straight off a vent ribbed Colt Python with full underlugged barrel. Not to mention the fact that, that puny little suppressor would have been blown off the gun with the first shot and probably would have made more noise than without it.



Now THAT was classic!

Any revolver can be used effectively with a suppressor if you are using snap caps for ammunition.

Groan.

And of course, the Nagant is a real joke in terms of modern revolvers. As a collectors item another story. Don

Recently fired my SP101 on an indoor range for the first time all other occasions were outside. With full magnum rounds, impressive flame out of the B/C gap and of course the muzzle. Not at all surprising. Don

Makes me want to tighten up the gap on my 500 and put one of these on it:



Notice it's even got a handy hand-hold on the end!

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

My Dan Wesson is pretty quiet with the gap tightened up (say 0.002") and the 12" barrel installed. Not exactly a Hollywood like flea fart, but much milder than the same gun with the 4" barrel and standard 0.006" BC gap. The pressure wave must be reduced because the chamber/barrel pressure has dropped significantly before the bullet exits the barrel.

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NRA Instructor & RSO

This thread jarred an old memory loose. I saw a movie or TV show once, probably a movie on the TV, where the character had a revolver with a silencer on it and was shooting somebody with it. The actor had poor coordination or really slow reflexes as there was a real gap between him firing each shot and him jerking the barrel up to simulate recoil. Sort of like the girls shot on Charley's Angels.

Then the "special effects" man, with fewer skills than my junior high stage crew, added the "ffffffftt!" noise after each "shot."

I remember laughing at it at the time and remembering it now still made me chuckle. Or maybe simulate chuckling.

Just wondering if you tightened the BC gap up with shims to about .001 or . 002 would that be enough to make a significant reduction in the noise escaping from the BC gap that a suppressor could be effective. Any comments?

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Accuracy supercedes Speed

This was pioneered by the Russians and the only hitch was cost per unit.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

HOGWASH! If you saw it in a movie, it MUST be real! Same as if you read it on the Internet!

Actually, this thread is incredibly well-timed. I'm working on a magazine story about suppressors and you've all provided me with some interesting observations..
Many Thx!

I had a '95 Nagant for some years and before I could find any real ammo, I converted Winchester 32-20 brass using Lee dies (FWIW, easiest cartridge conversion ever). Of course, the brass was too short to enter the barrel, even when cocked, so some gases exited between the cylinder and barrel.

I then adjusted the bullet seater so that the bullet protruded from the cylinder, but not so far as to impede rotation. That helped a little, but the typical Nagant bullet was a 90-gr jacketed RN and I doubt it went into the barrel far enough.

So I found some cast bullets (NEI 98 gr. 32 Colt) which worked fairly well in closing the gas leaks.

Of course, by this time, Russia was selling genuine Nagant cartridges by the bushel basket, but in the meantime, I had fun playing. So much so that a neighbor, whose wife was Russian, had to have it. They're still playing with it, but have yet to fit a suppressor.