Thread: Suppressors - Am I missing something

Originally Posted by Cordite

@timattalon,

I do not hear many say suppressors do not reduce recoil (which by definition have to mean felt recoil). The cooling and thus contraction of muzzle gases with resultant loss of pressure will reduce recoil. The slower release of gases will reduce felt recoil, just like it is more comfortable to accelerate to 100km from standstill over 15 seconds rather than 5 seconds! But the final energy of the car is the same.

As for your little friend and your gun, if he is a seasoned shooter and has that problem, I take it he is shooting prone?

Shooting Big Guns 101. Shoot a full power battle rifle without having it firmly against your shoulder. It will fly backwards at the speed of a fast marching pace. When it thus contacts you (rams you), you will hurt, likely bruise, no matter your body size. Thus people who shoot for the first time may be put off the sport as their fears of recoil are doubly confirmed when they hold the butt too lightly against their shoulder.

A slight lady shooting standing or kneeling with her rifle pressed firmly to her shoulder will absorb the recoil into her shoulder, and her torso will give and twist, with minimal or no hurt therefore to the shoulder. No such luck if she shoots prone.

Someone like myself shooting the same rifle in the standing position will just have a bit more local shoulder hurt to contend with, as my body is simply too big to recoil back as much as hers. My rifle butt will instead dig in more locally into my shoulder region. If I change to the prone shooting position I don't really notice much extra recoil therefore, but the wee girl will experience a relatively larger increase in recoil on shooting prone.

Just watch youtube funny videos of "I lent my wee girlfriend my big manly gun" and you usually see failure to make firm shoulder contact. All it says is, "her boyfriend is an idiot and will he never get a girlfriend who enjoys shooting with him".

Your wee friend should maybe shoot standing or kneeling, with a firm shoulder contact, even though he may feel safer handling a big gun lying prone. But things are not what they seem.

Of course, especially in shooting positions that allow your body to recoil back with the gun, having a gradual power release from the suppressed gun will allow your body to absorb the recoil more widely and move back with the gun. On an accuracy point, the suppressor allows you to hold the gun less firmly against your body, and thus less heartbeat oscillation is transmitted to it.

Hope this is helpful.

He is a seasoned shooter that weighs about 45kg dripping wet. And I agree that holding it tight back into the shoulder is what he is supposed to do. I am certain that he is as well, but the gun is nearly the same size he is.....and most of his shooting is at a bench standing up. The way I see it, the harder you pull the gun into your shoulder the more it makes the two masses (shooter and gun) into the same mass to be affected by recoil. Thus increasing the resulting rearwards acceleration by increasing the mass.