e wipes, as the name suggests,
actually touched the bullets and,
while they stripped gases e ciently,
they had a working life of only 35
shots before replacement became
necessary. ey had a detrimental
e ect on accuracy that limited
their use to extreme close range.
Reports from the time suggest
the dominant sound from these
suppressors was the sound of
the bullet striking the wipes and
the target and that the actual
gunshot was e ectively silent. If
this is true then Ward’s seventh
law of suppression is wrong. Is it
true? I think not. Evidence from
people demonstrating modern
pistol suppressors online suggests
e ective suppression may not
have been that great. One can
further imagine the di culty the
maintenance of wipes created
for soldiers in combat. In more
recent times the Israelis took
the obvious step of developing
and using suppressed rearms
using .22 calibre bullets which
are less troublesome. e energy
di erential between a .22
versus a 9mm subsonic bullet is
approximately 70 versus 140 foot
pounds. If the shooter is trained to
use the “double tap” technique then
the “Hush Puppy” may have been
over-engineered to say the least.
e nal demise of the wipe came
in the 1980s when US Federal law
classi ed them as restricted parts
of a suppressor requiring extra
paperwork for their procurement
and replacement. People found
other means of suppressing their
pistols.
Ward’s eighth law states: “ e
e ectiveness of a suppressor depends
on its intended use.”
Many years ago an English
hippy with advanced opinions on
34 www.guntradeworld.com
how the ‘Paddies’should behave
moved into a squat beside my
favourite hunting spot in East
Clare and proceeded to go for the
guards every time he heard me re
a shot. In those pre-commercial
poaching days there were lots of
deer and a shot usually meant
meat and the guards soon learned
to ignore this nuisance. I had
nothing to gain by advertising
my activities to this principled
parasite so I had Fabian Connolly
suppress my ri e. Fabian, who
knows a thing or two about
ri es, hippies and suppression,
recommended a lightweight model
as a compromise between noise
reduction and portability. Shortly
thereafter I shot a deer behind
the hippy squat and watched the
fun. e long-haired Friend of
the Earth red up his minibus
and drove at speed into the wood
across the road from his squat –
obviously intending to confront
the enemy of the Earth (me). I
recalled something I’d read about
suppressors written by a Finn: “ e
suppressor doesn’t conceal the shot
but the location of the shooter.”
Connolly had provided a 100 per
cent e ective suppressor.
By the same token I often used
my suppressed .22 ri e in the
elds behind my house. is gun
is almost completely silent and yet,
after a time, my friendly neighbour
was able to say to me: “I heard the
little slap of your ri e this morning
– did you get a rabbit?” He had
learned to identify the muchreduced
report of a suppressed 22
Anschutz. e human ear isn’t just
sensitive – it LEARNS.
As with all things in life, there
is a lot of silly talk and bragging
about suppressors and which
centre re ri e model to buy and
I N - D E P T H W I T H C A L W A R D
t on the greatest ri e ever made
(no one admits to owning a useless
or, as in my case, an experimental
ri e). But then choosing a can is a
business requiring some thought.
How do you choose? Firstly, there
is the muzzle thread. You don’t
just thread the gun and bung a
can on it. reads vary, as do the
size and weight of suppressors. A
slender barrel requires a smaller
diameter thread such as perhaps
half -nch UNEF. A heavy barrel
might require an M18 thread. Very
few people know much about this
kind of thing or they know a little
and claim to be gurus. It is best to
consult an engineer/toolmaker/
ri esmith. What you do NOT do
is give the gun to handy Joe and
let him butcher it with an out-ofwhack
thread. I’ve seen enough
of these to convince me very few
people indeed can be trusted to
take the time to set up a lathe to
do an accurate suppressor thread.
If the suppressor is not true to the
axis of the bore it is a botch. en
there is the can itself. It should
suit the gun and be speci ed by
the manufacturer for the calibre
in question and suited to use, i.e.
hunting or range work. A hunting
can will be lighter and a range
suppressor more robust.
ere is no rule but common
sense dictates that light and tinny
will burn out faster than strong
and heavy. A sealed suppressor
is di cult to maintain while a
strippable design can be cleaned
and rustproofed. A beautifully
machined, strippabl, modular
aluminium model will cost a lot
more than a stamped, welded but
robust type. I confess to a degree
of confusion myself when it
comes to choosing from the many
designs on the market.
FINAL WORD
e population of these islands is
increasing and more city people
are moving out into the country
to escape overcrowding, crime,
drugs, noise etc. Invariably some
of these people lack understanding
of things like spreading slurry
on pasture, fox control, shooting
ranges, hunting, dogs worrying
sheep and country pursuits
in general and will complain
stridently when they see evidence
of behaviour that is beyond their
experience. e suppressor is the
single most e ective means of
pacifying these people by keeping
them in ignorance of what they
don’t understand. It also protects
our hearing and it is a wonderful
invention. Its possession also
requires a licence and this should
be kept in mind. It is classi ed as
a rearm and cannot be bought,
sold, transported or manufactured
without paperwork. It should be
removed from a vehicle when not
in use as its loss is near enough
the loss of a rearm with all the
trouble that entails. As a rearm,
it should be stored like a gun, in a
gun cabinet. It should be kept in
mind that a suppressor designed
for a low powered rearm may not
withstand the pressures in a highpowered
rearm.
GTW
WHO IS CAL WARD?
Cal Ward is a retired IT tutor,
blogger and former ri e and
pistol correspondent with
the Irish Shooters’ Digest. He
lives in Northern Ireland and
his interests include black
powder, ri e and pistol shooting,
bulletsmithing, history, short
story writing and hillwalking.
In the Viet Nam era
the “Hush Puppy”
pistol suppressor; so
called because it was
employed to kill Viet
Cong guard dogs;
employed “wipes”
to retain gases. A
wipe is essentially a
washer of a smaller
diameter than the
bullet and, while it
was e ective, it wore
out a er a few shots
and needed constant
replacement. It also
had a detrimental
e ect on accuracy, as
it tended to destabilise
the bullet.
READ CAL’S BLOG HERE:
WWW.CALWARD.BLOGSPOT.COM
This photo shows a ri e being
threaded on a lathe by a skilled
operator. There is no other way
to do it without risking damage
to a valuable firearm. Amateur
handymen should be avoided.
GTW
/www.guntradeworld.com
/WWW.CALWARD.BLOGSPOT.COM