tuning a suppressor to bark like a dog

I was working on a suppressor for a 300 AAC blackout. It would be classified as an AR pistol. It has an 8" barrel. I started with a 10-inch extension. The idea was to cut 4 ports on each side to provide gas channels aimed up and back for compensation to eliminate muzzle rise and limit felt recoil. I thought of copper tubes on the exhaust gas channels to absorb the heat. Then I thought of ceramic fiber to keep the heat from the foregrip. As I was playing with this concept the little dogs were on the back porch yapping. I thought about it and if you have gas coming out of tubes you can quiet them. That is how a suppressor works. Then I thought there is no reason to not use the escaping gas to make a sound. I talked to my brother in law about it. He suggested making the sound from the suppressor sound like a bark from a chihuahua. It is a very funny concept to make a suppressor bark like a dog.

a reply to: machineintelligence

I think that is a brilliant idea. I bet there is something out there like that now. That makes a shot sound like a dog or some other normal sound.

Not sure about the chihuahua sound. Maybe a Great Dane sound.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

I think my brother in law suggested chihuahua because their bark stirs up all the other dogs. Talk about hiding the sound of a shot.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

That Great Dane sure found a nice dog bark amphitheater.

a reply to: machineintelligence

I assume you are intending to use sub-sonic .300 AAC Blackout, correct? Otherwise you still have to deal with the super-sonic 'crack'.

Cool idea though.

a reply to: machineintelligence

perhaps you could make it warble like a bird..gotta be a way to compensate it where the air passes over an opening like on a recorder...

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Yes, the powder charge will move the 300 to about 650fps. Had not thought of a bird. Probably easier to hit a high tone.

I'm very disappointed... I came in here expecting to hear a suppressor bark like a dog

Perhaps a ported valve assembly with a valve spring so you could adjust volume/intensity of the "bark" by tightening or loosening of the valve spring tension to the exhaust ports.

Would also be nice if you could rotate the exhaust ports so you could direct the bark in different directions in between shots.

Would make it awfully hard to id the area of the shooter.


Some reeds in the exhaust ports might give you a very adjustable sound.

Much like hunting calls

a reply to: Jay Electronica
Sorry I just thought of it today. It will certainly take some effort to build it. I am in the process but went off in this tangent. I had never thought of more than sound suppression before today. I imagine now how to do it. I will update the thread if I figure it out.

a reply to: Notoneofyou

Thanks much for the input. I will add these to my try this list.

a reply to: machineintelligence

lol cool idea , but you need less time on your hands .

Still though cool idea.

a reply to: machineintelligence

Bird - Just think like the competition porting on a shotgun, you get that 'squeak' sound. And what I think does that is more than one port lined up longitudinally along the barrel. So you have multiple ports radially around the barrel and these are in rows longitudinally...and you get that "squeak" sound. At least that's my theory. I'm not sure how the wad factors into shaping this sound though, it could have something to do with it.

a reply to: machineintelligence

People have been working on variations of this for decades, perhaps most famous and heavily worked on version of this idea being the "dog whistle"/ultrasonic frequency shift style suppressor which would shift the firing sounds to frequencies above the human hearing register...

Unfortunately I'm nowhere near smart enough nor do I have the money for the simulation etc software much less the money for the enterprise data Center sized super cluster worth of computer hardware you'd need to potentially work out a solution.

The good news is a dog bark may be slightly less difficult than the ultrasonic approach.

The bad news is it will still be ridiculously difficult to even get a dog bark sound emulating suppressor to work and even if you did get it, it would very likely only work with one specific gun running one very specific and very precise as well as accurate custom handload.

Luckily for you and the rest of us though even pretty moderation decibel reduction and other firing signature attenuation very quickly makes localizing a firing signature beyond a very general bearing and approximate far more difficult even in relatively benign environments/terrains that don't mess with sound propagation etc too much and has good sight lines.

There's also now a metamaterial which absorbs sound but doesn't affect airflow that could be really fun to experiment with especially in conjunction with a "normal suppressor"

(Think ppsh 43 or even Barrett style "muzzle brake" made of this material installed just forward of the bullet's exit point from your suppressor)

Or better yet a "tesla one way valvular conduit" made of the material just past the end of your active baffle stack preferably with an insulated gap between suppressor front cap and the start of your valvular conduit.

Using an approach like that could potentially let you make it to where if you are not almost directly in. Line with the gun muzzle at the time of trigger pull you'd hear little or nothing. As an added bonus bullets fly in an arced trajectory, this means that outside of a given ammo load's mean point blank range your point of aim and point of impact are pretty substantially divergent.

In other words, the person your shot is meant for may not hear it coming because the main sound and airflow current would literally go over his head!

Additionally, his buddies will have a hell of a time localizing you even if they hear the shot because thet will have no way to determine where the shot came from because of the whole point of aim versus point of impact data they won't have which they'd need both of as well of a knowledge of your specific gun and ammunition combination in order to trace back trajectory and find you.

I believe that something like this is a far simpler way to keep your suppressed gun shots from giving away your position and presence.

a reply to: roguetechie

Thanks a lot very good addition to the thread very insightful appreciate it

An Un-hush Puppy?

a reply to: machineintelligence

No problem. There's a few places online where very large and somewhat out of date technical tomes on suppressor design are available for free just so you know.

In addition there's places like the silencer forum where very knowledgeable people who produce their own suppressors hang out and more cutting edge info occasionally gets passed around.