supression/silence ???

[MINIMAG4LIFE]

Well I went out and bought a tippmann A-5 with the new flatline barrel. I got to thinking about how to modify the gun, as i always do when i get a new toy. I started to think about how in the old days you could by a pvc silencer for a PB gun. Looking at the new flatline barrel you will notice it has a rather large shroud covering the barrel. I was wondering, if by putting holes in the barrel, if a silencer could be made? I hope my picture posted, in it you can see green dots on the barrel. These dots are a mock up of where holes could be drilled. So the question is, Do you guys think this would work as an effective way to supress the guns' report? Any sugesstions on how big the holes should be and how far apart they are from each other? Also how far down the barrel should I go with the holes? I was thinking of drilling the holes about five inches down from the top of the barrel, and filling the shroud with green scouring pads like my old silencer had.

[MINIMAG4LIFE]

With the shroud on

[ShinyGuy]

If your porting is cleanly done it should work. It could effect the the way the flatline works since you will disapate the pressure behind the ball sooner and thus not accelerate the ball as much toward the end of the barrel.

The big issue is that in the past the BATF has considered paintball supressers illegal since they could be addapted to a real firearm. With the flatline you may be able to get around this since real guns don't like curved barrels. If you pursue this you should call the BATF and discuss it with them. I'd like to know what they think of a curved barrel.

[MINIMAG4LIFE]

I believe you are correct, the BATF is real strict about silencers. But before I even consider making it, I thought I would run the idea by the deepblue readers. Do you think it will work? I would hate to ruin a $104.00 barrel, or hassle with the ATF over something that doesnt work

[digdug18]

Actually if I were you I'd give the ATF a call and ask them if you could build one. If they say yes, get a letter from them saying that it was ok to build the item. then keep the letter with the silencer at all times.
I know what I'm talking about, I've got my Federal Firearms License (FFL), and also my Class 2, and Class 3 Lincenses and have legally built many suppressors/silencers in the past years.

Andrew

[athomas]

Just porting the barrel will have a silencing effect. Some of the pressurized gas following behind the ball will escape out the holes. This lessens the amount of excess gas escaping at the end of the barrel. Its the blast of excess air exiting the end of the barrel that makes the loud bang. Any rapid expansion of air makes an exploding sound. So, by venting off the excess air before it reaches the end of the barrel, you will remove the blast effect and silence your gun without actually making a silencer. That is how many of the barrels today are very quiet.

Note, you will probably experience inefficiencies in your gun if you make the holes too big and/or too close the breach. There has to be enough distance to properly accelerate the ball before you release the excess air from behind the ball.

[FooTemps]

Porting the barrel may be a bit risky though... The flatline is a curved barrel so who knows what would happen if you ported it. There might be a possibility you screw up the ability to put spin on the ball.

[zach rumchak]

yeah like he said earlier, ask the ATF, it could cost you 200 dollars for them to allow it though,

as for it to work, to you know how a firearm silencer works?
if not go to how stuff works .com and check it out, that is the only way i know that will truly silence your paintball gun, but it wont be easy

[athomas]

Porting won't mess up the flat line barrel. It uses centrifugal force to roll the paintball along the top surface of the barrel. As long you can get the ball up to the velocity required, it will work.

[Super 3]

Would what you're doing completely silence the gun? Wouldnt you just be venting out some the gas not all therefore simply making it quieter and not completely silencing it. I dont know how picky the BATF would be on this, but i dont think it's much different from a ported barrel. Not to mention i myself own an A5 with flatline and i was thinking much the same..

[zach rumchak]

it would most likely be able to silence it 100% because of the paintball now going faster than the speed of sound, if you do it right, and you never know about the atf but probably no problems

[Redkey]

I don't know about the fields you play on... but mine limits the velocity to 280 fps. The speed of sound is around 1100 fps...

Perhaps you ment something else when you said "paintball now going faster than the speed of sound"

[zach rumchak]

well, when i asid "now going" i met {not going}, our field is 280fps, i knew that a paintball does not break the sound barrier, actually alot of 9mm ammunition is subsonic

[Brak]

dont put holes in it. i think tippmann made it without porting for a reason, and it should stay like that