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Company Invents Shotgun Suppressor and a Strange Superhero

By Rain Noe - July 31, 2014

in Object Culture

I've got a friend from Alabama who told me that growing up, most families she knew kept shotguns in the house. When you heard a noise in the middle of the night, the shotgun was the go-to item, and she explained that the CHIK-CHIK sound of "racking" it carried across the porch and was enough to discourage the casual burglar.

Another sound shotguns make is the actual blast, and I'm told it's deafening. Twelve-gauges reportedly top out around 150 to 165 decibels, and inside a house, where there are walls to bounce the sound around in, likely more. That's enough to cause permanent hearing damage. "Shotgun owners have been without a real solution for ear protection," says a Utah-based company called SilencerCo. "Some choose hearing preservation in the form of earmuffs or plugs for relief in controlled environments, but spurn their use in the field or in a home protection scenario, where the ability to detect other sounds is critical."

With that in mind the company has invented the Salvo 12, "the first and only commercially-viable shotgun suppressor on earth." Interestingly enough it's modular, made up of little Lego-like sections of roughly two inches in length that the user can add or subtract to hit their preferred balance of length, weight and noise level.

The noise reduction is pretty nuts:

Speaking of nuts, you'd think that since this is the only product of its kind on the market (if the company's claims are accurate), it would simply sell itself. However, they've opted to create a tongue-in-cheek commercial set in a dystopian, Mad-Max-like future where we will drive around in old Cadillacs shooting drones (sorry Martha) out of the sky. Warning: You will want to turn your sound down—the shotgun may be quiet, but the music is not.

Via Motherboard

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Tom Mc

10 years ago

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Because a lawn mower won't damage your hearing as it's already muffled below the threshold of exposure in which most people would receive damage? Or because the only thing keeping lawn mowers from being quieter is cost to build - whereas shotguns are loud by the nature of their function.

I always laugh when watching TV and there's a gun used in close quarters and 5 seconds later the characters are speaking in normal loudness. From 1' away from your ear you'd be lucky if you heard anything right for a few days!

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richard paul

10 years ago

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Why do they have shotgun sound suppression systems but nothing to muffle the sound of a super annoying lawnmower???
Makes you think...

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slippyfish

10 years ago

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Even more critical than the anti-drone scenario is when two or three zombies wander away from their horde, and come upon you and your family sleeping in the tent. If you don't have the suppressor you will attract the horde with the blast, but you need the shotgun because its dark and there are multiple zombies. Good thinking!
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Dubya

10 years ago

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I have to call shenanigans on this. It's an interesting exercise, but not really practical in the real world. Yes shotguns in the house are very loud, but in close corridors you want a large magazine and a short barrel. You wouldn't be able to swing that thing around in a hall or small room, and you probably won't worry about your hearing when you think someone is going to murder you.

As far as other uses, I don't see an application. When I'm hiking through the woods hunting, I don't really want my gun to weigh even more. And for skeet or trap, shooting this would slow the swing of the barrel quite a bit.

Its impressive, but its just a gimmick.
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