Worlds Largest Gun Suppressor!
This photo, taken at a German Army artillery range, is not a fake.
The side expansion chambers will be to accommodate the blast of the cannon's muzzle brake.
I know what you are thinking: "WTF!".It was build to reduce noise to communities nearby. The vehicle pictured is the M109G 155mm self-propelled howitzer.
Many thanks to Sven for emailing it to me.
UPDATE: Thanks to Mark for these images of another German tank suppressor.
UPDATE: Daniel found a US patent that German defense firm Rheinmetall GmbH has on the design of cannon silencers.
two words:
Need. Video!!
Or at least a sound clip.
Wait a sec. This pic has been floating around the internet for years and has always been called a fake. Now its said that this is real!?!?!? Sorry Steve…I need more proof cowboy!
That’s one hell of a piece of equipment.
The difference is that in English forums the consensus is that it’s a fake while in German forums there are almost always people who saw it in real.
It’s at the WTD in Meppen (kind of a testing range).
http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/showthread.php?p=117739
(many more photos of it)
One more:
http://www.abload.de/img/ifl-schalldampfer76fs.jpg
http://www.abload.de/img/ifl-schalldaempfer-sch368o.jpg
The presentation:
http://www.cervus.de/publikationen/BuHiBaltimore01.pdf
Mark, thanks for the links. I have updated the blog post.
So , uh, $200 tax stamp and I’d be good to go?
Pete, and you can use it for any caliber less then 155mm!
i wonder what the sound reduction is, the pic was a bit grainy. Either way, here ya go ATF, $200. I wonder what FFL dealer would accept that? UPS?
I’ve seen this picture floating around the internet for quite a while, and I’ve always wondered if it was some sort of suppressor. Thanks for clearing that up!
what i can’t figure out is why they bothered painting it camo. then again, it’s a piece of army kit, they probably had soldiers standing around doing nothing else useful…
Nomen, LOL, good point!
Yeah, but will it fit on my .22?
Wow. Those look like earmuffs for a bloody Gundam!
I really do have to wonder how much of an impact they make on the sound… and how often they have to replace the internals.
Well, that is why the last generation of Battleships still had wooden exterior decks…
Here is Rheinmetall’s US patent for cannon sound suppressors. The illustrations show versions for the Leopard and Gepard.
http://www.google.com/patents?id=56QlAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage
The side chambers for the M109G sound suppressor would seem to accommodate the venting of the muzzle brake.
Daniel, great find! Good point about hte muzzle brake. I had just assumed they were additional expansion chambers.
hmmmmmm…………… what’s the word I’m look’n for…….phallic.
“I know what you are thinking: ‘WTF!’”
Actually, what I was thinking was, “It’s Doctor Evil!”
http://tinyurl.com/yfclreu