After trying many silencers and finding 99.99% were no better than the standard weihrauch effort, I soon realised that there are only 2 on the market that are actually worth the money you pay for them.
The first and the pinnacle of silencer technology is the "Nutshot" silencer, these are often carbon fibre and look as good as they perform, sadly at present Nutty does not make them on a commercial basis and anyone wanting one has to rely on obtaining a second hand item.
The second is the AWT silencer, however despite ringing them and emailing an order through 5 separate times I have never had any contact regarding a silencer at all.
With this in mind I decided to make my own (another long story) but in the meantime I spotted an advert on the sales section of this forum for a Twink MK11 silencer, I soon found the manufacturers website and the blurb looked good.
Great I thought, I can use one of these as a stopgap until I manage to make my own. On receiving the item I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the external finish and immediately fitted it to my 12fpe Rapid.
On testing the silencer worked on a par with the the Weihrauch silencer I own (which isn't a bad thing as the Weihrauch is generally considered the best "off the peg" silencer available in most airgunning circles) that said it was no better, but it does look a lot better.
Two hunting trips later though I noticed that when I moved my gun it had developed a loud "clanking" noise and after 10 minutes of looking for loose parts on my gun I realised it was the silencer making the noise. No problem I thought, it must be much like the weihrauch and I will just take it apart and put it back together again, it must have just come unstuck inside somehow.
After 10 minutes of trying to gently coax the top or bottom off the silencer with no joy I emailed the manufacturer and asked them how to get the lid off, the reply was that they were factory sealed with no provision for removal. Obviously there was an unlimited guarantee that I could have taken advantage of, but I was intrigued by the words of the website:
Special design eliminating "dog whistle" effect, 8mm aperture stops pellet distortion without compromising effectiveness. Ultra quiet even at high power, including air rifles up to 400 ft lbs.
So I decided to take the silencer apart the hard way, I popped it on my lathe and cut the top off it. I think the pictures speak for themselves.
The first thing you may notice is that it is more or less exactly the same as a weihrauch inside, however, of a lot less quality.
I personally could not believe how badly the centre wadding was cut around the "hair curler" (I know its not a hair curler but they have become to be generally known as such). The centre curler is 26mm wide and the padding around it had been cut to 16mm. No wonder it rattles.
I know this may be a one off, but still I have to wonder about the manufacturers claims of "special design" and "Ultra quiet to 400ft lbs". I can see nothing special inside it, actually it's not even as special as a weihrauch.
As far as I am concerned £40 wasted, luckily I contacted Nutshot and he being one of the most genuine chaps in existence showed me how to make a decent silencer and now I've made my own "reflex" type silencer in glorious Carbon Fibre.
The first and the pinnacle of silencer technology is the "Nutshot" silencer, these are often carbon fibre and look as good as they perform, sadly at present Nutty does not make them on a commercial basis and anyone wanting one has to rely on obtaining a second hand item.
The second is the AWT silencer, however despite ringing them and emailing an order through 5 separate times I have never had any contact regarding a silencer at all.
With this in mind I decided to make my own (another long story) but in the meantime I spotted an advert on the sales section of this forum for a Twink MK11 silencer, I soon found the manufacturers website and the blurb looked good.
Great I thought, I can use one of these as a stopgap until I manage to make my own. On receiving the item I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the external finish and immediately fitted it to my 12fpe Rapid.
On testing the silencer worked on a par with the the Weihrauch silencer I own (which isn't a bad thing as the Weihrauch is generally considered the best "off the peg" silencer available in most airgunning circles) that said it was no better, but it does look a lot better.
Two hunting trips later though I noticed that when I moved my gun it had developed a loud "clanking" noise and after 10 minutes of looking for loose parts on my gun I realised it was the silencer making the noise. No problem I thought, it must be much like the weihrauch and I will just take it apart and put it back together again, it must have just come unstuck inside somehow.
After 10 minutes of trying to gently coax the top or bottom off the silencer with no joy I emailed the manufacturer and asked them how to get the lid off, the reply was that they were factory sealed with no provision for removal. Obviously there was an unlimited guarantee that I could have taken advantage of, but I was intrigued by the words of the website:
Special design eliminating "dog whistle" effect, 8mm aperture stops pellet distortion without compromising effectiveness. Ultra quiet even at high power, including air rifles up to 400 ft lbs.
So I decided to take the silencer apart the hard way, I popped it on my lathe and cut the top off it. I think the pictures speak for themselves.
The first thing you may notice is that it is more or less exactly the same as a weihrauch inside, however, of a lot less quality.
I personally could not believe how badly the centre wadding was cut around the "hair curler" (I know its not a hair curler but they have become to be generally known as such). The centre curler is 26mm wide and the padding around it had been cut to 16mm. No wonder it rattles.
I know this may be a one off, but still I have to wonder about the manufacturers claims of "special design" and "Ultra quiet to 400ft lbs". I can see nothing special inside it, actually it's not even as special as a weihrauch.
As far as I am concerned £40 wasted, luckily I contacted Nutshot and he being one of the most genuine chaps in existence showed me how to make a decent silencer and now I've made my own "reflex" type silencer in glorious Carbon Fibre.