OK guys, help me out here. I have a nice air rifle (RWS model 34 .177 cal 1000fps) and have some questions for you all before I start a little project.

My air rifle is a lot of fun, and is very accurate. My roommates and I use it to blast stuff in the basement and to sometimes eliminate troublesome tree rats (read squirrles) that are a menace at SMSU [i](There used to be a brid problem on campus, and the birds would shit all over passerbys. The campus brought in thousands of squirrells which ran off the birds and now are big, fat, mean, and don't fear humans at all)[/i] Well, whie I am a good shot, sometimes I miss :eek: (Can you believe a member of this board actually admitted that he is not a perfect shot??!?!) Anyways, when I do miss, the supersonic gasses produce a loud crack as they exit the muzzle of my air rifle. This scares off the rats. I think that the pellet moves [i]Just[/i] under the sound barrier so it should be a subsonic and sonic boomless projectile. I am thinking that if I can contain the supersonic gasses at the muzzle of the rifle I will have a very efficient and silent means of attack. I had thought of doing this a while ago, however the iron sights sat low and any muzzle device would have blocked my sites. I now have a scope on the rifle and the iron sites actually conveniently came off, so the entire barrel is bare and it should be easy to mount a silencer onto it.

Here's the idea:
1. Get a 20 oz soda bottle (done!)
2. Inside the bottle affix rigid funnel (cone) shaped plastic or paper. (This would look like about 7-10 funnels inside the bottle. If the rifle was standing on the butt of the stock then each funnel would point towards the barrel. If I poured water into the silencer the water would flow into the barrel. When gas comes out of the barrel it will be rapidly expanding and will be trapped by the opposite side of the funnels. The Pellet will still be able to move straight out the barrel easily)
3. Affix the "silencer" to the barrel

Does this sound like it would work? Is it legal? I don't think the ATF could really call this a silencer since a real gun would blow it apart. Is the sound of the rifle's action going to be loud enough to scare off the "victim" making the silencer a waste of time?

Here is a badly drawn diagram:
[img]http://www.student.smsu.edu/s/srv656s/silencer.jpg[/img]

Suggestions?

Thanks

Shawn

I don't think it would have any legal problems, I seem to remember a ruling that paintball supressors are exempt. I'm not really a supressor aficianado so I couldn't tell you if it would work or not but it sounds good. Heck, I've seen an 1980's era adapter to put 2 liters on the end of MACs, my friend found one on ebay, it worked preaty well for like 1 or 2 shots.

you may wanna back the trolly up here. from my understanding a supressor that used the same princaple as a firearm supressor is not legal. what you have their uses the same idea as a real supressor, some gungrabing libral athority might be able to shithammer you on it. some paintballsupressors are ok cause they use a totally difrent design. a tube with lots of holes in it inside a bigger tube. dotn work so well, but takes a little of the thump out of a paintball gun

It has been 5 plus years since I read the laws pertaining to silencers.  But, if memory serves, anything designed to attach to a firearm to reduce the report is a silencer and therefore subject to regulation.  Whether or not your pellet rifle is a "firearm" I do not know.

I have a friend who shoots an RWS Mod. 48 (same power level).  I considered creating a silencer for that, until I decided it was not worth testing the law over.

I'm sure there are more knowledgeable people on this board (like people who own silencers) that could give more insight.