Is 85 dB possible for Edgun R3M .25 Standard, 53 FPE???

:hoot:

Why the need for quiet?

Most forum members know by now that I live next to a Bitch from hell who watches every move I make, and even videos and takes pictures of my activities. Therefore, I must move quietly, usually at night or at twilight, and with great discretion. Silence, while shooting my pcp’s is not an option…it is the difference between having fun, or being assessed a fine, and the police being involved.

The R3M has a shroud/baffle/barrel support system that works quite nicely, but makes adding additional silencing gear almost impossible. Until now…

Ed’s shroud tip is a hollow, threaded tube that screws flush with the end of the baffle assembly. The tip of the baffle is what you see when you look at the end of the Edgun barrel. It is about 5.75″ in length. While effective, this baffle arrangement makes adding an LDC adapter very difficult.

So…what’s a body to do?

John Hagan has made a replacement shroud end for the R3M. The difference is John’s adapter has an adapter and end cap milled into his shroud end replacement. The Hagan end tube adapter is 6.5″ long and, as shown, screws onto the same threads of the Edgun bottom shroud assembly as the OEM shroud. There is no visible indication that the original Edgun shroud has been modified. The fit is perfect, the finish is the same as the factory, and only the knurled cap gives away it’s presence. It costs $125, but it is worth every penny! I don’t say that easily, but it is all aluminum and an absolutely perfect fit…that quality never comes cheap. And…it only adds about one inch to the gun length.

John’s knurled end cap fits so tightly I couldn’t see it at first! It was only when I grasped the knurled cap and twisted it counter-clockwise, that I could see the seam.
(close-up photos have light reflections from lint and such, that appear to be marks on the finish…that’s not the case, the finish on all parts was perfect. Plus, I’ve been handling the parts for a couple of weeks now, so any visible scuffs are my doing!)

OK..having solved the adapter problem, comes the question as to who makes a good LDC for this adapter.

Historically, I have always gone to Neil Clague for an answer, but the R3M multi-part shroud/baffle/barrel support design posed difficulties he didn’t have time to deal with for one specific gun. He’s a busy man.

In fact, it took John Hagan AND Donnyfl to come up with an answer that does not defeat any of Ed’s R3M design.

Donny sent me two different LDC’s that screw onto John’s adapter. One is a Carbon Fiber model, very well constructed, and extremely effective. It is about 6.5″ long, and has an attractive professional finish.

The tip is finely milled to fit the CF tube to perfection:

The threaded end is of the same quality construction. Note the end caps are held in place with recessed grub screws.

The fit of Donny’s LDC to John’s adapter is seamless and perfect….below shows the LDC being screwed onto John’s adapter.

So…how does the finished product look…here’s the CF LDC/Adapter:

If you are into metal LDC’s, here’s the aluminum, slightly longer LDC Donny sent:

Ok. So much for the eye candy….now the results.

Without the adapter and Donny LDC, the gun produced 110+ dB’s at 20 feet.

With the CF adapter, 6.5″ long, the sound dropped to 85 dB’s at 20 feet (right angle). At 50 feet, it matched the daylight ambient noise on my property at 45-65 db’s.

With the aluminum, longer LDC, installed, the sound remained at 85 dB’s at 20 feet. Is the longer, aluminum LDC not quieter than the shorter CF LDC? That’s not the case here. The gun can only produce so much sound to suppress. On this gun, 85 dB seems to be the quietest it can be made within reasonable limits of size and cost. The longer. aluminum LDC would be more effective on a louder pcp that produces more air blast. (Think of an Air Ranger set for 80 fpe) Both LDC’s made the R3M as quiet as can be expected from the technology utilized.

Summery: Is 85 dB low enough?

I would say that John and Donny’s equipment will make your R3M as quiet as humanly possible, without taking some really extreme measures that would seriously alter the guns looks, length, and performance. I believe it is the best gear money can buy to get the R3M .25 caliber as quiet as you need it.

At night, next to a lake, with solid woods on one side, any sound is going to be magnified substantially. I would not hesitate to utilize my .25 R3M under these conditions with the comfort of knowing if I am 25 feet from someone listening…they would be very hard pressed to identify what was taking place. Make that distance 50 to 75 feet and I honestly don’t believe the sound could penetrate any walls, TV’s, snoring, house noises, or common conversational sounds in play. Perhaps…just perhaps, if someone had no sound barriers, in the dead silence of night, and were outside intently listening…they might hear a very subdued “clink” of the hammer impact. I doubt very much the non-pcp shooter would be able to identify what caused the sound. It’s very similar to someone tossing a beer bottle on the ground at the same distance.

For a .25 caliber, set at 880 fps/53 fpe, that’s pretty dang quiet! The best we can hope for is to reduce the muzzle blast below the hammer slap and pellet impact. A pellet hitting a soft furry body, or fired into the dirt, would most likely not be audible at any distance beyond the shooter’s location. That leaves only the hammer slap. (I have also used 1/4″ closed cell foam across the breech top and sides, and reduced the hammer slap substantially. 1/2″ foam does it even better!)

Donny’s LDC cost $100, and like Hagan’s adapter, it’s quality and results that can’t be obtained any other way for this particular gun. If you are shooting .22/.17 caliber, or the .25 caliber at reduced power, your results will be even better.

Disclaimer: No across the counter decibel meters ever read the same. The numbers quoted came from two different sources and were averaged. That being said, the best dB test is what your own ears can, or cannot, hear! This is as quiet, or quieter, as any .25 caliber pcp I’ve owned, and I’ve owned a few. As described above, I’ll pop critters on the shoreline, in the dead of night, with no concern of disturbing anyone but the critter being shot! In fact, I have shot this setup in the afternoon without anyone being aware of what I was doing. I turned my deck radio on to a moderate listening level, and used a soft target. No one was the wiser!

Hoot: