How to quiet "hammer slap" in the .25 Cricket…
Don’t ask me to fully explain why this works as well as it does, it just does, so I’m sharing it with you.
1/4″ closed cell foam, with one-sided adhesive, is the material used. Hammer slap, in my .25 Cricket, was reduced by at least 50%…(Personally, I believe it’s closer to 75%) I bought one sheet of foam, 12″X12″ and it cost about $3.00 shipped. Trimmed it with an X-acto knife. A razor blade would do nicely as well. It MUST be the dense closed cell foam.
Previously, I had drilled six 1.5mm holes in the shroud and had excellent shroud results, but the hammer slap was still quite loud. Now, the hammer slap is “muffled”, and quite difficult to hear. My .25 Cricket is now seriously quiet, except for the pellet impact. I can’t do anything about that.
Thicker 1/2″ foam might work better, but cosmetically it would stick out, although I’m certain there are those among us who could shave that corner down along the stock’s edge, and make it look fine.
So, there it is, for what it’s worth. My goal is to get as near to dead silent as possible. I’m still experimenting, but these two mods, foam and vented shroud, have been tested and found effective by me on the .25 Cricket. Your milage may vary, but you will never know unless you pick up some closed cell foam and try it yourself.
Regards,
H 😯 😯 t
Carpe Noctem: If you can’t been seen, and can’t be heard, then nothing happened…despite evidence to the contrary!
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I found a nice way to cover the foam and hold it in place. Skateboard “Grip Tape”…
This is the gritty surface adhesive cover skateboarders use on the surface of their skateboards to avoid slipping when performing tricks.
It is really good because the adhesive is tremendously strong. The foam adhesive is pretty pale by comparison, so I looked for something to hold it in place. The skateboard grip tape is the answer. It sticks and stays stuck, unless you need to peel it off and it will come off, but requires some effort.
To avoid the “grit” on the surface, I sprayed the gritty surface with Dupli-Color truck bed liner and it worked out beautifully! The bed liner loves the grit to adhere to, and when it dries, it looks and feels like normal pebbled truck bed liner! Plus, in Black, it matches the Cricket very nicely.
I’ll post some pictures this afternoon. Oh yes…one other thing, the grip tape helps muffle the hammer slap even more. Definitely an improvement and doesn’t even look bad.
H 😯 😯 t
Hoot! This is great. I have a .22 standard cricket and have the same hammer slap issue. With my cheek up against the wood cheek rest I felt like I was going to get (more) hearing loss. But if you shoot the gun held away from you, you can’t hear the hammer so much. I’m also going to steal your vent hole idea!
A .25 hitting fur or feathers makes quite a smack I bet. Can’t do anything about that, but I did make some pellet traps that are muffled. I’m not where the gun lives currently but I’ll post some photos of the traps in a week. The traps are simply a plywood box that are open on one end and the other end is blocked up with 2X4 cut to seal the back. My boxes are around 8.5X11″ and 1′ deep. I then line the inside of the box with indoor/outdoor carpet, then PACK the inside of the box with plastic grocery bags. The bags are held in the box by covering the open end with Gorilla tape or duct tape. You can then tape your target to the gorilla taped end and the pellet strike is quite muffled… although the .25 might just blow through the 2X4 backstop 😀
Cheers,
dwm
He has already done that. With pics and everything. It´s here somewhere.
Uncle Hoot, great foamy idea with… foam insulation. But I am more interested in the 1.5mm vent holes you drilled on the shroud… can you please share it with us. Thanks, and best regards.
Great job Hoot and it doesn’t look half bad! I may have to steal your idea to use on my Edgun and turn it into dual
purpose by also using it as a pellet holder.
I ordered the foam from either Amazon or Ebay.
The cheekpiece won’t work because the foam must cover where the hammer hits the valve. That impact point appears to be located in the rear of the air cylinder at the breech. I tried covering just the air cylinder but it wasn’t as effective, so I went over the barrel and I got the reduction I wanted. I glued mine in place with a contact adhesive last night because the glue on the foam isn’t strong enough to hold the foam as tight as I wanted it.
I’m thinking I might cover it with a piece of nice black leather to keep the foam in good condition and further reduce the sound level. Also, since I went over the barrel, I snipped a small foam strip and put it below the barrel directly on the air cylinder to give it added sound insulation.
Another idea I have is to see if Neil Clague can make a slip-on short moderator that fits over the end of the shroud with a friction, or soft grub screw attachment. I don’t want it to be permanent, just available when absolute silence is needed.
My next door neighbors are swine of the lowest order, and have an animal rights mentality. I also believe animals have rights… the right to be properly basted, cooked, and/or humanely relocated (generally through the head, and their flea infested, diseased remains tossed into the nearest woods for consumption by more worthy creatures.
Silence is not only golden, it is achievable, with a bit of thought and testing.
Kindest regards…
Hoot
Carpe Noctum
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Of course it is the wood being kinda hollow. I meant whether that foam would work together with the wooden thingie = is there room for it underneath ?
I have the wooden piece and it is still loud up close.
Hoot, where did you get your foam?
Stan
I ordered my Cricket with that wooden cheek piece cover. I wonder whether it´ll work with that .. ?? Remains to be seen. A good mod/thinking , BTW !
Ill try this tomorrow for sure.
I want the gun to be hollywood quiet, Ive never had a pb even close to this quiet even shooting cbs with a supp.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about this foam idea……
What comes to mind is a denser type of foam like the kind they use to shut up outboard engines and engines in boats in general. There seems to be some available with a thin layer of lead on the outside which should help dampening even more. Not that I’m at all troubled with the noise level of my guns, – but it would be fun to try……. 😉
Anybody else tried these foam qualities ..??? 😀
atb
Trygve in Oslo 😀