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Closed-cell foam to wrap gun with to quiet the pipe-ringing sound?

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Hi folks. My FX Maverick 30 cal sniper is very quiet as far as muzzle pop is concerned thanks to a DonnyFL Ronin. However, I've got the power cranked up pretty good and the whole gun sounds like someone smacking a steel pipe with a hard rubber mallet. The sound does not bother me, but a neighbor's horse that is more than 100 yards away gets spooked every time. I gotta shut this thing up some how. Have any of you had this problem and solved it by, perhaps, covering as much of the gun as possible with closed-cell foam?
grungy
 
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Covering the whole gun ??
I've used foam inside of the suppressor shell with some successes, depending on the gun, but again, the whole gun ?

Why do you have the power so high ? Is this really a requirement ?

A large round, at high power, sounds like a somewhat large in diameter, and long suppressor is a first step.
Encasing the receiver area in foam might help some. Make a nice place for your cheek too.

Mike
 
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This problem is not caused by muzzle blast. It is a resonance set up by the hammer striking the valve. The way to handle it varies from one gun to the next. I am not knowledgeable in the "Way of Impact" so cannot speak to what you need to do but if I were you I would ask a moderator to move this thread to the PCP section where people will see it that can answer.
 
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OldSpook said:
This problem is not caused by muzzle blast. It is a resonance set up by the hammer striking the valve. The way to handle it varies from one gun to the next. I am not knowledgeable in the "Way of Impact" so cannot speak to what you need to do but if I were you I would ask a moderator to move this thread to the PCP section where people will see it that can answer.
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Correct. Muzzle pop is NOT the problem I'm trying to solve because I don't have a muzzle pop problem (and the horse can't hear that either). The DonnyFL Ronin takes care of that.
And you are also correct in that the sound I'm trying to subdue is like hammer ping, or hammer twang, but more than that. It just seems like a 54.5 grain nsa slug going 950 fps through the gun really makes every cylindrical part of the gun resonate in a way that I can only describe as hitting a metal pipe with a hard rubber mallet. This is the sound the horse is spooked by. If the horse can hear that, then so can my potential hunting game, which is a problem because the first shot would give away my position.
So my problem is a hunting problem. It's also a sound problem (why I put this thread in with the moderators). It's also a PCP problem because my gun is a PCP.
Is there a way to delete an entire thread? I feel like just giving up on this.
grungy
 
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@grungy It sounds as if you may benefit from simple device called a “depinger.” I don’t know if people use them in Impacts, but I use one in my .357 Benjamin Bulldog. I’ve used different types. They were not difficult to install. They are to be inserted into the air reservoir. You may want to ask around the forums to see if any members are using depingers in FX Impacts.
 
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Unfortunately all of the threads I've found regarding depingers refer to their use in tube-type air tanks. My FX Maverick uses a bottle tank, so the depingers I've seen so far won't work. The metal pipe resonant ping sound on my Maverick is the same kind of sound the guys with tube-type tanks are getting rid of (or minimizing) with their depingers. So if you've ever heard that kind of sound, then you know the sound I described as metal pipe being hit with a hard rubber mallet.
Keep the possible solutions coming guys. I really do appreciate it.
grungy
 
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grungy said:
Unfortunately all of the threads I've found regarding depingers refer to their use in tube-type air tanks. My FX Maverick uses a bottle tank, so the depingers I've seen so far won't work. The metal pipe resonant ping sound on my Maverick is the same kind of sound the guys with tube-type tanks are getting rid of (or minimizing) with their depingers. So if you've ever heard that kind of sound, then you know the sound I described as metal pipe being hit with a hard rubber mallet.
Keep the possible solutions coming guys. I really do appreciate it.
grungy
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Here's a ideal using a cut piece of clear rubber tubing (but do not use his other suggestion, object with bristles, very bad because they will break in time causing problems within your pcp).
 
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Hi BurntDog. I guess you were researching this for quite a while after I posted my latest. The FX Maverick has a bottle tank. So depinging by inserting something into a tube-type tank won't work on the Maverick. I really do appreciate your efforts.

So it looks now like the only option I can think of is to buy some closed-cell foam rubber (not necessarily rubber) tape or sheets that are about 1/8" thick (guessing) and wrap the barrel, the barrel shroud, the moderator, the bottle tank, the two plenums, and stick whatever I can get on near the hammer area and hope for the best. Maybe they make the stuff I'm looking for with a camouflage pattern, which would look nice. Also it would possibly have the added benefit of keeping direct sunlight off of most of the gun. The Maverick is all black anodized aluminum which quickly gets hot in direct sunlight and can cause the pressure in the plenum to be higher than it should be for the next shot taken, which in turn, makes the next shot taken have a higher or lower muzzle velocity than the gun was tuned for. I hope the stuff I'm looking for actually exists and is not expensive. Fingers crossed. Thanks guys.
grungy
 
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grungy said:
Hi BurntDog. I guess you were researching this for quite a while after I posted my latest. The FX Maverick has a bottle tank. So depinging by inserting something into a tube-type tank won't work on the Maverick. I really do appreciate your efforts.

So it looks now like the only option I can think of is to buy some closed-cell foam rubber (not necessarily rubber) tape or sheets that are about 1/8" thick (guessing) and wrap the barrel, the barrel shroud, the moderator, the bottle tank, the two plenums, and stick whatever I can get on near the hammer area and hope for the best. Maybe they make the stuff I'm looking for with a camouflage pattern, which would look nice. Also it would possibly have the added benefit of keeping direct sunlight off of most of the gun. The Maverick is all black anodized aluminum which quickly gets hot in direct sunlight and can cause the pressure in the plenum to be higher than it should be for the next shot taken, which in turn, makes the next shot taken have a higher or lower muzzle velocity than the gun was tuned for. I hope the stuff I'm looking for actually exists and is not expensive. Fingers crossed. Thanks guys.
grungy
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Yea, I had to look at a picture of that model pcp and now I see what you're up against. The sound you want to dampen is it coming from the tank (that pinging sound)? Before you go all out wrapping it did you (with gun unloaded but aired up)place it on your bed our couch and cover the bottle/tank mostly the tank forward with a pillow and a thick blanket/comforter just to hear if it muffles the sound you want to lessen? If it does I would first try wrapping just the tank/bottle unless you're ok with the added weight on the front then simply do what works for you. I understand the importance of keeping your neighbor happy and his horse, we all want to keep the peace with our neighbors. Best of luck.
 
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BurntDog said:
Yea, I had to look at a picture of that model pcp and now I see what you're up against. The sound you want to dampen is it coming from the tank (that pinging sound)? Before you go all out wrapping it did you (with gun unloaded but aired up)place it on your bed our couch and cover the bottle/tank mostly the tank forward with a pillow and a thick blanket/comforter just to hear if it muffles the sound you want to lessen? If it does I would first try wrapping just the tank/bottle unless you're ok with the added weight on the front then simply do what works for you. I understand the importance of keeping your neighbor happy and his horse, we all want to keep the peace with our neighbors. Best of luck.
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In the case of a bottle tank that is located as far away from the hammer as possible, I'd say the bottle tank is the least likely single thing to be making any substantial pingy sound. The two 89cc power plenums connected together in series between the hammer and the bottle tank is a likely culprit. The barrel and barrel shroud and moderator are likely candidates as well when an actual slug is fired. The problem is that I can't hear what the neighbor's horse is hearing and what my possible hunting game can hear. The horse is doing me a big favor -- best hunter's decibel meter on the planet. Experiments that my buddy and I have done have conclusively eliminated some things that people might say is spooking the horse. It is definitely not the report (muzzle pop). It is definitely not the sound of the slug hitting the backstop. It is definitely not the sound of the subsonic slug flying through the air. It is definitely not the horse visually seeing me or my buddy or the gun. We've been experimenting with this for months. The idea of playing with a comforter (maybe down sleeping bag) is not a bad idea, but I would do that with live fire and my buddy listening. So thanks for that idea BurntDog -- I would not have thought of it and I'll probably try it. Thanks again.
grungy
 
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kayaker said:
I see some people with XWRAP Shrink tubing shrunk around their bottles not sure if that would help but it might tune it down some. Have you tried a radio turned up a little, pointing towards the horse ?
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We have not tried a radio. I haven't tried XWRAP -- don't know what it is, but I'll look it up. It really is a kind of freaky situation because I can shoot this gun all day long on my back porch in town where I have three different neighbors on their back porches only 100 feet away and they don't even look over the fence. I guess that isn't really freaky because the ambient noise in town is like so much white noise that it makes everyone deaf. But at the cabin you can hear a pin drop (if the wind isn't blowing through the trees). And this horse -- it's not like we are even shooting in his direction. And the horse doesn't get spooked if we ride motorbikes right past him when he's munching grass along the fence line. But again, if the horse can hear my FX Maverick at over 100 yards away, then so can my game I'm thinking.
grungy
 
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kayaker said:
I see some people with XWRAP Shrink tubing shrunk around their bottles not sure if that would help but it might tune it down some. Have you tried a radio turned up a little, pointing towards the horse ?
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Nope -

I put some clear shrink tube over most of my bottle guns, more for surface protection.
This application did nothing to quiet the sound of any...of my guns.

Mike
 
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MikeVV said:
Nope -

I put some clear shrink tube over most of my bottle guns, more for surface protection.
This application did nothing to quiet the sound of any...of my guns.

Mike
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Hi MikeVV. It makes sense to me that a dense material would not make a good sound insulator. If you've ever seen the walls of an audio recording studio, you would have seen that they are covered with pyramid-shaped open-cell foam spikes. It is specifically open-cell so that the audio pressure waves (of many different frequencies) can easily penetrate it and vibrate it. The energy of the air pressure waves are converted to mechanical energy by vibrating the foam and producing heat. So the sound waves are not actually absorbed, but their energy is converted to an equal amount of energy of a different form that the microphones can't "hear".

Sorry for the uninvited physics lesson. But I'll finish my thought anyway. The sound that is alarming the horse (and possibly many other four-legged critters) is clearly a very high frequency, maybe even multiple high frequencies beating against each other (I'm a musician -- can't help it). Trying to figure out what material to stick on my Maverick to "absorb" the unknown high frequency(s) really comes down to trial and error. This is kind of a bummer because trial and error can go on forever, but my wallet can't. Materials aren't free. I was really hoping that someone would have dealt with this exact (or close enough) situation and solved it.

MikeVV -- this was not directed at you except for the fact that you are correct about the XWRAP not working as a sound insulator. I could have blabbed on about this without quoting you. Cheers mate! If you read this whole thing then you win the grungy rambling award for this week and you deserve a free case of beer. Too bad they don't have an upload button for that.
grungy
 
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I am late to this thread and I came without much/any knowledge of the problem with the said airgun.

However, have you contacted FX about this? I mean, it would seem likely that they have already heard of this problem and may have some options to address it.

Other than that, if there is a forum/sub-forum here or elsewhere dedicated to FX airguns, especially the higher caliber guns, that *might* be your best bet.

Even though I don't own any higher caliber airguns, I think I know the sound you are talking about. I think you mentioned that it is probably the joined plenums and I agree that may be where the resonance originates, but that resonance is carried to other parts of the airgun.

So, my suggestion is to do what you can to find/dampen the *source* of the resonance first and see if that helps before you go about wrapping the entire gun.

If dampening the plenums makes no difference, then maybe that is not the source of the resonance. So, start again. (smile)

Yeah, I know I am not much help and I know nothing about the gun you are using, but I do empathize with you as keeping my .177 airguns as quiet as possible is a quest and passion! Although I try to do it without a commercial moderator and sometimes use my own DIY slip on designs. (smile)
 
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