Ground Hog Killer,
Just to try an summarise, on what some of the others have said here:
The .17HRM is a super sonic cartridge. What this means is that the bullet travels faster than the speed of sound. In a gun shot, there are 3 main things that make up the noise we hear.
1. Bullet traveling faster than the speed of sound, this makes a mini sonic boom and is heard as a crack.
2. The gases rapidly exiting the barrel.
3. Mechanical noise. (usually only a problem with auto loaders.)
In order to suppress a gun shot, you need to be using subsonic ammunition so that there's no soinic boom. I don't know of a manufacturer that makes subsonic .17, probably because it would be outgunned by .22 Rimfire subsonic balistically.
The silencer or suppressor is used to suppress the noise the gases make when they exit the barrel, by slowing their velocity and cooling them.
In order to legal own a suppressor in the US as an individual, you would need to either purchase a legally manufactured and registered one using a BATF Form 4. or make one using a BATF Form 1.
Useful information on this can be found by reading James Bardwell's FAQ on NFA weapons.
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/wbardwel/public/nfalist/nfa_faq.txt
As some of the others have suggested, go to my site at
http://www.subguns.com and check the NFA message board here:
http://subguns.com/boards/mgmsg.cgi
Feel free to email me if you have any other questions at:
[email protected]
Make sure you put Mike in the message body somewhere so it doesn't get knocked out by my anti spam filters.
Mike