ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´

In films a gun with a silencer is used to dispose of bad (and good) guys. How does the silencer work?

(Continued)

• Having read the recent New ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ book How to Fossilise Your Hamster I have to disagree with your explanation of why Bond’s silencer could not work (a question that first appeared in The Last Word in 1999). A gunsmith once told me that the report of a gun going off is not caused by the cartridge’s explosive charge, nor by gases escaping, but rather by the sonic boom of the bullet. It’s rather like the crack of a whip.

So in order to silence the weapon, you must make the shot subsonic. This has been done with a silenced version of the , in which the only sound during firing was the quieter clack-clack of its action.

Richard Stewart-Hanney, By email, no address supplied