Absolut
Senior Member
Came ahold of this one and thought I should share it since there is nearly no literature nor pictures available on a silencer for the Maschinenpistole 40. Note this model is with rubber shims that was referred as the "Russian System" by the Germans since this was the design of the Russian Bramit silencer for the M.91/30. The German system as well always consisted first of a larger gas chamber (to allow the gases to expand), then the bullet goes through two rubber shims which have a second small gas chamber between them. The shown silencer is incomplete in that it is displayed with only one rubber shim, but there would need to be two (and of course the one shown is a reproduction - I'll need to get a few in proper size).
Rubber Shim silencer have one issue: due to the rifling of the barrel which gives the bullet a right hand twist the bullet gives some of this movement also to the rubber shim through which it travels. This could therefore result in untightening of the silencer itself. Therefore Germans use left hand threading since you need to be able to open the silencer since the rubber shims are consumables and will need to be replaced from time to time. With the K98k and MP44 they used the Gewehrgranatgerät (GGG) coupling which anyway locks around the front sight base (last picture shows an additional comparison with a K98k rubber shim silencer with this coupling), but with the MP40 they have had the problem that due to the rest under the barrel this can't be used. So they decided to use the original muzzle threading with an additional clamp at the rear which fits the front sight and then can be additionally tightened.
The particular silencer here is void of any markings. This is nothing uncommon with German silencers; I have others for the K98k with metal baffles which are also void of any markings. And while we are with this topic, the silencers with the rubber shims generally tendended to be much more effective (meaning less loud) than the ones with metal shims, but the ones with the metal shims had less influence on the precision since the bullet did not had to pass through rubber.
Back to the history: it seems the silencers made for the MP40 were generally metal baffle systems since the only ones officially introduced had them. But there were also experiments done with rubber shims, as proven by an original document: https://www.mp40.nl/index.php?page=photo&pid=4231 (translation of German text under the picture). At my best guess this system never got officially introduced (note the document speaks of no useful results with rubber shims) and therefore the silencer I have might be one of very few left in existance.
Rubber Shim silencer have one issue: due to the rifling of the barrel which gives the bullet a right hand twist the bullet gives some of this movement also to the rubber shim through which it travels. This could therefore result in untightening of the silencer itself. Therefore Germans use left hand threading since you need to be able to open the silencer since the rubber shims are consumables and will need to be replaced from time to time. With the K98k and MP44 they used the Gewehrgranatgerät (GGG) coupling which anyway locks around the front sight base (last picture shows an additional comparison with a K98k rubber shim silencer with this coupling), but with the MP40 they have had the problem that due to the rest under the barrel this can't be used. So they decided to use the original muzzle threading with an additional clamp at the rear which fits the front sight and then can be additionally tightened.
The particular silencer here is void of any markings. This is nothing uncommon with German silencers; I have others for the K98k with metal baffles which are also void of any markings. And while we are with this topic, the silencers with the rubber shims generally tendended to be much more effective (meaning less loud) than the ones with metal shims, but the ones with the metal shims had less influence on the precision since the bullet did not had to pass through rubber.
Back to the history: it seems the silencers made for the MP40 were generally metal baffle systems since the only ones officially introduced had them. But there were also experiments done with rubber shims, as proven by an original document: https://www.mp40.nl/index.php?page=photo&pid=4231 (translation of German text under the picture). At my best guess this system never got officially introduced (note the document speaks of no useful results with rubber shims) and therefore the silencer I have might be one of very few left in existance.