Muzzle Flashes

In Hollywood, weapons always produce very visible muzzleflashes, sometimes they are HUGE.

I heard they are mainly produced by blanks that carry alot of special powder that produces the cinematic effect, sometimes it's computer animated as well.

What weapons have you noticed produce large visible muzzleflashes? what weapons REALLY produce the nice star-shaped muzzleflashes in REAL life?

I am also confused by flash-hiders since they produce star-shaped muzzlelflashes in the movies but in real life they are supposed to hide the flash don't they? muzzle-brakes are a bit different and usually produce an artillery style flash that shoots out the sides of the muzzle.

Can anyone exactly explain what produces such flashes? star-shaped patterns, large flashes opposed to no flash (even at night).

I personally like huge muzzleflashes and the star-shaped muzzleflashes and all that hollywood style, but are there really weapons that do that in real life?

I have only noticed significant muzzleflashes from 12ga shotguns and in 30/30 level action rifles that I fired, .22LR rifles don't produce a flash at all (as far as I saw).

A suppressor, or can, or silencer, is what you would usually use to suppress both noise and muzzle flash, but there are only a very select few guns that I know of these working effectively on, namely the Mark22, Mod. 0 Hush Puppy; and the projectile must be travelling at subsonic speeds so as to not break the sound barrier and create that "crack".

Hollywood is renowned for its dramatization of even the puniest things, so I would not trust anything I see in a movie. Go and fire some guns at night and see for yourself.

Try an 8 gauge with an incendiary magnesium round if you like flashes.

Just be sure you have welding goggles on and a fire truck on stand by... oh, and a fast car since they are illegal for civilians in every country I can think of.

Other than that, guns tend to be made to NOT have muzzle flashes. Why on earth would you want a muzzle flash anyways? If you want one "cause it looks cool" then you shouldn't have a gun anyways.

Most revolvers produce a "flash" from between the chamber and the barrel..

llso if oily/dirty most handguns with below 6 inch barrels do produse a flash very visible at dark (just fired a S&W Highwayman and CZ75b today at dark and both gave away flashes, specially during the first feew shots when atni-corrol burns off the barrel)

AK Flashes if not supressed (Rk-95 Flashhider works well)
All shotguns i've seen flash at night...

Normally if the round used in a gun is suitable/well loaded for the weapon the flashes are dimunitive or even nonexistent, if case contains too much powder or slow burning powder it may continue to burn outside the barrel causing distict muzzleflashes..

As a conclusion it's a matter of Barrel length, loading of a round and oil/dirt...

Flash hiders work in a way of allowing the "flash to esxape into multiple directions, along with the pressure in order to make the flash less detectable... hollywood flashes occur when slowburning load is fired through a hider..

[edit on 22-12-2005 by northwolf]

.22 dont produce any mate, I think because of the round itself.
5.56 and 7.62 produce a visible one, esspecially the latter.

Fast .22 rounds from a short barrel do
But in general .22 don't

.223 Rem (5.56) does produce a mighty flash drom M4 barrels, but AR-15 Target has virtually no flash, so it's about the barrel length

Originally posted by northwolf
Fast .22 rounds from a short barrel do

But in general .22 don't

Possibly, mabye it has to with the fact that the flame/flash doesnt reach the end of the muzzle due to its length?

Originally posted by Quest
Try an 8 gauge with an incendiary magnesium round if you like flashes.

Just be sure you have welding goggles on and a fire truck on stand by... oh, and a fast car since they are illegal for civilians in every country I can think of.

Other than that, guns tend to be made to NOT have muzzle flashes. Why on earth would you want a muzzle flash anyways? If you want one "cause it looks cool" then you shouldn't have a gun anyways.

I 100% agree if you only get a gun for the good flare you should not have one, I'd get a blank-firing gun if I wanted a gun that only produces pretty flashes

I am considdering buying a WASR-10 Hi-Cap with a muzzle brake, a weapon that produces a muzzleflash just add a bit more to the excitement IMHO, i'm a bit of a perfectionist and I want all the features I want on my gun

Assault rifles are usually fitted with a flash eliminator on the end of the barrel. The effectiveness of this is often dependent on the weapon and ammunition in question.

The length of the barrel is one of the most important factors. Short barrels don't allow gas pressures to stabalise, and more of the powder is still burning as the round exits the end of the barrel. This results in a larger flash. The older Colt Commandos suffered from a horrendous muzzle flash, and was thus fitted with a huge flash eliminator. Ditto other popular weapons like the HK53. Modern versions of both these weapons have much more effective flash eliminators. An interesting point to note is that the Commando fitted with this flash eliminator was only slightly shorter than the M4 fitted with a standard one, though the M4 is a much more effective weapon (longer ranged).

From a military perspective, a muzzle flash is particularly undesirable as it betrays your fire position which will get you killed. Military ammo is loaded with flash retardant powder, which is surprisingly effective.

Hope this helps.

[edit on 22-12-2005 by PaddyInf]

There is a big diff between a flash suppresor and a brake.Flash suppressors are mainly used on rifles to protect the shooters vision in the dark,brakes are used (ie AK74) to help control the release of gas to control muzzle climb.

This is a muzzleflash!


Related article to picture:
www.gunblast.com...


[edit on 22-12-2005 by Ulvetann]

Hrm....I seem to have some military grade ammo that produces quite a flash. Czechoslovakian 7.62x54 and even out of a nearly 3 foot barrel I get significant muzzle flash.

However, they are right. Its the worst thing to have in a firefight, especially at night.

OH man, .357 Mag, how you abuse me.

Ever seen 158gr go off in the dark? Might as well be a flashbang. Bright white light, and about six-inch blast from a four-inch barrel. Makes me wonder how police of yore coped with the muzzle flash.

DE

Originally posted by Raideur
Hrm....I seem to have some military grade ammo that produces quite a flash. Czechoslovakian 7.62x54 and even out of a nearly 3 foot barrel I get significant muzzle flash.

However, they are right. Its the worst thing to have in a firefight, especially at night.

When I state about military grade ammo, I'm talking about US/UK stuff. I can't vouch for other armies. I can say that the quality of ammo from some armies is fairly pants, and that 7.62x54R is an eastern block round, making quality quite suspect.

very interesting subject

so interesting , i choose it as a name

a Q : would the explosion from the main guns on a Battleship *like the Iowa or Yamato* , be also called a muzzleflash? or is there a different technical term for it?



[edit on 23-12-2005 by muzzleflash]

Most 7.62x54 Rounds from czech i've seen have been MG grade rounds, not too accurate but muzzle velocity is great... Sharpshooter ammo from old USSR/Russian stockpiles is accurate as hell...

ok a muzzleflash is real its the ending of the explosion that propells the projectile hence a battleships main guns produce a HUGE flash and a 22 is just plink so there is a minamal flash!

OOOOoo, pretty flash

Is it wrong for me to want a spectacular lightshow during my plinking sessions? i'm asking this to Quest who condemned my facination with muzzleflashes, I like fire, I like explosions and I like muzzleflashes.

sure if I was in the military I would not want my flashes to be seen at all for my life's sake.

What is wrong with enjoying a gun in all it's glory? I think it's wrong if you want a gun because it gives you power of someone else's life, if you want a gun because it's cool BECAUSE it kills or if you want a gun because you want to be cool.

but to enjoy a gun's muzzleflash, to feel the recoil, to see the brass being ejected while you are hunting some defenseless cans is aparently wrong?

I'm a responsible gun owner, I am a good shot and I know a crap-load of stuff about guns, and i'm more than qualified to own one, even if I like to have a hollywood-eque muzzleflash to top off my shooting experience, so needless to say I was a little irked when I read that comment

and muzzleflash, I think those qualify as muzzle...EXPLOSIONS gotta love it though.

OH, btw, I traced the AR-15 pistol pic to the originating site, great site! lots of good information.

[edit on 24/12/2005 by GrOuNd_ZeRo]

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
OOOOoo, pretty flash

Is it wrong for me to want a spectacular lightshow during my plinking sessions? i'm asking this to Quest who condemned my facination with muzzleflashes, I like fire, I like explosions and I like muzzleflashes.

Humans are naturally drawn to fire and light, ever wondered why people enjoy fireworks?
Enjoy a bonfire?

Originally posted by devilwasp

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
OOOOoo, pretty flash

Is it wrong for me to want a spectacular lightshow during my plinking sessions? i'm asking this to Quest who condemned my facination with muzzleflashes, I like fire, I like explosions and I like muzzleflashes.

Humans are naturally drawn to fire and light, ever wondered why people enjoy fireworks?
Enjoy a bonfire?

Yeah, i'm like a moth to a flame!

But my complete reasoning behind this thread was finding out if there was anything like hollywood style flashes, i've only fired weapons without a flashhider of any kind...well there was a blank firing gun I fired that had it but that was a long time ago.