Linear compensators

[SDW]

Interesting subject. Apparently, a slight reduction in sound (compared to the same gun with a bar muzzle) heard by the shooter is measurable using decibel meters. But I am a little puzzled as to why. I often read the "reason" explained as "it directs the blast forward". But I don't believe sound works that way. I mean, what would do that better than a bare muzzle, right? Maybe swap out that linear compensator for four more inches of barrel? It would still be loud AF. Once it leaves the muzzle and enters "our world", the blast goes in all directions. I did read one explanation that made a little more sense. Something about the LC behaving like an expansion chamber. The blast is still in a tube, but the tube got a lot fatter, maybe taking away some of the energy? I don't understand it well enough to explain it well at all I'm afraid.

Here's an interesting article describing blast waves, sound waves, etc.

https://www.americanscientist.org/articl...d-gunshots

And from that article is this cool pic of a 30-'06 hunting rifle being fired, using shadowgraph photography. The big ball is the blast wave, with sound waves right behind it. Just ahead of the muzzle is the 'fireball' of flame and smoke, expanding radially as well as forward. And of course that cone is the bullet's own shock wave, but that is a whole other story.

I would like to see a pic like this of a rifle with a LC on the end, just to see if it looks any different somehow.

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