"Not bad."
Song Heping removed the magazine to check the rifle and touched the silencer, feeling that the temperature was not too high.
This ant that the craftsmanship and design of the silencer were without issues.
Actually, silencers are not high-tech products; they mainly differ in material and design.
It's not difficult to make one, but creating a top-tier silencer is difficult.
The noise from firearm discharge mainly cos from three sources.
First is the explosive crackle when a bullet exits the barrel and the gunpowder gases rapidly expand; second is the sonic boom from the bullet traveling at supersonic speeds; third is the chanical clacking noise of an automatic weapon's action.
The explosive crackle is the loudest noise source, and it's primarily what silencers aim to suppress; the other two types of noise are difficult to eliminate.
So, the basic principle of most common silencers is to prevent the gunpowder gases from abruptly erupting and expanding. Instead, they gradually reduce the gas expansion and thus reduce the pressure as the gases finally exude, diminishing the gunshot sound.
To eliminate the sonic boom, subsonic specialized bullets are typically used to control firing noise. As for the chanical clacking noise of the weapon's action, that requires effort in weapon designing and manufacturing, sothing not easily achieved by average individuals.
The silencer from Sword employed a common baffle design, which consisted of welding tal baffles inside the silencer tube, with holes in the middle for the bullet to pass through. This design allowed the high-pressure gas from the muzzle to be consud in stages, expanding gradually, creating vortexes to slow down the impact speed. By the ti the gas exited the front end of the silencer, the pressure and, consequently, the noise were significantly reduced.
Essentially, Sword's improvised silencer served its purpose in suppressing the first type of noise and it was considered acceptable.
If a top-notch silencer were to be rated at 100 points, this homade silencer tube could score 60 points, which was sufficient.
Material durability wasn't a concern for Song Heping.
He only needed it to prevent revealing their position prematurely during the first few minutes of the rescue assault; it didn't matter if the silencer beca unnecessary afterward.
Even if this silencer could only last for 500 shots, that was enough.
"Equip every M4A1 carbine we need with a silencer."
Seeing Song Heping's generosity, Sword grinned from ear to ear, "No problem, no problem! In fact, 500 US dollars each is really a discount price. I don't sell many of these, and this equipnt from the United States, don't find it too expensive—it's costly to acquire."
"Expensive, huh?"
Song Heping asked, "How much per unit?"
"Those from World War II and the weapons from the Vietnam War era in the '60s are of course cheap. For instance, a Garand Rifle will only cost you 500 US dollars. But for this M4A1 carbine in your hands, it's a different story. Even just the bare rifle is 8000 US dollars!"
"8000 for a second-hand, in US dollars?!"
Hearing this from Sword, the chef was unsettled.
"You make more profit doing this than robbing a bank! You can buy a brand-new AR-15 for a little over two thousand in the States!"
"This is a military version of the M4A1 carbine," Sword retorted disdainfully. "Don't compare your ssy branded AR-15s with mine! Are they even of the sa quality? Do you know where my stock cos from?"
Seeing that the chef was still unconvinced, Sword decided to show off his capabilities and blatantly exposed his source: "These M4A1 carbines co straight from the Colombian Military, absolutely genuine military editions, the sa as those used by US Special Forces. Moreover, many were only used for a year. Look at the condition, the rifling, look here, look!"
Sword grew more and more excited as he spoke, his spit almost flying into the chef's face.
"Do you think it was easy for to establish connections with the Colombian Military and transport these here? If it weren't for the occasional high-end client wanting this model, I wouldn't bother with stocking them! Selling old M16s and M14s, along with so AKs and AKMs, here is more profitable than selling M4A1s, isn't it?"
The chef was left speechless.
And it seed that was indeed the case.
A military edition M4A1 is completely different from the civilian version AR-15; that much was undeniable.
"Forget it, you get what you pay for."
Song Heping felt helpless.
This was truly...
He began to realize that he was still a novice in the arms dealing business and had a long way to go.
Look!
Even as an arms dealer himself, he had to buy overpriced guns from others and be gouged in the process.
The most infuriating part was that he had no choice but to buy.
Once this opportunity passed, there would be no other, as Ferrari said, in Ecuador, if Sword didn't have the weapons, no one else would.
Besides, Song Heping had seen for himself, Sword was not exaggerating.
The rchandise was indeed top quality.
However, he only had three night vision scopes for M4A1 carbines; this ti seven of them had co. According to their usual role distribution, Queen and Hunter were snipers, Disaster Star, the chef, and White Bear were machine gunners, while he and Grey Wolf were assaulters.
But this mission did not require so many snipers or machine gunners.
Thus, Hunter and the chef switched to assaulters, while White Bear and Disaster Star continued as machine gunners.
In terms of snipers, retaining Queen was because he was skilled with the SVD sniper rifle, which was the only type available here.
Therefore, this operation was composed of four assaulters, two machine gunners, and one sniper.
This ant that one of the assault troopers was without a night vision scope.
White Bear and Disaster Star each chose an M240 machine gun, while Queen opted for an SVD sniper rifle, her personal favorite.
In the end, Song Heping's gaze landed on an M72 LAW in the pile of weapons; after consulting with the cook, he also decided to make a purchase.
Sword was, of course, very pleased.
Today, he had done nearly two hundred thousand US dollars' worth of business.
And the rchandise was all high-end, which wasn't easy to sell here; it was only the elite of the gangs or the elite forces of the anti-governnt ard forces who would buy such equipnt. Most would opt for cheaper Soviet-made AKMs or even AK47s, after all, for large scale ard organizations, pricing was king when equipping their rank-and-file.
As they waited for Sword's n to load the weapons onto the vehicle, Song Heping took the opportunity to strike up a conversation with Sword at the cave entrance.
"Sword, what's the going rate here for AK47s and AKM assault rifles?"
"Those Soviet weapons are much cheaper," Sword replied without concealnt: "The AK47 costs 700 US dollars per unit, and the AKM, 900 US dollars. If you want them, I'll give you a discount, 600 and 800 respectively, as a special offer."
That expensive?
Song Heping was inwardly astonished.
Because the price he got from Yusuf was only 50 US dollars for an AK47, and for a Romanian-made AKM, just 100 US dollars.
So he inquired, "Sword, how much do you pay to buy back those AKs and AKMs?"
"What for?"
A flash of wariness crossed Sword's eyes.
Song Heping quickly explained, "No, I an, how are the sales of the Soviet-style individual weapons around here?"
Sword looked puzzled, sizing up Song Heping in front of him, not quite grasping what he was planning.
Song Heping said, "If I have a way to get original AK47s and Romanian-made AKM assault rifles, would you have a channel to sell them here?"
Sword, furrowing his brows, asked, "Do you really have a way?"
Of course, he didn't believe it.
These people ca to him to buy weapons and now had the audacity to talk to him about arms dealing?
Seeing his disbelief, Song Heping said, "How about this, let's exchange contact numbers. If you don't trust , and can leave the country, I welco you to Illiguo, in Baghdad. Once you get off the plane, I'll arrange everything. I'll take you to see the goods, cash and carry. And if you're worried about security, I can handle all the export procedures for you, legitimately transport the goods to your designated port."
Sword looked at Song Heping, as if beholding a madman.
But then again, he felt this madman didn't seem to be joking; he appeared quite sincere.
"How much for your AKs? How much for an AKM?" Sword inquired tentatively.
Because his own cost was 400 US dollars for an AK and over 500 for an AKM.
Of course, he was aware that the goods he was getting were actually second-hand.
In South Arica, he was rely a distributor in Ecuador.
"If you pay directly in Illiguo and find your own way to transport them, I'll give you the AKs for 150 US dollars each and the AKMs for 200 each," Song Heping said. "If you need to cover the freight, I'll charge you only the shipping to a certain port, but I won't be responsible for safety after it arrives. That's your problem."
"If you can get it to Ecuador, I have contacts there who can handle things," Sword said. "You don't need to worry about that."
Song Heping continued, "The prices I quoted are for a minimum order of ten thousand units; after all, we're direct suppliers and don't do retail or pieceal selling. If you can't reach this volu, I'm not interested in working with you."
Sword was stunned once again.
He felt sohow ensnared by this young man in front of him.
Hey?
Hadn't he just sold arms to him?
Why did it suddenly seem like this young man was a door-to-door salesman?
Seeing that the timing was about right and the weapons were all loaded up, Song Heping stood up to leave: "We need to hit the road. Sword, take so ti to think it over. We do have so clout in Illiguo, and as you know, there's a war going on there. The amount of arms we can get is definitely not small – we're talking about millions of guns, understand?"
Sword's eyes went wide.
He felt as if he was in a dream.
Today, he had managed to sell guns and even landed a big arms dealer from Illiguo.
"Okay…," his emotions were a bit scrambled: "I'll consider it."
Song Heping smiled and waved goodbye, "See you, Sword. I'll wait for your call."
After saying that, he raised his hand to his ear in a phone-calling gesture, then turned around, got into the vehicle, and quickly disappeared at the far end of the narrow path.
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