quietest pistol round

[walking arsenal]

air guns aside. what is the quitest caliber for a pistol? how bout rifle? a person i would like to teach to shoot doesnt like the noise. recoil doesnt seem to be a big issue just the noise and muzzle blast. is there a particular gun or ammo brand or a combination of a particular gun or ammo brand thatd do it?

W.A.

[CZ-100]

Without a silentzer I would say a .22

[LeonCarr]

.22 Short CB Cap fired from a long barreled rifle is about the same noise level as an adult type air rifle, in my experience. My buddy, who has killed about 100 squrriels in the past year in his urban area backyard using a Stevens 72 Crackshot single shot rifle, swears by the CCI ammo. From a handgun, it will be a little louder, but should be ok for teaching a beginning shooter. Also keep in mind that the .22 Shorts will have to be single loaded and manually ejected from a .22LR semiauto pistol, due to them not having enough power to cycle the action.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

[arinvolvo]

i will second leon...a 22 cb from a rifle is very quiet. And sans silencers, a 22 cb from a pistol would be your quietest pistol option.

[WonderNine]

I would not shoot a .22 short out of a .22LR type gun because of the chamber difference. Should be safe, but over time it will erode the chamber and might lead it up. .22 Longs should be ok though, although as mentioned they won't have enough power to cycle the action either if it's a semi.

[Ky Larry]

Just guessing, I would say the .22 short is the quietest round available. In centerfire, I would guess tne .32 would be relatively quiet. Subsonic velocities would not produce the sharp crack of a bullet breaking the sound barrier. I'm not a scientist nor do I play one on TV so please take what I say with a grain of salt.

[Matt G]

Agree that, absent a silencer, a CB cap from the longest barrel that you can conveniently use is quietest.

That said, I'm most curious in what defense pistol/caliber/ammo line is the quietest? I've asked this before, with regard to having to dispatch skunks during the day with a 5" .45 acp main gun and a 2" .38 or a 3" 9mm barrel, but never got a satisfactory answer. So what's quieter? A short barreled .38spl, short 9mm, or standard-length .45, assuming standard factory ammo (Gold Dot 125g, 124g, and 230g, non-Plus-P, respectively.)???

:confused:

[Kentucky Rifle]

Not too long ago I did some "impromptu" shooting with a friend. In other words, while we were driving, we saw a good place to shoot, so we did. :) I had one of my .38 Special snubs and he had a Ruger (Blackhawk, I guess) in .45 Colt.
The barrel length of his revolver was six or seven inches. (At least six, I reckon.) He shot first and his Ruger's report was a nice "boom". Not bad at all. (We were down in a ravine shooting into a dirt bank.) My turn to shoot. ~My snub *seemed to make a much less pleasant CRACK (!) every time I shot. Short barrel = more noise in this case. (Or at least to me.) If I was going for a quiet shot, I'd choose the long barrel .45.

KR

[Bix]

No experience with CB or .22 short; but I've shot a bunch of Agulia's .22 Colibri ammunition. Sound/recoil is very similar to an airgun.

[DNA]

Maybe the flobert BB cap? ;)

Dan

[walking arsenal]

how does the aguila colibri perform? can it be used for hunting or is it only good for targets

[mrapathy2000]

what noise? you wearing safety glasses and hearing protection? not those cheap foam plugs either get something better, dont cost much. noise goes with the territory.

not wearing any eye or ear protection and you need to head examined, literaly.

[walking arsenal]

thanks, i'll be sure to remember (writes it down)

Oh, wait i have TWO sets of david clark muffs in my range bag in case i break one and OH they fit so nice over those CHEAP foamies. i better call and cancel my apointment with the shrink then.

really, its more the recoil and concussion that bothers my wife, whom im trying to get to go to the range with me. i would like her to get some familiarity with A firearm so that if she NEEDS to use one of mine in an emergency she isnt totally in the dark. the less violent the operation of the weapon the happier she is, so i guess the barret .50 is out of the question (sigh) oh well. right now im using a beretta neos to get her used to shooting. I want to move up to larger cals later, the beretta wont cycle short rounds thus the question. (see above)

She's expressed some interest in shooting trap, perhaps a pump .410 is in order?

And yes, i know the .22 doesnt have a lot of recoil, noise, muzzle flash etc etc

W.A.

[mrapathy2000]

Oh, wait i have TWO sets of david clark muffs in my range bag in case i break one and OH they fit so nice over those CHEAP foamies. i better call and cancel my apointment with the shrink then.


never know about some people. not sure what you need a shrink for but if I didnt use safety glasses or ear protection I wouldnt want to be examined by a shrink, other people examine heads as well.

really, its more the recoil and concussion that bothers my wife, whom im trying to get to go to the range with me. i would like her to get some familiarity with A firearm so that if she NEEDS to use one of mine in an emergency she isnt totally in the dark. the less violent the operation of the weapon the happier she is, so i guess the barret .50 is out of the question (sigh) oh well. right now im using a beretta neos to get her used to shooting. I want to move up to larger cals later, the beretta wont cycle short rounds thus the question. (see above)

She's expressed some interest in shooting trap, perhaps a pump .410 is in order?

And yes, i know the .22 doesnt have a lot of recoil, noise, muzzle flash etc etc

W.A.

concussion you say. could of helped if mentioned that earlier.

would go for a 9mm pistol fullsize to medium size frame. if you plan on target mainly and no ccw go Fullsize. medium frame if you want it to be more concealable.

9mm is fairly loud but can pail in comparison to hand cannons.
147gr bullets are subsonic and recoil will be bit more depending on frame. 115gr loads usually supersonic though recoil wont be as bad. little noiser but not to bad.

concusion should be nothing super unless you use +p or +p+ loads.

few guns might want to look at
Glock 17 or 19
Ruger P89 or P95
Steyr M9
CZ75
Beretta 92FS
Sig in 9mm p220,p226,p228,p229,sp2009

while 9mm is not as cheap as 22lr its pretty tame and affordable to shoot. 100 rounds for $10-$11

dont know bout 410 shoty. good luck,shoot safe and hope ya have fun.

[c_yeager]

what noise? you wearing safety glasses and hearing protection? not those cheap foam plugs either get something better, dont cost much. noise goes with the territory.

Don'b be too quick on that. A quick examination of the packaging will reveal that SOME of those cheap foamies have higher noise reduction than muffs. Plus they won't unseal when you get a cheek weld on your rifle.

Also be carefull with CB's out of a rifle. They CAN get stuck in the barrel.

[walking arsenal]

it's true you never know with some guys, i was at the range once and there was a guy shooting a 7mm without muffs. i offered him a pair of mine and he said "what the #@!# do i need those for, i dont wear'em when im out hunting hows it different here"

go figure

[The_Antibubba]

Definitely .50 BMG.























Hey, you can STAB somebody with one of those-no noise at all. :neener:

[timbo]

I'd just go with something in .22LR. Sure the short or something else might be quieter, but this is so common, why bother with anything else? I'd say that .22LR is quiet enough.

[Peter]

G'day,

Saw the discussion on quiet handgun rounds and remembered seeing some discussion on it on this website:


http://guns.connect.fi/gow/gunwriters.html

note: this is a un-PC website :D


look especially near the bottom, with the guy (P.T.Kekkonen) holding a blunderbuss. The articles are called:

How To Handload Subsonic Rifle Cartridges (and survive)

Maybe something of interest to any 'hardcore' handloaders or anyone else interested in silent rounds?

Grtz,

Pete

[Zach S]

what noise? you wearing safety glasses and hearing protection? not those cheap foam plugs either get something better, dont cost much. noise goes with the territory. I prefer the cheap foam plugs over earmuffs. They work better for me. I wear the same kind at work and the range (my machine is louder than a .22LR in an indoor range).

[jro45]

Have you concidered the 380 acp. Thats what I got for my wife to shoot at the range when she goes with me. The 95gr bullet goes about 900 fps and is subsonic.

[artherd]

Double up on plugs AND muffs, and use a .22LR in a RIFLE.

My friend's NEOS is nearly as loud as my 9mm Glock G-34.

.22LR is a rifle caliber, and much of the powder is still burning after the barrel on a pistol ends.

.22LR rifles are very quiet, sound more like the twang of an airgun at the most (most noise actually comes from the supersonic crack of the bullet in a .22LR, so use SUBSONIC .22LR ammo.)

[Dave Markowitz]

.22 LR standard velocity rounds out of a rifle will be very quiet. They are also usually subsonic, so there's no crack.

If your wife is really sensistive to noise, look into a .22 rifle with a barrel at least 22" long. The longer the tube the quieter the gun, and the further away from her the muzzleblast will be.

[clubsoda22]

http://world.guns.ru/ammo/sp-e.htm

[Amish_Bill]

If you're willing to entertain an oddball, old caliber, a lever action 32-20 was the quietest rifle I'd ever heard. I'd imagine a 32-20 evolver would be fairly quiet too..??

It seems the basic formula would be largest bore & lowest pressure. On that scale, maybe a .44spc or .45Colt with light loads?

[Gordon]

32-20 pistols are loud!! All pistols (non supressed) are loud! A T/C contender with a 10"+ barrel in .22CB is getting there. I have a sTEVENS fAVORITE RIFLE IN .32s&w LONG that with .32S&W shorts is pretty quiet, about like a .22CB in a pistol. The same round in a 4" S&W gives a pretty good pop. I have a couple .22 short semi auto pistols, the ones with a 2" barrel are pretty loud, like a .22lr hi speed in a rifle. The Olympic rapid fire with the 7 .5" barrel is much quieter, but alot louder than a .22cb in a rifle or any pellet gun.:cool:

[PALEFACE]

just curious, why would noise matter? hmmmm...........i wonder.:uhoh:

[BluesBear]

I would not shoot a .22 short out of a .22LR type gun because of the chamber difference.
I have a bolt action Marlin that my Father gave me when I was 12. It was already old then. I don't know how many rounds have been fired from it but there were several years back when I was in my late teens and early twenties that if fired at least 500 rounds each and every week. Most of those were .22 shorts because I can fit 25 of them in the tube magazine.

It sat in the rack for a few years but I started shooting it again a few years ago. It's fired over 10,000 rounds in the past 4 years, I guess about 20% of those were shorts, plus several thousand Aguila .22sss which is a 60gr bullet fired from a .22 short case.

If you'd look at the chamber you wouldn't see any "damage" from shooting the shorter rounds.