What is your “Loudest” Gun?

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Jessesky

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Another posters discussion about self defense and lack of ear pro got me thinking.

From hunting rifles to snubbie revolvers and everything in between, What is the loudest gun you own, or have shot without ears? how does it compare? What would you never consider as an emergency or practical rifle because it’s too jarring? This is excluding muzzle devices and porting.
 
Probably my Ruger Blackhawk Bisley in .45 Colt and a 5.5" barrel shooting 300gr hard cast bullets. I know it hurts the most. Either that or my Ruger M77 in .30-06 with a 22" barrel.

I looked online and found some interesting charts...

Gun-Noise-Levels-1024x576.jpg

decibel.jpg
 
Encore 15" pistol in 30.06 takes the win here...with the PLR-16 in 5.56 a close second. The AR-50 has the most concussion due to the muzzle brake, but sans muzzle device I think the Encore would be nastier to shoot just because the blast is much closer to your head.
 
What is the loudest gun you own, or have shot without ears?
A 10½" .223 AR by a good margin. I've never even thought about shooting it without hearing protection and even with a suppressor it's on the loud side.

On the other hand, it fits the bill as a home security firearm perfectly. Borrowing a description of (.22WMR handgun) report and muzzle flash I read somewhere, you don't even need to actually hit the assailant, he'll be blind, deaf and charred anyway when you pull the trigger... :)
 
Probably my .357 Herrett Contender. Even with double ears the blast was unbelievable. Shooting off a bench the weeds in front of the bench moved from at the muzzle blast

We had a Ziplock bag of rounds in front of and off to the side of the muzzle. It blew the bag off the bench and blew it apart.
 
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Well, unscientifically, I would say my 4" .454 casull Raging Bull, my Ruger 450 bushmaster, and my Sauer 8x57, are the "loudest" guns I own.
I use double ear protection, just to be "comfortable", when shooting them.
 
w/o ear pro I can say a 204 ruger will make your ears ring for a while.
An 11.5" 223 and an 18" 308 are very loud.
 
I can remember the first time shooting my brother's Mauser HSc in .380 that it was really loud, even with hearing protection!
 
I haven't noticed my 380 pistols as being particularly loud... possibly a locking vs blowback difference? I have noticed that my Makarov (blowback) is louder, and has a snappier recoil than any of my 380s' (all some form of locking breech); but 9x17 vs 9x18 is approaching apples/oranges.

The one that I have noticed as being overly loud is my 8mm Mauser FN49. When I lived in California I had a shooting area on my property (the backdrop was the side of a mountain). The 8mm is the only one my neighbor ever asked me to not shoot.
 
My M44 Mosin Nagant.
Always kind of fun to take it to the indoor when everyone else is shooting ARs.
Always a surprised for them, even comparing to the guys checking shotguns.
 
I have a blue MKII and several red appointments on my AR, if that's what you mean.:D

Definitely going with my Fifty A.E. Desert Eagle. I suspect it is from the enormous ball of flame that comes out the front end...
(No, it is not Golden Tiger striped, it's stainless.)

My braked Two Twenty Three is(seems) much louder than my Four Fifty Bushmaster, even with it's massive Panzer style brake.

Ever had someone smack a rabbit with a twelve gauge, from three feet behind you?
 
Probably my Ruger Blackhawk Bisley in .45 Colt and a 5.5" barrel shooting 300gr hard cast bullets. I know it hurts the most. Either that or my Ruger M77 in .30-06 with a 22" barrel.

I looked online and found some interesting charts...

View attachment 813968

View attachment 813969

The GUN NOISE LEVELS chart has a number of non-gun noise sources listed for comparison - Chainsaw , Siren , etc. I did not see "Wife".
 
In my small collection, my Ruger GP100 .357 magnum and my Ruger GSR*.308 are my loudest.

I still have issues with my right ear from firing .357 revolvers without hearing protection from back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

*no muzzle device and 17.25" barrel.
 
I don’t know if any gun that I’d consider hearing safe indoors, period. As far as what’s loudest of mine, I don’t know because they’ve all had some type of muzzle device on them since I’ve had them, whether it be a suppressor or a brake.

I can tell you that having to fire a 5.56mm outside without ear pro wasn’t really painful but it took days for my hearing to come back.
 
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