What does it sound like to get shot at?

chopinbloc said:

When I was in AIT, my battery XO had less time in service than any of the soldiers in my class (Firefinder RADAR repair). We were acting as OPFOR for another class' FTX and had set up an L shaped ambush along a ridge so they could practice react to direct fire. They kept getting distracted and the LT was getting impatient so he decided to pop an HC smoke behind us to "get their attention". Before I could tell him what a bad idea it was to use pyro in thick, dry grass, be had chucked out behind us. Right next to our ammo cans full of 5.56mm and 7.62mm blanks and grenade and arty simulators.

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How long did it take to put the fire out?

chopinbloc said:

No clue. When it became clear that we weren't going to beat it out with our blouses, we got the hell out of there and called range control. Fire department got it under control, or I would have seen the smoke from miles away.

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Did the ammo & simulators cook off? That would have added to the level of entertainment!

This

It just depends- what they are using, distance, surroundings (in the open, in a building, in a vehicle), if you are wearing hearing protection (peltor com-tac headset often won't give you a "full appreciation" of just how much stuff is flying around you) and other factors.

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On a slightly different note, to me, shrapnel makes more of a whistle than a buzz or crack.

And the big chunk of steel off of a tank round goes whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

"Be advised the enemy uses green. Permission denied. Now stay off the radio while I try to get this other guy to cease fire."

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Wow, that's like straight out of Up Front, right there

<Willy on radio to artillery, from foxhole directly beneath parked Panzer> "I have their position, but you're gonna have to be patient"

When Charlie Whitman was shooting down in our general direction from the University of Texas Tower in 1966, we could hear several "whizzzz" sounds overhead or nearby. Whether that was the sound of his .30 cal. M1 Carbine or his 6mm Remington rounds flying by.... or somebody's bladder getting excited, I don't recall.

pistols 'swish' past your ears
rifles bullets 'crack-snap' depending on caliber

it gets your attention

grim personal experience

thankfully they missed

have not heard shotguns at close range but got dusted by 12ga at extreme range
sounded like hail My Grandpa found that moron and chewed him a new rear end
iirc that clown got tossed of the lease

Experienced it in Iraq and during a couple other experiences in the army. I worked in a rifle pit in benning as an fng and literally thought it was the sound of the bullets hitting the paper real hard lol by the time I left the Al-Anbar Province I knew exactly what that sound was. The most frightening sound I heard was .50 rounds flying over head from friendly fire. Imagine a gigantic humming bird zooming past u. Mortar rounds getting ready to impact close are also a very disconcerting sound. They screech for a few seconds coming in. Thats when u try to get as close to the center of the Earth as possible! Sounds I'll never forget as long as I live.

Joshboyfutre said:

Experienced it in Iraq and during a couple other experiences in the army. I worked in a rifle pit in benning as an fng and literally thought it was the sound of the bullets hitting the paper real hard lol by the time I left the Al-Anbar Province I knew exactly what that sound was. The most frightening sound I heard was .50 rounds flying over head from friendly fire. Imagine a gigantic humming bird zooming past u. Mortar rounds getting ready to impact close are also a very disconcerting sound. They screech for a few seconds coming in. Thats when u try to get as close to the center of the Earth as possible! Sounds I'll never forget as long as I live.

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As it was put to me "that's when the buttons on your shirt are too thick"

The only time I have actually been shot at, that is I was the actual target, the only thing I could hear was the sound of the pistol shots and the sound of my shoes making loud noises on the pavement as I was putting space between me and the shooter.

Lafitte

about 25 years ago my hunting buddy and I were walking in line when a hunter about 40 yards away shot at us (we were in an open field, snow on the ground head to toe in hunter orange). the shot passed between us (we were about 3 feet apart).
I have no recall of hearing the shot (12 gauge slug gun), all the sudden I was lying on my back staring at the sky, my buddy was face down in the snow at my feet. We stood up kinda dazed, not quite sure what happened until we saw a hunter jump out of a tree and start running away.
For us it was total sensory overload. It took us a while to fully realize what happened.

Sounded like a bee. Hope I dont hear that sound again.

I recall ziiiiip,bang and leaves falling on me as i lay face down in a tire rut.Several shots.

All I can remember when I got shot was hearing a "pop". (handgun at close range)
Of course remembering what it sounded like was not high priority at the time.

If you are tending targets on the range at Quantico it sounds like the crack of a whip.
If you are in the open ground of Mogodishu airport with a 12.7 mm Soviet built heavy machine gun running a belt at you it may sound like like a big whoosh because it has gone subsonic. This may cause laughter because they missed you and hit other people and aircraft, in any case the beer that night tasted better and the bed felt softer.

You will find out just how close to the ground you can get, no matter how hot that concrete is, and it still may seem hilarious.


Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result. Winston Churchill

Many years ago, my brother, father and I were out on a lake in a boat bass fishing and some idiots on shore were shooting at a target on their lot with a .22 semi auto.

Like a hummingbird.

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yeah sorta or a very fast straight flying bee.
We were lucky not to get hit. They came close .. over head, to the left and to the right and we all yelled at them.
The faces we had on us were priceless.
I know what it's like to hear bullets whizzing by me.

When we got into shore to put them straight ... they were long gone.

I guess it depends where you are shot. If the bullet goes through the middle of your forehead, I doubt you'd hear anything. Probably a bright flash of light, then darkness.

On a slightly different note, the thunder/whoosh of outgoing 175mm artillery had a very distinctive sound/vibration. The shells impacted about 50-55 seconds later, by count.

I don't know if I was ever actually shot at or not. During the 1970s I worked as a newspaper reporter covering crime and was present about a dozen times when officers fired or were fired at, several of them involving barricaded suspects where a number of rounds were discharged on both sides. On two of those occasions I was in a roadside ditch with several officers and we heard the CRAAACCCKKK of rounds going overhead. The only time I ever wondered if I had been the target was after a nasty riot situation where I had been out of the car in the middle of some mass arrests for some time, and later that night I noticed that the driver's side headlight was out. At the garage the next day they found a small caliber bullet hole in it. In my experience the old military adage applies -- you never hear the one that gets you.

You need to work in "the pits" at Camp Perry. You stand under the targets while the shooters fire away from 200 to 1,000 yards. We all wear ear protection. From the sound of the bullet you can detect if it was your target or another target located perhaps only 5 feet from center on either side of your target. You most assuredly hear the bullets flying perhaps as little as two feet over your head coming out of 223/556/6.5 and a few 30 calibers. But you only hear them after they have gone through the target. You pull enough targets and you will get real good at knowing exactly of and about where the bullets hit the target immediately above your head. For a few of us, this is great fun.

Almost like a whiz crack, you hear the rounds cracking in the air. Kind of hard to explain. I remember hearing that whiz crack and seeing muzzle flashes, but do not remember hearing the report of what was shooting at me. This was 54r rounds from a pkm fairly close and dshka rounds which I think are 12.7mm from about 1500 meters away.

Those kind of events get a lot of adrenaline going and you get a lot of focus, especially when you are shooting back. It seems I tuned out the sound of the gun fire, like how when hunting you don't hear the shot. It wasn't until afterwards when I began to notice ringing in my ears.

My earliest memories were pulling butts at the Camp Pendleton Edson Range. I was a phone talker in the butts while the shooter was at the 500 yard line. I could hear the bang of the rifle as a split second later the crack of the bullet passing over and hitting the target. Thought it was pretty cool at the time. The next time I heard that crack was Vietnam and it did not seem as cool as it did in the Edson Range butts area.

Ron