Why must people making videos of Suppressed shooting shoot at loud targets?

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Aim1

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I'm getting into suppressed shooting and got my first suppressor/silencer. I did some research and read articles and watched youtube videos. One of the biggest annoyances/pet peeves I found is when someone is attempting to show the quietness of the suppressor all while shooting at a loud target, most likely a gong. It's just idiotic. I don't need to know that you can hit your target at 50 yards with the rifle. Just shoot it, I'm assuming that you and the rifle can hit the target at that range and if you wanted to make a video on the weapons accuracy you'd do that.

Shooting at a loud target while attempting to display the quietness of a suppressor just seems to be defeating the purpose of showing how quiet the suppressor is in my humble opinion.

I just want to know how quiet the suppressor is. So, if you are making a video on a suppressors quietness, please just stick to that and not accuracy proving.

The 2 videos below illustrate this. The first one is perfect, quiet, not shooting at any noisy targets such as a metal gong or loud hissing waterbottles. The second is from a video maker I like a lot and have watched a lot of his videos but he almost always has the annoying habit of shoots gongs or other loud targets. I just want to shake him and go, "Dude, I know you can hit the gongs at 20-70 yards away or so, most people can, just display the suppressor's quietness individually please!"

One video maker even made an awesome video where he had 2 cameras, one close to him so that you could hear the suppressor and one downrange near the target so you could hear what the shot coming downrange is like. There was a muted thud which is similar to shooting a gong, meaning you are shooting a target which will give create a sound, but since it's a soft-fleshed animal it's much quieter and the cool video from downrange somewhat makes up for it.


Perfect Video: No loud gong




Imperfect Video: Loud gong




Video from shooter and downrange:




So, if you're going to make a suppressed weapon video, please just display the suppressor's quietness and don't shoot at loud targets!
 
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Hearing the bullet impact is big part of the fun. I honestly don't understand your complaint. If the target is far enough away you can hear both sounds independently.

Mike
 
Arizona_Mike said:
Hearing the bullet impact is big part of the fun. I honestly don't understand your complaint. If the target is far enough away you can hear both sounds independently.

Mike
Click to expand...


If I wanted to hear people shooting gongs, there's plenty of videos of that. When testing/reviewing a suppressor, I only want the sound of the suppressor in the video.

Yes, there's a short lag, but it takes away from the suppressor test and is distracting IMHO. I want to hear only the suppressor in all it's unadulterated beauty.
 
There is also a pretty substantial problem with how volume levels are represented in videos, especially amateur-produced ones. Watching a YouTube vid of someone shooting a silenced weapon and thinking you have some (really ANY) idea of how loud it really is, or how loud it will seem to you while shooting it is a fool's errand.

While recording the sound of a steel target being shot is hardly any less imperfect, it does give some context. Most of us are very familiar with how a steel plate sounds when shot at various ranges and our ears will pick up some vague relation between that sound and the level of the suppressed shot.
 
I like the ¿pffft? then ¡plink! when shooting .22 CB caps from a rifle at tin cans. It's very different from ¡bang! and just seeing the can move.
I imagine some people shooting suppressed rifles get the same kick. ¿pffft? then ¡CLANG! must be a kick too.
I can also see that, if you are interested in the efficiency of the silencer, then you would rather see a video demonstrating just that.
 
I agree with Sam; you are not going to get an accurate representation of how it sounds through ANY video. The best you can hope for is some "context", and a gong hit delivers that at least somewhat, to the degree possible.

But once you've seen one suppressor video, you've seen them all.
 
Aim1 said:
When testing/reviewing a suppressor, I only want the sound of the suppressor in the video.
Click to expand...
Sam1911 is right. Trying to get any solid information on how well a suppressor works by listening to audio from a video is not going to be productive.

To the extent that you might be able to get some useful information, it would be by contrasting the discharge sound with other sounds in the video. But even trying to contrast it with other sounds in the video is probably not going to be very useful because the amplifier will usually adjust to the input noise level to keep from clipping.
 
Why don't people make videos however they feel like it?

Oh, they do that's why there are bazillions of them.

This is one of mine that while you can hear the bullet enter the bullet trap, it doesn't take anything away from the effectiveness of the moderator/suppressor.

 
I understand the OP's complaint when it is applied to a review or evaluation of a suppressor, but valuable information on suppressors is best as quantitative pre and post suppressed decibel levels using proper testing equipment. Subjective "how loud does that sound" videos should at least demonstrate pre and post suppressed fire so the viewer has some perspective on the change.
 
I guess if I ever decide to video a hog being shot with one of my suppressed weapons, I'll have to figure out a way to keep the hog from making noise? I would hate to irritate someone with a hog squealing after a satisfying suppressed shot. I guess I'm just not as sensitive as some in this regard....maybe I'm in need of some sensitivity training.
 
Almost every consumer-level video camera has audio compression built in, so that the differences between loud and soft sounds are reduced. Watching a video of a gun fired suppressed and unsuppressed will show you this easily. There isn't nearly as much of a difference in the video as in real life.

Watching a video is the worst way to judge how well a silencer works. I would trust numbers on paper over someone's home video.
 
I have always thought the main reason people use loud targets even when firing a suppressed gun is to show off that they are hitting the target. It doesn't matter how smart you sound if people don't think you can hit the target they won't trust your gun knowledge.
 
I completely disagree with the OP. A video of someone shooting a gun with a silencer is useless by itself in determining the actual real-life sound of the shot. Videos are terrible ways to get an accurate idea how how suppressed gunfire sounds. At least when there is the added sound of the bullet impacting the target there's something to compare the shot to.
 
jmorris said:
Why don't people make videos however they feel like it?

Oh, they do that's why there are bazillions of them.

This is one of mine that while you can hear the bullet enter the bullet trap, it doesn't take anything away from the effectiveness of the moderator/suppressor.

Click to expand...



Great video. You're right that the trap doesn't take away from the suppressor's effectiveness, but you can still get a comparison between the two. It may not sound exactly the same in real life but the rifle on the right is definitely quieter than the one on the left.
 
The single most god awful thing on YouTube videos is the screaming loud heavy metal "music". Damn. I don't have to hear a slamming guitar and slamming, banging drums at 2,000 db to get the point
 
BearBrimstone said:
I have always thought the main reason people use loud targets even when firing a suppressed gun is to show off that they are hitting the target. It doesn't matter how smart you sound if people don't think you can hit the target they won't trust your gun knowledge.
Click to expand...


If I see a video of a guy just shooting toward the ground or the camera pointing toward the gun and not showing any target like the video in the OP I'm assuming that the shooter is hitting his target which is the ground somewhere.
 
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Aim1 said:
If I wanted to hear people shooting gongs, there's plenty of videos of that. When testing/reviewing a suppressor, I only want the sound of the suppressor in the video.

Yes, there's a short lag, but it takes away from the suppressor test and is distracting IMHO. I want to hear only the suppressor in all it's unadulterated beauty.
Click to expand...

I'm going to go ahead and, sort of, disagree with you here. Suppressor videos without interesting things being shot qre quite boring to me. Just how suppressed something is "live" will never play out in a youtube video to me, gotta be there to hear it. Might as well get some sweet gong action.
 
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