BCRider
Member
Having been around a few .22WMR rifles I don't see you shooting those without hearing protection. They've got a heckuva CRACK to the discharge from a rifle.
The quieter options I've heard have all been handgun rounds from carbine style guns.
Well... and some of the old style black powder rifle rounds that shoot the big and heavy bullets using smokeless powder to achieve the same low chamber pressures. But if you're prioritizing the money towards building up the homestead you won't be getting any of THOSE type of rifles any time soon.
If your wife enjoys the semi auto carbines then it sounds like you have your answer. A 9mm or .40 would be dandy. The 9mm being a trifle cheaper to feed for practice. .40 isn't TOO much more to buy ammo but .45acp would likely be the sort of thing to wait a while until you get into reloading.
But good luck finding such a gun within your $200 budget. Even a new Hi Point is up over $300 once the dust settles. Same with a single shot NEF bought new. So that leaves you with the used market unless you can direct some more cash towards your firearm choice.
One thing is that if you were to get into reloading now instead of later it opens up a HUGE number of options for buying any old cheap rifle you can find. You can then reload quiet subsonic or near subsonic rounds for cheap. Suddenly something like a ratty looking old Savage 99 chambered in the somewhat obscure .308Savage becomes useable since you can get some brass and load up soft and quiet pest control rounds or full power hunting loads.
The thing to do if you were to go this direction of lower velocity pest control loads to allow unprotected ears is to stick to the guns that use 120 or heavier bullets. That way the bullet still has good hitting power out at 100 yards when moving at a leasurely subsonic speed. To make your life easy something with a .308 size bore would be nice as there's LOTS of options with that bullet size.
You'd have to divert a bit of money to buying the equipment needed. But if you're willing to live with reloading around 100 rnds per hour you can do this with the cheapest of the cheap and keep the reloading gear cost down to around $100. The savings in ammo costs will pay for the equipment in short order even if you only shoot around 50 rnds a month.
The quieter options I've heard have all been handgun rounds from carbine style guns.
Well... and some of the old style black powder rifle rounds that shoot the big and heavy bullets using smokeless powder to achieve the same low chamber pressures. But if you're prioritizing the money towards building up the homestead you won't be getting any of THOSE type of rifles any time soon.
If your wife enjoys the semi auto carbines then it sounds like you have your answer. A 9mm or .40 would be dandy. The 9mm being a trifle cheaper to feed for practice. .40 isn't TOO much more to buy ammo but .45acp would likely be the sort of thing to wait a while until you get into reloading.
But good luck finding such a gun within your $200 budget. Even a new Hi Point is up over $300 once the dust settles. Same with a single shot NEF bought new. So that leaves you with the used market unless you can direct some more cash towards your firearm choice.
One thing is that if you were to get into reloading now instead of later it opens up a HUGE number of options for buying any old cheap rifle you can find. You can then reload quiet subsonic or near subsonic rounds for cheap. Suddenly something like a ratty looking old Savage 99 chambered in the somewhat obscure .308Savage becomes useable since you can get some brass and load up soft and quiet pest control rounds or full power hunting loads.
The thing to do if you were to go this direction of lower velocity pest control loads to allow unprotected ears is to stick to the guns that use 120 or heavier bullets. That way the bullet still has good hitting power out at 100 yards when moving at a leasurely subsonic speed. To make your life easy something with a .308 size bore would be nice as there's LOTS of options with that bullet size.
You'd have to divert a bit of money to buying the equipment needed. But if you're willing to live with reloading around 100 rnds per hour you can do this with the cheapest of the cheap and keep the reloading gear cost down to around $100. The savings in ammo costs will pay for the equipment in short order even if you only shoot around 50 rnds a month.
