The .22 is only really quiet when using subsonic bullets with a suppressor. Shot a running boar competition back in England years ago with my Parker Hale suppressed Brno .22. A little strange as i had to wear muffs because of the full bore rifles being shot next door. No recoil and no sound strange feeling.
If the Hearing Protection Act becomes law, will almost all guns be manufactured w/ threaded barrels?
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Subsonics are a given with a suppressed rimfire. With an exception of a brick of Remington Yellow Jackets, CCI Stingers and some odd rimfire shotshells, I think I haven't even bought anything else during last 30 years. Some standard velocity ammo like CCI Standard is actually subsonic at ambient temperatures above 50°F when shot from either a <10" or a longer, pressure ported (w/ full suppression) barrel. For colder temperatures when the speed of sound is lower, slower ammo is needed. Aguila SSS is one of my all-time favorites. A heavy 60gr bullet at a mere 950fps is a great combination, providing that the barrel twist is tight enough to stabilize it. It's subsonic even at -40°F weather.
Sam1911
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Sure, if you want one, a 1/2" of threaded barrel protruding from the slide of your carry gun isn't that big a deal. But, if you really aren't ever going to use the gun that way, why would you want, or want to pay for, that? And there is always a lot of fuss made about just how compact this or that carry gun is. Adding a 1/2" to the length of one may sound worse on paper than in practical effect, but it's there and makers won't want to limit folks to that option.
I could see it as a fairly common factory option, more common than today, but I don't think it would become very universal.
Possibly not but Glock, for example, introduced G17PRO and G19PRO to Finnish market with a factory threaded barrel because of customer demand. They went on to promptly outsell regular models, in spite of their ½" longer, protruding barrels. Not all customers use a suppressor on a regular basis or necessarily even own one, but that did little to stop them choosing the threaded barrel option nevertheless.
Ed Ames
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Not a huge amount. But...you are coming at it from experience, and as far as I can tell most carry gun purchases are based on spec sheets and theory. An extra half an inch on a spec sheet is a deal breaker for people buying a (especially first) carry gun with the theory that smaller is always better.
I suspect there is currently a lot of reluctance on the part of gun makers to put even a minute's thought into minimizing sound levels, because if anything they do is perceived by the ATF as having that effect the manufacturer can get into legal trouble today. If that threat goes away we might well see carry guns that have integral non-traditional mufflers incorporated into the design (e.g. using the dust shield and frame, or baffles machined into the slide), even if they only cut a few db. If that happens it will probably just be with more innovative manufacturers for a long while.
On my guns I can shoot without hearing protection with RWS Target Rifle and with Eley Sport. They are not marketed as sub-sonic but their velocity is low enough that they are very quiet out of the two cans I have tried so far (ASE Utra Dual Rimfire and the other one is an A-TEC CMM4 with 6 baffles).
However, RWS Semi-auto is marginally faster. Some shots will have the supersonic crack even through the can, and others won't. For that reason, I can't use it without muffs through my rifle and can.
That's fairly common. In addition to CCI Standard, Lapua X-Trainer and Remington Target (among others) are consistently subsonic. Quite a few 40gr "standard velocity" rounds are, depending on the barrel length. CCI Blazer 525 is borderline; at 70°F weather and shot from a pistol, no problem, but at 40°F from a rifle, it's supersonic. I usually buy rimfire ammo in bulk after confirming that the make/type/batch is subsonic with a reasonable margin. All my non-collectible rimfire rifles and pistols are either integrally suppressed or have threaded barrels and they're pretty much always shot suppressed.
CCI Standard is about €375/£325/$395 for 5000, but I usually keep an eye out for sales and stock up whenever it's well below €300.
Sadly my Thompsons don't like CCI (reliability is there, but not the accuracy)
CCI is approximately ½" ammo at 50yd with most rifles. 95% of my shooting is from sticks, offhand and/or to moving targets so the last bit of accuracy from the bench is rarely an issue. Whenever bottle caps need to be perforated at 100-150yd, I have a few bricks of Lapua Midas+ and Eley Tenex Ultimate for the job. They're both subsonic to boot.
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