What is your “Loudest” Gun?

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This is a very long length powerpoint (73 slides) that discusses sound, barrel length, caliber, suppression, how to measure sound, background effects, etc.

http://www.larsondavis.com/ContentStore/mktg/LD_Docs/Firearm_Sound_Briefing.pdf

Pretty good summary of the math and practical application of how sound created by a shot being fired affects the observer and the shooter. Some experimental data is included using the 5.56 as a baseline for various examples. Apparently prepared for U.S. military as a contractor that sells sound measuring devices from what I can gather.
 
.22TCM 1911 pistol. It's easily as loud as an AR and throws a beach ball size fireball!
 
Hands down 50 BMG. I generally use custom plugs and muffs with real loud stuff.

If My life depended on shooting without ear protection, I wouldn’t hesitate to harm my hearing though.
 
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300 Weatherby would be my first instinct but that's not scientific at all. It has a 26" barrel and no muzzle brake so I suppose that helps keep the noise lower than it could be.
 
Jessesky said:
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?
Click to expand...
For sheer noise level, my 14" XP-100, 7mm IHMSA wins the prize. Although, I've never shot it without "ears." I had a 7.5" Ruger Blackhawk 30 Carbine that I shot without "ears" a few times, and it wins the "prize" for that.:eek:
I'll bet you can guess what the "prize" is for shooting handguns without "ears." Yep - 45% hearing loss in one ear, 60% hearing loss in the other ear, and an expensive pair of hearing aids pretty soon.:uhoh:
 
Loudest is kinda subjective. The worst on noise is a tossup of the 4” .357s with nuclear loads, and the 7.5” AR in 223 that I built. The .357s produced instant ringing and muffled sounds. The AR came after I started wearing ear-pro but I forgot to put it on a time or two before the first shot. Ear-pro does no good hanging loosely around the neck.

Anybody ever touched off a magnum revolver inside of a vehicle? There is no description.
 
I don't own it, but I made the mistake of shooting a Ruger SRK .454 Casull with 2 1/2 inch barrel. Once!

I was wearing custom, doctor fitted earplugs and electronic muffs over them, and my ears hurt for a week. Won't even talk about my wrists.
 
The loudest I own is my super red hawk in 44 mag with hunting loads. Shooting at a covered range had several people get up and leave until I was done.
 
Interesting choices from everyone, If possible I always like to use ear pro, even when hunting I like electronic ears.

There are a few guns I’ve thought about for Personal Defense use, and there’s simply no way I could recommend it after firing.

That would be the Kimber k6s which is a 2” 357. The performance isn’t that good anyway out of the short barrel.
 
Hmmm.... my 20" 30-06 with muzzle brake probably takes the cake, though my ported snubby 41 Mag is plenty noisy. When shooting the 06, I've had people come up and ask what kind of monster magnum I'm shooting.

I normally shoot with 33 dB muffs, which handle that pretty well.

At one time, there was gal who did armorer work for government agencies in SLC who did her testing at our range. One day, she was checking out a 50 BMG rifle with a muzzle brake. The blast would flip rebar framed brass catchers two benches away. That was impressive.

The way the dB scale works, a change of 10 dB is 10X the power. A 155 dB sound is 10X more powerful than a 145 dB sound.
 
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