Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Sonic Booms

I grew up with them, and know what causes them, but now we're getting them again and the source(s) are a mystery. Drones?

There's a bombing range about 50 or 60 miles from here. Just before Desert Storm, we were hearing explosions almost every day. The Air Force denied that they were doing it. They had no reason to lie. It is a bombing range and we were preparing for war. They were never explained.

None of the drones are supersonic, Pat.

Perhaps the guys heading to the ME are getting supersonic closer to the shore than before.

I can remember them, too. Last ones I heard were about two weeks after 9-11, in Anchorage.

Ed

Perhaps the drug cartels have bought themselves some supersonic bombers to use for their deliveries. Why not, right? Obama supplied them a couple thousand rifles, so why not a couple B-1s we aren't using.

Fast military airplanes breaking the sound barrier at altitude.

Out here we had over flights of bombers and fighters all day long.
Not so many in the last 5 or 6 years.

You know the bombers are running low when you think the tractor you are driving in the field sounds like it is throwing a rod or 2.

I have looked up at them and could read all of the warnings on that thing.
The fighters would have dog fights over the farm and you could spend a while looking at them.

Used to hear sonic booms all the time. Haven't heard one here in years.

global warming ...algore is farting.

I think you live somewhere along the coast in Texas, correct? If you're right on the coast then it's possible you're getting thumped by some aircraft working offshore. Starting at 3 miles offshore and extending about 100 miles or so there are special use airspace areas called warning areas where military aircraft operate. With the exception of a few areas in the unpopulated west (northern Nevada for example) these are the only places where it's legal to go supersonic. The rule for supersonic operations is that you're supposed to be 30 miles offshore and pointed away from land, but sometimes that gets screwed up. I was working in the warning area off of South Carolina one time and ended up pointed toward Charleston doing 1.3 Mach about 10 miles away. I know I thumped Charleston and was expecting to get chewed out about it when I got back to base, but I never heard anything about it. Evidently nobody called and complained. It's most likely aircraft operating offshore if you live near the coast.

We had one here several weeks ago. It's been so long since I've heard one I didn't know what it was. Never heard the Jet that caused it but it sure rattled the shop.

I well remember the booms and house rattling as a kid. In more recent times though, I could have sworn many times that we were going to hear them when fighters have torn through the sky - that's literally what they sound like they are doing- when you look up and can't find the plane because it's so far ahead of its sound trail.

Funny you should mention it.I hadn't heard one in years.

Until yesterday.

I was way to hell and gone down south of Ft. Stockton. The cowboy I was with said they get 'em fairly often as of late.

One area I hunt in near Roswell N.M. gets them quite often. It sure scares the heck out of the critters, and the guy chasing them. Because of the canyons in the area, the sound bounces off the walls and the reverberation is pretty cool.

Fascinating, CH. Thanks!

My hunting lease in southwest Arkansas was in an area where they practiced SHTF stuff. Fightr jets, black C-130s,etc. Even saw a blue AF helo.

Think I'll drive up there and see what the air "sounds" like.

Experienced that a time or two myself growing up.

We used to get them a lot from planes from Mtn Home AFB which is about 80 miles from here. They've changed the types of planes they have there several times and we don't hear the booms any more. I assume they no longer base super sonic jets there.

We have a ANG base that regularly supports Robin Sage exercises in the area.

Get two or three transports flying low over the house every now and then. Drop zone is about a mile south of us, and we have a cell phone tower in the back that they use for navigation regularly.

They rattle the windows as well.

I like the night runs, and watching for the bay doors to open and the red lights in the interior.

I believe they used to operate off the shore around Matagorda bay. Mom tells the story of how Dad could watch a B58 fly over the boat, & point to the place in the sky where the plane would be when they heard the sonic boom.

FC

MOA(Military Operation Area) between San Antonio and the Rio Grande with F-16s out of Kelly AFB. Not sure what the Navy is Flying out of Navy Chase. We then have T-38's out of Randolph and Laughlin AFB's. No super sonic areas in South Texas that I know of. As stated you have to be pointed away from the coast in the Warning Area over water. Now, Laughlin AFB at Del Rio is a pilot training base and new students sometimes get over zealous and break the MACH. All such incidents are logged in the Sonic Boom Log in case we complain to the authorities when they break windows and disturb our naps.