I shot Hi-Power rifle silhouette with a Canadian shooter who used a 308 Win, using Scot powder - it was easy to tell when he was shooting, the noise from his rifle sounded more like a black-powder load than a smokeless load. I have no idea of what velocities he was getting but his load knocked the animals over as well as anyone elses.

So yes I am convinced that different powders can create different sound effects - I just don't know the science behind it. I shot a max + load out of my 22" barrel 243 and it was noisy enough that no one wanted to shoot next to me, so out of consideration I would step as far forward of the other shooters as possible so they did not catch the full muzzle blast effect.

drover

223 Rem, my favorite cartridge - you can't argue with truckloads of dead PD's and gophers.

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