Okay - With the recent post concerning ear protection, it seems
like a good idea to discuss quieter rifle calibers that will get the job done. Also, availabilty of the cartridge may be of interest to the non handloaders.
I will start off with one of the obvious calibers. The 30-30.
With a 24 inch barrel it is very quiet and can get up to 2600 fps with a 150 gr spire point bullet. It kicks very little. It is also cheap ammo and available about anywhere. matt
.........Without hearing protection, sooner or later and depending on the person, even a 24" tubed 30-30 will have an adverse impact on the hearing. Imo, all a so-called "more quiet" cartridge does, is offer more justification in the shooter`s mind, NOT to wear and get out from wearing any hearing protection at all. In other words, a quieter cartridge equals an "escape" goat.
As I read, it is interesting that most who have lost a small, moderate, or a higher percentage of their hearing due to lack of hearing protection in the field or on the range, mostly happened as a result from firing their longer barreled rifles.
Sometimes, these same folks that complain against shorter tubed rifles as being way too noisy, are in some cases, the same folks who have lost some if not most of their hearing firing longer barreled rifles.
A 30-30 or any 30 caliber that fires a 150 gr bullet at 2600 fps (tops) from a 24" barrel (as a so-called quiet cartridge), is all well and good up to a point without any hearing protection use, "IF" one desires only that level of performance.
However, without fear of any hearing loss, (after many many years my hearing is still 100%), I for one will continue wearing good field hearing protection while on hunts, and continue hunting with my "loud" 16.5" shorty barreled 300 WSM Frontier compact, that`s capable of 3000+ fps MV using a 168 gr VLD.
If some wish to limit or sacrifice ballistic performance by using so-called more "quiet" cartridges and do so without wearing any hearing protection, then that is clearly their choice.
However given a choice, I`d rather wear good hearing protection in the field without sacrificing ballistic performance, handloading up to any desired level.
