Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles How loud is a suppressed center fire?

I’d like to see a study or at least some sort of substantive evidence regarding the vibration through the stock causing hearing loss. There was a study referenced by Seafire around the time of his meltdown, but he also mentioned U of M in Billings, so such a study may not exist, since such a college does not exist. Personally, I have doubts as to whether stock vibration makes up a large percentage of hearing loss in shooters, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have some effect. Would really like to see some good data either way.

The use of a suppressor is the single greatest improvement I’ve made to my hunting and shooting since I first picked up a gun. If a small percentage of hearing is still lost through stock vibration, it will be minuscule compared to the hearing lost from shooting unsuppressed, where I usually try and wear hearing protection - but it doesn’t always happen, especially on a big game hunt.

The reaction of animals (or lack thereof) at the shot helps tremendously when shooting multiple animals, or if one misses a shot. In the case of varmints, predators, and doe/cow hunts, the ability to get a second or multiple shots off can be a huge advantage. Even in situations where only one animal is being shot, I’ve seen the other animals in a herd just mosey off as if nothing happened, instead of fleeing the scene. That sort of reaction is nice to keep a herd of game on your place to keep them from being annihilated by the neighbors, or simply to make less of an impact on a herd in general - no sense in riling up animals for no reason.

A suppressor also significantly decreases recoil, and frankly just makes shooting fun again. If my hunting consisted of one or two big game animals a year, I probably wouldn’t bother, but for all year shooting on different species, a suppressor is really handy.

Quite frankly, I now consider a suppressor to be indispensable.

[quote=BradSeems to me, being properly muffed is good enough for muzzle blast, given that blast vibration is apparently an unconquerable culprit.

One good friend, who shoots A LOT and is right handed, has the bulk of his hearing loss in his right ear, not left. Of course, if hearing damage were from muzzle blast, the left ear would have been the most affected. The answer is cochlear damage in the right ear from blast vibration through the stock into the jaw and cheek...[/quote]

Agree with you Brad when shooting in a static situation... at the range, I use muff's on a suppressed centerfire. For hunting I gave up trying to wear electronic muffs or electronic in ear protectors and use a suppressor.

Got to ask if your friends shooting includes a lot of semi-auto? As anyone who has shot bolt and semi-auto's suppressed will tell you, semi-auto's are not as quiet... the additional 'noise' is coming out of the ejection port.

With the hearing loss I have managed to accumuate over the years... my only regret is that I did not plunk down the money and buy suppressors thirty years ago.

Your hearing is priceless and once lost you will never recover it. I have never met anyone with hearing aids that thought they were as good as their original hearing. And 'Good' hearing aids are a hell of lot more expensive than a titanium centerfire suppressor.

Jerry

I’ve shot so much with a suppressor over the past couple of years... that I’m often surprised at how loud an unsuppressed rifle shot really is.

There’s another factor to “hearing loss” associated with shooting.... and that is the muzzle blasts impact on your Mastoid Cavity. The Mastoid Cavity is located behind your nose and below your eyes. I get horrible headaches after shooting several rounds through guns with muzzle brakes, due mostly to the increased blast impact to my face. Suppressors completely eliminate all the muzzle blast, thereby eliminating all the “noise impact” to the soft tissue inside your head.

Reduction in recoil, and reduction in muzzle blast... is certainly a win/win for your hearing.

How loud they are is quite variable. Subs are a lot quieter than supersonic. Large cartridges are going to make more noise, how much is another discussion IMO. Here's one that gives a clue........

Prarie Goat,

Yes I do not know about 'stock vibration' and also question that.

Primary reason being there is no blast inside of the gun... it all occurs as the bullet exits the barrel, which is what a suppressor mutes.


But will add that the last hearing test I had (this year) they put the headphones on the bone behind my ear and not over the ear to test my hearing. This is more relevant to the use of earplugs or electronic earbuds than the use of muff's or a suppressor.


Jerry

If it isn’t a sub sonic load, it doesn’t quiet the round that much. My sub-sonic loads are very quiet, about like a BB gun

Hard to know how to respond to such an off-base statement.

Can a running automobile give you hearing damage through vibration? Does a single shot over a milli-second equate to a continuously running vehicle?

I could go on with analogies to your apples/oranges statement, but you get the point. Or maybe you don't...

If your suppressor doesn't "quiet the round that much," then your can is broken.....

I get the point just fine, it's you that's way off base. We're talking about quieting the noise of a gunshot, while you're trying to say we might as well not bother since there are other paths to hearing damage. It's irrelevant, and quieting the gunshot is still helpful regardless of your other concerns.

I honestly don't care what you think about it or what you use; you seem to be just another of those type who will argue about anything that's not the way they do it. Carry on doing it your way.

I "hear" you DS...

Yes, after shooting suppressed, regular recoil and noise seem obnoxious as hell when shooting un-suppressed .

And a suppressor really does put the fun back into shooting.

This father/son double was good example of how game spooks less from suppressed gunshots.

Muley and a Whitetail in the field together? 😎

I'd say my .308 and 6.5s suppressed are similar to bulk box HV .22 lr from an unsupressed carbine, maybe with a bit less blast. My stumpy '06 has a little more bark than the others, but certainly doesn't rise to the level of a .22 mag, to my ears. I actually don't think my suppressed .22 mag is much, if at all quieter than my .308 with a can mounted.

With unsuppressed rifles, I pretty much always double up on ear pro at the range. All of my supressed rifles are very pleasant to shoot with only plugs, for as many rounds as I care to fire. This year was the first year that I took all of my big game with a can, and it was awesome, no ringing, the bullet impacts sound so loud!