Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire can a person 'hear' a bullet coming at him?

Deer slugs make sounds like holding something against a spinning fan blade when they are coming at you.

Nighthawk, I think shootem's explanation and analogy is pretty good for the possibility of near-zero pressure in the barrel after bullet exit. (I've also seen a grundle of pressure traces, some of which I made myself while pressure testing, but all the graphs I've seen have the bottom axis at zero. Nothing below that to show even a nanosecond of trace.) Be that as it may, the inrush of gas - if there is one - is not the source for muzzle blast.

The Army is wrong, too. Or at least leaves out one significant factor. The causes of muzzle blast (in my opinion) are:

The outrush of air ahead of the bullet (minor but there)

The rapid expansion of propellant gasses at/after bullet exit (the major cause) Analogy, a balloon popping.

The explosive ignition of incandescent but unburnt propellant gasses upon mixing with atmospheric oxygen (also major) - and also the cause of muzzle flash This is the one most often ignored but it is significant. Analogy, a propane explosion.

The supersonic shock wave(s) created by the bullet and other ejecta.

I have long suspected that the acoustic form of muzzle blast has quite a lot to do with the velocity of gas leaving the muzzle as well as volume. Much of it is supersonic and forms its own shockwaves.

Something similar happened to me several years ago. i will never forget the cracking sound, the scariest moment of my life.

lol, well for a few decades I did. but learning a lot here today.





OK, you guys are gently tearing me apart here, but I DO prefer being corrected by friends than enemies.

Muzzle report.
Think firecracker, confined gas rapid expansion,,,bang

I heard the one that hit me. It bounced off. Soooo..... either I'm bullet proof or it was buzzing my direction pretty slow. Sounded like a pissed off bumble bee

I'm always gentle with kids, LOL!

You may hear a noise as it goes by you, but if your the target you will not hear it because the bullet is moving faster than sound.

Even subsonic rounds will probably kill you.

By the time you realize what that sound is... or wonder what that sound is... Whap!

There is a you tube video of a guy shooting a 50 cal at the range and a ricochet that came back at him and knocked his hat off.
You could hear that coming and it sounded wicked.
I’m sure it was tumbling.

That's an area of expertise I have WAY more of then I'd like.

The simple answer is yes, you can hear sub-sonic projectiles coming ...but not for a long enough time to move .........and No ---the super sonic rounds hit or pass you before the sound gets to you.
The sonic crack of a round going by means just that. it's gone by. If you hear them. they missed you.

If the bullet misses you and hits something near you the sound you hear is the hit. But if you hear that the bullet itself it already missed.

Sometime you get hit with "splash" from the impact of the round hitting, and that seems like you hear the sound, but it's not actually the bullet that you hear. It's the crack of it's impact. I have been hit 2 times that way.

Circa '72, while doing farm chores, I heard what I first thought was mourning doves passing over, then I heard the bang,bang, bang, bang, bang, bang of a half dozen shots.

It was a jackass juvenile delinquent from the neighboring property and his older brother in law with a semi-auto 22 lr deliberately firing in my direction as I was in full view. They were about 400 yds away from me.

Oh yes, I definitely heard the bullets pass over head. And the sound was very similar to dove wings passing closely over head.

As to the two miscreants, after they became adults each was eventually sent to prison for felony assault.

Many years ago I was sitting in caribou camp with a buddy. High alpine with no cover. Five bullets flew over our heads and bounced off the ground about 20 feet from us. You could hear them before they hit. Never heard the shots, so probably a considerable distance away. There were several wooded draws a ways away, probably someone blazing away at caribou above them with no idea where the rounds were going. Not much we could do except hit the deck and wait for it to be done.

when a bullet passes you, you will hear a crack like a whip cracking.. if it hits you ,,you will not hear anything.. if it is going slow you will hear a swishing sound... if it is tumbling it will sound like the old western movie gunshots with a buzzing sound.... I was in nam and heard them all and came home.. HHAHA.

Used to see the muzzle flash before I heard them. Some days mebbe even cussed before I heard them. Sometimes I never heard them 'cause the gunners were shooting back already. I wonder if the dinks heard ours? Well, not really....

Heard em going past plenty of times.
Snaps, cracks, whizz .....
Then ya hear the bang if far enough away.
And like Digital Dan said you see muzzle flash beforehand sometimes.
Whats even more freaky is hearing motars then seeing em arc in around you.
Motars are slow as fugg in flight on a high arc.

Was at deer camp one year and heard someone shooting a .22 up the gravel road. Stepped out to look down the road and saw 2 dogs run across heading into the pasture. About that time a .22 round went tumbling by about waist high and a foot in front of me. Still remember the sound. Guy up the road was shooting at the dogs because they were chasing deer. Never heard the rifle report on that shot though.

Not just chit but bullchit! Sure as hell can under the right circumstances.


I guess that's a guess since I've not bit hit.....


Catching them with chopsticks is entirely another matter. And people can not out jump ibex either.

You can hear bullets, but not the super coming at you. I doubt even subs coming at you. I would suspect we only hear rounds that have passed by us.

You can surely hear arrows in flight too. Causes animals to duck like crazy as the arrow is coming. Way slower than speed of sound. Makes archery tough at times knowing the animal can get out of the way of the arrow before it arrives.