Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Does the .243 seem louder than other .308 based rounds?

Thanks, after my last hearing exam the doc said, "I'd tell you to give up shooting all together if I thought you would take that advice... since I know you wouldn't I'll just suggest you use both ear plugs and muffs...".

After a back injury light recoil is pretty appealing as well. I had been reading posts here about what a great game killer the .243 is with modern bullets and starting to think I might "need one"....

Last Fall I didn't have any 165 grain loads ready for my Rem Ti .308 so I just hung my head and went to Walmart where I found plain jane Winchester 150 Power Points. They shot pretty much to the same point of impact the 165s did and the recoil was noticeably less.

They killed a deer just as bang flop dead as anything else with maybe a bigger exit hole.... so I guess I don't really need to be working very hard to come up with a .243....

Maybe what I DO need instead is a nice mid grade Cooper in .308 to go along with the Ti.... just the ticket for fair weather hunts.

A guy always "needs" some kind of new rifle right?

I would tend to answer yes to that question.

In 22 inch barrels, yes. With a 24 inch tube, it tames a lot. even the .240 Weatherby is very tame in the 26 inch tubes.

Years ago I thought that the .243 had a little sharper report than the .308. But I haven't noticed it lately.

Yes the 243 is louder, around the same amount of powder in a smaller bore is always a louder CRACK, 100 gns of retumbo in a .284 bore is a MOFO when hunting.

Gunner

WHAT? would you type that a little bit louder please...

I have a BLR with a 20 inch barrel in 243 and that sucker has a crack to it that is pretty loud.

100 grains of Retumbo in ANYTHING is a mofo.

Here's my hypothesis: The 243 has lower expansion ratio than the 308 so the muzzle pressure is greater and the exiting gas velocity faster, thus higher frequency and louder. Just guessin' here.

"Louder" can mean either sharper (higher frequency) or more decibels. Hard for the human ear to tell which is "louder."

When the .44 Magnum came-out in 1956, early loads from one ammo-manufacturer gave-out a sharper crack! while those of another brand gave-out more of a boom! As advertised, both gave the same weight of virtually identical bullets about the same velocity. Remington's were loaded with about a caseful of a coarse powder that looked like 2400, and Western's were loaded with a much smaller charge of relatively fine Ball� powder.

Without a decibel meter, I'd be hard-put to say which one was "louder."

And I'd like to know more of the details about more than just the head stamps of the cartridges that were being compared.

That's my take on this subject. At close proximity the 243 is 'louder' or has a sharper crack.

However at some distance away it's a different sound. 'Softer' or lower or LESS boom. The 308 or 06 is louder or stronger sounding at distance, at least it seems to me.

To meyhe 308 is louder,still remember the first one.

You want loud? Shoot a Thompson Contender with 10-inch barrel in 223 caliber. It will wake you up, I promise.

This is it. The higher the muzzle pressure the greater disturbance to the air - aka sound. Load a .243 with RL-15 or one of the 4895's and compare the sound to the exact same round and bullet over some IMR4831. The slower powder will have a different pressure trace and the interior pressure of the barrel will be higher when the bullet exits the muzzle.

For a while I was trying my .270 and .30-06 with the slowest powders reasonable and noticed that I could definitely feel the concussion more. People at nearby benches asked me if I was shooting a .300 Magnum of some kind.

Now whether the smaller bore contributes to a higher pitch - Ken's "sharper" - is speculative but I'm pretty sure there is a correlation.

Note the sound of a .44 Magnum using 296 in a 7 1/2" barrel Super Blackhawk. Now compare the sound of a .30 Carbine or a .357 Magnum using the exact same powder (actually less of it) operating at essentially the same pressures in the exact same barrel length. The report of the .30 Carbine and .357 will sound sharper and more painful to the eardrum.

If you want a relatively quiet (note "relatively" ) load, push a heavy bullet from a big bore revolver with a fast powder like 231. While it's still not something you want to shoot without hearing protection the report will not be nearly as painful as that same heavy bullet from the same gun propelled by 296 or other slow powder.

For [bleep]-n-gigglz, here are some quickload calcs,

All calc'd with 22" bbl, and 48gr W760:

243 Win, 70gr NBT, muzzle pressure 12,152 lbs-psi

260 Rem, 100gr NBT, muzzle pressure 11,610 lbs-psi

308 Win, 180gr NBT, muzzle pressure 8,742 lbs-psi

358 Win, 250gr NPT, muzzle pressure 6180 lbs-psi

and there you have the reason that the 24HCF is so popular!!!

Good info.... The .243 has always seemed louder than a .308 in equal barrel lengths to me. The .308 I shoot most often seems lounder than the .358 I shoot even though the .358 has a 1 inch shorter barrel.

My Dad often hunts with a .35 Rem. We often hunt the same mountain sides. When I hear it go off it sounds like a pop gun...but kills things just fine....

"Frequency!?" I wondered about that factor myself. And expansion ratio, since the cartridge comparison is between (thus far) rounds based on the same parent case.

I shot three quick rounds through a 243 bar that had the boss system on it and was too lazy to grab my earmuffs, what a mistake that was, my ears rang for two weeks!

Back when I could hear, I was too dumb to shoot a 243.

Now that I'm smarter, I can't hear well enough to tell...grin.

I can still hear well enough to know the 223 is quieter, and I can pop a whip louder than my 22's - at least the ones with the long barrels.

DJ

how long it the barrel on your 223? a 16 is right on up there in dB's.

a 308 shooting TAC with a 130TSX does not sound too loud to me anymore but there may be another reason for that...