Thread: Educate me on bushpigs

Originally Posted by Sidney

Dude you must have missed the memo about single loud noise exposure creating lasting and ongoing cumulative damage. If you are any good as a hunter you will be firing more shots that will damage your hearing, than you might be prepared to live with whilst getting old. I know its bloody annoying not hearing animals sneaking around that my young mates can hear. Suppressors are the single most important discretionary choice that you can make to protect your hearing, so consider it an investment in your future hunting. I just wish they were an option for me in my teens and twenties. Might not have that perpetual ringing noise that accompanies me all of the time now days if they had of been.

Come on do the maths.. no one is cutting down rifles to make them handier outside of suppressor use. 20-22 inch unsuppressed barrels are fine for bush hunting, if you prefer deafness from noise, lessened shootability, less confusion from game, more neighbour disturbance and more perceived recoil.

Rifles are being cut down to make suppressor equipped rifles the same sort of length as those 20-22 inch factory length barrels. As handy with a suppressor at the same overall length. And that is perfectly logical.

The benefits of suppressors more than justify the loss of 4 inches of barrel and 100fps. Worrying about that appears to be entirely illogical. Besides, reloaders using faster powders can make up most of any speed lost from shortened barrels. And that is still logical.

The fascinating thing about those with negative opinions about well set up shortened and suppressed rifles, is that those holding such opinions usually don't have, or haven't owned a well set up shortened and suppressed rifle to enable them to form a creditable opinion. You know actually knowing something about what they want to share with the rest of us.

Its the world we live in...

I don't have anything against bushpigs. I just think they look ugly and that there are better options out there if maximum manoeverability is your requirement. And as far as hearing loss is concerned, again, I think there are better options.

I use hearing protection whenever I'm shooting my unsuppressed centerfire. It works.

When I owned my suppressed .270 MKV and suppressed and shortened Sako 75 7mm-08, I still wore hearing protection. It worked well.

My choice of firearm does not have any bearing on how rigorously I follow safety protocols.

You could argue that by using hearing protection AND a suppressor, you're taking all the possible precautions (short of not shooting a firearm in the first place ) against hearing loss - but I don't think the difference in noise reduction between using ear muffs with a suppressor VS ear muffs without a suppressor, makes much of a difference in typical hunting situations - where only one or two shots may be fired. And you can always use ear plugs in conjunction with muffs if you're overly anxious about it.

But I get your point. If you're not willing to fork out on quality electronic ear plugs, and you're hunting in very thick terrain where you have to rely on your hearing - a suppressed rifle is obviously going to do less damage than an unsuppressed rifle. But 'less' damage is still a form of damage, right? You could say it's a better middle ground, but it's not completely mitigating the risk of hearing loss. In that sense, suppressors could contribute to a false sense of security.

In general, I think they're a good idea. But there are ways around it without putting your ears at risk. And it may even work in your favour, because, as I said in my previous post, if maximum manoeverability is your priority, there are rifles out there which are more suited to that type of use (by design) than a chopped up Tikka, Remington, Sako, whatever.