Thread: Suppressor effectiveness - Think about this!

Originally Posted by shooternz

Some one once asked how to quieten a 7mm Mag, Answer be 800 metres from the muzzle, Ask any NRA full bore shooter if you are in the butts marking targets you only hear the sonic crack as the bullet goes
overhead you barely hear the muzzle report 800 metres away if the shot falls short you don't hear anything if the wind is blowing toward the shooter,
So basically suppressors are a big con for long range only useful for subsonic loads where they work great

Haha a big con. What about at the muzzle? Where it counts. Ask how many hunting dogs think it's a con.

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People use them to save their own hearing, not to quieten the noise at the other end.

BTW, a 4dB difference is bugger all. 10dB is half ( or double) the "loudness", depending on the direction you're going

I've spent enough time marking targets too, but as confirmed by our acoustics expert, the sonic crack is "sharp" but not it doesn't have much "power" so has a low decibel rating, and doesn't carry very far.

Based on this testing I can't see how a 4 dB reduction is worth the many hundreds one has to fork out for suppressors, Shooternz got it in one!

Ummm maybe you should set up the testing gear at 4.5m not 450m? 4db reduction at 450m???? I'm worried at about my ears about 1m away from the muzzle not someone 450m away.
Sorry I really don't get this post at all....why 450m??????

Not really... 50dB is 10x more powerful than 40dB.

48dB is about as loud as a dishwasher.

Why 450m away? Do you have the full data from the test?

The large decibel reduction is at the shooter, bystanders and dogs ears!
You can't see how this is worth protecting?
Also, the reduced sound at the muzzle often leaves animals unaware of where the shot came from which has obvious benefits.

Let's get some test results of the same rifle being shot suppressed an unsuppressed. Testing equipment maybe 1m behind the muzzle. That would interest my eyes... And ears......

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Yeah im with the others, put the measuring device where the shooter is a the action and you will get a large DB reduction.

Who cares about anyone 450m away they are not designed to be quite downrange but it dose mix the sound around a lot and dose not give a direction ( same with a brake )
Shoot down a gully with and with out and you can tell the difference ( slightly off topic tho )

Originally Posted by 6x47

BTW, a 4dB difference is bugger all. 10dB is half ( or double) the "loudness", depending on the direction you're going

-3dB is half. +3dB is double.

Background noise levels can have a big influence in the numbers you are talking about as well. When I was doing some testing on fridges I think the background noise had to be below 20dBa for a valid test, there is no way you would get close to that outside.

This can go so many ways.
Even with a suppressor that's not good enough or still too loud to not wear hearing protection.
As far as scaring game a big boom through a gully ecoes all round and game can't really tell where it came from.

I was recently hunting with my mate when we saw two deer. We got in to about 100m from the deer. My mate was using a suppressed 243, I was using an unsuppressed 7SAUM.
We decided my mate should shoot first, so we would disturb the deer less and have a better chance of getting both. It ended up I shot first. Guess what the second deer did? It just stood and waited about 5-10 seconds for my mate to shoot it.

Yup, this testing is about as relevant as the length of the grass in my lawn is to the global economy. And as Stretch pointed out 3db is a factor of 2 in real terms so 4db means the sound was more than halved, near enough to a third, though totally irrelevant for what suppressors are designed for.

Yeah, I'd still far rather have one that not have one. I've lost most of my mid and upper range in my left ear from abuse over the years but among the major things it was using hammer drills and the like without ear protection that did the most damage. I now also have Tinnitus mainly in that ear but having one now does help me with what I have left I think the only time recently I shot (accidentally) a 223 without my ears on - holy hell! its the crack that smashes them and the longevity of time you are subjecting them to it in my book.

BTW used the suppressed 300 in the bush over the weekend a few times and even with a hot-ish load for the 125's it was no louder than a 22lr. Duncan's 6.5 swede when it went off was more like a small hand cannon in comparison. Still think I'd rather have one on and it was certainly much better for those around us.

a quick guide to dB: for every 10dB increase the sound is twice as loud: eg: 138dB is twice as loud as 128dB. at that range any muzzle noise has dissipated and you are only hearing the sonic "crack" of the the projectile in flight.