Suppressors: Shold You Still Wear Ear Protection?

[Abraham]

I'll suppress my Glocks and AR's if the laws regarding them are deregulated, i.e. no mountain of paper work.

If that time comes (I won't consider it unless the law is deregulated...) is it still a good idea to wear ear protection or will it simply not be necessary?

Thanks

[TVegas]

It really depends on what you're shooting. If the bullet travels fast enough to break the sound barrier then you may want to wear some ear pro. If it's slower than the sound barrier, you will be shocked at how quiet it is.

[The Annoyed Man]

It really depends on what you're shooting. If the bullet travels fast enough to break the sound barrier then you may want to wear some ear pro. If it's slower than the sound barrier, you will be shocked at how quiet it is.

What he said. Any supersonic bullet (which includes a lot of 9mm loads) emits a little sonic boom that sounds like a loud crack......which is why incoming rounds will crack as they pass over your head, even before hear the gunshot (IF you hear the gunshot). Subsonic rounds (.45 ACP, for instance) will be a lot quieter. If you are shooting a pistol, you want to be mindful that small diameter light bullets (9mm for instance) have to be stepping out smartly to generate the same kind of stopping power as a fat slow heavy bullet. So if you slow down a light 9mm bullet to subsonic speeds, you will correspondingly lower the cartridge's power.

That said, shooting supersonic loads through a suppressor IS quieter than the same loads without a suppressor. It is even noticeable with rifle cartridges like a 5.56 or .308. If you're standing behind the suppressed gun, it will be noticeably quieter than if you were standing next to or in front of the gun.

This is one reason why one might consider a suppressed .300 Blackout upper for your AR. You can shoot a 220 grain bullet at just under supersonic velocities, be incredibly quiet, and have a bullet that has a better BC than a 220 grain .45 ACP bullet, and that will fly flatter farther than a 220 grain .45 ACP bullet, and penetrate more deeply.

[Weg]

I shoot with suppressors regularly and wear hearing protection when target shooting with supersonic ammo. With subsonic I do not wear hearing protection because there is no sonic crack resulting in very quiet shooting. When hunting I use a suppressed .300 Blackout/30.06 and/or a 6mm Remington ( all using full power loads). In this situation I do not wear hearing protection. It does not really bother me unless I am repeatedly shooting over and over again.

[AJSully421]

I will shoot pistols without hearing protection. I will not shoot a rifle without a suppressor any more, so I don't wear ear pro on that...

My 20" AR with the suppressor is still pretty loud. The crack sounds like it is coming from 30-40 yards away, but it is LOUD.

[Swissy]

Every time I have heard a suppressed AR at the range it sounds like a very loud whip cracking. I think at a range it is always good practice to wear ear protection no matter what you are firing. Just my $0.02!

[nyj]

Most firearms with a supressor are still over the decibel level that will damage your hearing.

[flechero]

Generally, I say yes. There are exceptions but they are just that- exceptions. I've shot a few subsonics in various calibers that are quieter than a BB Gun but also shot many others that are still way too loud for bare ears, IMO.

[locke_n_load]

Supersonic - yes.
Subsonic - no.

[winters]

I can tell you shooting my 223 indoors with my suppressor its still VERY loud. Without my suppressor I almost need plugs and earmuffs. I have never gotten the chance to try anything without ear plugs. Probably the only caliber would be like 22lr that would be hearing safe.

Though my 308 is not all that bad with the suppressor.

It probably depends on how good your suppressor is, and if its matches the caliber your shooting. If I bought a dedicated 223 suppressor it would probably work better then using my 30cal one. Though I have shot 22lr through my 45cal suppressor and it wasn't as quiet as my dedicated 22 can.

I know others at the range are not shooting suppressed but my 308 rifle makes people turn around the first few times I shoot it without the can.lol That's why I bought it and it makes shooting it nicer.

[Feed&Guns]

I currently have two silencers (forcing myself to call them that since that's what the ATF (and Mr. Maxim, incidentally) calls them). Have a third on the way. We are actually a class 3 dealer, but just getting into it. It still takes us a month to get something on a Form 3. Form 4s are down to about 3-4 months.

My 22 Sparrow on a Ruger 22/45: no ear pro needed. It's so quiet I thought I had the ear pro on and realized I didn't after the fact. You can still hear it, but it's almost unrecognizable as a gunshot. Incidentally, 710fps stovepiped every time. 1070fps cycled every time, but was a whisper louder.

My 45 Osprey on a Sig 1911 5" 45ACP: I shot it a few times without, but maybe my hearing is a little sensitive. I still shoot it with ear pro which makes it super nice. If you don't have reflective surfaces, it's probably even better. We have a covered area so the sound is captured and makes it louder. Even outside the cover, the berm is 3 sided and it echoes. Doesn't make a gunshot noise, but it's not a whisper by any stretch. Kind of surprised how loud it is, actually.

Have a Omega 30 cal can on it's way. Putting it on a Sig PM400 9.5" 300AAC. In theory, that should be super quite with 220g ammo. I'll run it with that and at the other extreme with 110g 1700+fps stuff. Looking forward to that. The other 300BO SBRs w/ cans I've heard almost make you giggle it's so quiet. Definitely puts a smile on your face.

Realize the can just muffles the expanding gasses. The supersonic crack will still be there, but it won't be offensive. The muzzle blast is the most offensive part to the hearing.

I have a chronograph and a nice sound meter used for high end stereo setups. I might do some home brew testing to see how variations in shooting environment and ammo loads work with speed vs sound.

Two more points: sound pressure is a function of the square of the distance. So to accurately measure sound levels, as I recall, the db is the pressure at 1 meter from the source. if you are at 2m, the pressure drops by a factor of 4 (double the distance = 1/4 the pressure). So where you measure the sound is important. For relative usefulness, we really should measure the sound at the shooter's ear, not 1m from the muzzle (which is actually about the same in most cases, oddly enough). But db is a logarithmic measure so a db drop of 10 is actually a 10 fold drop in sound. 100 db is 10x louder than 90db. As such, if a can "only" decreases the sound by 20db, that's a 100x reduction in pressure. Pretty significant! Also (second point), the damage done is in part a cumulative effect. A single exposure of a fraction of a second at 190db might permanently damage your hearing. Likewise, a "silenced" gunshot at 120db might not, but a 2 hour rock concert at an average 120db might do damage.