how loud are gunshots indoors?

[Modiano 5]

is loudness of a defense caliber a factor for anyone?

 

we all know that gunshots are loud. without hearing protection, gunshots can be painful, disorienting, and damaging.

 

shooting outdoors, and without hearing protection, my ears can handle shotgun target loads with ease. .45acp stings, but is tolerable. haven't tried buckshot without ear muffs. indoor ranges are louder than outdoor ranges. even with hearing protection, everyone turns their head when the guy a few stalls down switches from .38 to .357. i know a guy who had an accidental discharge with a .357 indoors and he said it was the loudest, most disorienting sound he's ever heard

 

what pistol caliber do you think is "quiet enough" to be used safely in a car or small room. does it really matter, or does adrenaline take care of the loudness problem? so far, i'm leaning toward lower chamber pressure rounds like .45acp and .38spl. is 9mm too loud to shoot from inside a car?

[L5K 162]

With gunshots and hearing damage, you have to watch out for repeated exposure more so than anything else. I wouldn't worry about it unless you plan on doing a lot of shooting indoors or from a vehicle, in which case I would find a way to avoid having to do that.

[Eric Pate 478]

FYI, I have heard that the pressure from discharging a firearm in a vehicle with the windows closed can bust an eardrum. Doesn't sound too pleasant but how many times are you gonna do that?

[banshee 69]

A lot depends on the inside of the house. A room with concrete, ceramic tile or hardwood floors is going to be louder than one with carpeted floors. The size of the room, the amount and type of furniture will make a differance. I fired a .45acp in the house a few years ago and the wife in the next room ask "what was that pop?". When I told her what happen she didn't believe that I fired a gun in the house, nor was she to happy about it either. I too was surprised that it wasn't any louder than it was.

 

I also fired a gun out of my basement at a groundhog. After the blast bounced off of the concrete floor and block walls, it felt like someone smacked me in the face with a 2x4. The next time I made damn sure the barrel was outside of the door before I shot any more groundhogs.

 

I am afraid anything you fire in a closed vehicle is going to be EXTREMELY LOUD. I would guess that in a HD shooting your hearing would way down on the list of concerns.

Edited June 6, 2010 by Banshee

[jimdigriz 580]

I am afraid anything you fire in a closed vehicle is going to be EXTREMELY LOUD. I would guess that in a HD shooting your hearing would way down on the list of concerns.

 

Enough of a concern to make provision for your hearing, if time allows. In my case, I have a dog, and I have an approach alarm on the back porch, and plan to install one on the front porch as well. I will also put in a driveway alarm, when funds allow. So, if I have sufficient warning, I can don the electronic earmuffs I have next to the bed, which amplify sounds around you, but shut off the sound when it is extremely loud.

Edited June 6, 2010 by Jim Digriz

[paprotective 362]

Some also suggest opening you mouth to reduce damage to your ear drums from the persussion..

 

I'd imagine a 357 in a basment would sucka$$.

 

An aquaitance did that in Philly (basement) and said he was deaf for a day or so.. wanted to try is out..

 

I've shot my AK under a concrete cover (aka mini-bus stop size) and that was HARD on the ears.. After a 10 mag I realized I needed the muffs for my own safety even though the range guy did not notice till I asked him something... (up at Wicens in Warminster PA)

[Shandlanos 1,470]

Out of an unsuppressed handgun, I don't know of any round that is hearing safe. .22 out of a handgun is still surprisingly loud, enough to make your ears ring. .22 out of a rifle isn't too bad, even fired an AM-180 with what I think was a 12" barrel a few weeks ago, without my ears ringing.

 

Once I screwed up and fired my Glock 19 at the indoor range without putting my hearing protection on. Slow day and nobody else was shooting, I was dumb and forgot. Fired one round, my ears were ringing and I was not happy. Even 9mm indoors, with concrete walls, seriously sucks.

 

If you need to fire a weapon in self-defense, oh well; don't pick a smaller caliber for self defense out of concern for your hearing. .25 auto handguns are pretty damned loud; if the guy breaking into your house is wearing a thick leather jacket, you might well hurt your hearing more than you hurt him. My choice for self-defense will always be the closest weapon I can get my hands on. If that means using a .32, a .50AE, a 12-gauge or a hatchet, that's what happens.

[Salmonking 149]

Loudness is definitely a consideration, but I personally plan ahead for the volume. If I would ever have to defend myself and my family in a home defense situation, I've got my shotgun to the left of my bed, and my "electric ears" hanging on the wall above them. Just plan ahead. IMO the best thing you can do is keep a pair of muffs close to your gun.

 

Outdoors in the open, a gunshot will always be less severe than when you're capped in a hallway, or when you've go a roof over your head. Could you discharge a weapon indoors? Sure, but expect some hearing damage and recovery time from firing a gun indoors. It's a controlled explosion after all.

Edited June 6, 2010 by Salmonking

[elia.jon1 1]

10mm in the xtp 200 grain variety is pleasant indoors...........more like a pop than the big boom

 

9mm and 40 from a g17 and a g22 arent too bad in the car.....

 

the window was down because obviously i had to shoot at something.....but only driver window down halfway

[22_Shooter 1,560]

My only indoor-range experience was shooting a 14.5" M4 and G23. The concussion from the M4 could be felt through the floor and your whole body. I'm pretty sure you'd do significant damage without hearing pro with that one.

 

They say if it actually hurts, you've already done permanent damage to your ears.

 

The first mag through my Saiga x39 (only the second gun I'd ever bought) was fired without hearing pro. It was outdoors, but in somewhat of a valley. My ears rang for about 30 minutes. Lesson learned. I never shoot anything without hearing pro nowadays, regardless of where or what I'm shooting.

[ktcm7271 999]

.38 out of a 4"-6" un-ported barrel wouldn't be too bad.

[Heath_h49008 442]

Hearing protection or a gun muffler.

 

Having your ears ringing for days (if you're lucky) isn't fun.

 

With my PLR16 at an indoor range, I wear plugs and muffs. I have no intention of going deaf if I can help it. The M4-gery wasn't horrid, but the G3 could rock your world in a closed space. (a shooting box, for a "from cover" shot)

 

Don't risk it. If you have to defend your life, fine worry about it later. If you have a choice, I would seek out better protection, or a muffler before I sacrificed weapon power.

 

IMHO

[Dirty 4]

is loudness of a defense caliber a factor for anyone?

 

Absolutely not. If I'm firing at someone it's because I'm fighting for my life.

 

we all know that gunshots are loud. without hearing protection, gunshots can be painful, disorienting, and damaging.

 

shooting outdoors, and without hearing protection, my ears can handle shotgun target loads with ease. .45acp stings, but is tolerable. haven't tried buckshot without ear muffs. indoor ranges are louder than outdoor ranges. even with hearing protection, everyone turns their head when the guy a few stalls down switches from .38 to .357. i know a guy who had an accidental discharge with a .357 indoors and he said it was the loudest, most disorienting sound he's ever heard

 

what pistol caliber do you think is "quiet enough" to be used safely in a car or small room. does it really matter NO,

or does adrenaline take care of the loudness problem?

 

I've been around alot of loud noises, none of them ever put me in fetal position

 

so far, i'm leaning toward lower chamber pressure rounds like .45acp and .38spl. is 9mm too loud to shoot from inside a car?

If your fighting for your life, I doubt it would matter.

[Klassy Kalashnikov 1,393]

Some also suggest opening you mouth to reduce damage to your ear drums from the persussion..

 

I'd imagine a 357 in a basment would sucka$$.

 

An aquaitance did that in Philly (basement) and said he was deaf for a day or so.. wanted to try is out..

 

I've shot my AK under a concrete cover (aka mini-bus stop size) and that was HARD on the ears.. After a 10 mag I realized I needed the muffs for my own safety even though the range guy did not notice till I asked him something... (up at Wicens in Warminster PA)

 

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Those booths at Wicen's make the shots sound extremely LOUD.

[rocinante 100]

my ears are still ringing from an accidental discharge from an AK in an 10x10 room and that was a couple months ago. It was a blank round fortunately.

[cellsworth 21]

If you are defending your family from imminent serious bodily harm, you do what you need to do. Any effective unsuppressed gun is going to be very loud indoors. Most handguns probably wouldn't cause serious permanent hearing damage. Centerfire rifles will cause permanent hearing damage fired indoors, the question is just how serious it will be. I have heard that very young children may be rendered permanently deaf if a centerfire rifle is fired fairly close to them indoors. Unfortunately, all too many of our soldiers are suffering from permanent hearing damage as a result of having to fire their rifles indoors when clearing houses. Their ears take much abuse from other things too.

[BuffetDestroyer 969]

Certain types of ammo will be louder than OSHA hearing safe even with suppressors. With reflection inside amplifying and a sonic crack reflecting, mostly all rifles will be on or above the threshold of hearing safe and I wouldn't recommend them indoors.

 

If this is something that you are seriously concerned with, then I would recommend getting a suppressor. The quietest possible will be a good .22 LR suppressor. It isn't movie quiet, but it is quiet enough that you can dump multiple rounds comfortably in enclosed areas without hearing protection. 9mm would be my second choice. Recently there have been a few hearing safe .45 suppressors released that don't require liquid to be below 140db. Subsonic ammo is required if you want to stay below the mid 130's (in decibels).

 

The health hazard of breathing vaporized lead and carcinogenic powder smoke becomes the next big concern with shooting indoors.

 

 

 

Caveat: I would rather deal with being deaf or breathing lead than dying because I was unarmed.

Edited June 7, 2010 by BuffetDestroyer

[elia.jon1 1]

i forgot to add.....

 

when you shoot at an indoor range, or covered range you have to think about the stuff around you....

 

i dont know about yall but my house doesn't have concrete walls, uncovered floors, and metal exposed roofing....

 

on the cieling they call it acoustic texture for a reason, anything soft in the room(couch, bed, or carpet) will eat sound....

 

years ago i played db drag, i was in street b class running 2 12's and 1 amp, my bronco 2 did 147db on the dash(50hz)

if you took the same setup and put it in an extreme class car(no carpet, inside panels made of thick mdf, bulletproof glass) it would be louder automatically(would peak at dif frequency tho)

 

so what i'm trying to say is this.....

 

you CAN NOT compare shooting at a indoor range(or outside covered by metal) to shooting in your living room, they acoustics are very very different.....if someone disagrees pm me, i'll let my wife tell you how loud a 10mm is in the bedroom(on the range its almost as loud as a rifle), you can almost sleep thru the sound, but not the smell......

[banshee 69]

 

 

i dont know about yall but my house doesn't have concrete walls, uncovered floors, and metal exposed roofing....

 

 

 

how about a basement, garage or carport??

[elia.jon1 1]

 

 

i dont know about yall but my house doesn't have concrete walls, uncovered floors, and metal exposed roofing....

 

 

 

how about a basement, garage or carport??

 

 

 

lol.....actually i have none of those

 

that will come soon, but i just bought my first house, and its just that land and a house....dont even have a porch yet

 

 

but where do most home defense shooting happen? i would think if your lucky enuf to be ready when a home invasion comes......

 

all the house shootings i've personally known about happened.....in the living room(or kitchen in one case, buckshot will ricochet off of pine board at point blank range at 45 degrees)

 

 

 

 

edit to add: if your having a shootout in your basement.......damn

Edited June 7, 2010 by elia.jon1

[MT Predator 2,294]

is loudness of a defense caliber a factor for anyone?

 

Absolutely not. If I'm firing at someone it's because I'm fighting for my life.

 

we all know that gunshots are loud. without hearing protection, gunshots can be painful, disorienting, and damaging.

 

shooting outdoors, and without hearing protection, my ears can handle shotgun target loads with ease. .45acp stings, but is tolerable. haven't tried buckshot without ear muffs. indoor ranges are louder than outdoor ranges. even with hearing protection, everyone turns their head when the guy a few stalls down switches from .38 to .357. i know a guy who had an accidental discharge with a .357 indoors and he said it was the loudest, most disorienting sound he's ever heard

 

what pistol caliber do you think is "quiet enough" to be used safely in a car or small room. does it really matter NO,

or does adrenaline take care of the loudness problem?

 

I've been around alot of loud noises, none of them ever put me in fetal position

 

so far, i'm leaning toward lower chamber pressure rounds like .45acp and .38spl. is 9mm too loud to shoot from inside a car?

If your fighting for your life, I doubt it would matter.

Beat me to it.

[GeorgiaPD 408]

 

 

does it really matter, or does adrenaline take care of the loudness problem?

 

This is the correct answer right here. You may suffer some sort of minor hearing loss from the event, but you will not know it at the time. I had to work up a lesson plan for a training segment in our department and all of the calculated results showed that 75% of officers involved in gunfights, both indoors and outdoors, could not recall hearing anything at the time. Most (60%)could not even advise the number of rounds fired during the incident. Some officers could recall hearing the shots, but lacked detail in other areas such as peripheral vision and clarity. The majority of the officers that did not hear the gunshots reported that they observed the gun and muzzle flash directed at them, but heard no sound at all. Although they did not hear anything, they could vividly recall visual cues. 85% of the officers reported some forms of tunnel vision from mild to extreme during the encounter. The human body is an amazing thing and will do what needs to be done to protect itself for the short term.

[Kliegl 304]

Lt. Aldo Raine: You didnt say the goddamn rendezvous was in a

fuckin basement.

Lt. Archie Hicox: I didnt know.

Lt. Aldo Raine: You said it was in a tavern.

Lt. Archie Hicox: It is a tavern.

Lt. Aldo Raine: Yeah, in a basement. You know, fightin in a basement

offers a lot of difficulties. Number one being, youre fightin in

a basement!

[Steppe Sweeper 22]

a .357 indoors and he said it was the loudest, most disorienting sound he's ever heard

Painfull, concussive, immediate temporary (and probably permanent) loss of hearing and sharp ringing.

 

.45's and supersonic 9x19 not even close to as bad, 12 gauge either for that matter.

Those are all I can comment on. Kinda think the 'signature' of the report on a .223 would make it also not as bad.

 

And that's not to mention the flash, it rolls out behind the damn path of the bullet like a flame thrower. This was not in pitch black darkness either, mind you. Gives that blindness like an old school camera flash

 

Vicious. Don't see conditioning yourself to it either. If ya want a wheelgun for the house (and not a bad choice), go N-Frame .45 ACP, or .44 Spl. loads in a Magnum, or comparable brand. No experience with +P+ .38 Spl. but if it's half as bad I'd say avoid. It really would take a lot for me to be posting this, no exaggerations, it's that bad. And those 8 Shot snubs would be so perfect for a sock drawer peice, intruder sweeper.

 

Really looking forward to trying my 16" S-308.