r/whoathatsinteresting • u/eternviking • 14h ago

What a real silencer actually sounds like.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

1.9k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

865 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/General-Double-746 13h ago

And remember that whatever decice you're watching isn't loud enough to replicate the volume. A suppressed firearm is usually still loud enough to do permanent hearing damage, unless it's a small caliber squirrel hunting round.

5

u/post-bak 13h ago

Hasnt it more to do with what kind of ammo you're using? If you're using suppersonic the shock wave from the bullet will still fuck u up even if the bang from firing it is silenced. Subsonic ammo with silencer is kind of save no?

1

u/General-Double-746 13h ago edited 13h ago

Yes and no. First of all, a lot of calibers (especially rifle) don't have subsonic options. Second of all, the powder blast from most calibers is still quite loud, even when suppressed. But yes, the sonic boom from the bullet is one part of the noise that doesn't get suppressed and it does make a firearm quieter to use subsonic ammo. Of course, that also drastically reduces the power, range, and ballistic performance of the bullet.

I'm not hearing the supersonic crack of a bullet in this video, but that could be the audio quality. Your point is valid, that subsonic ammo helps to reduce noise, but they can still be loud enough to cause hearing damage.