Decibel Levels of Marlin 1894C

[ejnogarb]

Just like the title says:

Does anyone know how loud the report of a .357 fired out of a 18.5 inch barrel like in a Marlin 1894C?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jason_W]

I can't give a number, but the answer will depend on the type of ammo being used. Low pressure cowboy stuff will be a lot quieter than full power loads.

 

[CraigC]

None of the pistol cartridge leverguns are as loud as you'd expect. Even the mighty .44Mag sounds like a popgun compared to the .30-30 or .223.

 

[waterhouse]

I also don't have a number, but mine was surprisingly quiet.

 

[cookekdjr]

I've heard .38 special loads out of a levergun are very quiet.

 

[greyling22]

loud enough you still need ears. quieter than a 9mm or 357 revolver.

 

[epijunkie67]

This might help.

http://www.freehearingtest.com/hia_gunfirenoise.shtml

All firearms give approximately the same level of noise when measured. Don't forget a portion of the sound is the "sonic boom" as the bullet leaves the barrel at super-sonic speed. Unless you are shooting sub-sonic ammo you're always going to get that.

 

[Radagast]

epijunkie67:
Thanks for that link.

 

[epijunkie67]

Yeah, its an interesting link. Realize though that measurments of noise intensity aren't linear. It's a logrithmic scale which means every 10 points you move up the scale makes the item 10 times more powerful than the unit below it.

Example
Measured db................power of item "X"
30..............................30
40..............................300
50..............................3000

It's like with earthquakes. A 7.0 is 10 times stronger than a 6.0 and an 8.0 is 100 times more powerful than a 6.0.

To complicate things even more, we don't perceive increases in sound level in a perfectly logrithmic scale. The numbers listed are the "true" numbers measured with equipment. We won't "hear" a 160 as being 10 times louder than a 150.

This quote from a random web site explains.

Interestingly, our perception of loudness is not the same as sound pressure level. Although the actual formulae is somewhat complex, as a rough rule of thumb, an increase of 10db SPL is perceived to be approximately twice as loud.

Thus a 20 Db gain would seem to be about 4 times as loud.
And a 40 Db gain would seem to be about 16 times as loud.

So most people will think that a db of 160 "sounds" about twice as loud as a 150, even though it's technically 10 times louder.

 

[76shuvlinoff]

I didn't go though all the data but the report out of my Marlin .357 carbine is nothing at all like my Blackhawk with the same load.

yours truly,
Mr. Obvious

 

[Dave B]

It's too loud to shoot without earmuffs. It will make your ears ring. Even with 38s.

 

[BCRider]

I shot a few .22 from a rifle and that was about all I could stand and the ears went on. Even cowboy loads from a lever gun are louder than that.

I did find that the low velocity and softer report from cowboy loads in a typical lever rifle made it quite tolerable to be within about 60 to 70 feet from the shooter. But likely even at that distance damage would occur if exposed to that sort of thing regularly. It just didn't hurt for each individual report.

And of course shooting stout full house .357Mag from the same rifle is a whole other thing. I found those to be loud to where there's no significant difference to .30-30 as far as the shooter is concerned.