Loudest gun you've been around or fired?

[RecoilRob]

quote" I've never been around a .50BMG or S&W 500, are they really THAT bad?"

Anything with a muzzle brake that redirects part of the blast back at you will sound/feel louder than one without one.

Any cartridge burning 225 grains of powder behind a 700grain projectile and then directing close to 80% of the gas rearward at 45 degree angles to your sides WILL BE LOUD!!

The AR-50 is the loudest rifle I have ever personally fired. WAY louder than an M-2 firing the same rounds (see muzzle brake above).

And, the PLR-16 with Factory muzzle brake is the only other firearm I need to wear plugs and muffs with. That sucker really pounds you with a concussive shockwave when you fire it. Like an AR-50 but with less pressure.

Oh, I unfortunately witnessed a fellow shoot an AR-50 without ear protection. The rifle was mine and I was at the other end of the firing line trying to get pictures of it shooting. Friend Russ was excited to shoot it and forgot the ears and I was too far away to notice.

At the shot, he went over backwards off the bench and rolled around on the ground holding his ears with his hands....screaming in pain....for around 5 minutes. It seemed like an hour and he was really messed up by it. Lost most of his hearing in one ear and has constant ringing in the other.

50's with brakes are NOT to be fooled with without good ear protection. They WILL hurt you.....they ARE that loud!

 

[Hardtarget]

The S&W .500, indoors...very loud.
The Lazarroni, (sp), don't remember which one. I had plugs in...I added muffs...then I moved two tables over...still very loud.

They were enough for me...I think several of you beat my pair.

Mark.

 

[okiebuckout]

Trumped by TBTrout

I think TBtrout has us all beat with the naval artillary. 16inchers

 

[Feanaro]

My S&W 28-2. With a four inch barrel and a 125 grain .357 load, it is godamighty loud indoors, even through plugs and muffs. I can't imagine those barn-burner 1,600 FPS loads. Shake the boogers outta yer nose I bet!

 

[sorensen440]

My 416 Rem has a bit of a bang

 

[kjeff50cal]

12 pound muzzleloading cannon at 20 feet to the side of.... at the Alamo comemoration . .338 Lapua ..... 4" S&W 629 240 grn and DE .50 AE .

Corbon my man dis don't feel right......

 

[[email protected]]

been around, artillary at Fort Tejon in Ca or the M-2 1 deck above me on the McKee. The loudest I have shot was a 300 Win Mag with no plugs or the Hungarian ammo in that straight pull Styer with no plugs. That Nazi 1939 ammo is hot!!!!!!!!!!

 

[daysleeprx]

Hard to say, but these are the loudest I remember.

.257 Roberts out of a TC Contender pistol, using a brake
.50 BMG, single shot Barrett
.460 S&W, S&W M460XVR

That last one was *extremely* annoying. No way to shoot next to that guy without being deaf and in a partitioned stall. When he shows up I pack up and move.

+1 to that. A couple weeks ago a guy was shooting one at the range I go to. It was so loud and distracting that many people packed up and left. It didn't help the fact that the guy was obviously trying to show off the gun (loudly exclaiming how no one had a caliber like his, and how he bought this gun over a .500 S&W because it cost more, which obviously made it better).

The most disappointing thing to me was that in the lane next to him was a gentleman trying to teach a new shooter. She got so intimidated by the noise that she didn't want to shoot anymore.

 

[jac714]

Let me add my vote for the 16 inch naval rifles on the Iowa Class BB's.

I was aboard the Iowa when they did a full 16 inch broadside, 9 16"/260mm 50 caliber guns going off at once is pretty impressive.

The projectile, it is hard to call a 2200# shell a bullet, has an effective range of 20 miles and blows a hole in the ground about a 100 ft in diameter.

Very Loud on both ends. You are not allowed on the weather decks when firing because a projectile will suck you right off the ship, plus I imagine the shockwave would not do you any good either.

 

[stevekl]

Another vote for a short .308

I think it was a FAL carbine, but I'm not sure. It literally made my molars rattle and my sternum vibrate.

 

[MikeRussell]

Loudest I've personally fired:
20mm chain gun on the deck of USS Arkansas

Loudest I've been near when fired:
5in deck guns on same ship

 

[Shipwreck]

Indoor range - 460 S&W and a 500 S&W - DAMN loud!

 

[Neo-Luddite]

The one you fired when you forgot to put your plugs in .

 

[RonSC]

.505 Gibbs w/ 20" ported barrel...

 

[win71]

Hunting

When walking and plinking targets of opportunity I seldom wear ear plugs. I found out one thing for sure. You don't want to do that with a Ruger revolver in 30 cal carbine. It is absolutely nasty.

 

[kb2iaw]

The sounds of a rapid fire salvo from a twin mount 5''/38...AHhh i can smell the cordite now .

 

[smokemaker]

7mm WSM with the Boss, M-82 even with plugs and muffs. A long time ago I shot a woodchuck from out the passenger side window of my pickup, with a .357, from the drivers seat. Illegal? Yup... Deafening? Youbetcha!! Stupid?? Oh yeah. Got that chuck though.

 

[zoom6zoom]

I'd put my Hakim right up there. And then there's the time I was indoors right next to an idiot when he had a ND with a .45 (no hearing protection).

 

[bigun15]

.357 magnum. Had ear protection in and though that it couldn't be too loud. Took one earplug out and fired a shot. Put the earplug back in. Didn't do that again.

 

[tbtrout]

Here is a follow up. We were on deck when the 16's fired. Now, when the 16's went of the heat could be felt on your face. I was an M60 gunner on the port bridge wing standing under a Vulcan and directly over a 5 inch. Talk about loud.

 

[K.L.O.sako]

my loudest was a 300 winmag, i was laying prone in the back of a truck bed(ground was soupy so i used the truck) and in an eight foot bed i braced my feet against the back wall of the bed (BIG MISTAKE) even with ear plugs the concusion from the blast inside the bed walls really rung my bell. the next shot was with barrel over tailgate. learned that lesson quick

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

I recall my brother's .257 Weatherby Magnum being very loud, with a huge muzzle flash. Guns like S&W .500 Magnums, .50 AE Desert Eagles, etc., are also quite loud, especially fired next to you indoors.

 

[CB900F]

Fella's;

I was at the Stuckenhoff range in Casper Wyoming when they were holding a black powder shoot. I didn't know it when I arrived, was just there to shoot my guns. In any case, I got out of the car & looked up to see what all the hoopla goin' on over where I'd never seen anybody before, was. 'Bout then somebody let off a bowling ball mortar. OMG!!

I was a hundred yards away. It thumped me under the ribcage & made my diaphram move. They had some pretty good sized civil war type cannons there, but they didn't even compare to that mortar. Gad, I still get kinda big-eyed just thinkin' about that thing lofting a 16 lb. bowling ball about a thousand feet in the air & a half mile out. Guy said he wasn't loaded anything like max 'cause of the range rules.

900F

 

[Kernel]

A ported .223 Rem T/C Contender. Shot it once without any hearing protection (not a mistake I'll make twice). My friggin' ears are still ringing. Even with plugs it's almost to loud to shoot. WAY louder than any gun, tank, or canon I heard or fired in the Army. -- Kernel

 

[Stevie-Ray]

Very Loud on both ends. You are not allowed on the weather decks when firing because a projectile will suck you right off the ship, plus I imagine the shockwave would not do you any good either.

Yeah, they did a number on Tommy Lee Jones in Under Siege.