I'm a fan of short-ish light-ish suppressed hunting rifles. For deer 6.5 CM is a nicely balanced choice for short and light, not too much recoil, plenty of performance, good ammo quality and availability. Haven't had one, but I think an 18" 6mm CM would be pretty excellent as well, most short barrel velocity reports I've seen are more than enough for deer hunting.
Here are a few I've tinkered with.
.30-06 X-bolt, 18.5", Liberty Sovereign
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.280 AI Kimber Hunter, 17", Nomad TI. (Sold this one)
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6.5 CM Sig Cross, 18", Nomad 30 (was originally a .308 before I swapped barrels, also now wears a heavier Athlon Helos Btr 2-12 and a lighter Nomad TI, overall gained a few oz)
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6.5 CM Kimber Montana, 20", Liberty Sovereign
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Like you, I'm thinking about building another hunting rifle. I'm pretty sure I'll go with a Tikka for the locking bolt (one big thing the Cross is missing) and readily available prefits. Kind of thinking an 18" 300 WSM or a 20" 7mm PRC (once brass becomes available), but the rifle would be more elk focused since I have lots of options for deer already.
I love the look of your setups @Gtscotty! I’ll probably more than likely end up with an Xbolt and have the barrel cut to 18” that 30-06 looks killer I’m also a Yuge 6.5 fan so I may just do a Creedmoor and be done those kimbers have caught my eye
I want it to be hearing safe but I’m not after a subsonic load
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I'm not sure there is a supersonic hearing safe load
I don't consider any supersonic load to be hearing safe, suppressed or not.
Doubt it, once someone makes up their mind that the supersonic crack isn't hearing safe you are gonna have trouble changing it with a demonstration.Same invite extended. I will change your mind.
Has nothing to do with manufacturer's propaganda or the quality of the suppressor. The suppressor can't change the supersonic crack.
I invite you to come out and play with our demos if you're ever in the Denver area. We've got it covered with rifle caliber manual action host weapons and cans for them in .17 Rem, .22 Hornet, .223, .220 Swift, .243, .25-20, .25-35, .25-06, 7mm-08, .308, .300 win mag, .32-20, .350 rem mag, .375 RUM and .45-70.
If I am ever in the area I will certainly stop in. I have 2 cans you put cores in for me, and they are as quiet as anything else I have. That said, anything supersonic hurts my ears. Maybe we are arguing the difference between "safe" and "comfortable."
Even a supersonic 22lr fired through a dead air mask from a bolt action rifle hurts my ears. Ymmv.
Any time, just let me know!
.22 LR supersonic is one that can be borderline. It's a small bullet, but it's still in that more blunt and slower category, so the shockwave propagates pretty close to the muzzle and hits you harder. If you have sensitive ears, yeah, it can be uncomfortable. It is bothersome to me if there's a reflective surface nearby, but OK in a wide open field. Some of the Hypervelocity rounds like CCI Stingers bother me regardless, though.
I can't tolerate supersonic 9mm, .38/.357, 10mm, .44, .45, etc. without ears. But none of the high velocity rifle rounds firing spitzer bullets bother me out in the open, including the .375 RUM. My .45-70 with 2,050 FPS 405 gr. loads is there, though. I can tolerate a few shots, but any quantity of shooting, yup, ears. And of course the port and piston pop of semi-autos is uncomfortable to painful always. Gas adjusted ARs I can do a few rounds, but like the .45-70, any volume of fire, I'm using ear pro. AKs, FALs, M1As, Mini 14s, etc. are all over 140 at ear and all painful to me.
I think there's a lot of cognitive bias that goes into perception. I think one thing that factors in is the drastic difference having a 22 go super is from one that doesn't. I was doing informal tests of what did and didn't crack in a 4 and 6" barrel. shooting mini mags from my 6" 1911 some did and some didn't, the ones that did seemed so much louder my initial though was "gees that's as loud as unsuppressed" but I know that's not even close to true.22 LR supersonic is one that can be borderline. It's a small bullet, but it's still in that more blunt and slower category, so the shockwave propagates pretty close to the muzzle and hits you harder. If you have sensitive ears, yeah, it can be uncomfortable.
It's amazing what velocity and bullet shape can do I shoot Remington 33gr Accu Tip 22 magnum thru an Optimus Micro and outdoors the crack seems way off downrange.Some of the Hypervelocity rounds like CCI Stingers bother me regardless, though.
My experience the crack of pointy bullets above say 1500 fps is all about the same.How do you feel about 223 or 6.5G from a bolt action? Are they any quieter than say 7mm-08 from a similar gun? Is it a negligible difference?
My experience the crack of pointy bullets above say 1500 fps is all about the same.
I love the look of your setups @Gtscotty! I’ll probably more than likely end up with an Xbolt and have the barrel cut to 18” that 30-06 looks killer I’m also a Yuge 6.5 fan so I may just do a Creedmoor and be done those kimbers have caught my eye
I like the X-bolt for sure, it's always been a good shooter, both before it was cut and after, and has a relatively long mag box. As @MachIVshooter said, the '06 actually does really well in shorter barrels, as does the 6.5 CM. The short '06 and short 6.5 actually have near identical trajectories, I'm shooting 190gr ABLRs and 142gr ABLRs out of them respectively, both running ~2,600 fps with Staball or RL16.