Advice please - How to make quieter loads?

A

alpining

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Morning - Thought I'd ask here, you folks have always been helpful.

I've never given any thought to how loud my loads were. I was always just loading rifle for accuracy and bullet performance (target and hunting), or pistol for reliability and power factor (competition).

I've gotten to "good enough for me" for all of those factors above, and now I just want everything to be quieter. I use plugs and muffs wherever I can, but for me quieter is still better.

Aside from muzzle velocity being supersonic or not, and longer barrels are quieter than shorter barrels, what experience do you have with reducing the sound for a given cartridge?

Thanks in advance!
 
If you live in the USA, you can use a silencer ...if you live in Canada, you can use ear plugs.

I don't know of any loads that will make you loads quieter...would be great it there is though.
 
alpining said:
Aside from muzzle velocity being supersonic or not, and longer barrels are quieter than shorter barrels, what experience do you have with reducing the sound for a given cartridge?
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The way I see it, you already mentioned the only two things that Canadians can do (legally) to control the volume of the load/guns.

Myself, I've never tinkered around with subsonic ammo, but I shoot a lot of F T/R. 28+ inch barrels are awesome for reducing noise!!
 
Burning less powder helps a lot. As an example, I have a very accurate load for my .222 Rem. that I use for gopher eradication but it barks pretty good. I developed a load with the same powder that is just as accurate, maybe more so, and is a lot quitter and produces a lot less muzzle jump, thus allowing me to see bullet impact with the scope on 20x.
 
Minimize the muzzle pressure and the amount of powder used to produce it.

Longer barrels only make it a bit quieter to you, not to others.
 
Another trick is to use smaller amounts of faster burning powder vs larger amounts of slower burning powder to accomplish the same things, ie: velocity and accuracy, if possible.
 
Cast bullets with reduced loads. I have a few mouse loads I use for my military surplus rifles. About 7 to 10 hrs of shotgun or pistol powder gives decent accuracy out to 100 m. Very low recoil and low sound. Also a good way to introduce new shooters to centerfire rifles. New shooters seem to enjoy shooting them at the gongs.
 
Learning to hit with less velocity will be a big help. Velocity = bark.

With a fast powder such as Bullseye you can go right down until the bullet stops in the bore. (done that) :)

Just balance the velocity loss you can accept, with the noise it produces.
 
Choosing a load/powder that produces less pressure at the muzzle is actually pretty effective though it's still going to be relatively loud.
 
Great info, thanks everyone. I use and appreciate Trail Boss, but it has its limitations.


Why is a faster burning powder going to have lower muzzle pressure than a slower powder?

Because of the reduced volume using pistol/shotgun powder for rifle loads, do you need to use filler in the case?
 
If the gases exiting the muzzle are cooler and of lower pressure and/or volume it will produce less noise. Seems simple enough but guns being as loud as they are you may or may not perceive a difference.

Filler will typically add a great deal of consistency which in turn improves accuracy. I have seen velocity spreads of over 400fps when using x39 bullet/powder in .303 British. With a bit of filler that come down to low double digit spreads.
 
[QUOTE

Filler will typically add a great deal of consistency which in turn improves accuracy. I have seen velocity spreads of over 400fps when using x39 bullet/powder in .303 British. With a bit of filler that come down to low double digit spreads.[/QUOTE]

I’m experimenting with 00 buckshot sized to .309 over 2-3 grains of 1000NF. I use 1/2 square of toilet paper (no sh1t) packed to keep the powder on the (magnum) primer. So far the velocities varied significantly but I think the problem is inconsistent crimping. A good load won’t go through 1.5 inches of pine at 25 yards. Perfect mouse fart load.
 
Al Bear said:
I’m experimenting with 00 buckshot sized to .309 over 2-3 grains of 1000NF. I use 1/2 square of toilet paper (no sh1t) packed to keep the powder on the (magnum) primer. So far the velocities varied significantly but I think the problem is inconsistent crimping. A good load won’t go through 1.5 inches of pine at 25 yards. Perfect mouse fart load.
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I'm not familiar with 1000f but I assume it's very fast if you are using that little. Fill can only do so much when the cartridge is as large as things like .303, .308, .30-06 etc. I am happy with 70fps ES vs 400fps. Those sort of loads are not exactly used for shooting groups just fun and games.

I have a 93grn LEE mold I'm going to use to cast some bullets for a load similar to yours. I'm thinking 4grns of Promo with filler. Should be somewhere around 700fps. Tons of fun for plinking.
 
B said:
I'm not familiar with 1000f but I assume it's very fast if you are using that little. Fill can only do so much when the cartridge is as large as things like .303, .308, .30-06 etc. I am happy with 70fps ES vs 400fps. Those sort of loads are not exactly used for shooting groups just fun and games.

I have a 93grn LEE mold I'm going to use to cast some bullets for a load similar to yours. I'm thinking 4grns of Promo with filler. Should be somewhere around 700fps. Tons of fun for plinking.
Click to expand...

It’s Accurate Nitro 100NF. Right now I’m using cast 00 buckshot that was poorly cast because the mold halves didn’t align properly. Nonetheless. I managed to get 3.5” groups at 25 yards. I’ll pick up a box of Hornady 00 this weekend and load some of those. Expect these will be way more accurate.
 
B said:
If the gases exiting the muzzle are cooler and of lower pressure and/or volume it will produce less noise. Seems simple enough but guns being as loud as they are you may or may not perceive a difference.

Filler will typically add a great deal of consistency which in turn improves accuracy. I have seen velocity spreads of over 400fps when using x39 bullet/powder in .303 British. With a bit of filler that come down to low double digit spreads.
Click to expand...

Got it, thanks.
 
Still wrapping my head around this - Just for context let's say I want to move a 400gr projectile at 1000fps. If I'm after lower pressure at the muzzle and I want to stick with rifle powder, should I use a faster powder or a slower powder?
 
A really great (and free) way to get a look at your likely muzzle pressure is to download Gordon's Reloading Tool. Enter your barrel length and load info in their places and it will produce a number based on the data.
 
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