Sound of passing bullets

bandit86

bandit86

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Been on th western movie kick again, do those old bullets really make a noise or is that just Hollywood sound effect? Is a flat nose noisier than a round nose or a fine point?
 
I've had a ricochet go past making a buzzing sound once. It was an old surplus FMJ with steel core though. Never had lead do that. Then again I don't have too many rounds fly by my head.
 
A ricochet can make any number of sounds, depending on whether or not it has been deformed, its speed, whether or not it is tumbling, etc. One of those sounds is the classic sound-effects whine; I've heard them on occasion.

A subsonic bullet just passing by will not make that much noise. Civil War memoires describe the .58 Minne Ball as 'whizzing' overhead.

On the other hand, anybody who's spent time in the butts can tell you that a supersonic bullet will give a sharp CRACK when it passes overhead, which is not surprising as it is producing a small but very real sonic boom like a jet fighter. The US Army issued suppressors for the Springfield rifle in the first part of the 20th century; one witness said a bullet fired down a road with telephone polls produced a series of cracks, like a snare drum. (Incidentally, this is why stories about Chuck Yeager's breaking the sound barrier are often wrong when they say that the Bell X-1 was the first man-made supersonic object. The first was a whip cracking and the second was the first supersonic bullet, probably sometime in the 1880s or so.)
 
I've had mazillons of bullets going over my head on army ranges, some making the TV ricochet noise.
"Anyone who says a bullet sings past, hums past, flies, pings, or whines past, has never heard one--they go crack!" David Niven. David is spot on. Supersonic of course.
 
Juster comment about the crack of bullets when in the butts matches my experience.
Bullets also make a tearing sound when passing through tree leaves above your head.
It also helps tell you there are other hunters in the area..
 
Have stood beside/between b27's while marksmen engaged them from 100m away with .308 and .223.
Just hear the snap juster described, and if the berm is close a heavy thud. At 100m the muzzle blast was the quietest sound generated.
 
I've heard all manner of odd ricochet sounds. Some matching those you hear in the old westerns. I've never had sub-sonic fly past me, but the "crack" sound is spot on whenever I've been down in the butts for supersonic rounds. It's really surprisingly loud.
 
To me, the supersonic crack reminds me of a handclap close to your ear.

Subsonic bullets/pellets sound more like THEEEWWWW, with the TH happening very fast and the EEEWWWW lasting ever so slightly longer. (If that makes sense...)
 
Crack, thump, we were taught to judge distance of shooter by counting between the crack of the round passing over head (hopefully) and report of the gun. Can't remember the the values, but a quick google will tell you. having sat in the butts, the crack is most common, with the occasional vizinnng of a richochet.
 
While never in the military I have had thousands of rounds pass close by, and as critically as you want to watch it, the beach landing scene in Saving Private Ryan is hard to fault gunshot sound wise.
 
I liked being in the butts checking targets: As the range from shooter to target increased, the sounds varied, and of course when they were heard; the sonic crack, backstop thud/shmuck and finally the muzzle blast. An arrow sounds like a fart as it goes by. A load of birdshot almost sounds like a scream, which presumably is produced by the ever widening pattern/wad separating, distorted pellets displacing air in no predictable fashion. What few ricochets I've heard, there is a slight resemblance to the sounds produced in the movies, but not identically cheesy, and certainly not every time: How do I type out that sound? a weird sounding spring uncoiling - "boiiiiiiiiiiiiingvvvvvvvv"

Now if an anti, finds this thread for sure it will be used as "evidence" that gun owners are a bunch of cowboys: Not that the following statement will dissuade their ignorant bent - non of the above situations were done in an unsafe manner: Bullets had plenty of space and suitable backstops/backgrounds to land harmlessly in the ground.
 
bandit86 said:
Been on th western movie kick again, do those old bullets really make a noise or is that just Hollywood sound effect? Is a flat nose noisier than a round nose or a fine point?
Click to expand...

The movies tend to make ricochets sound louder, but when one comes by real close.. they can spook you,..and even make you hit the dirt.
As mentioned, if youre being shot at, or over head... while in the butts its a pop, much like a loud hand clap.

Shotgun slugs richoceting are the most dramatic as they tumble by, in their slow but whistling way. You have an idea of where there coming from but theres nothing you can do while hopefuly passing over you.
 
Bullets snap when they miss you, if all you hear is the report, you are under effective fire and should probably seek cover. Usually you will only hear the first couple of rounds, then the combination of your arsehole puckering and return fire drowns it out.
 
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