44mag perceived noise

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44mag perceived noise

Post by mickb » 21 Jun 2022, 10:31 pm

My ears are rooted and I protect them at all times but just wondered what the perceptions are to others regards 44 mag noise in a reasonable length carbine( say 20" min, not the trappers).

vs say

243 win
308 win
30-30 in a lever
12ga shotgun

I found my 357 quite a bit quieter than almost all centrefires, even 223... but its also burning less powder than the 44. Considerations for me are nearby properties( though I run subsonics worst case) and the only thing I cant full protect in the situation, hunting dogs ears.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by bladeracer » 22 Jun 2022, 12:55 am

mickb wrote:My ears are rooted and I protect them at all times but just wondered what the perceptions are to others regards 44 mag noise in a reasonable length carbine( say 20" min, not the trappers).

vs say

243 win
308 win
30-30 in a lever
12ga shotgun

I found my 357 quite a bit quieter than almost all centrefires, even 223... but its also burning less powder than the 44. Considerations for me are nearby properties (though I run subsonics worst case) and the only thing I cant full protect in the situation, hunting dogs ears.


.243 and .308 I would wear hearing protection if I was shooting a few rounds.
.30-30 and 12ga. I don't bother, just tuck my left ear down toward my shoulder if possible.
.44Mag I don't bother either.

Neighbours would have to be bloody close to need hearing protection from your shooting. Shooting away from and putting foliage, structures or terrain between yourself and whomever can hear you breaks the noise up a lot, shooting in a valley can amplify the noise though. I regularly hear neighbours shooting to the south of me down the valley, but they rarely hear me.

My neighbour hunts deer with dogs but they wear hearing protection. He's currently training his horse to gunfire as he wants to hunt from horseback - the horse also has hearing protection, and he hunts with .45-70 and 300WSSM.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by mickb » 22 Jun 2022, 1:06 am

Thanks Blade, by your comments 44 mag is down the rankings for noise then. Regards neighbours I wasnt worried about their hearing, just general disruption. Some of the plantations I keep pests down as a favour for mates have a more or less no louder than 22 mag rule in which case reduced/subsonic load leverguns also get across the line. Other areas I use full powered but still interested in comparitive sound footprint. Never heard of hearing protection for dogs , interesting, though for bailing pigs would be impractical.
Last edited by mickb on 22 Jun 2022, 1:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by bladeracer » 22 Jun 2022, 1:14 am

mickb wrote:Thanks Blade, by your comments 44 mag is down the rankings for noise then. Regards neighbours I wasnt worried about their hearing, just general disruption. Some of the plantations I keep pests down as a favour for mates have a more or less no louder than 22 mag rule in which case reduced/subsonic load leverguns also get across the line. Other areas I use full powered but still interested in comparitive sound footprint. Never heard of hearing protection for dogs though for bailing pigs I dont think it would be practical as they need to hear and engage.


.44Mag is loud, I just don't find it obnoxious like the bigger/faster cartridges.

I didn't ask about the hearing protection but I assumed they were electronic, which would enhance their hearing while blocking out damaging noise levels.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by mickb » 22 Jun 2022, 1:33 am

bladeracer wrote:
mickb wrote:Thanks Blade, by your comments 44 mag is down the rankings for noise then. Regards neighbours I wasnt worried about their hearing, just general disruption. Some of the plantations I keep pests down as a favour for mates have a more or less no louder than 22 mag rule in which case reduced/subsonic load leverguns also get across the line. Other areas I use full powered but still interested in comparitive sound footprint. Never heard of hearing protection for dogs though for bailing pigs I dont think it would be practical as they need to hear and engage.


.44Mag is loud, I just don't find it obnoxious like the bigger/faster cartridges.

I didn't ask about the hearing protection but I assumed they were electronic, which would enhance their hearing while blocking out damaging noise levels.


Cheers, no doubt its loud, 357 is still loud. Just looked the k9 muffs up, didnt see any electronic ones. But a moot point as these dogs are fighting pigs in rainforest. I wouldnt want any reduction in their natural awareness and anything like that is going to be pulled off their head pushing through vines etc anyway.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by Blr243 » 22 Jun 2022, 6:16 am

If u google..... peak dB SPL of various firearms .... it displays charts
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by bigpete » 22 Jun 2022, 7:40 am

I found mine to seem less potent than my 308
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by Blr243 » 22 Jun 2022, 12:19 pm

We have all seen pics of trees flattened laying horizontal on the ground after maybe a huge volcanic eruption or nuclear bomb or whatever ... if my understanding of hearing is correct we have tiny hair like things inside our ears that detect sound. But when they receive too much noise they break off and lay flat. Unlike many parts of our body they do not self repair... they stay broken laying down forever ... hence why hearing damage is permanent.... I tend to pay attention to warnings of any kind if I know why it happens as it does
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by bladeracer » 22 Jun 2022, 1:32 pm

Blr243 wrote:We have all seen pics of trees flattened laying horizontal on the ground after maybe a huge volcanic eruption or nuclear bomb or whatever ... if my understanding of hearing is correct we have tiny hair like things inside our ears that detect sound. But when they receive too much noise they break off and lay flat. Unlike many parts of our body they do not self repair... they stay broken laying down forever ... hence why hearing damage is permanent.... I tend to pay attention to warnings of any kind if I know why it happens as it does


Correct, sound is a physical thing that smacks you in the ear holes. A physical barrier between the source and your ear hole is a good thing.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by animalpest » 22 Jun 2022, 2:54 pm

I have to wear hearing aids. A .44 mag is plenty loud enough and far louder than a .22 mag. It just doesn't have bigger crack that high velocity rounds like a.243 do.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by mickb » 22 Jun 2022, 6:51 pm

animalpest wrote:I have to wear hearing aids. A .44 mag is plenty loud enough and far louder than a .22 mag. It just doesn't have bigger crack that high velocity rounds like a.243 do.

cheers mate. low powered subs is what I was comparing to 22 mag. More of a whoosh pop noise than that crack.

On another note a fella on youtube developed a hearing safe 44 mag load. Couple grains of powder behind a cast bullet for speeds in the 500's range. Not useful for a lot of things but he was having great fun dinging steel in his backyard. :)
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by geoff » 22 Jun 2022, 9:20 pm

Nobody gets out of shooting unscathed

Realistically you should wear hearing protection with any firearms. Hearing damage is cumulative and it all adds up, even if you think your 22 sounds pretty tame it's all filling up that bucket of hearing loss.

Either you're young and fresh and new to shooting, in which case you should do as much as you can to damage your hearing as little as possible. Or you're older, maybe you have made a few questionable PPE decisions in the last and your hearing isn't that great. This is the end of the spectrum I am on. I am very motivated to protect what I have left as much as possible.

I wear well fitting earpro when I shoot anything nowadays. I can't afford to make it worse
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by straightshooter » 23 Jun 2022, 8:57 am

The true sound pressure level of impulse noise is notoriously difficult to measure with any sort of precision. As is any true understanding of which portion of the impulse is responsible for the amount and nature of damage.
So I would not put much faith in smaller cartridges doing less damage to one's hearing than larger cartridges even though it may seem a reasonable assumption.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by Border_Bloke » 23 Jun 2022, 9:06 am

animalpest wrote:I have to wear hearing aids.


What hearing protection do you use with your hearing aids?

I had to get hearing aids about 10 years ago when I was in my mid 40's and can't hold a normal conversation without them. I'm looking for hearing protection that will still let me hear at normal levels when I'm stalking deer without having to wear huge ear muffs.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by animalpest » 23 Jun 2022, 11:35 am

Border_Bloke wrote:
animalpest wrote:I have to wear hearing aids.


What hearing protection do you use with your hearing aids?

I had to get hearing aids about 10 years ago when I was in my mid 40's and can't hold a normal conversation without them. I'm looking for hearing protection that will still let me hear at normal levels when I'm stalking deer without having to wear huge ear muffs.


I don't wear my hearing aids when using hearing protection such as muffs. Pointless really. Get electronic muffs if you want hearing protection but still want hear things.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by bladeracer » 23 Jun 2022, 11:57 am

straightshooter wrote:The true sound pressure level of impulse noise is notoriously difficult to measure with any sort of precision. As is any true understanding of which portion of the impulse is responsible for the amount and nature of damage.
So I would not put much faith in smaller cartridges doing less damage to one's hearing than larger cartridges even though it may seem a reasonable assumption.


Yep. I don't make any assumption about any load, I fire it and see if it's tolerable or not, if it's "obnoxious" I use hearing protection. Obnoxious loads will set my tinnitus off so I try to avoid them. .303 is fine for example - .300WSSM is horrendous.

After decades of motorcycle riding and racing, building sites, and shooting I should be deaf as a post, but my hearing is still excellent, I do have tinnitus though. At its worst, my tinnitus is like somebody has a TV going in another room when I'm trying to sleep, I can hear "conversation" but can't make out any words - very annoying when I'm trying to get to sleep.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by Border_Bloke » 23 Jun 2022, 7:20 pm

Tinnitus is usually a sign of hearing loss. I had that for years before I needed hearing aids. The aids cut it right down but don’t stop it completely, especially when it’s really quiet.

My audiologist told me that the tinnitus will be at frequencies that I can’t normally hear.

I discovered I had been lip reading for years without realising it. If I could see someone’s face I could actually hear them, if they covered their mouth I couldn’t.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by bladeracer » 23 Jun 2022, 7:34 pm

Border_Bloke wrote:Tinnitus is usually a sign of hearing loss. I had that for years before I needed hearing aids. The aids cut it right down but don’t stop it completely, especially when it’s really quiet.

My audiologist told me that the tinnitus will be at frequencies that I can’t normally hear.

I discovered I had been lip reading for years without realising it. If I could see someone’s face I could actually hear them, if they covered their mouth I couldn’t.


Yes, I know, it means there is damage in there somewhere. It doesn't seem to affect my hearing though as we get tested every year and it hasn't changed in more than a decade.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by mickb » 29 Jun 2022, 2:51 am

My tinnitus is crickets and whislting noises right ear, some static hissing behind the head, low pitched hum in left ear. When I first got it the specialist said aids wont help as I hadnt lost enough hearing but I could try masking noises. She asked which type of noises I heard. I said all of them I think :D
Never bothered with masking noise, background noise, etc. It doesnt bother me.
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Re: 44mag perceived noise

Post by Diamond Jim » 29 Jun 2022, 9:10 pm

Unless you want to go deaf you should wear hearing protection with every cartridge firearm - even .22LR. I have hearing loss due to growing up shooting and operating machinery on a farm in the 60s, 70s and 80s when hearing protection wasn't a thing. I can tell you that the high pitched frequencies of a .22LR report closely match some of the speech frequencies. My aviation doctor told me my hearing loss curve is diagnostic for exposure to firearms and I have all sorts of trouble following conversations particularly in a group and when women or children are talking due to their higher pitch. I have constant tinnitus which is a royal PITA. Do yourself a favour and drop the macho "I don't need hearing protection" BS and buy some cheap ear plugs form the big green store. Wear hearing protection whenever you use a firearm - if not for yourself then to save the grief of your family dealing with a deaf SOB!
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