I’m aware of the NCIS scenes, what else you guys got?
I just fired a gun right next to your head, neither of us was wearing ear protection, and now we’re having a conversation at normal volume and we can understand each other just fine.
Bonus points for grenades going off indoors, and nobody having a concussion after.
Depends on the gun. 9mm would be a normal conversation, 50. cal by the being shot close to your head with no hearing protection hurts
9mm would be a normal conversation
Right after it being fired right next to your head? With no ear protection?
Permanent hearing loss aside, I’d probably have a few very harsh words for the idiot firing irresponsibly rather than a “normal conversation” 🙄
I’ve shot and been around the shooting of easily of 1 million rounds. 9mm isn’t loud, especially in comparison.
Yeah, good point, gun safety is very Important. Guns aren’t toys.
I’ll just add to this, 9mm, or any handgun really, is still very loud. The reason it doesn’t seem as loud is because when most people are shooting there are two main things happening.
- They’re behind the barrel, normally this doesn’t matter much, but the sound is at least a little directional, so being in front of it is going to make it sound much louder because you’re hearing the initial explosion, not an echo.
- Most people aren’t shooting it in their house, they’re at a gun range. The space in front of you at the range allows for the sound to travel and the pressure to spread through the room, slightly reducing the impact of the sound. Shoot one in a tiny room and it’s going to be much worse for you.
Again it’s still really loud, but the context of where the sound is being made does make a difference. Obviously larger rounds will be louder, but that doesn’t mean rounds like 9mm are safe for your ears at all.
I was in a play once where we were going to fire a blank onstage, in a fairly small black box theatre. There were two options, a .22 and a .45 caliber blank. The .22 made a sharp CRACK that really shocked you. The .45 made a VWOOM sound that filled up the entire room and left you with the feeling of a wave of violent energy having just passed through your entire body.
We went with the .22.