Which makes less noise?

[bluesman423]

Which produces less noise AT THE MUZZLE ............ a 22 cb short from a 24" barrel or a 22 cal air rifle? Make and model of air rifle, with or without the "silencer" are not important as long as the price is under $250 for a new rifle.

I understand that the air rifle makes more noise operating but am only interested in the noise at the muzzle.

Thank you if you can help.

[Dave C.]

The air rifle, if it is a springer.

[monadnock#5]

I don't know about .22's, but a .177 makes a loud "DOINK" when released. Due to the fact that it's not a "BANG", it won't grab the neighbor lady's attention much. Unless of course, she happens to see a furry critter take a flying leap off the bird feeder at the "DOINK". Should this be the case, she might very well associate no significant difference between a springer and a .458 Win.

[GoodOlBoy]

I have a OLD single shot 22 that with cb shorts you can't hear from more than about ten to fifteen feet unless you are in front of the muzzle then it's slightly further but not much. My .177 air rifle you can hear from about three times that distance, and there is a distinct pop when it shoots. Not a gunshot sound, but certainly a pop.

GoodOlBoy

[NavyVet1959]

It's not so much the level of the noise, but rather the sound of the noise. Air rifles do not make the same sort of sound that a firearm makes and as such, most people don't associate it with a rifle. Plus, if you have an air compressor and an air nailer / stapler, even if someone did call the cops and they came to your place, saying that you were using your air nailer / stapler would likely work. Regardless of the sound though, if your nosy neighbor sees you with the rifle and hears the sound, you're not going to be able to explain it away as easily.

Need to cull a few of the neighbor cat-lady's cats?

A long barrel with a .357 at around 500 fps is pretty quiet.

[GhostHawk]

IMO comes down to power. The more power your pushing through it the noisier it will be.

Springers have a really big spring recoiling, plus the bullet leaving the barrel.

What most air rifles do NOT have is that CRACK of a bullet breaking the sound barrier.

Something like a Sheridan 5mm (.20 caliber) at 2-3 pumps is pretty quiet, but it is probably only pushing 100-150 fps.

Give it the full 8 pumps and push the speed to right up at the 600 fps mark, and it is louder. Louder than a .22, no, also not as short, sharp and distinctive.

Its like the difference between a muzzleloader and a .270 or .243. On the one hand you have a big slow whooosh, with a big cloud of smoke and some other various clicks, clanks as hammer falls etc. On the other hand you have a very simple report of a bullet over 3 thousand feet per second, and it makes a pretty good attention getter.

So

A It all depends on the specific airgun, and the power your pushing through it.

B PCP's are going to be the loudest, followed by the big springer's.

C Less power means less reach, and less foot pounds of energy but it also means less noise.
So you might want to look at Sheridan or Benjamin 392 type pump up.

[35remington]

The CB short or long is quieter than many air rifles, and I own a bunch. Some of the opinions here lack comparative basis. I have such a comparative basis, and the airgun does not "win" in terms of sound even half the time if it is of at least reasonable power. When the airgun is quieter, it is far inferior to the CB in terms of power.

When airguns start approximating CB power, they are often significantly louder. The downside to the CB is it is very ricochet prone due to its comparatively rugged solid bullet. CB's, being subsonic, lack any "crack" and compare very favorably to most pellet guns in terms of noise in reasonably long barrels.

A CB sounds not at all like a firearm and people will not mistake it for such, so putting it in the "firearm" category in terms of noise would be a mistake as well.

[MarkP]

What 35remington said, the CB is ricochet prone.

My Dad has a 26" bbl bolt action 22 it is just a click with a slight puff sound when firing CCI CB's. Out of my kid's 16" Crickets they have a fairly loud pop.

[Clark]

I have been working on this question for 20 years.
For raccoons, the CCI CB short to the brain stem is good.
But for body shots, I got to a 50 cal wildcat, so keep the BB gun sound.
Or sometimes a 45/70 with metal filled case and drilled out flash hole.
Get the expansion ratio up and the barrel long to get high velocity and gas escapement below 2 atmospheres [Threshold of super sonic gas]


Based on a 56-50 case cut to 0.45" long.