Do 0.177's pop?

[gfmiller58]

I thought my back yard set-up was "neighborhood friendly", I was wrong. My wife heard me dispatch a squirrel and said it "sounded like a gun". I'm shooting a 22 Dreamline, pushing out Hades pellets at 890fps. I'm pretty sure what she heard is the pellet hitting the "target". It make a pretty decent "pop" when a squirrel takes one to the noggin.
My only experience with 0.177 is with a springer which makes enough noise its difficult to tell how much noise the pellet strike makes.
My question for the Airgun Nation: are 0.177's quieter than 0.22's? Will they reduce the noise of the pellet strike on small pests? Thanks.

 

[Scotay42]

Body shots are quieter. Dome shots are noisy. .177 is less but not much.

 

[nervoustrig]

Other things being equal, the .177 will dissipate less energy on impacting the critter, so less sound as a result.

“Other things” being factors such as muzzle energy, pellet geometry (dome vs. wadcutter), the pellet’s propensity to expand or not, POI location on the quarry as Scotay42 mentioned, and so forth.

 

[woogie_man]

They will sound the same. Dial back the power a little bit and you will be fine, either that or shoot for vitals.

 

[Scouty]

I'm not sure about caliber but have heard others mention 177 is a bit quieter than 22 on impact.

Most noticeable to me is wadcutters or Polymags having louder impact than domes within any given caliber. I have very little experience with Hades so I'm not sure how loud their impact is.

This has come up before & at least one poster mentioned shooting 177 slugs as they have the quietest impact. I believe this was for target shooting only.

With a safe backstop for pass through I can believe that 177 slugs would be a good choice for minimizing sound at impact.

 

[Stubbers]

IME it takes considerably low fps to not sound like a firearm, regardless of caliber...from projectile exiting the bore to impact...

-Matt

 

[Stubbers]

If you shoot pellets at closer to 150-250 fps it'll sound more like a blowgun...for example.

300~ fps might sound closer to a paintball gun or something.

-Matt

 

[beerthief]

never shot hades but i do shoot a lot of wadcutters and squirrels @ 30 or 40 feet not yards . your wife must have really good hearing .

 

[Scouty]

IME it takes considerably low fps to not sound like a firearm, regardless of caliber...from projectile exiting the bore to impact...

-Matt

Are you referring to muzzle blast or sound on impact?

 

[Stubbers]

Are you referring to muzzle blast or sound on impact?

I stated "from exiting the bore to impact" which implies both, and yes, you can test this all you want...I have and still do at length.

Suffice to say, a pellet exiting the bore at 1 fps is much quieter than one moving at 900, as well as its impact...

 

[beerthief]

IME it takes considerably low fps to not sound like a firearm, regardless of caliber...from projectile exiting the bore to impact...

-Matt

i am shooting . 177 and .22 @ 800 and 900 FPS from AA s510 with silencer and just barely hear it , Also shoot .22 PB and it is way way louder .

 

[Stubbers]

A 14.3 gr moving 615 fps / 12 fpe is going to be much quieter, and safer with lass pass thru energy than when it moves 890 fps at twice the energy level 25 fpe.

Taking that same 12 fpe energy to .177, and a 7.9 gr moving 830 fps, and it will be nearly as loud as the 14.3 moving at 890 fps, I doubt the energy impact is that discernible either...

Of course terminal energy at the target effects impact noise to a degree but that goes hand in hand with fps more so...the change in pellet velocity...shooting into ballistic gel that slowly the pellet speed over a span of 1-2 feet is much quieter than hitting a rock or metal plate that suddenly stops it...

-Matt

 

[Scouty]

I stated "from exiting the bore to impact" which implies both, and yes, you can test this all you want...I have and still do at length.

Suffice to say, a pellet exiting the bore at 1 fps is much quieter than one moving at 900, as well as its impact...

My apologies. I didn't read that close enough.

@gfmiller58 I have done a small amount of subjective testing with my son about airgun noise. I found it very helpful to stand away from the shooting position & listen for myself.

I'm fortunate in my yard I can shoot far enough into a ravine so I can distinguish between muzzle blast & sound at impact.

I would try to do your own testing & try to figure out exactly what your wife was hearing.

 

[Stubbers]

i am shooting . 177 and .22 @ 800 and 900 FPS from AA s510 with silencer and just barely hear it , Also shoot .22 PB and it is way way louder .

My neighbor shoots the same AA s510 in .22, factory silenced, modest tune @ 850~ fps, and I hear it plenty...oh so plenty, of course PB's are louder, by about 20 DB.

 

[nervoustrig]

One of my favorite pest control rifles is a .22 cal set to about 30fpe...similar energy to the one in the original post. It has a very short dwell on account of a lightweight hammer and PEEK poppet. The pellet hitting a squirrel at 30 yards is significantly louder than the muzzle report 2ft from my head. It gets a fair number of back-to-back opportunities, I guess because although the sound at impact is pretty jarring, a nearby squirrel doesn’t seem to associate it with a foreign threat. As if perhaps the squirrel that just fell to the ground was because a limb snapped.

 

[elh0102]

I had my HW100 .177 tuned down to 12 fpe. It was virtually silent but still had plenty of power for squirrels at 30 yards or so, my maximum yard distance. I expect you could do the same with a .22, but the lower velocity would result in a relatively loopy trajectory.

 

[qball]

Out to 50 yards 177 at 10-11 FPE is more than good enough and much safer.

 

[elh0102]

Out to 50 yards 177 at 10-11 FPE is more than good enough and much safer.

Yes, but at 50 yards you need to be perfect on your range estimation for a hit. When I had my 12 fpe rifle zeroed at 25, I believe it was 5 or 6 inches low at 50.

 

[Long_Gun_Dallas]

So, this thing can happen with any caliber. If you push the projectile pretty fast. We'll say around or over 900fps... If the projectile hits and displaces something lighter, it can propel the object thru the sound barrier. I've had this happen plenty of times.

Basically, the squirrel's brain may have gone supersonic.

 

[qball]

Yes, but at 50 yards you need to be perfect on your range estimation for a hit. When I had my 12 fpe rifle zeroed at 25, I believe it was 5 or 6 inches low at 50.

Well that’s part of fun and challenge of low power airgun, it’s a great skill.