Re: Suppressor sound reduction by caliber/rifle
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RollingThunder51</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Your a strange duck, Caeli. This place is made up of them, though folks that do what you appear to do (and think you can do on the internet) do not do it long here.
I don't think you will do it again here...so I will continue.
You started by making this statement:
"I'm trying to decide if it would be really worth it to start buying cans"
And, you end with this one:
" Now, a great suppressor, wet, gives you what? A 35 dB reduction? So, theoretically, even if it doesn't sounds like it's too loud, it could still be causing permanent damage to my hearing? So it could be causing permanent damage to the hearing of everyone who thinks that as soon as you screw a can on a gun you don't need earpro, right? Now, if I'm wrong and you can suppress most rifles and pistols well below 120 dB then it doesn't really matter does it? But if I'm right then that pretty much nullifies the main marketing claim for suppressors to the civilian market, right? Or, if it doesn't, why not?"
Now that right there? That statement...well that statement is a rare recognition of the true POTENTIAL limitations of suppression. If you had written that in your first paragraph, you would have been seen by some here as a savant. You finally wrote it, so there is hope yet.
Your answer....
Suppression serves three very different purposes.
The first is to POTENTIALLY save the hearing of the person behind the trigger, the operator. All your comments thus far describe your needs to this audience very well, in part by having yet to mention the other two. You want to use your can to suppress the sound that you will hear behind the trigger. You think that a great can is all about dB reduction. For some here, that is of paramount importance, for others less so, for some, not at all. In fact, for some, their lives depend on concentrating soley on the other two reasons and, as your questions concentrates entirely on the first, they would not even bother to respond.
Suppression of sound at the operator then...
You are correct, no doubt in no small part because that is your business. Hearing is permanently adversly effected by loud sounds. Though I would caution you to once again recognize that duration plays a role here as well. Sounds over 80 dBs, given long enough exposer will ruin high frequency hearing. Looking at any OSHA table will confirm that. With the pain threshold at, or near 120 for good ears, I can promise you that if you are interested in the practice of shooting, you should be concerned at 112db and above. And, there is more. If you were of a mind that plugs or muffs, plugs and muffs were a solution driving values below 120, well, it is not so. Gun fire will travel up your jaw, through your skull and into your inner ear with a greater ease than many appreciate. In fact, a person born without ear drums, looses only 20dB of sound conduction. In other words, plug/muff/whatever is not a long term solution for high volume, long exposure, short interval sound. In other words, this may not be the best sport for someone that is in the business you are in without the right suppression, properly applied. Why make that statement? There are no wet .308 cans of consequence because of "hydraulic effect," so wet cans as you mentioned are. with few exceptions, off the table. Though great solutions do exist. You will not parse them from the collected works of others, that is a game long spoiled by poorly applied science, illegimate marketing and a misguided understandings of the role of the host in suppression values.
If you want to understand why it is the other two, thus far uncovered areas of suppression that others hold in higher value than that which you are showing an interest in, well I need you to do something for me. Simply make a statement more appropriate to the audience that is trying help you about your past infractions. The statement to LL, for one, is a poor excuse for a person with your interests and potential future contributions in this subject area.
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Do you have kids? or a lot of experience dealing with impatient people in their mid twenties, or something because...wow. There is nothing that I can say to refute or be a dick about anything that you said and well...shoot, I feel like a dick now.
Thanks for being patient and taking the time to read past my ranting.
Anyways, about the sound traveling up your chin, fun side story we were working with deaf people once and they have music clubs, apparently the way they do it is we got a bunch (I mean a lot) of 18" drivers and fired them into the floor and the floors in the building had been built so they could vibrate in a certain way and apparently the sound vibrations travel through the listeners at various frequencies. It was really cool, weird to test though.
Anyways, back on topic: at the end of the day I'm here to learn, and I suppose I've got more to take away from this thread than I thought and about more topics than I knew I would. So...sorry guys, I'll try not to cuss you all out because I can't word my questions to ask what I'm looking for.
