Sounds of Silence - part three

Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a personality disorder which involves an obsession with perfection – I would guess it may be hereditary. Volvo with one of his older brothers, but more important the plastic on the furniture is perhaps foreshadowing. Will poor Volvo be destined to chase airgun nirvana forever?

As Orin suggested in his comment, this post is a little soap opera like. Please forgive the indulgence. Just try to keep in mind this experiment involved researching and buying the sound meter, purchasing rifles, and hours of testing for the results. This is nothing like grabbing the R7 and spending 10 minutes shooting at a target and then blogging the outcome.

My testing scenario was to place the meter at rifle height and about 3 ½ feet to the side. The muzzle was about a foot behind the meter. The meter had a setting where it would capture and hold the highest level noise until reset. All this was done indoors.

For the purpose of this report, I am only considering unaltered factory rifles. PA has a link about add ons and the possible complications.

http://www.pyramydair.com/site/articles/silencers/

Slinging Lead,

Yes we have a pet, meet Petey the fierce Cockapoo

My bench marks were a .22 rimfire on the high side and an R7 on the low side. I want to find out if a straight barreled PCP is as loud as firearm and what if anything makes less noise than a Paul Watts tuned HW30 \ R7.

It's getting late, I guess I will finish this tomorrow.

Stop back to find out how this one does, Beeman R1 .22 cal carbine

Sounds of Silence – part two

Part one

Do you hear what I hear?

The best place to start is usually at the beginning, so why am I looking for a quiet air rifle?

Living just outside the city limits, I am allowed to discharge an air gun; however I prefer to draw as little attention to myself as possible. Nothing sinister, just looking to be neighbor friendly as it is often called.

At the time I begin my search, I am a Springer only man, and have learned that an increase in power usually means a like increase in noise level. Pretty simple stuff, but I am considering the dark side, and those rules need not apply.

I begin by e-mailing four of the large on-line retailers and get varying responses. I ask for the quietest without regard to cost. At the time I have yet to hold, let alone shoot a PCP. Unfortunately, when updating my PC, I lost many archived e-mails or I would share the responses.

Magazine is a pain to load

I asked this question on a few occasions that spanned a couple years. The results change along with the rifles in stock. Most humorous answer goes to Pyramid Air for recommending a Sheridan C9.

Seriously?

I think this was probably a result of their expansion, in contrast to the many dealers that are smaller boutique shops that are intimately familiar with the products, PA may have outgrown this for more of a Target type experience. This is further complicatedly by the fact dealers only recommend the brands that they sell.

I decide that apparently, I will need to figure this out for myself.

I'll admit I entered the PCP world like an old lady at a swimming pool. I dipped just a toe in with the oh so safe purchase of the used Webley Raider. At only $395.00 I could not lose. Next in my line up was a Crosman Discovery from FogDog at 50% off with free shipping.

While the two rifles shared very little in common, what they both did have was a loud report. Very loud. I like the PCP idea well enough, but certainly not the accompanying noise. The Raider was the worst, I guess partly due to the fact that it operated at a higher pressure with a shorter barrel.

In any case, liking PCP's but not the noise only further fueled my pursuit.

Little more power than I care for with this scope 

About that time I decide to invest in a sound meter. Now before you start typing some advice about how you need really high tech equipment and a lab or some other wisdom, my goal was to find out how my rifles compared to EACH OTHER because as the shooter it is difficult to tell. I was just looking for a buddy that can stand beside me and listen while I shoot. Having few friends willing to come over and stand in my basement at all hours, I pick this electronic device instead. I am not concerned if my readings cannot be used to compare with someone else’s results.

Sorry if I come off a little harsh, but I have already heard enough negative feedback on using sound meters.

Next comes the results.

The Sounds of Silence

Is this the Holy Grail of quiet?

So I forgot to get a blog ready for today.


My plans were to address the noise issue that many airgunners are concerned about, and I will. Part of my testing involved a sound meter like Paul C. uses, but with a different placement during the shot. I reasoned that few people actually hold an ear next to the muzzle.

I get a cleaning patch stuck in the baffles, the new versions lack this feature

 In my search for quiet power, the FX Whisper in .177 was on my short list. I’ll let you know how it and several other rifles scored.

Scope is low as it can be

 Have a Great Memorial Day Weekend.