Quote:
Originally Posted by Rooster89
I've never fired a handgun with a can, only long guns. Can you fire it without hearing protection?
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I've had a couple good-quality 9mm suppressors. Both were fine for shooting 147gr ammo (naturally subsonic in most loadings) with no hearing protection. The clacking of the gun's action was almost louder than the pop from the firing itself. I've heard .45 is similar but without having to be so picky about ammo (since it's almost all subsonic), but never tried it myself.
Suppressor on a shorty AR-15 on the other hand, is a whole different ballgame. The outdoors sound level goes down from "ear-damaging" to "possibly not quite ear-damaging, but I'm not sure". Indoors you'd definitely still want plugs if you had the choice. Subsonic ammo (which also doesn't cycle the action) can make even an SBR AR-15 really dead quiet, but then it's about as ballistically useful as .22LR, so you might as well just use that. I bought a couple boxes from an ammo mfg here in TX once, never even finished shooting those.