View Full Version : What does it sound like to get shot at?
AndrewWiggin
09-12-16, 10:25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exTOptdiLyQ
https://youtu.be/exTOptdiLyQ
I placed a camera about 30 feet to the side of some water jug targets at 150 yards and shot at them with unsuppressed and suppressed .223 and .22lr. This allows you to hear the difference in time when various components of the sound of a gunshot arrive at the target. The 3,000 fps muzzle velocity of the .223 is nearly three times the speed of sound so you hear a ballistic crack and the sound of the bullet impact roughly simultaneously, then you hear the sound of the shot a moment later. When the silencer is attached, you can still hear the sound of the shot, just barely, but it is very difficult to detect. The reverse is true for the .22lr. Although the bullet starts out with a muzzle velocity just below the speed of sound, it slows down quite a bit on the way, arriving at about 850 fps. The speed of sound is about 1,100 fps at sea level. This means that the sound of the shot precedes the bullet at the target by a fraction of a second. You hear the shot, then the bullet passing through the air, then the impact. With the silencer attached, you still hear the shot, but very faintly.
Eurodriver
09-12-16, 10:27
For anyone really wanting to know firsthand: www.marines.com
In all seriousness, this is a very cool video.
I was shot at with a 12 gauge buck shot once. Dumb ass in another field was shooting in the direction of where a friend and I were standing. Didn't sound like anything. We heard the blasts from a distance and I guess a few seconds later a bunch of pings and pops as the pellets hit stuff around us.
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Never been shot at directly but I have had rounds going overhead. Sounds like a firecracker going off then you hear the boom.
Ohsheepdog01
09-12-16, 10:49
I have, and not to be crude, but for many people it's the the same sound as when you squirt your pants... Because you do.
It actually depends on what they're shooting at you. Rifle is a high pitch crack and a pistol not so much.
tacticaldesire
09-12-16, 11:46
Sounds like a gun shot off in the distance until the round goes whizzing past you. Hard to describe the sound but me it sounded kind of like the burning the fuse of a firecracker or something only faster. The impact was kind of like a crack or a snap. I was too busy getting the hell out.
Rounds whizzing by don't all sound the same. Many factors go into the creation of a particular rounds particular sound.
Doc Safari
09-12-16, 13:25
Rounds whizzing by don't all sound the same. Many factors go into the creation of a particular rounds particular sound.
I concur. We were shot at with muzzleloaders once.
You heard the boom then the round flying overhead. Sounded just like a shell going overhead in the movies.
BOOM! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE!
I have, and not to be crude, but for many people it's the the same sound as when you squirt your pants... Because you do.
It actually depends on what they're shooting at you. Rifle is a high pitch crack and a pistol not so much.
I've done that even when I haven't been shot at.
I remember basic training.... Ft. Sill 1997.... M60s overhead as we high and low crawl through barbed wire. Those make a nasty sound. I had to go through that course 3 times just to show everyone what to do twice since everyone wouldn't fit into a safe area to watch. Then I had to go through with my platoon. I had mud in places I didn't think possible.
All in all, it's just noise. After the second one goes by, it's not really a surprise anymore so your butt cheeks relax a little. But everything depends on the situation.
AndrewWiggin
09-12-16, 14:07
Wow! I went through D 1/79 in 1998.
Hard to believe it's been almost 20 years.... I'd have to look at my BCT Diploma to tell you what company/battery I was in. I stayed for AIT as well... 13F Fire Support. Ended up on a C.O.L.T. at my fist DS. Thank god. I did not want to be FIST.
AndrewWiggin
09-12-16, 16:53
So you were probably OSUT. I was a 35M, Firefinder RADAR repairman so after BCT I went to Redstone Arsenal, AL for two months of basic electronics training, then back to Ft. Sill for the remainder of my systems training. In BCT, my cadre was Senior Drill Sergeant Modisette, Drill Sergeant Ellington, and Drill Sergeant Redd.
I remember basic training.... Ft. Sill 1997.... M60s overhead as we high and low crawl through barbed wire. Those make a nasty sound. I had to go through that course 3 times just to show everyone what to do twice since everyone wouldn't fit into a safe area to watch. Then I had to go through with my platoon. I had mud in places I didn't think possible.
All in all, it's just noise. After the second one goes by, it's not really a surprise anymore so your butt cheeks relax a little. But everything depends on the situation.
Ahhhh. The good ole M60 round whizzing overhead. Memories.
To me, it sounded like a whizzing/whistling sound. But, if you say you've never pi**ed in your pants the first time, I'd call you a liar.
My old phart recollection was when I was in the pits pulling targets waaay back ( Garands were the issue rifle ) was it was a distinct crack as the round went overhead . When we did the infiltration course with the old .30 caliber MG firing overhead , you couldn`t hear the rounds because the guns were so close .
NickySantoro
09-13-16, 18:22
My only experience is in the weeds running an ambush. If you run it right, the enemy is dead shortly. In that short few seconds before they are, they fire a lot of rounds in every direction. That is the most scary time. I don't remember specifically what it sounded like. Just shooting.
So you were probably OSUT. I was a 35M, Firefinder RADAR repairman so after BCT I went to Redstone Arsenal, AL for two months of basic electronics training, then back to Ft. Sill for the remainder of my systems training. In BCT, my cadre was Senior Drill Sergeant Modisette, Drill Sergeant Ellington, and Drill Sergeant Redd.
I had wartime reservist drill instructors... week zero the whole damn time....
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Well...Getting shot at with an AK sounded like a whipping sound to me. Getting shot at with an RPG sounded like a jet flying a few feet above my head, and getting shot at with a mortar...well that just went boom and f***ing hurt in every way imaginable.
Clicked ecpecting to get pissed....
...ended up delightfully entertained.
AndrewWiggin
09-13-16, 20:12
Thank you.
ColtSeavers
09-13-16, 21:39
Sounds like pops or booms, depending on small arms or artillery.
Didn't watch video, have been shot at and mortared.
I haven't actually been shot at, but have been down range for both sub-sonic and supersonic bullets. Sub-sonic sounded like a whizzing sound. Supersonic was a very loud miniature sonic boom.....a very loud and sharp crack. Both had a boom from the muzzle before or after the bullet noise.
Wow! I went through D 1/79 in 1998.
C 1/79 1996, exactly 20 years ago Aug-oct.
I was left with little impression from the basic training overhead fire underwire crawl. They claimed it was like 18inches or some crap but Id say 8ft was more like it. All it needed was some foam blocks and green slime flying out of the boom pits, Mark Summers on the megaphone and it could have been aired on Nickelodeon.
I shot alot of highpower with target butts so thats the bulk of my being "shot at". And aside from those holiday inn express experiences I did once have a quite sizeable chunk of 50 cal jacket whiz by my head. Sounded like a giant angry wasp
Averageman
09-14-16, 08:17
Every event is unique.
First event, no sound at all but a large piece of a .50 cal round was stuck in the front armor of my tank. When the armor slopes down from the drivers hatch and up from between the track there is a point where they meet. The remains of the round was stuck right there.
I had went down range to service generators. As I was in a hurry I took the Tank to the end of the range and got off and took care of the Generators.
Second event, again, no sound until the round impacted in front of the TC's hatch, then it many a "Whizz" sound. I have a feeling there was some ill intent with that one.
That was just outside Kuwait City.
Edit to note;
I usually was listening to two radio's and crew chatter and had the background noise of the Tank operations which likely deadened and ability to hear a lot of stuff someone on the ground would have likely heard.
For me, this was before we got the VICS headsets, sounded like a bunch of bees flying past my head, wasn't till one hit the armor about two feet from my head that I realized I was getting shot at, never heard the gunshots.
And no, I most certainly did not piss myself, nor any of the other times. Swore and had the heart speed up a bit but that's about it.
To me, it sounded like a whizzing/whistling sound. But, if you say you've never pi**ed in your pants the first time, I'd call you a liar.
Then prepare to call me a liar.
The first time I was shot at/near we were too busy working on PUCs to take the time to do anything else. It seems like extreme/high stress situations pass by quickly in the moment, you just focus on what you have to do and then its over.
Only later do you have time to go back and examine the details and think "oh shit" or "****ed that up" or "should of done this".
Digital_Damage
09-14-16, 10:27
One of those things you NEVER forget.
Never pissed my pants, but I was yelling incoherent gibber like a total tool. Not my finest moment.
AndrewWiggin
09-14-16, 11:01
C 1/79 1996, exactly 20 years ago Aug-oct.
I was left with little impression from the basic training overhead fire underwire crawl. They claimed it was like 18inches or some crap but Id say 8ft was more like it. All it needed was some foam blocks and green slime flying out of the boom pits, Mark Summers on the megaphone and it could have been aired on Nickelodeon.
I shot alot of highpower with target butts so thats the bulk of my being "shot at". And aside from those holiday inn express experiences I did once have a quite sizeable chunk of 50 cal jacket whiz by my head. Sounded like a giant angry wasp
Small world. They actually marched us right past that range in the daylight the day before. The gun was on a low tower probably 12-15 above the ground level at the base of the tower, but I think the ground level also sloped off, away from the tower.
Crack, bang, boom and all the rest above, what I remember most the first time
I got shot at was the little bits of leaves and tree bark raining down on me,
and watching the ants just under my nose ' which was pressed into the dirt '
move around unconcerned.
I was walking out from a morning hunt and heard a crack and little tick sounds from mesquite branches being hit by it followed immediately by a bang in the distance. Idiot had shot at "a deer" from across an opening onto the next property almost 500 yards away. I dropped down and took a revolver I had with me with me for snakes and fired all six shots into the ground since I didn't know if he'd hear me yelling from that distance.
All I got was an "oh sorry man. I couldn't really see what I was shooting at."
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