.44 Magnum Indoors

O

OldMarksman

Staff
Many years ago I knew a man who had, among other things, two Ruger Super Blackhawk revolvers.

He kept one of them loaded for home defense. He kept the other one empty, and on Saturday evenings he would strap it on in time for the beginning of Gunsmoke, so he could try to outdraw Matt Dillon.

I'm sure you know where this is going.

His wife considered his antics to be stupid and immature. To no avail.

One fine evening, he strapped on his belt rig, lifted his whiskey glass with his weak hand, stood up, and prepared to draw.

BLAM!

Wrong gun.

The expensive color television set was destroyed, the picture window broken, and some of the bricks from the front of the house were visible through a hole in the breached wall in the yard on the green green grass of summer.

The bullet, or fragments of debris, ricocheted off the driveway and struck the automobile of a family who were arriving home across the cul de sac.

His wife came in screaming, but he could not hear her--at all. The neighbor ran over to investigate, but he could not be heard either. Nor could the shooter hear the arriving officers.

He suffered some major permanent, noise induced hearing loss.

All of the talk after that at the gunshop where the man worked part time for fun was about poor gun handling. The same man had been extremely cynical of a man who worked there who had caused damage when a new 870 that had been shipped with a shell in it went off in the store.

Firearm safety is a big part of the story, but we really should think a bit about just what we want to set off in the house, should the need arise.
 
agreed and I always advise the use of ear and eye protection when shooting.

I also know that when your adrenalin is going, your fine motor skills as well as hearing and vision are reduced.

a hunter can shoot his 30.06 at a deer.....(yes I know its outdoors) and barely hear the round go off. however, sighting in the same gun can hurt their ears..... its that fight or flight physical response that saves us.

that said, a high velocity handgun of any caliber will hurt your ears indoors.
 
"...suffered some major permanent, noise induced hearing loss..." A .22 LR will do that with one shot.
It's stupid and immature to play with your toys without first making sure they're not loaded.
"...struck the automobile..." He'd be criminally liable for that too. He'd have been arrested and charged with manslaughter if one of those arriving people had been shot too. Probably higher charges once the cops found out he'd been drinking.
 
I know first hand what a S&W Model 686 4 inch, 357 Magnum with 125 GR Black Hills ammo sounds like in a small confined space.

Years ago, a coworker decided he would practice his trigger pull on the 686. Early on he had unloaded the pistol and was practicing his trigger techniques. All fine and good, but the Jack Ass loaded it back and put the gun down briefly as he, another coworker and I were talking probably about guns. He picks the gun up and steps towards the back room and aims at a spot on the door molding above the door. I thought well he is just looking at the sights. Next thing I know there is a hellacious boom and the other guy in the room has a look of disbelief on his face and the shooter (Jack Ass) is standing there in a state of shock. The other coworker just knew I was shot, but I was seated in another part of the room. Jack Ass totally forgot that he had loaded the gun back. The bullet went through the door molding and went into the ceiling at an angle. We wondered if it went all the way through and those two guys got up there on the roof and checked. The didn't see an exit point and we figured after the first big rain we would know since it was a flat roof. To this day the bullet is still lodged in that ceiling somewhere. It might have hit a steel beam since the building was constructed of some steel beams.

We all were deaf for a few minutes but as far as I know none of use received any major hearing damage that we could tell. Yea I am sure it did some type of minor damage to our hearing. The whole deal kind of made me mad, I wanted to go punch the Jack Ass for his carelessness. From then on no matter where I am at when someone starts handling a gun around me I get nervous.

So yelp, you can't be too cautious when handling guns, as the saying goes consider that all guns are loaded until you visually open the action or cylinder and check.

My main bed side pistols are a Glock 9MM and a Model 649 S&W .357 that's loaded with plus P .38's in the first few holes and then full powered .357 rounds. I would grab the 9MM first if I needed something for intruder action and might rely on the 357 in for a back up.

I have been thinking about getting a full sized .45 ACP for home defense, do you guys think it would be almost twice as loud as the 9MM inside a house?
 
"...suffered some major permanent, noise induced hearing loss..." A .22 LR will do that with one shot.
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It is a matter of degree.

It's stupid and immature to play with your toys without first making sure they're not loaded.
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Obviously.

"...struck the automobile..." He'd be criminally liable for that too.
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Very unlikely, in the case of minor property damage not done knowingly and willfully.

He'd have been arrested and charged with manslaughter if one of those arriving people had been shot too.
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Involuntary manslaughter, had anyone perished.

Probably higher charges once the cops found out he'd been drinking.
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What would be higher?
 
I have been thinking about getting a full sized .45 ACP for home defense, do you guys think it would be almost twice as loud as the 9MM inside a house?
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You can expect the .45 ACP to have about half the sound pressure of most 9MM rounds.
 
My home defense gun is a FNX tactical 45 cal. Fifteen rounds in the mag and one in the chamber. A suprressor on it makes it very safe for the ears should you have to use it indoors, especially since the rounds are subsonic to start off. Used to use my 686 or colt python as my primary HD guns until I accidentally fired one inside an indoor range...Real Loud!
 
I like good old-fashioned mild 38 special or maybe 44 special loads for just that reason. I had to fire a 357 in a SD situation once, and that might be part of why I can't hear worth squat anymore.
 
I spoke with a police officer that told me he would "never again fire his weapon inside a house, even if he had to stop the bad guy with his fists." He didn't elaborate and I didn't ask.

I have considered getting a pair of electronic earmuffs to keep by the nightstand. That way, if I thought a break-in was occurring, I'd put those on, be able to hear, but not deafen myself when the shooting started.

Whenever I am handling a gun, I recheck the chamber constantly. I have begun using Tipton snap caps, those are red in color, and seem to be a good idea all round.
 
I spoke with a police officer that told me he would "never again fire his weapon inside a house, even if he had to stop the bad guy with his fists." He didn't elaborate and I didn't ask.
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I wouldn't want that guy as my backup. Yes, a firearm is loud and detrimental to your hearing in confined spaces but the noise is trivial compared to the reason that it had to be used in the first place.
The guy in the OP's example is a first class......well, you fill in the blank.
 
Went to Knob Creek one year. Was right on the line BS’ing totally ignored the ready on the right, ready on the left.........

Line opened up and me without ear pro. I will say it was a millisecond of intense noise that quickly turned into a LOUD rushing water type noise. I got my ear pro on right quick.

As a kid I fired an M16 (not an AR15) without earpro by mistake and it definitely caused physical pain.

I always wear ear pro except by mistake as above. I cannot imagine a .44 magnum indoors.
 
Among all the other things our entertainment industry lies to us about is the noise of gunfire.

Actors regularly fire (unsuppressed) pistols, rifles, shotguns and machineguns inside rooms, hallways, basements, alleys, car, boats and planes and almost never wear any hearing protection, and converse in conversational tones and even in whispers which they hear normally right after shooting.

Of course they aren't shooting live rounds, and I've seen some prop blanks that were just barely above the pop of the primer for sound.

Recording media, be it film or digital cannot recreate the blast of gunfire accurately. Video a .22 and a .44Mag, and both sound like a "pop".. the .44 is a louder pop, but nothing like what you would actually hear. Sound effects artists add in sounds that mimic gunfire, during the editing process.

The sound in a small space, reflected by walls, is something few believe until they experience it without hearing protection.

This is where I feel that those people who advocate a carbine or AR/AK type pistol for home defense haven't given the matter quite enough thought.

Its also the most valid reason I can think of for someone to have a suppressor on their defense gun. Not just for their own hearing protection, but also for everyone else who might be in the room.

Imagine you and the wife and kids are barricaded in your bedroom, waiting for the police to show up, and things get bad enough that you have to shoot.

Other than an arbitrary law, you could have saved their hearing along with their lives.
 
This is where I feel that those people who advocate a carbine or AR/AK type pistol for home defense haven't given the matter quite enough thought.
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Those are what I'd consider "ranch defense" guns as opposed to home defense. I like living but I also like hearing. Yeah, any gunfire is bad and doing it indoors is bad. I can't imagine how bad .223 or 7.62x39 would be in the average suburban hallway.

Suppression is ideal, except for the constitutionally dubious hoops you have to jump through to get one. If you have the second it takes to put them on should a crisis occur, it isn't a bad idea to store good and properly charged electronic hearing protection with or near your home defense gun. Protecting your ears and hearing better than normal is a good combination.

Other than that, lower-pressure rounds are helpful. Longer barrels can be helpful. So naturally, pistol-caliber carbines can be a good choice here. It can change things with respect to what is or is not subsonic but overall, a good option.
 
Simply put, without hearing protection (either worn, or built into the gun =suppressor), the further away from your ear the muzzle is, and the less powder you burn, the better off you are.

pressure, and the size of the "pipe" also matter.

A very good point about the pistol caliber carbine, but less so when firing magnum pistol rounds,

With a carbine, the muzzle is about 8" to a foot further from your ear (give or take), and while higher velocity than a pistol does result, look at how much powder you are burning.

(and for worst noise effect, consider it being fired in a closed room)

With .38s, 9mms and .45ACP, you're burning 3-6 or 7 grains of powder, generally. Full house .357 you could be burning 15gr or so. .44MAG and you can be over 20, even 22gr. And with .223 and 7.62x39 you are 25-28gr, maybe more.

Burning 6.5gr of Unique gives a much different level of sound and blast than burning 22gr of 2400. And a 35K psi magnum pistol round is different from a 50-60K psi rifle round, especially in the same barrel length.

If you want a real experience fire a .308 or larger rifle round indoors (and fire it from an 18" or less barrel for "best results")
It is literally its own flash-bang stun grenade.

A tiny bit less for the shooter, as you know its coming, but very impressive, none the less. Without good hearing protection, you will not hear normally for hours/days, and if there is a baseline for them to measure against, you will have detectable hearing loss for the rest of your life.
 
I once had a "stupid discharge" inside with a 45 automatic. To keep the story short, I never heard a thing. Nothing.

Now, this was obviously a result of my mind simply blocking out the sound in response to something it didn't believe had happened. The sound was still there of course, just as loud as anywhere else, but my mind didn't perceive it.

The funny thing was that no one else in the house heard it either. My wife's uncle sitting not 20 feet from me, through an open door, thought I had "popped a primer" reloading with my old "wack a mole" Lee-Loader. My wife and my mother in law, neither who would have missed an opportunity to tell me how stupid I had been, didn't hear it at all.

The only explanation I have is the acoustics of the house baffled the noise. They were also both in different rooms behind closed doors with a TV on.

I would NOT try it again except in very dire circumstances. This morning my ears are ringing like the bells of St. Mary's.
 
Numb nuts buddy of mine and I went armadillo hunting one night in my truck...

I had no intention of actually shooting from the cab...Numb nuts saw a dillow as we were going to a spot I knew...Model 29 44 Mag... concussion popped the rear window out and I was deef for nearly an hour....
 
Thru the CRT glass and implosion shield,thru the wall and "bricked sheathing" and bounced off the drive way into the neighbor's car.
must have been one hot round.
 
Way back in 1967 I was blessed and was able to moose hunt in Alaska.

I was there about 3 weeks staying w/ an ld Army buddy and met several of his Ak friends. They emphasized that a moose dont drop on hit #1.

So when my shot came I kept shooting, 25' up a big white pine tree. Several shots were taken. I didnt know if Id hit or missed so I thought, "it's only ammo." We gutted the critter and left it till Am and went to camp about a mile away.

I had a Bad case of ringing and thought there was a bear pacing just outside the tent wall. I may still have some of that ring.

7 shots in the chest cavity (30-06, 180 gr silvertips about 165 yrds) pretty well did him in. His rack is on the wall of our stairway now--58". we, he and I, didnt know he was dead. He walked about 15 yrds before his legs no longer worked.

One other time 10 yrs prior I shot about 25 claybirds w/ those coil spring ear plugs that were popular at that time. They were not effective.
Since lawnmowers, chainsaws and leafblowers have all added to the loss of my hearing.

Dont fall for the crap "it is ONLY a 22"--use muffs...always..when shooting AND watching.
 
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