I'll never forget the day...well two of them actually...one when I forgot to put my earmuffs on when I touched off a 150gn bullet from my 30.30 ,10 inch BBL, TC Contender...thought I had been smacked in the head with the flat of a shovel....whoa.

Second time was on the range in the Army...same deal...forgot the ear plugs, only this time it was a 66mm LAWS anti-tank rocket. Nasty.

Cheers, Vince

I bought my first ex a "dainty"little S&W mod 686,.357 with a 2" or 2.5" barrel,loaded it with winchester 110gr hp 357's and touched it off...........damn fireball was about the size of a basketball out of the muzzle!Needless to say it was loud to boot!Glad she's gone!

The loudest muzzle blast I ever hear came when I was shooting alone in an indoor pistol range and after a short break from shooting forgot to pull my headgear down over my ears before touching off a round from my new ported Rossi 357 Cyclops ,,, GOOD LORD !!! in the fully enclosed concrete range the report was so sharp and painful I actually felt the old lights start to dim and the knees buckle a bit. To this day I am surprised my hearing is as good as it is . This was second only to the time I went on my first ever deer hunt with a long time friend who I found out the same time he did that he had worse than buck fever he had deer fever. We were walking along an irrigation road when we rounded a bend an there in front of us were 2 does drinking from the little irrigation ditch. I pointed to the two does and out of the corner of my eye saw his muzzle raise up and as I was turning my head saying DONT SHOOT !!! he did anyway. I caught the full muzzle blast of that old 8mm Mauser in my right ear from about 4 feet away . Nearly an hour passed bfore the ringing went out of my ears and I could hear all of the nasty things I was saying to my best old ex hunting partner. Aside from this kind of trauma I would cast my vote for a 50 cal Barrett a fella was shooting at our range with all of our permission. You not only hear it through your head gear but the muzzle blast from 20 yds away was enough to make you check your heartbeat afterwards. Pretty sure it could upset sinus rythem on a pacemaker .

A .300 Winchester Magnum was about the loudest thing I ever encountered. I was wearing ear protection so it was not too bad. Take care...
Joe

I agree with you gelandangan, my Contender 10" in 223 with the "muzzle-tamer" recoil ports...... cannot be shot without ears on!! 338 Win Mag, 300 Win Mag... no problem. But that handgun can make my ears see stars...

Vince,

While driving around checking cattle, I was looking out the passenger side window of my pickup truck and saw a nice fat doe standing about 40 yards out in the brush. I had my 30-30 Contender with a 14 inch bull barrel lying on the seat, so I picked it up and shot the doe. It never crossed my mind to make sure the end of the barrel was sticking out of the window. The sound concussion watered my eyes and rung my ears. I might as well of had the windows rolled up. It couldn’t have been much worse.

Cary

Once out Brumby shooting one of the 'gentlemen' with me let loose with his 338 Win from about three feet behind me and about six foot to my right hand side. Couldn't hear a thing for the rest of the cull, he wasn't so lucky 'cause he could hear my cursing just fine!

By Far the Loudest is Kel-Tec PLR-16(Pistol Long Range) shoots .223 from a 9.2"barrel, It's the loudest thing on the Range, HANDS DOWN.

I own one and made the mistake of shooting it without ear protection, Forgot it in the range bag, Shoved a couple .45's in my ears and continued on with MUCH JOY shooting this really Fun to shoot gun.
And surprisingly it is damned accurate at 200 yds.
Regards

what whaa whats that you said??? cant hear worth a damn since a buddy touched off with a 25/06 browning abolt fitted with a ported boss. we had a guy on the range with one and made him shoot alone while we went and hid our ears.

Wicky wrote:

Once out Brumby shooting one of the 'gentlemen' with me let loose with his 338 Win from about three feet behind me and about six foot to my right hand side. Couldn't hear a thing for the rest of the cull, he wasn't so lucky 'cause he could hear my cursing just fine!

As he should have mate...as he should have.

Cheers, Vince