Although they are often present in shooting clubs for their advantages in terms of precision and shooting comfort, sound moderators are still little adopted by hunters. However, they have many advantages for different hunting practices and we will talk about them in this article.
The decree of January 2, 2018 amending the decree of August 1, 1986 authorizes the use of silent devices intended to attenuate the noise at the start of the shot. When this decree was promulgated, the desire was to protect the hearing of hunters from sound damage caused by shots. In addition to hearing protection, the use of sound moderators when hunting provides multiple benefits for both the hunter and the wildlife.
But before detailing these advantages, we will answer the following question: How does a sound moderator work?
“Silencer”, “sound moderator” or even “sound reducer”, these terms all designate this accessory which is found in the muzzle of a gun and which reduces the sound of the explosion of a gunshot.
Sound moderators take the appearance of a tube acting as a decompression chamber in which the gas pressure level will gradually decrease. The gases resulting from the combustion of the powder follow the bullet in the barrel and once in the silencer, will be directed against baffles contained inside the silencer. The greater the volume of the silencer, the more baffles there are and therefore its efficiency will be better.
Be careful, however: The film industry tends to give a false image of silencers. moreover if the term "silent" is widely used in films and TV series. In reality, sports shooters and hunters mainly use the term “sound reducer”. In addition, the effectiveness of a sound reducer will be greatly influenced by the type of ball that is used. So-called “subsonic” munitions are manufactured to pass below the speed of sound. Coupled with a sound reducer, the noise of a gunshot can be reduced by 20 to 45 decibels, knowing that the detonation of a gunshot produces, depending on the caliber, a noise between 130 and 200 dB. The combination of subsonic ammunition + sound suppressor takes the sensation of a gunshot from painful to dangerous.
We will now get to the heart of this article and detail the different advantages of using suppressors when hunting.
1. The moderator saves your hearing:
The reduction in sound amplitude, in certain cases which can fall below the traumatic threshold (120 dB marks the beginning of the pain threshold), offered by sound moderators allows you to preserve your hearing capital.
2. The agreement between hunters and local residents:
Much more today with the strong media coverage of nature protection organizations, environmental movements and anti-hunting and anti-gun associations, hunters are very poorly perceived by a large part of the population. The increase in summer hunting exposes more and more people, who are outside their homes, to the explosions of gunshots more or less nearby, thus creating a climate of fear and insecurity. Sound reduction devices can improve this rather negative image of hunting that lay people have.
3. Less disturbed wildlife:
It is easier to hunt game when it lets its guards down. And it is easy to demonstrate that at the sound of gunshots, game will behave much more fearfully and sometimes even more dangerous for humans than when it is not aware of the presence of hunters in its environment. A shot made with a rifle equipped with a sound reducer will alert surrounding game less and will provide better hunting conditions.
4. Increased shooting comfort:
Certain hunting calibers such as the 30-06 Springfield or the .300 Win Mag are effective for tracking big game but have a very high recoil which can cause some discomfort during repeated shooting or at high rates. Since a sound moderator deflects, slows down and stifles the gases resulting from the combustion of the powder, this therefore leads to a reduction in the shock wave at the muzzle of the gun. By reducing the sound of the explosion but also the recoil of the weapon on the shooter's shoulder, the sound moderator provides real shooting comfort to its user.
5. An important advantage on concentration:
Whether you are a hunter or a shooter, we all know the tension we can have when shooting. This tension is due to the apprehension that the shooter has of two things: the sound of the detonation and the recoil of the weapon. Due to the fact that the sound moderator will act on its two characteristics and greatly reduce them, the shooter will have less risk of making "finger shots" (abrupt pressure on the trigger tail which has the effect of shifting the weapon on its horizontal axis and thus deflected the trajectory of the shot to the left or right).
6. Improved precision:
The sound moderator will add extra weight which will stiffen the barrel and make it less sensitive to vibrations, imperceptible to the naked eye, resulting from the passage of the warhead in the barrel.
7. Facilities to perform doubles:
The reduction in recoil offered by the sound moderators will have the effect of reducing the elevation of the gun. This will allow the hunter to reset the battery (alignment of the sights) much more intuitively and thus it will be easier to achieve doubles.
8. Safeguarding visual capital:
A shot from a firearm reveals a more or less significant flame at the muzzle depending on the caliber used and the length of the barrel (as a general rule, a strong flame at the outlet of the barrel means that the barrel was not long enough to the charge used and the powder therefore did not have time to burn completely). This flame will have two significant negative effects: On the one hand, the hunter will be slightly blinded and will therefore lose time before being able to resume aiming for a second shot. On the other hand, the flame can indicate the position of the hunter to the game and thus push him to escape in the opposite direction. The sound moderator will reduce or even eliminate this flame at the muzzle of the gun and allow the hunter to quickly launch a second shot while remaining more discreet.
9. Access to hunting territories:
On the one hand, many organizers prohibit the use of sound reduction devices during their hunting sessions in order to more easily count the number of shots fired per session. On the other hand, some require their use in order to reduce surrounding noise pollution. However, if it is easy for a hunter to dismantle his silencer and put the thread protection ring back in place, in the opposite direction it is impossible for a hunter who does not have a sound reducer to obtain one and to quickly mount it on his weapon. We can easily guess that in the imminent future, not having a sound suppressor will prevent you from accessing many hunting strongholds.
If this article has convinced you to purchase a sound reduction device for your future hunting sessions, do not hesitate to consult our “hunting sound moderators” section.
AC