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Quiet Rimre Shooting Without a Suppressor, by

M.B.
Friday, Nov 23, 2012
Many people have learned much of what they "know" about rearms from the movies.
This includes the devices commonly known as "silencers." Even the name is
misleading. A sound suppressor does not silence a rearm completely in most cases.
What it does do is reduce the noise level while greatly reducing the muzzle blast and
ash. Sound suppressors have been in use for over 100 years. Until the National
Firearms Act of 1934, people in the United States could buy sound suppressors in gun
stores or even hardware stores. Sound suppressors are now heavily regulated in the
U.S. and in many countries. Curiously, however, some nations place few restrictions
on sound suppressors or even require their use, in order to reduce the "noise
pollution" associated with target shooting and hunting.
Legal purchase of a sound suppressor in the United States is administered by the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). Before the purchase
can be made, the person must undergo the application process, which includes paying
a $200 tax and undergoing a criminal background check. Some purchasers are
surprised to nd that sound suppressors in the US are often very expensive -- in many
cases exceeding the cost of the rearm they are to be used with. In some states -including California, Hawaii, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and some others -- sound
suppressors are completely banned for ordinary citizens. In states that allow
suppressors, there may be purchase requirements in addition to those required by the
federal government.
Purchasing a sound suppressor will be seen by some preppers as a violation of
OPSEC. Suppressors are also likely to draw unwanted attention if used at a public
range. Additionally, they are bulky and add weight to a rearm, and their width can
block the view through the sights of some rearms. Adding a sound suppressor to my
favorite squirrel rie would make it much less fun to carry in the woods, even if it
didn't block the sights.
SILENCE IS GOLDEN
On the other hand, the ability to shoot with less noise has several advantages. In
addition to allowing early-morning shooting at urban or suburban ranges without
disturbing nearby neighbors, a quiet rearm is a wonderful tool for training. New
shooters are often intimidated by the loud noises associated with rearms, and this
can contribute to inching.
If the suppression reduces the sound suciently, hearing protection may be deemed
unnecessary. This means greater comfort, especially for those who complain of
discomfort caused by ear plugs or other hearing protection. A quieter range can also
be a safer range, as range master commands are more easily heard by shooters and

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spectators. Eye protection, however, must always be worn whenever rearms are in
use. I have been struck by a ricocheting .22LR bullet that struck a hard object and
bounced straight back at me. It caused no injury, but it drove home the need to
always wear eye protection.
In the hunting camp, a quiet rearm may give the hunter the ability to take small
game near camp without alarming his or her partners or spooking larger game
animals that may be grazing in the vicinity. When hunting small game, such as
squirrels, being able to shoot with less noise may allow more animals to be taken in
one location, without a loud report to scare the animals from the vicinity.
For the survivalist, the prepper, or even the rural homesteader, there are huge
advantages to being able to shoot with less noise. On a working farm, more shots are
probably red at pests or predators than are ever red at game animals. At my
sister's ranch near Ukiah, California, I learned as a child just how many animals are
fond of free range chickens! Several years later, while working as the range master at
a Boy Scout camp outside Boonville, California, I used a quiet rie for early morning
rodent elimination near the range. The low report didn't disturb sleeping campers on
the other side of the hill.
Operational security is another very important reason to look for ways to reduce
gunshot noise. Anyone who has been outdoors during hunting season knows that rie
re can be heard for a considerable distance. A low prole is vital, especially in the
weeks or months after a calamity, when elements of the Golden Horde may be on the
move nearby.
Surprisingly, the ability to shoot quietly may be even more important to preppers who
are near suburban or urban areas. As we have seen in the wake of disasters,
sometimes people are left to fend for themselves -- without power, phone, or other
means of calling for help -- for weeks at a time. Flood waters and lack of proper
sanitation may bring rats, mice and other potential disease vectors closer to homes.
With no one to call, it would be helpful to have a way to deal with such a threat. At the
same time, the days after a disaster are not a good time to be shatter the now-quiet
neighborhood with gunshots. Even if it is a genuine emergency, such as a rabid
animal threatening your household, caution is warranted. And changing technologies
have made discretion even more important than before.
BIG BROTHER IS LISTENING
"One's a backre. Three is gunplay." - James Caan in The Way of the Gun
It's a great movie line, but it's no longer the case. A single gunshot used to be a
transitory event: a loud noise that could be mistaken for reworks, a board being
dropped, or something else. People would tend to perk up, and if the noise wasn't
repeated, they would forget about it. In many urban areas, a single gunshot didn't
even warrant a call to the police, and there was little chance of pinpointing its origin
if they were called. In my neighborhood in Oakland, California in the 1980s, gunre at
night was a common sound, and we rarely saw a police car coming to investigate
unless someone was hit and 9-1-1 was called. Now, however, cities like Oakland are
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using new technologies, such as microphones on cell phone towers, utility poles, or
rooftops to record, identify and quickly triangulate the location of a gunshot ("Shot
Spotter" - WIRED Magazine, March 2007). With the relaxation of restrictions, drones
may soon join the ranks of urban listeners.
Once a gunshot is identied and located, police are alerted by the system and can be
given an exact street address and the time of the gunshot. During a grid-up
emergency, one could imagine that authorities would continue to rely on gunshot
location networks. It could make for an ugly situation if you dispatch a rabid skunk
while cleaning up after a hurricane, only to have the National Guard show up, looking
for a possible sniper.
ALTERNATIVES
Over the years, I've had a number of people ask me about alternatives to rearms for
pest elimination and small game hunting. The tools asked about have included
airguns, bows and arrows, crossbows, blowguns, slingshots, slings, and even darts
and thrown knives. Some of these -- particularly airguns -- can be quite eective, but
all have their own limitations. Some stray into the realm of fantasy (slings and
throwing weapons).
Modern airguns can be powerful, insanely accurate, and are sized for adults.
Unfortunately, some of them are also loud enough to cause troubles of their own.
None of the high-quality airguns are inexpensive, and they are somewhat specialized
tools. One of the quieter air ries, however, could serve for quiet pest elimination and
for practice. Once the initial investment is made, further costs are not prohibitive.
Pellets can be bought by the thousands, and quality airguns last a long time and are
not maintenance-intensive.
Blowguns can be very accurate within their limits, but they are a short-range
proposition and lack stopping power. They are also banned in California -- and
probably in some other jurisdictions. Bows and crossbows seem rather clumsy for
dealing with an animal in the yard or garden, and short-range shots in that
environment will be destructive to arrows and bolts. Additionally, most people lack
the skill level to make this a viable choice: a limitation which also applies to
slingshots. Of course, a skilled shooter with a slingshot can be very impressive. I've
seen small game animals dropped with a .38 round ball from a slingshot as though
they'd been hit between the eyes with a hammer. Of all the non-gun weapons, a
quality slingshot is probably the most practical, provided the shooter takes the time to
acquire the necessary skill.
QUIET RIMFIRE AMMUNITION
The ideal solution for many of us would be using a rearm that we are already
procient with, but to somehow make the gun quiet on demand. Special rimre
ammunition renders a long-barreled .22 rie nearly silent without any muzzle device,
special permit or other trouble. The handling qualities of the rie are unaected, and
there is no suppressor tube to intrude into the sight picture. I have found this special
ammo useful for pests and for training without the need for hearing protection.
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The ideal rie for quiet rimre shooting has a barrel length of 24 inches or longer. I
have experimented with other barrel lengths. It came as a surprise to nd that a
22-inch barrel with quiet rimre ammo was signicantly louder than the same
ammunition out of the longer barrel. Generally, the shorter the barrel, the louder the
report will be, but the sound of the shot will still be quieter than standard .22LR high
velocity ammunition.
Semiauto ries may not cycle with quiet ammunition, as it generates less energy than
regular ammo. In this case, of course, the action can be manually cycled between
shots. Some quiet ammo, due to the overall length of the rounds, may also have issues
in feeding from a magazine.
I have experimented with two types of quiet rimre ammunition in particular. There
are other choices available, but the two types looked at here would be a good starting
point. Every rimre rie is a law unto itself: what shoots accurately in my rie may
not do so in yours, and vice versa. You should be ready to try dierent types of
ammunition until you nd one that shoots accurately in your rie. Fortunately, rimre
ammo is inexpensive and is not particularly hard to nd. I've even seen Quiet-22
ammo (described below) in Wal-Mart recently, alongside some .22 Short loads that I
plan to try out soon.
CCI .22 CB LONG
The CCI .22 CB Long round was designed to overcome shortcomings of the various
.22 BB Cap (Bulleted Breech Cap), .22 CB Cap (Conical Ball Cap) and .22 Short
loadings. These rounds oered low noise and reduced velocity, but their short lengths
aected feeding, in addition to possible chamber fouling issues (discussed below).
CCI combined the .22 Long case (which is the same length as the Long Rie case)
with a light, 29-grain solid-point bullet (which was a normal weight for the Long, back
when the round was popular).
The CCI .22 CB Long round contains a small powder charge, to produce a lower
muzzle velocity than standard .22 ammunition. With the light bullet, its loaded length
is a little shorter than regular .22LR rounds. It feeds reliably in some actions, but may
have issues with others. You need to try it in your own rearm to see if it feeds
consistently. Its light powder charge is not strong enough to work the action in most
semiauto rearms.
The advantage of the CB Long becomes evident when you re it. From a barrel of 24
inches or longer, the report is quieter than the sound of the bullet hitting the target.
Even indoors or at a range with a roof and dividers between ring stations, the noise
is so low that hearing protection is not needed (although eye protection is always
necessary). It is quieter than many high-powered air ries, and the report does not
sound like a gunshot.
From shorter barrels, the noise level increases. It is still much quieter than .22LR
high-velocity ammunition, but it is loud enough to carry over short distances. As
barrel length decreases, the noise level increases. My suspicion is that all of the
powder is burned, even when the round is red in shorter barrels. The longer barrel
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likely provides room for the gases to expand, so that the residual pressure is reduced,
with a corresponding reduction in report when the gas is released by the exit of the
bullet. In shorter barrels, the higher gas pressures increase the noise level. Even in
short-barreled youth carbines, however, the .22 CB Longs oer a gentler report than
one nds with regular .22 ammunition. A pair of foam ear plugs is adequate ear
protection, and people a short distance from the shooter will not experience
discomfort.
I have experienced very good accuracy out to 25 yards with the CCI .22 CB Longs,
and the bullets hit harder than you might think. I have killed a number of very large
rats with this ammo -- with head shots -- and have no complaints about its killing
power on rodents. The 29-grain bullet is much heavier than the airgun pellets that
many shooters use on rodents and similar-sized small game, although the muzzle
velocity will likely be lower than that of an airgun meant for hunting.
CCI QUIET-22
A newer round from CCI is the Quiet-22, which uses a 40-grain bullet and looks like a
regular .22LR cartridge. The Quiet-22 round seems to feed very well in repeating
actions, although it will probably not have enough pressure to operate a semiauto.
Like the CB Long round, CCI decided to use a round-nose, solid-point bullet. This
looks like a good choice, in that the velocity advertised on the box is 710 feet per
second -- probably not enough for expansion with a hollow-point bullet.
The Quiet-22 quickly became one of my favorite ammunition choices for use in my
Stevens 86C. This bolt action has a long barrel and is very quiet with the CCI Quiet-22
ammo. Quiet-22 feeds reliably from the tubular magazine and is only slightly louder -to my ears -- than the CB Long cartridge. The bullet strike is still the loudest sound. I
can shoot in the early morning at a suburban range without complaints from anyone
in nearby houses. Even someone in the parking lot of the range would not likely hear
the shots!
Buy some of this ammunition, and I believe you will like it as much as I do. I liked it so
much, that after trying it, I bought two cases (2,000 rounds) of the stu! The CCI
Quiet-22 load does most of the things that I use a .22 rie for. It just does them with
less noise.
OTHER CHOICES
There are other types of ammunition intended for quiet shooting, such as the Aguila
Colibri and SSS (Super Subsonic Sniper) rounds. I would encourage anyone looking
for a way to shoot quietly and accurately to buy a few boxes and give them a try. As
most of us know, every .22 is unique, and it's impossible to predict with any certainty
which type of ammo will be best in a particular gun. Variables such as barrel length,
twist rate, bore diameter, chamber dimensions and other variables can greatly aect
how ammunition performs in that rearm. The Aguila SSS, for example, has a very
heavy (60 grain), long bullet that may perform best with a fast riing twist for greater
stability. I have heard a wide variety of reactions to it, in terms of accuracy. Some love
it, and some hate it, but you should decide for yourself with your rie.
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Don't forget the traditional "low-noise" rounds: the .22 BB Cap, .22 CB Cap, and the
.22 Short. The rst two may be hard to nd nowadays, and the truly tiny case length
of the BB and CB Cap cartridges probably won't permit them to feed in repeating
actions. They can be single-loaded directly into the chamber of the rie, however, and
they generally have little or no powder charge, making them very quiet for practice,
training and plinking. The .22 Short can still be found on gun store shelves and even
in Wal-Mart. It will probably be quieter than regular .22LR ammo, especially in
long-barreled ries.
You may hear that short-cased ammunition will cause problems in ries chambered
for the .22LR cartridge. Most of this is probably due to ries that were red
extensively with short-cased ammo and not cleaned properly. Most of us are not likely
to use huge quantities of .22 Short ammunition, but if we make a point of scrubbing
the chamber afterwards, it should not be an issue.
One point about the .22 Short: like all the cartridges discussed here, it should be
treated like a full-power .22 high-velocity round in terms of safety practices. Don't
forget that the .22 Short was originally a defensive round (loaded with black powder)
and that it was carried for that purpose by soldiers in the 1860s in the Civil War. None
of the rounds in this article can be treated casually. All of them could be be lethal if
mishandled. All normal safety rules must apply.
CONCLUSIONS
For any who are wondering whether they should bother with quiet rimre shooting, I
ask: Why not? If you're like me, much of your rimre shooting with ries falls under
training, teaching, and plinking, and these tasks might be done just as well with quiet
ammo as with full-power stu, only with less noise.
Quiet rimre ammo truly shines in use with young or novice shooters. Although there
is almost no recoil with standard bulk pack .22LR HVHP ammo, the noise level is high
enough to induce inching, especially if the shooter is too small for the ear mus to t
properly.
For hunting or discrete pest elimination, these rounds will do the job on rodents with
good bullet placement. I would hesitate to go after anything larger than a rabbit,
however, unless there was a pressing need for both meat and keeping a low noise
prole. For a suspected rabid animal that was much larger, like a dog, I would much
prefer a centerre carbine round to the body, to stop the animal as quickly as possible
while preserving the animal's head for later testing.
I recommend Quiet-22 as a starting point for your explorations into quiet rimre
shooting. With its 40-grain bullet and Long Rie case, it should feed in most actions,
and the standard-weight bullet should be compatible with the riing in most rearms.
It should also provide more killing power against small animals than .22 Short or .22
Long cartridges. Quiet-22 seems to be fairly easy to nd, and it cost me about ve
cents a round from Midway USA -- not much more than "bulk pack" .22 LR
ammunition from Wal-Mart.

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Be careful with all of these loads! Treat them as you would any rearm ammunition
and follow all safety rules.
Copyright 2005-2012 James Wesley, Rawles - SurvivalBlog.com All Rights
Reserved

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