Chris Barker wrote:
>
> >I can only imagine...:)
> >Anyone who will ever have heard just how much sound a normal, say 9mm,
> >hand gun already makes when it is fired, will probably look in awe at
> >how laughably small such a bullet is when compared to the 20mm,
> >27mm, and especially the 30mm rounds pictured on my page. I wonder
> >if the sound gets proportinally louder as the size of the rounds
> >(well, the casings, really) increases. Makes me wonder what the
> >sound would have been that was produced when the 120mm Howitzer
> >casing I have at home was fired. Then, to take things to the
> >extreme: I don't think I would have particularly liked being close
> >to the guns that were used on ships like the USS Missouri to send
> >the 800+ KG projectiles on a one way ticket towards the enemy. ;)
>
> The bigger guns like that have a lower muzzle velocity than say a 20
> or 30mm machine. Consequently you can almost hear the round
> travelling up the barrel with a whoosh after the bank of the charge
> firing. Then there is quite a long period of quiet as the round
> travels towards the target - on a range for a firepower demo there
> might be 3 or 4 km between gun and target.
>
The 8" howitzers I was blessed with had a max muzzle velocity of about
600 meters per second, the later, long barreled guns, were considerably
faster. The 175mm gun got over 900ms. Believe me you did not "hear the
round traveling up the barrel". The muzzle blast on the 175 firing max
charge or the 8" firing max zone charge with the special weapons
projectile could do serious damage to anyone in front of the barrel.
Just standing 50 meters back the concussion felt like a slap in the
face. The rounds from the 8" are big enough that, observing from behind
the gun, they can be seen traveling down range, particularly if firing
one of the lesser charges. These guns are impressive enough but are
popguns compared to battleship artillery! The projo on the 8" weighed a
mere 200 lbs for regular HE. The 16" naval shell weighed as much as a
Volkswagen Beattle and the muzzle velocity was higher. An artillery
shell traveling overhead makes a paculiar ripping-tearing sound that
once heard is never, ever forgotten. From behind the guns it is a kind
of hollow sizzling sound as it flys down range. Is artillery louder
than a 9mm? Of course, but you stand further back from the tubes when
firing, and it feels more physical than just a mere loud noise, however,
I have much more hearing damage from small arms and the noise of armored
vehicles than from the guns.
Jerry Liles
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