I don’t need the flash suppressor for hunting and was thinking of removing it to shorten length. But what happens to the noise level at the user end? Does it go up or down?
I don’t think it will make any difference.
If your going to remove it, I’d get a thread protector if you can find one in case you want to reinstall it. It might not be worth the effort.
My observation has been that where there’s flash there is increased noise… that is, the burn that causes the flash does create additional sound. When we used to get the occasional Mini-14 in a class with no FH, they tended to be louder when flash was present-- so, ammo dependent… so, maybe it was just louder ammo.
Personally, I’d keep it on there for hunting to protect the crown should you drop it. I don’t know about you, but if I dropped it, there would of course be a stone that damaged the crown, I’m lucky like that.
Can’t comment on noise.
I briefly used an M&P 10 without the factory MD on it and only a thread protector. I didn’t have a dB meter along for capturing actual data but I perceived it to be louder, along with greater felt recoil, than it did with the OEM MD installed.
This. I share mega’s luck. It’s cheap insurance.
It stands to reason that the muzzle device directs the sound as directs the gasses and my experience supports that theory. We shot one rifle with a bare muzzle and it gave off a large, roundish flash and the sound was omni directional. After we installed an A2, the flash was much smaller and how loud it sounded depended on where you stood.
In any case, it’s easy to answer the question by simply shooting the rifle and finding out for yourself
Between shooting a 16" carbine with an A2 on it and an 18" rifle with no muzzle device, the people in a nearby building at the farm thought the 18" was much louder. The building was 90 degrees to the ejection port from where I was shooting. It all seemed loud to me.
Probably related to position of shooter but I noticed a significant increase in a friends rifle (no suppressor/hider) when we were doing some barricade work. Was rather unpleasant and I remember looking over/up thinking he had just touched off a rifle with a comp on the end of it…
Looks like that’s what I’ll have to do. I may buy a sound level meter first so I can do it objectively.
Just jumping in here about sound measuring:: you’d need some really expensive professional measuring equipment to accurately measure gunshot SPL. Those cheap consumer Meters sold on-line or at Radio Shack (for home Theater setup) won’t work. (I have tried a few, don’t waste your money).
I have an extensive background in professional audio. Surplus shooter is right. One would need a medium or large diaphragm condenser microphone with enough spl capability to Not clip with 170 dB peaks. It also has to have the time resolution to not smear the peak and give a reading that is artificially low.
The radio shack meters use a dynamic Mic diaphragm, not condenser.
My plan was to do it in an open field with a cheap meter placed some distance away (in multiple directions) so it would not overload. Do you think that would give a relevant result? Another thought was to skip the meter purchase and use my Tascam digital recorder some distance away, then look at the resulting signal on an audio edit program to see what made the highest peaks.
You could easily assume that it is since there is nothing “disturbing” the path of the hot gasses raipdly dispersing and cooling them as they expand in the open atmosphere. Now whether one would be able to tell difference is doubtful. Someone with the proper equipment could meter them in the near future but for your purposes could be a waste of time and resources.
This^. You can get a thread protector at ADCO or Ebay should you so desire. It’s been some time but I don’t recall any substantial difference in noise level with or without an A2 flash suppressor.
FWIW
YMMV