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It's been a while since I tinkered with the technical aspects of anything shooting wise, and I am tempted to spend £10 on one of these sound meters from Lidl:

https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/p/diy/parksid ... ter/p33713

I would be interested under real world condtions, probably starting with the .22Lr to see the difference between high velocity, muzzle brake and different types of moderator.

I have been a bit cynical when people talk about their .22's being so quiet with subsonics "you can hear the firing pin" or indeed this lovely anschutz which is "silent"

https://www.guntrader.uk/guns/rifles/an ... 1202703010

Has anyone on here had any findings with sound meters in the past?

do you have a smartphone? download an app and try it out

I do have a smartphone, but I also have a weakness for buying budget tools that I will rarely use from Aldi and Lidl!

Me too..........only this one's been used frequently for the past couple of years..........cost £11........

Pete

I wouldn't be expecting a lot of accuracy for that kind of money but it would be better than a smartphone app. For a tenner, it's probably worth a punt.
If accuracy IS important to you then calibrated sound level meters can be hired on a daily basis and this is a route you could go down.
Like yourself, I find that the words 'quiet' and 'silent' when used to describe firearm related noise can be very subjective

LL

I have seen (maybe heard) one of these in action....umm,,, I found using my own ears more accurate because of the possible background sounds present that need to be filtered out, but it does work . Its similar to a toy plastic gun that fires plastic bullets that i would give to my 5yr old son and he would be well chuffed with it. comparing that to a real gun... I guess it's the old motto 'you get what you pay for'!!

Its important to be consistent with how you measure sound - distance from the source, angle, height above the ground etc etc all need to be the same from test to test.

I do like the Lidl fun stuff like the sound meter. As an aside, my father gave me a couple of Lidl digital verniers maybe 10 years ago. (They were a fiver each) They felt a bit rougher in operation than my Mitutoyo versions, however when it came to accuracy they gave exactly the same measurements when tested using a range of slips. Christel uses one to this day for measuring envelopes for posting and the other is probably in a drawer somewhere. The only downside I could see is they turn off after a set time. Otherwise they are spot on.

Would I use one myself? No, however I seldom use a vernier anyway.

DL. wrote:I do have a smartphone, but I also have a weakness for buying budget tools that I will rarely use from Aldi and Lidl!

Don’t we all, brother, don’t we all...!!!

Are these sounds meters any good for measuring a gunshot, I would have thought the impulse would be shorter than they would cope with?