When fired from a rifle the Quiet-22 was no louder than a pellet gun. 22 LR sound like a rocket launcher by comparison. The sound of Quiet-22 was so much softer that it made the. 22 LR ammo, and the difference in sound was staggering.
So does it all work? Well, the most obvious question is how loud is it? I lack the equipment to measure sound with anything other than my ears, but I shot the ammo out of several rifles and handguns, alternating with CCI standard. That ammo developed a reputation as a good game stopper. This is not new technology, as CCI used it in its Quick-Shock ammo a few years ago. The idea is that three projectiles will do more damage than a single, round-nose bullet. This is a hollow-point bullet that is designed to expand slightly and then separate into three segments on impact. So CCI added a “Segmented HP” bullet into the Quiet-22 line. This is perfect ammo for target shooting, but for urban pest control a 40-grain lead bullet at low velocity is not a good “stopping” cartridge. It’s also low enough that the neighbors probably won’t even notice you are shooting. The CCI Quiet-22 ammo creates 68 decibels at the shooter’s ear, well below the threshold for hearing damage. The louder the sound, the more damage it causes. Hearing loss occurs when your ears are exposed to continuous noise above 85 decibels or impulse noise (like a gunshot) above 140 decibels. A gunshot might be as loud as 170 decibels. Normal conversation is approximately 60 decibels heavy city traffic is about 85 decibels.
Sound is measured in units called decibels. CCI says it’s a 75 percent reduction in noise over conventional ammo. The Quiet-22 uses a standard LR case and bullet size, but its powder charge is engineered to produce very low noise. 22 Long Rifle ammo features a 40-grain bullet fired at a subsonic, 710 fps. With today’s expanding population, the latter problem continues to grow, so more and more shooting ranges are dealing with noise-complaint issues.ĬCI addressed that problem in at least one category with its Quiet-22 ammo. Permanent hearing loss and upset neighbors are two examples. One universal truth about any firearm is that it makes noise, and noise can create a bunch of problems.