Question about Noise Suppression

[gunDriller]

Question #1 -

What is the Largest Caliber for which Noise Suppression is effective at 100 Yards ?

e.g. the closest neighbor is 100 yards away. You find yourself needing to defend against a Home Invasion Robbery or Assault of some kind. You want to deal with it, without alarming neighbors who might call the police, making a situation that is under control 100 times worse.

That means using Noise Suppression.

The Official noise suppressors and the "Oil Can Filter" noise suppressors both seem adequate in the videos we've posted here. They seem to take the BOOM'ing sound of the gun and make it sound more like the click of a dead hard drive, except loud.

But I'm thinking that's only true up to a certain size.

I have the impression that Noise Suppression works for a "long cartridge" 9 mm - something longer than a 9 mm Luger.

But not for a .50 caliber.

Where does the suppressor lose its ability to mask the sound ? .308 Winchester ? .357 Magnum ?

[horseshoe3]

As long as you have the can volume to let the gas expand and drop to a low pressure before it gets to atmosphere, you can suppres any cartridge. However, a can big enough to capture all the gas from a .50 BMG would probably be too big to be practical. Also, the baffles have to be spaced close enough to always have at least one over the bullet as it passes through. Otherwise, high pressure gas can get ahead of the bullet and cause problems.

Everyone who has tried a suppressor says the sonic crack is the problem and you must use subsonic ammo. I've never heard a suppressed weapon in person, so I don't know how lod the crack is. I'd be very interested to find out. As long as you are going to stay subsonic, you want the biggest, heaviest bullet you can cram into the case to get more energy out of your limited load.

[midnight rambler]

The .300 Blackout is particularly well suited for suppressed applications.

A fellow I knew who has since passed on was a Class II manufacturer and he manufactured very nice cans, one he called the Uno which was adaptable to various applications. I heard him shoot a .30-'06 through one of his Uno cans one night in his backyard and there was definitely a sonic crack but otherwise it was relatively quiet.

[horseshoe3]

What does a sonic crack sound like from a .30-06? Is it as loud as an unsuppressed .22LR? Same type of sound as a gunshot or different?