How loud is the M4 and M16 and AK-47 are they both equally loud?

Answer 1

If the M4 is nothing but a shorter version (carbine) of the M16 jungle rifle (assault rifle), then it'll be abit louder for the rifleman; example: when firing the same indentical .22 cartridge's (a cartridge from the same 50 round box), a .22 caliber pistol will hurt your ears, but a .22 caliber rifle will NOT hurt your ears. Another words, if the shooter places one .22 round into a pistol and fires it, it'll hurt his ears, when he takes out the second round from the very same box of ammo and loads it into a rifle, it won't hurt his ears. Shorter barrels are louder.

The M16 was designed for jungle warfare; that is to say, throwing lead fast in great amounts (as GIs in Vietnam sometimes stated, "spray and pray"). In South Vietnam, jungle vines, leafs, branches, etc. were often TOUCHING your rifle's barrel, magazine, or trigger housing. Visibility was zero, the only thing in front of you was leafs and branches and vines, so when you fired your "jungle rifle" all those leafs, vines, and branches blew out of the way like a shotgun blast blew them away. If you fired an M14 rifle thru the brush, if seemed like you were firing BLANKS, the jungle was still there! So the fast firing M16 was much more psychologically comforting than the M14 rifle was. The M16's bullet fired so fast, over 3,000 fps, that they sounded like a sharp crack, definitely HURTING your ears when fired.

AK's seemed to fire more slowly, seemingly sluggish like, they had a low "crack" to them, more like a "bang". When the NVA fired their AK's and GI' returned fire with their M16's, you could definitely tell which party of men were where. Even their Chicom stick grenades sounded differently; US grenades went off with a tremendous roar (like a 60mm mortar round); chicom grenades went off with a simple "pop."

The next time you cook up a batch of popcorn, and they start popping...that's about what a typical Vietnam firefight sounded like, without the grenades and mortars going off.

Answer 2

Yes, they have a distinctive sound, especially the AKM - most any combat vet of any conflict from 1960 onwards can attest to this, from Vietnam to Rhodesia to the Balkans to Iraq.

Out of what you selected, the M4 would be the loudest. At a distance of 800 meters, all of them would be audible and easily recognised as weapons fire, but they wouldn't be particularly loud.

Answer 3

The AK47 fires a larger round which requires more powder to be used to propel it. Additionally, the 7.62x39mm M1943 cartridge was originally intended for a longer barreled weapon (the SKS rifle), so a fair amount of powder is not burned before it leaves the barrel. The 5.45x39.5 cartridge was designed specifically for that type of weapon, and is more efficient in that regard. All in all, the AK47/AKM would be the louder of the two, although the difference decibel wise would probably be a bit difficult to discern just by ear.

They would be fairly comparable to the M16 and M4 as far as decibel ratings go. A typical gunshot emits between 140 and 180 decibels.

Answer 4

The exact decibel level will vary considerably depending on WHERE you measure the sound (in front of, to the side, behind, right ear/left ear), and of the scale you set on the audiometer- A.B.C, slow or fast weighting, etc. Remember that the noise is classed as an impact noise, and thus is not measured the same as continuous noise, nor is hearing protection against impact noise rated the same way. Both are louder than the OSHA standard for "do not exceed" impact noise.

Answer 5

A gunshot ranges from 140 - 180 dB. Of the weapons listed, the loudest would be the M240, which fires the heaviest cartridge. There are three barrel lengths which are used with the M240 series machine guns - 17", 19", and 21", and the 17" barrel configuration would be the loudest of the three.

Answer 6

In 1983 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did a study of the decibels of various weapons (see related links). Here are their findings related to 7.62mm and 5.56 mm weapons (all configurations of weapons for each ammunition were about the same):

7.72mm - 150 db for the person firing the weapon

5.56mm - 154 db for the person firing the weapon

Conclusion: An M16 is slightly louder than an AK-47.