Did a little informal testing yesterday.

Pulled out one of my earplugs while my wife was shooting the 9mm carbine on steel. Outdoors and a little windy.

Definitely doesn't even seem as loud as a .22 pistol.

In fact, the sound of her hitting steel was louder than the carbines report.

I've also noticed as the shooter, I tend to hear buffer-spring making more noise than anything else.

Sort of a puh-squish...

:-)

Mike