What firearm (pistol or rifle) caliber makes the lowest noise?

I am looking for something to shoot in my backyard without bothering my neighbors.....





I heard rifles makes less noise because of the longer barrel. I heard .22 short are the smallest caliber so shouldn't it make the least noise?





I also heard of something called the aguila colibri .22 long rifle caliber which contains no gun powder and has 20 grains.....but they are only for handguns (revolvers and not for semi autos).





I want to know which makes less noise when shot.....a rifle with a long barrel shooting a .22 short OR a handgun (revolver) shooting an aguila colibri .22 lr?





Also I want to know.....since the aguila colibri .22 lr caliber bullet is not for semi auto pistols and only for revolvers....just want to know can it be used in a ruger 10/22 charger? its the pistols that looks like a rifle but shortened into a pistol....





10 points for best answer|||I live just inside the city limits, with plenty of space to shoot in to my back yard, please no comments on my safety. I use CCI sub-sonic hollow points for varmint control. they sound like a loud cap gun, but i never sit out there and run through a box at a time, just one or two shots. my neighbors know i do this but I still don't want to draw attention. oh yea in a ruger 10-22 and they cycle the action fine|||the quietest cartridge I could think of would be the .22 bb cap, basically a .22 caliber ball seated in a percussion cap, the ball doesn't even break 700 fps from what I heard, so it's likely the quietest cartridge in the world, especially if you'd use a silencer, would just sound like a pellet gun due to the firing pin.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22_BB


in this picture, the .22 LR is the middle right, the .22 short is the middle left and .22 bb caps on each side.


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ICuLB148bJU/SE鈥?/a>|||Stay away from the Aquila ammo. I use it in my standard 10/22 and have nothing but misfires with it. I also grouped about 10 different brands of ammo in my gun. Aquila was the worst. CCI minimags had the smallest group.





For fun, I shoot CCI CB caps in my 10/22. It's a 22 long with a primer charge only. Very quiet. Won't cycle the gun though. Cabela's sells it. Velocity is around 900 fps.|||Just get a pellet gun. Shooting a firearm within 200m of a residence or City road is illegal.|||Illegal to shoot ANY firearm in you back yard within the city limits.|||.22 CB Cap. Great for urban hunting.|||doesn't matter how quiet is it safe to shot in your back yard?|||Aguila also makes Super Colibri, which is a powderless .22 designed for use in rifles. I shoot these in my house, and the noise from the firearm is less than that of a spring-pistol air pistol. You literally can't hear the shot in an adjacent room!





I have 2 rifles that I use with the Super Colibri. One is a single-shot bolt action. The other is a Henry lever action. Henry rifles are designed to work with both long and short .22 cartridges. I can put 20 shells in the tube and have a lot of fun with my indoor shooting gallery!





Even the Super Colibri will not operate a semi auto.





Also, before you try loading multiple rounds in any gun, make sure that the action was designed to cycle the short cartridges. You can end up with a nasty jam otherwise.





A rifle with the Super Colibri is far quieter than a handgun with Colibri. It is the quietest combination I have found so far without resorting to a sound suppressor.





Super Aguila is much quieter than CCI's CB, btw, I have both, shoot both, and promise you that there is no comparison. CB sounds like a gunshot, Super Aguila sounds like a whisper.|||If it was safe, and legal, to discharge a firearm in your back yard - why worry about noise?





The Ruger 10/22 rifle and Charger pistol are designed to operate with 22 long rifle cartridges only. Yes, you can hand load a CB cap, short or long, but, it will not eject or load a second round automatically.





What you want are called CB caps. These are the quietest rouds in 22.





FYI, nothing stops you from removing pulling the bullet of a 22 carefully, dumping the powder into your hand, and putting back 30% - just slide the brass across the power and grab some, but, not all. You then manually insert the projectile into the chamber, and then the brass. This is the quick and dirty way to make a 22 quiet. You do run the off chance of getting a bullet stuck in the barrel, so, have a cleaning rod handy - used to do this all the time as a kid. Never got a round stuck in the barrel.





Good luck.|||actually the longer the barrel the more noise it will make because of the slow powder burn and pressure build up behind the bullet.





.22 cb's have the least noise and velocity so they are safe. however no semi auto will be able to cycle them so you will need either a revolver or bolt action rifle





keep in mind though, in most municipalities it is a felony to discharge a firearm within city limits, or to discharge into a municipalitie





most lr's will still have a sonic crack from breaking the sound barrier, so to eliminate that you need subsonic ammo or shoot cb shorts. but still no semiauto can cycle them