• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.123-132
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• 2009

Civil petitions and law suits against the military rifle shooting noise have been increased because many military shooting ranges are located near civilian residential area. In order to solve the noise problems, military have devised various methods. In this study, propagation properties of rifle shot through atmosphere were investigated. The military rifle shooting noise level at 5m from muzzle was between $l14{\sim}120dB$ in all directions. The noise level loom both backward and sideward away from system firing range consisting lines of 8 shooting locations were 90dB, when shots were all fired within 10 seconds. At present some of military bases established sound barriers, muzzle enclosures, silencers, and indoor shooting ranges to reduce noises and these prevention methods can reduce noise by $5{\sim}20dB,\;5{\sim}9dB,\;5{\sim}13dB,\;40{\sim}50dB$, respectively. Even though indoor shooting range has the best performance, it requires very expensive construction cost and has short length between target and shooter. In comparison, muzzle enclosure is cheap, but because it is installed in fixed position it can only be used in one shooting position. Therefore a commander should select appropriate methods to reduce military rifle shooting noise considering distance from residential area to the range, mission of military training, budget, etc.