Still a good idea to use some hearing protection. OSHA standards would have you wear plugs or muffs for transient sounds of 130 dB I think.Jinx_Dragon said:This rifle does not require hearing protection, at only 120 decibels*
*sounds loud on paper, but you have to realize this is a sliding scale. A rifle at 130 decibels is twice as loud as one at 120 decibels. A .22LR fires at 140 decibels and a 30.06 rifle will fire at 160 or so decibels. Handguns are around 150 decibels, unsuppressed, so this rifle has about the same loudness as most suppressed handguns.
Still your point remains that you're looking at range and a 120 dB pop at a couple hundred yards won't even be remarkable.