What Does It Sound Like To Get Shot At? Bullet Sounds Near & Far 

When I was a kid, me and my family were fishing at an arroyo in South Texas, when we started hearing this weird buzzing sound going right above our heads, followed by a popping noise. My dad, who had been a Marine in Korea, yelled at us to get down, and then started screaming at someone about 100 yards down the bank from us. But they either didn't hear him, or were ignoring him...until he started shooting back with his 1911 .45 ACP., kicking up dirt plumes on the bank, just in front of them. Needless to say, that got their attention, and they stopped shooting. We later came to realize that they were shooting a .22 at the water, and the projectiles were ricocheting and tumbling over our heads, making the whirring sound of the tumbling bullets. That is a sound I will never forget. Man, I miss my dad.

When I was in Afghanistan in my first firefight I remember my first thought on hearing incoming rounds was "Holy shit Battlefield got the cracks right!"

That one round from the M1 was extremely close to them. Wow! A legitimate "danger close" moment right there.

7.62x51mm is LOUD at 100 yards! I got to experience that during a training session for our department's sniper/observer team. One of the team members was having some issues with his M1A. We had gone down range to check targets and his shots were all over the place. He went back up to the firing line, while we stayed at the targets, just to hear what .308 sounded like when you're on the receiving end of it. We got behind the 10 feet tall berm the targets were mounted on and he cut loose. I can tell you , it was painfully loud, and you absolutely could not tell where the shots were coming from. At that distance, the bullet and the report arrived pretty much simultaneously, so there was no gun shot report. It humbles you,

“I have served, not necessarily in the military. I have received discounts” Charlie is great, a national treasure really.

Its really absurd how far technology has progressed, that we can have Garandthumb with and without balaclava in the same shot interacting.

12:52 - That scary sound is because the 30hate round tumbled on the terrain but didn't lose enough speed to go subsonic. You heard a lower pitched snap and the whizz, which means the round was covering more "area" than what it was supposed to, therefore, slowed down and start cutting the air irregularly.

I didn't think bullet sounds in games would have been so realistic, cause I recognize all these sounds and have never been to a shooting range before

Former Combat Medic here, and I have had a 7.62x54 round come so close to my head, that I heard the crack and the buzz of the bullet and felt the “breeze” from the shockwave on my face. For everyone talking about how they would freak out, jus remember this one thing; if you hear it, you’re golden. You don’t hear the one that gets you.

Charlie looks soooo uncomfortable getting shot at whereas mike seems right at home 😂

Highly familiar with 5.56 sound, as being a Marine veteran...for rifle qualification we literally do what these guys did in the "pits" have to bring targets up and down, so yeah that 5.56 at max 500 yards is very peculiar sound. When it's even closer it's much louder overhead. I've experienced 7.62 as well, but wasn't in a training environment for that. I hope the Marine Corps never gets rid of Marines having to work the pits, because it builds character, and you find out what it sounds like to get shot at when you're in cover.

Many years ago I was hunting on my property. I was sitting in a treestand and someone was hunting across the creek and probably about .15 miles away. They shot and a stray bullet hit the tree right in front of me. The sound of it all was so scary. I will never forget the bullet sound whizzing past me and hitting the tree.

The juxtaposition of Mike and Charlie when rounds came overhead, was pure. Highly enjoyable collaboration presented here.

My grandfather fought in Korea. I was sighting in my deer rifle with him 20 years ago at 200 yards. I took the first shot at the paper target and he walked down (to the target) to see where it hit. After he saw the hit he moved 10-15 feet to the side of the target and yelled at me to take another shot. I looked at him like he was crazy and yelled “hell no”. My Grandfather laughed and yelled back, “Kid if you only knew my life at you age.” I was in my early 20’s then. I lost my grandfather to cancer 6 years ago. He was/is my hero.

Charlie really is one of a kind! Great video with a great cast, Garand Thumb never disappoints!

I just got an ACOG. Best optic I've ever used. I like the tight eye relief, as it's very easy to tell when you are locked in just right.

I've been a Range Control Officer (RCO) at several military bombing ranges. You are always in a fortified, fully enclosed room with ballistic glass on all 4 sides at the top of a tower while directing and monitoring aircraft and providing their bombing scores. Though you are 3000+ feet from the target, the sound and pressure wave from a MK-82 (500 pounder) or MK-84 (2000 pounder) will rattle the tower, as will the 20mm (F-4, F-16 Vulcan Cannon at 100 rounds per second) or 30mm (A-10 GAU-8 at 30rps) gunbursts, which have to be heard to be believed! I would often step outside the fortified room on to the walkway with my headset in hand to take it all in, and while the noise is very impressive, you haven't really lived until you've actually seen the pressure wave front from a 500 or 2000 pound blast coming straight at you and gasped as it passes through your body like a ghost... Gotta love bombs and bullets! Miss those days! Cheers!

I can answer from experience and I know many will relate: it’s the most horrifyingly exciting sensation you can ever feel. ☠️

7:26 that hand sniff... Charlie is too perfect.

I still remember the first time a 7.62 went by my face in Fallujah. Didn’t register till I sat down. Woooo what a rush!!! Thanks for bringing these sounds back to me! ♥️

Mike, Charlie, Micah and Admin together are def. the coolest quartet on RU-vid! I enjoy this type of content a lot.

The fact that Mike is like a damn kid in a candy store while he's getting shot at VS Charlie who looks like his pants are full... Well done guys! I love this channel and the fact you're doing more with the Talking Balaclava!

This popped up in my feed just now so I sub'd because these guys are characters and informative. Then I started reading comments. Reminded me of years ago I was in a bank with a takeover robbery. Shook me for quite awhile. Then FF to 2019 I was sitting in a range collecting recall governor's signatures. Went home and was on the sofa for 3 days exhausted. Didn't realize all those pops I was hearing for 7 hours was going to impact me the way it did. Forced myself to go to the range and shoot. I was soaking wet in sweat and shaking. Would like to go train with these guy for a week out there.

Yall are awesome. Middle earth needs these kinds of real life testing.

This is one of the best episodes of any gun channel i've EVER seen. I LOVE hearing the rounds cutting the air. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I’ve never been shot at but working the pits at the rifle range was cool hearing all the rounds go overhead. It’s such a strange sound.

I love the little sound effects on this video whoever edited this thank u I love it 🎉

I am someone who has not served, so this was an exceptionally informative video. I have buddies who did serve, and they always told me about their point in training where they are forced to hear gunshots above them; to actually witness it is incredible.

That garand was some shit. Charlie's point regarding the Japanese charging US lines brimming with garands and 50 cals really does make you think about how fanatical those dudes were.

8:54 Here I am expecting something serious and then comes that little morsel of comedic gold. Well done, sir. Well done.

You guys are nuts. Daum what a great idea. and I love you did this.

Damn when you introduced the AK i was 100% fully expecting "This is the Ak-47 assault rifle, the preffered weapon of our enemy. It makes a distinct sound when fired."

The rounds that "wizzed" overhead were fun, almost Hollywood. The supersonic rounds were filled with obvious hate for anything in their path, even air. But there was something just disturbing about the soft woosh of the 40mm coming overhead. Almost like you'd have too much time to contemplate what comes next.

This video and this channel will forever be in my top three of all time!

I once heard a really good saying from a friend of mine who is a sniper: "If you can hear the shot, you were not the target." With the .50cal you really demonstratet what he meant by that.

I will say, being intentionally shot at to "understand" what it's like is absolutely helpful, especially in a controlled environment. Being in the real world and being asked to remove a dangerous pest from the property, only to hear 15 minutes later, from the house, someone else firing an AR-15 towards your direction, will definitely put some warm stuff in your shorts.

I got shot by a 9mm when I was 19 and that’s one sound I’ll never forget. I got hit in my left shin which I didn’t realize at the time because my adrenaline was pumping so hard and remember the sound of the other shots that wizzed past my head as I was diving behind a big dumpster that ultimately saved my life. Luckily the POS that shot me ran out of bullets and I was able to run after that and got about 2 blocks when I started feeling a burning sensation and pain in my leg and that’s when I realized I got hit and seen that I had pissed my pants a little as well. Lol It’s definitely a scary feeling when it’s all over with and you realize just how close you were to being killed.

Thanks for the cool video guys. I hope your doin alright Charlie. Your videos give me something to look forward to. Keep it up fellas!

This was awesome to watch, great humor guys!

I was a 19E, armor crewman, at Ft Hood back in the 80's. Myself and another soldier were pulling "range duty" for another tank battalion going through gunnery quals. We were to stay in a bunker about 800m downrange. During "cold range" stops we would go out behind the berm and service a "truck target" that ran on a mini railroad track. The truck target carrier was pulled by a steel cable attached to a 1/4 ton jeep which we took turns operating. The cable was always getting stuck or something else would need attention. My buddy and I were working on the target during a supposedly cold range. As I lay on my back under the target frame tightening up things I heard what I thought were big bees or hornets above my head. I thought, "Man, we've stirred up a hornet nest or something!" I would hear the buzzing, and then a second later or so hear the report of the M85 .50 cal on the tank cupola. This happened a couple of times and then the big buzzing started punching holes in the big plywood truck target. I still remember the splinters falling. My buddy and I safely low crawled back to the bunker. The rounds were probably 6-8 feet above our heads but it was pretty scary for this PFC! Note: we started to call the range tower and yell "cease fire!".....but on second thought we felt we were now safe and regardless of who was at fault, WE would be in trouble! So, back to listening to the PRC-77 and eating our "new MRE's". Pappy

Awesome!!! I was a M777 gunner in a Field Artillery Battery in the Army and some of the coolest memories I have is when we fired as a battalion and our sister batteries were at firing points a few clicks to the rear of us and they would fire directly over top of us and let me tell you that was amazing to hear those hundred pound 155 HE rounds zipping through the air over our heads.

Best episode of anything fun related I’ve ever watched !!!!

This kind of video makes me wish I was friends with Mike lol such a knowledgeable dude and a cool video. The way he doesn’t flinch at all at these shots flying by makes it obvious he’s the kind of guy you want around if things got crazy in the world.

One of the best videos yet and I’ve been watching for years. Charlie’s comment about the M1 Garand was amazing and the delivery is impeccable

So much firearms safety being shown while breaking every rule. Amazing video, glad y'all are alive.

Bought my Primary Arms ACCS Orion second hand, had an issue with the forward lens and they performed a free lens replacement, sent it back with new dial covers and a silicone lens cover. All covered under their warranty. The fact I was not the original owner, didn't have the original box and sent it with the dial covers missing, all I can say is they exceeded my expectations much like the quality of the scope. They definitely got me as a customer for life.

Fascinating stuff. If it were possible I'd love to have this repeated with machine guns to get a feel for how caliber and rate of fire (like the MG42) affect psychological suppression

Working as a target setter on a range going from .22 to .50, I love this video. A sound not many people get to hear. The crack of the .50 BMG is insanely loud and hearing the rapport is a wild experience

I love how this channel is just pure chaos yet so informative

Awesome video, very interesting and very good information to know,👍💯%

This whole crew is awesome together but Charley has been amazing comedic relief since he started showing up

As a combat vet, you CAN definitely tell when someone is shooting At you, across you, or sporadic recon by fire. Knowing this knowledge and having delibert gauged reaction to it make all the difference in combat. "OH, wait, they're not sure where we are right now" Vs. "OH sh***! Contact this direction!" As you're gaining fire superiority.

For us who have been across the pond and hearing them shots of coming at you..its one of them feeling that cannot be explained. But I will tell you this...the rounds coming at me doesnt scare or concern me....What is scarier than that is the sound of a 120mm mortar round hitting the bottom of the tube, being launched and hearing it across the sky and the howling of the 120mm round coming in. Ill never forget that howling sound that the 120mm round makes as its coming towards you.

My car got shot up at work a couple nights ago, and it's amazing how hard it is to find examples of bullets coming AT you online. Thanks for making this, it was pretty cathartic. If you ever wanna make another, maybe put a camera and audio inside a car and shoot it up. I know that's what I REALLY wanna hear. Maybe it's just me.

Beautiful! Thank you!

Its honestly great watching Mike’s face light up when the rounds start flying over. Then admin just unloading after a while was great 😂

I think that the M1 at 500 yards was actually shot too low coming off the recoil from the previous round, and it skipped a round off of the embankment. Definitely more terrifying than simple rounds overhead.

this has to be one of the best videos i've seen by Mike pure comedy the entire time😂

love the LOTR theme going on here. Big fan of both Tolkien and your channel

You know you're really in the higher echelons of the LARP when you can't even use the full size radio on your webbing or the mic/ears on your helmet and have to bring another and hold it in your hand all day.

As a sound designer/sound fx guy, this is gold.

Great job fellas that was awesome

Excellent. Been down range for all of those but the 50 BMG.

The sheer amount of calmness, coolness, and collectiveness of Flannel Daddy, while rounds are whizzing overhead, really says something about why we love him.

Got to experience this at my range as we use raised target carriers and a dugout pits. It is interesting how you can tell the different rounds apart after awhile. Also really cool to experience suppressed subsonics.

That was a cool video. Nice job.

Love these videos

Our local rifle range has a concrete trench at 100 that we stand in to place targets. The range never goes cold under normal circumstances so when changing targets on a busy day when the lanes are full it's pretty interesting. Fun to hear all the different calibers flying by and impacting the plywood, although I have no idea which sound is a specific round.

I'd just like to point out that at 16:03 they are 1000 meters away and you're still able to hear the report of a suppressed weapon, for those that think suppressors are silencers.

This was oddly chill and entertaining

Damnit, Mike. This was a good time. God bless and happy larping!

A friend and I were at A Steel Challenge match in NC. The range has a bunch of different bays pointing in various directions, all with like 15' berms. Shots from a day behind us flew overhead, logically we knew they couldn't hit us, but it still scared the shit out of us. That whizzing sound is unforgettable.

In the marine corps the rifle range targets are manually scored in between shots. which means people get to take turns standing down range while a firing line of other marines dump hundreds of rounds right above them. It's really a crazy feeling, the snap actually gets annoying after a while.

This is one of the coolest videos I've seen

Thank you for the most satisfying videos ever forever on reply and need a part 2😂

The Mike, Charlie, Mike2 dynamic is what we needed! Also, this sounds very similar to a local range by me. The rear backstop / berm for the rifle range is basically the beginning of the sporting clay range. Rifle rounds fly over the berm all the time and that whizzing by sound is always pretty cool, but also mildly unsettling.

I remember facetiming with the wife one day when the unmistakeable crack of rounds going over head and skipping on the ground began their staccato. My wife asked what that sound was through the speaker phone, and I just non-chalantly said "oh someone is shooting at us" and I promptly got behind a T-wall. Her face was a mix of confusion and horror as I just continued to talk to her as if nothing happened. She asked if I needed to go, and I just said "nah, somebody else can take care of this one"

Ok, so I'm a amateur author who writes military science fiction and this is precisely the information I need. Please continue with more tests like this. ...safely. Obviously.

Loving the Garand noises!

You guys are cracked in the best possible way. Thanks for one of the most entertaining twenty minutes I've spent listening to anything in a very long time.

When my Marine buddy came home from Afghanistan he had a hard time adjusting to civilian life. He wanted to be able to depend on his friends the same way he was able to depends on his Marines. So we went through various training exercises, one of them was similar to this, except after having live rounds fly past your head you had to be able to identify, call out, and engage a target accurately. Some of my favorite memories honestly. You don't know how you're going to react to bullets flying past your head until you've had bullets fly past your head.

15:30 The dude on the right be shittin’ his britches lmfaoooo 😂

I just found this page and OMG I am in heaven. LOTR jokes and gun knowledge. Subbing right away!

18:00 "maybe the real ballistic test is the friends we made along the way..." This needs to be on some merch

Im amazed by the cinematography quality we have here, including equipment used and color grading. Just that makes this incredible, not even mentioning the rest yet.

Back in the 80s I was downrange during an M60 tank gunnery, operating the moving target. I was supposed to be standing in the bunker the whole time but got bored. Fun to hear the 7.62, .50 cal, and 105 rounds flying by. Did get to see a cow hit by a 105 HEAT round too. Fun times back then.

Wow great video

There are few things more terrifying than being shelled by large bore artillery

8:44 The bass boosted and earrape *CYKA BLYAD* made me laugh way too hard. The editor deserves all of the kudos possible. And the absolutely incredible commentary from everyone was also great. Amazing video!

From 1995 to 2002 I spent my summers loading clay targets into trap machines at a very popular trapshooting range in Mason, Michigan. There would be over a thousand shooters there, and they'd be shooting all day from 9am up until 10pm, and on 3, 4, or 5 day weekends depending on if there was a holiday. So I've literally heard thousands of shotgun blasts over my head during that time, most being 12 gauge. Mind you, I was in a concrete trap house that had an opening facing away from the shooters, and they were shooting bird shot most times, but the sound you hear as the shot reverberates over concrete and the hiss of the wadding as it goes by never leaves your memory! What was really a trip was when a group from a local Indian tribe reserved the field for the weekend, and I got invited since I was known to be one of the best loaders and workers. For the opening ceremony, after the playing of the American and Canadian anthems, all the chiefs, and I think their sons, would come up to the firing line shoulder to shoulder, and all would shoot the same target at the same time. We're talking 15-20 guns going off simultaneously, and of varying shotgun sizes. Now THAT was some thunder! Picking up the empty shells, most were 12ga, but I saw 20ga, and a couple .410s, but what really impressed me was the 10gauge shells! There had to be 2 guys with those, since the shells were different color and in two different places on the ground. I can't imagine how anyone would enjoy firing 10 gauge at 25 targets per trap house, and a total of 4 fields! At the end of the day, my arm would fall off at the shoulder!

One of the best Garand Thumb videos

This is by far one of the best gun channels / community / business around.. Not many are willing to make quality videos like this.

Ahhh memories. 7.62x39 is hella distinct and 7.62x54R is also distinct. Never been shot at by out 50 cal, but the DShK is close enough. On a side note, 25mm HE rounds sound wicked going over the top of you. A sick whistle. It’s very comforting knowing that they’re on your side lol.

This was a really cool video!!!

I'm pretty sure that choosing to crouch in defilade with someone, whilst rounds are coming in your direction, shows you are with a like-minded ground of friends. Whether the group mind is sane is a different matter haha. Seriously though, very interesting video. I also loved the MG42 video. That was seriously impressive and awe-inspiring. I understand what 'pinned down' really means now. No way, could I ever get out from behind that berm, and no wonder a special 'training video' had to be made to try and suppress the fear of the 'buzzsaw'!

This was awesome. There should be a part 2, maybe where multiple guns shoot at the same time or where the guys behind cover have to guess which round is being fired.

That was wild. Of all the gun channels and vids I've watched, this is the only one where you can hear all that. Not that hard to do safely I don't think, these guys are just the first to do it on camera this well. I thank them for that. I've only heard .223 fly close to me one time, and I was never in the military. Long story short, its instant anxiety lol.

This was awesome! Anyone know what plate carrier Charlie is wearing?

That garand at 500 was crazy , i must have replayed it 5 times now

You never forget the sound or rounds flying overhead, and my first exposure was pulling pits at the range.