I don't have a GSR (yet...working on that...), but I do have an AR10 with an 18" Noveske barrel and a Smith Enterprises Vortex flash hider. 18" is closer to the 16.5" of the GSR than it is to the 26" of my .308 Remington 700. I "perceive" the AR10 to be a little bit louder than the R700, but not a LOT louder. It really isn't that big of a difference, or that big of a deal. I "perceive" magnum chambered rifles to be "MUCH" louder than either of my .308s, barrel length notwithstanding, but again, it just isn't that big of a deal.
Not too long ago, I was at a "Silencers are Legal" event at Elm Fork Shooting Range in Dallas when someone nearby lit off a bolt rife chambered in .50 BMG. Everyone was acting like the fires of hell were about to be unleashed. Yes, it was loud.....I was standing about 10-15' away—but it wasn't as bad as I
thought it was going to be.
Not only is the noise and/or recoil of a rifle often overstated, I think we psyche ourselves into thinking it is going to be something worse than it really is. Not too long ago, I let a friend of mine fire my R700, and it was the first time he had shot a centerfire bolt rifle. He perceived it to be a cannon. In contrast, I've fired easily several thousand rounds of .308 by now through rifles I've owned, including two bolt rifles, and M1A, and an AR10, and it just doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. It's all about how much we accustom ourselves to what it is we're doing.
The guys who eat a steady diet of .375 H&H Magnum?....now
they're crazy.
