Just how quiet could we make a large bore pistol cartridge operating from a long gun barrel for close range deer hunting? I'm thinking of something like a 44 magnum or 45 Colt in a 26-28 inch Encore or HandiRifle barrel. Load the commercially cast SSK-pattern 300 gr TCFP backwards in the case creating a bore diameter wadcutter. Use just enough fast pistol powder - WW231, Unique, or Trailboss - to get it going 850-950 fps or so. A fella could do much the same with a 45/70 barrel using 350-500 gr bullets for even more oomph. Of course one could also play this game with the 480 Ruger, 475 Linebaugh, or 500 S&W but affordable bullets are scarcer (and I already have dies, brass, and bullets for the others). So, if a fella wore his hearing protection and kept the muzzle inside the firing port of an enclosed box blind how much noise would travel out of the woods, up a hill, and across a grassy meadow half a mile to the cranky neighbor's house as we harvest whitetails?

Hey Nordrseta, I've no idea how quiet it would be, but the long barrel would definitely help.

If you try it, Single Base Powders will work better than Double Base Powders in Reduced Loads, or they have for me.

I've not tried Reversing a Bullet that size, but have tried it with some 22cal 55gr FMJs and some 35cal 148gr Hollow Base Wad Cutters. Neither did well at all. I believe I tried the 22cal loads at 100yds and the revolver loads at 25yds.

Both effectively had the Mass moved Forward and that is bad for good Accuracy.
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It appears that it would be a real game to get just the correct Balance of all the factors. For example, a Smaller Diameter Bore creates less noise, but a Larger Diameter Bore is needed to provide Adequate Bullet weight for a clean Kill at subsonic velocities.

If a person built the Blind LARGE enough, he "might" be able to have a non-attached Sound Absorbing 55gal Barrel that he could shoot through. I've no idea at all how ATF would view this device, but with my luck it would probably be Cross-Bar Hotel time. No doubt it would be a lot of hassle to get Aligned for the shot, especially if the Game was moving about just a bit.
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Huuumm, might be easier to use an accurate 308Win with a SAFE MAX Load and invite the neighbor over for some Sloppy Does.

If that doesn't work, give the neighbors kid a Drum Set for Christmas and they won't hear the shot.

#1). Because of the First Amendment, in USA silencers are controlled, not guns. In Europe anyone can buy a silencer... getting the gun is the problem... (ha, ha)... And this fights crime? Well, it keeps the politicans off the streets thinking up foolishness like this...

#2). You want the short course in silencers, stop at a junk yard and pick up a couple dozen (or less) mufflers off cars and trucks. Section them. Baffles.

#3). Yes, you can "load down." IMR used to publish a manual on paper with rifle loads for all the IMR powders listed. The 4320 loads in .22 Hornet were pretty silly, but educational.

I was shocked the first time I fired "standard velocity" .22 long rifle from a target gun. Not as loud as my pellet gun. No hearing protection needed. Now this target rifle barrel was 22 or 24 inches long...

One hippie manual of my youth claimed that a "frozen juice can" filled with metal window screen wrapped in a cylinder and a hole down the middle would silence a .22 rimfire... The other "nasty", assination, put the handgun into a box full of insulation. (Dress as a UPS carrier)... Thump and all the innocent think the victum had a heart attack...

And yes, since you are giving up the velocity of modern smokeless powder, reversing the bullet will not cost much in balistic efficiency.

My thought was a group of used car or truck tires hung in sequence so the shooter had the muzzle into this tunnel and the gases were contained and released thru the tires... I suppose you could put them into a barrel... maybe some holes in the barrel...

Now cranky neighbors have to go for groceries (and cards???) and ??? If you bait the deer at the same time each day and the neighbor is gone... luck.