How do they sound?

[HAWKIN]

Funny request. Funny answers.

"I have described the crack of a high powered rifle and the "thoom" sound of an Enfield, as well as the "punch" of a .45"

Thanks for the laugh, I love a well written comedy.

 

[Gbro]

I have heard may say that an AK-47 has a sound of its own. Unless you were in combat (I wasn't) you may never understand just what that person is truly talking about. Possibly its to do with cyclic rate and muzzle blast, but I would submit that those in harms way hear things differently than the rest of us.
God Bless Them!

 

[jsmaye]

The sound that the movies and tv shows get most wrong is the sound of enemy rifle bullets going over your head as they shoot towards you...In the movies: The bullets make sort of a whistling or zinging noise.

After a bullet's speed has dropped to subsonic, wouldn't the "zing" noise then be accurate?

FWIW - I'm glad that I have no practical experience in the matter, i.e. being shot at.

 

[jsmaye]

During the early morning hours, there often exists a temperature inversion. There's a cold blanket of air on the ground maybe a 100 ft thick and above that height, suddenly the air becomes warm.

A temperature inversion is the opposite - warm air trapped under a cold layer. The unnatural-ness of this (warm air trying to rise, cold air trying to sink, each "blocking" the other's movement) is why it's called an inversion.

Because sound goes faster in warm air than in cold air, sound refracts when it hits that cold/hot air interface and bends back down to the ground instead of going straight.

All other things being equal, sound travels quicker in a denser (colder) medium.