I generally limit my effective range for hunting at a point where I can be off by 5yrds on my estimation and still connect. Comparatively, a 30-06 drops that much at about 400yrds. For example - I used to have a 458Socom that would drop 30' at 250yrds below a 100yrd zero. There's nothing I like more than holding way over the target and throwing 200-500grns after game, because I know it's going to hit like a train when it lands.īut, there's a distinct reality in the trajectory disadvantage. Bullet momentum means a LOT more than kinetic energy, and throwing big pills at game is a great way to put a hole in them. I'm a guy that has hunted a lot with 'big and slow bullets,' whether in leverguns or revolvers, as well as tinkering with them in subsonic loadings. So if you survive those consequences, then the ballistics are the next determinant factor for me. There just aren't that many bullets on the market made to expand at super slow velocities. Often, the heavier pills in a given caliber are designed around 'standard' or 'magnum' cartridges, such that they are NOT designed to expand at sub-sonic velocities. Bullet design for short ogive 'fat' bullets made for sub-sonic work means crappy BC's, relatively.Chamber throat and magazine length limitations can steal a lot of powder capacity from a round.A 150grn 300Blk at 2000fps needs a different twist than a 230grn pill at 1,000fps. It's REALLY hard to have your cake and eat it to. Twist rates for 'standard loads' are different than that of twist rates for sub-sonic loads.These are a few things that you have to live with, even before the bullet gets out of the muzzle: The headsets in the high-tier would be the only ones that actually amplify ambient sounds, much like the headsets we have in game now, but these would only be available from lvl 3 or maxed out Skier/Peacekeeper, you could craft them in lvl3 workshop/lavatory, Rogues and Raiders would very rarely wear these and they couldn't be sold on the flea.The larger problem that I have found with sub-sonic ammo isn't about what the ballistic tables say - it's about the physical limitations of the rifles and cartridges themselves. Rogues and Raiders - if spawning with headsets - would wear these 90% of the time, with a 10% chance of spawning with high-tier stuff. These could be found in mid-high tier loot areas, scavs would only spawn with these if you have moderately high karma, crafting would be available in lvl 2 workshop/lavatory, and the flea. These could be available from lvl 2 Skier and Peacekeeper since they are the ones with lore-based connections to the 'outside', and maybe lvl 3 Prapor and Ragman. In the mid-tier, there would be a couple electronic options that range from slight ambient sound reduction to normal levels of ambient sounds, with price and rarity adjusted according to performance. The baseline should be low-end passive ear protectors, that lets you shoot supersonic rounds without ear ringing but muffle ambient noise as well, and these would be readily available from lvl 1 Ragman and Prapor, while plenty could be FiR on maps and scavs as well as early crafting and the flea. In my opinion, these should be the headset tiers:

However, if you use subsonic you should be fine.Īlso, since Tarkov is basically a scavenger wasteland, I find it kind of off-putting that everyone's got access to ear protectors that would be considered high-end enthusiast grade stuff even in a first world country during peacetime. If you shoot supersonic rounds with or without suppressor and you don't have ear protection on, you should get a temporary hearing impairment like when you step on a mine for example (without the dizziness). I think ear protection should have much more of a significance in the game, with a much wider range of models and more realistic availability. This would also make pistols and other niche weapons like the VSS much more viable. Reworking this would level the playing field between playstyles, as you could choose to use less effective ammo but actually stay hidden even after several shots. Currently they even have a sonic boom which is just lame, it feels like BSG shot one type of ammo/caliber and used that sound for all rounds in game. If you run subsonic ammo with a suppressor, it should be so quiet that the loudest thing you can hear is the bullet hitting something. Subsonic rounds should be quieter without a suppressor than supersonic rounds with one. Okay, so this has probably been mentioned quite a lot, but I would love to see the subsonic rounds have a sound remake, as currently they are just as loud as any other round when you are close to the firing gun.

Subsonic rounds vs supersonic