For those who don't know:
an acoustic shadow is an area through which sound waves fail to propagate, due to topographical obstructions or disruption of the waves via phenomena such as wind currents. As one website refers to it, "an acoustic shadow is to sound what a mirage is to light."
Not that it really matters but do you think that acoustic shadows have an effect on an animals reaction to a shot? I've seen video of repeated misses and the animal just stands there like nothing has happened. Could this be caused because the critter is in such a shadow?
It's been a slow day and my brain is working over time. :lol3:
I'll give this a shot, though I am no expert, I have seen this happen quite a few times with rifles as well as arrows.
Personally I don't believe an acoustic shadow can be sufficient to stop the sound from reaching the animal, especially in the case of a gunshot.
My best explanation is that sometimes the animals doesn't feel that the sound is directed towards them and/or does not represent a threat to them.
Sometimes they might mistake the sound for something either natural, like lightning or a tree losing a branch, or for another man made sound they have grown accostomed to hearing.
It does leave you wondering why sometimes an animal just carries on grazing when a gunshot has just gone off or an arrow has whizzed by...
Yeah that's kinda what I'm thinking. I wish I could find a way to test this. I do bet many critters just think it is something non threatening but sometimes by their lack of reaction one has to wonder.:set1_thinking:
This all come into my head after watching a piece on the History channel about Civil War battles. They actually tested an acoustic shadow and found is was possible to be very close to gun shots and still not hear them.
I just have a few ideas I'm raking over.:set1_thinking:
hmm...the acoustic shadow can only work in the limited area where it falls, in the case of your Civil war soldiers, where they were in relation to teh gunshots.
But, in the case of gunshots, there will be the echo, wich because it bounces in from other directions, should be audible. No?
In this instance there was a very large knoll they were behind. They were belly crawling up the hill. Once they hit the top they were slaughtered. What the "experts" were saying was, as the men on the front advanced they were shot and the men behind them had no clue that they were being slaughtered. To test it they used a loud buzzer at the top and then worked away from it, down the hill. Once they hit a certain area you buzzing was not audible. But once they advanced further and got out of the shadow, it was audible once again.
Just was thinking if this could apply to hunting game, that maybe one could come up with a way to produce an artificial acoustic shadow? If so and if it could be a small enough device to carry, that sound would no longer be an issue within a certain range? All completely hypothetical and a bit crazy, of course. :darkbeer:
All I know is almost every animal you see shot at close range- in personal experience or on TV- has SOME reaction to the shot. Sometimes its just a little and sometimes that animal will duck or swap ends. As bowhunters, we need to factor bow noise into the equation.
The guys that think faster [and louder bow!] is better should look at speed of sound. As far as I know, there has never been a bow/arrow that even comes close to that speed.
Of course if you are one of those speed guys you will be tripping all over yourself to justify.....grin
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