A silenced pistol or SMG lets you hear stuff; the bolt slapping back and forth on a SMG, and a pistol bullet impact on a steel plate subjectively louder than the shot. Numbers on a sound level meter are higher than you expect from just listening.
On the other hand, a suppressed .308 is still loud, nowhere near ear safe. And the supersonic crack as the bullets go overhead is very unpleasant. (Hey, I was in the target pits of a Conventional range while they were shooting. With ear plugs.) But the silencer is an effective flash hider and pretty good recoil brake. And if you are a sniper or poacher, the shot is hard to localize.
Unfortunately, I don't know anybody who splurged on a silencer for his .300 BO and can't say what that sounds like.
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