The shooter hears the muzzle blast first and then the sonic effect of the bullet traveling downrange with normal supersonic ammo.
And as JohnC. Reminded me, at the impact site, it’s the reverse, ie: the sound of impact precedes the sound of the muzzle blast if the bullet was supersonic.
But would not that mean then that for each bullet fired there would be 2 sounds heard, the sound of impact followed like only 0.3 sec or or less by the boom since the distance at Z224 was only about 65 yards and the distance at Z313 about 90 yds?
Even if the 1st shot did not hit anything like the road or the manhole cover thus only one sound , the other 2 bullets at Z224 and Z313 hit fresh and bone so there would have been 2 sounds per bullet heard theoretically.
Therefore , should not Bowers and other witnesses have heard 5 sounds at the least?
I'm no expert on the subject of acoustics but I do know it can behave rather strangely. I remember from Ken Burns's series on the Civil War, the phenomenon of acoustic shadows was discovered. People 20 miles away could hear the sound of canon fire but people just mile away could not.
In the example I gave earlier, I discovered something which I cannot explain. I heard my neighbor taking target practice with his muzzle loader on the adjacent property while walking my dogs. I have a five acre wooded lot while my neighbor's property is an open field. I walk my dogs on an oval path. The sound I would hear from each shot he took would vary depending on where I was on the oval. In some places I would hear a single sound. Other places I would hear B-BOOM. Still other places I would hear BOOM-BOOM. I have no explanation for what I was hearing but it was quite easy to discern.
