I take 2 guns for a firearms char, 1 primary, in current case SKS, (mag extendend out to 30 shots, etc) and a redhawk as a backup, Redhawk is great as a backup cause it is a sledgehammer powerwise and can be reloaded 1 shot at a time, if you find yourself with 2 empty guns on a firearms char, you are going to want a gun that reloads 1 shot at a time, trust me, things are already bad. Other that that, as girlinhat said, I find a safehouse pretty much essential for dumping my stuff. Build it nearish to water source and have some smart pit defenses, if only so if you walk 3 map tiles from it and find 50 zombies, just kite them back to your house surrounded by pits and have a beer as they all jump in. Also has the advantage that if char 1 dies, char 2 can bolt for a premade safehouse packed with goodies right at day 1.
It only takes about 2 nights to dig out/board up enough stuff to fully fortify a decent safehouse, I start building them in multiple towns once i have established myself locally and have a bike to burl on down to the next town.
Edit: also if you have a safehouse, noise isnt an issue, you want to bring more zombies in, as they have stuff worth taking on them often. And once you get going with a firearms char, eg me atm, I have 30 shots that will 1 shot most zombies inc alot of specials, screw noise. But i have lived long enough to have 10+ firearms skill.