Why did you buy a suppressor?

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To those of you who own a suppressor, or even considering the purchase of a suppressor.
What are/were your reasons for obtaining one?

My reasons? To use on two handguns that I use for the purpose of Home Defense (Not a Carry gun) and to protect the hearing of those in the household if either of these handguns need to be use for Self Defense in the home. In a situation of justified home defense, no one will have the time to put on and use any form of hearing protection. Using a suppressor only increases our protection in a home defense situation. Suppressors also have other benefits like lower recoil as well. For those interested in knowing. The two handguns in the home are a Baretta 92FS Inox with. Dead Air Odessa-9 and a S&W M&P 2.0 45 acp with a Dead Air Ghost-M

I didn’t purchase them for range shooting as we have to wear earring protection at the range anyways so it’s a moot point. Although at my cabin and my outdoor range, the suppressors will come in handy for shooting at that property. Target or problem animals.
 
I wanted one for hunting on my 300 blk SBR just so I don't hurt my ears. Most of the older guys I hunt with have hearing loss which I would like to avoid, and most of my deer have been shot well within 100 yards, so the blackout makes sense. And as a kid I always thought suppressors were super cool, so the cool factor of a two stamp gun got me. I still need to finish building mine though, maybe before deer season.
 
A suppressed .22 is about as much fun as you'll ever have with your pants on. My favorite shooting is plain old plinking, and it's really nice to be able to talk to the folks I'm plinking with while we're out on the farm.

Let me add that if I had the budget, I'd probably use a suppressed .45 for home defense, too.
 
My theory is that a lot of people buy suppressors precisely because they are regulated by the NFA. Bragging rights for being among the "gun owning elite." This is particularly true now that machine guns are not affordable.
 
I bought my first one (SAS Arbiter, .30 caliber) because I had money and was curious, it was a good price for a .30 caliber titanium suppressor, I wanted to experiment, cool factor, delusions of being a resistant militia member assaulted by the government, and, yes AlexanderA, because they are regulated yet now affordable.

I was actually disappointed the first time I shot mine as I was expecting to hear nothing but wind in the trees and butterfly farts. It turned out they don't silence nearly as much as Hollywood portrays. Still, it was fun and made the shooting experience more pleasant, so I actually learned a lot more and bought 3 more later in various calibers, sizes and features. I still want one more.
 
HD would be long down the list of reasons to get one but it would be a great secondary purpose.

Hunting would be my primary purpose so I wouldn’t have to worry about my ears when Bambi or Wilbur walks out.
 
After many years of not living where I could get an LEO signature, I learned about trusts. That’s when I started building them and even bought a few. Taught a lot of other folks about it too. It’s easier these days. Less noise in the decades that have destroyed my hearing, would have been even more welcome than these last years not making them worse.
 
My theory is that a lot of people buy suppressors precisely because they are regulated by the NFA. Bragging rights for being among the "gun owning elite." This is particularly true now that machine guns are not affordable.

That has not been my perception/experience at all with suppressor owners, whom I deal with every single day.

A couple of machine gun owners, yes, but they were snobby in general.
 
JMHO. I have little interest in suppressors for handguns. They make the handgun unwieldy and hard to carry for many applications. For my uses of a handgun the benefits do not outweigh the liabilities. Where I like suppressors is on center-fire rifles. The larger the caliber and the higher the muzzle exit pressure the more I like the suppressor.

On 300BO, which admittedly is my primary use by volume of shooting, its just fun and super quiet. I have a 300 BO pistol w/brace and carbine. I still carry an old Model 10 on my hip running around the hunting property but in the UTV is my 300 BO pistol with my SDN-6 on it.

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On the big stuff like 338 Lapua Mag and 300 Norma Mag is takes it from an obnoxious concussive experience even with good double hearing protection (plugs and muffs) down to something that is pleasant to shoot with just one layer of ear protection. The suppressor reduces recoil (by slowing propellant gasses and adding weight) and most importantly removes that obnoxious muzzle blast. Having shot a fair amount of the big magnum rifles (see my sale in reloading supplies of Lapua and Norma Mag brass) the difference between shooting these big center-fire rifles with a brake vs a suppressor is night and day. Even with the more moderate rifles like 308 and 6.5 CM the difference between suppressed and unsupressed is noticeable especially after long shooting sessions.

My next suppressor will likely be a 45 cal rifle suppressor for my 450 Bushmaster.
 
That has not been my perception/experience at all with suppressor owners, whom I deal with every single day.

A couple of machine gun owners, yes, but they were snobby in general.

My thoughts exactly, if the true draw were because they are highly regulated and a pain to get, it would stand to reason that AR pistols wouldn't be nearly as popular as they are. Why buy a pistol with a brace when you can get a (similarly over regulated) SBR and be a real, registered elite gun owner or whatever?

Whisper pickles are popular because they are very useful, just like short barrels are popular because they are useful (especially in conjunction with cans), the over regulation of both is unfortunate. Machine guns on the other hand.... pretty useless except as cool club status symbols and mediocre investments.

I'm up to five cans although two are still in jail. I got them for differing reasons:

.22 Sparrow - First can, thought it would be neat to shoot quietly and figured I could use it to pop loud, trespassing armadillos while deer hunting.

Saker 762 - I realized how awesome supressed hunting is after a few squirrel expeditions with my .22 can and decided that since suppressed big game hunting had recently became an option, I wanted in. Unfortunately I focused too much on end of the world toughness and not enough on weight.

Liberty Sovereign - Realized my mistake with the Saker and rectified the situation with a lightweight Ti can. This is my go-to hunting can and has become my main can for pretty much all centerfire range use as well.

Obsidian 45 - After mulling over the idea of a suppressed, subsonic big bore thumper for a few years I went ahead and bought the Obsidian because it could be used on some big bore rifle cartridges and also on pistols for range fun. I think a stealthy 300gr cast hollowpoint .44 bullet is going to work pretty well for ~75 yd medium game.

Nomad 30 - Kind of got addicted to lightweight .30 Cal rifle cans and wanted another so I don't have to juggle my Sovereign around at the range and on my hunting rifles and ARs so much. I also realized that the Sovereign tied me into a single mount configuration and limited my QD options. I wanted a can with the Omega mount thread pattern (like the Nomad, Vox S, Omega, Turbo K, Rex Silentium etc) that is fast becoming a standard so that I could have my choice of all the different mounting options, and could switch to something better if I wanted to in the future.
 
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I used them quite a bit when I was in the military, and realized the advantages there. After I got out, a combination of where I was working as well as connections made when I was on active duty put me in the position of being able to get suppressors cheap, so I moved on it and got a few.
 
My theory is that a lot of people buy suppressors precisely because they are regulated by the NFA. Bragging rights for being among the "gun owning elite." This is particularly true now that machine guns are not affordable.
I can't disagre with this. There is a certain Cool Factor to being able to say "I own a suppressor."
 
Oh, I just kinda always wanted one, so the allure of the *verboten* NFA item was there. Plus, building one from a kit was a fun project. I also had plans for a 300blk AR to be VA whitetail legal, which lent itself to the can as well as the rifles I had in .223... so .30 cal rifle can it was!

Then I just had to have one for my pistols and .22's... if my .223 with a can sounded like a .22 without one... the .22 with a can must be awesome, right?!?

Then 41F was coming, so I figured I'd build a pistol can and another .22 can (still havn't started building).
 
GONRA's last one was for my 5.7x28mm FN FiveSeveN pistol. Itsa real challenge to handload appropriate subsonic ammo - but lottsa Hobby Phun!
 
My theory is that a lot of people buy suppressors precisely because they are regulated by the NFA. Bragging rights for being among the "gun owning elite." This is particularly true now that machine guns are not affordable.
Sorry, but I've yet to hear any customer say anything of the sort. In fact, I've yet to read a post on any gun forum that bears any resemblance to your theory.
And anyone who brags about owning a silencer? Get real. That's like bragging you own a single cow. If your crowd is impressed by a guy who owns a silencer, its a pretty pathetic crowd.

On the contrary, I HAVE heard many a customer say they weren't considering purchasing a silencer BECAUSE it involved jumping through hoops, fingerprints, registration, allowing the ATF to enter your home at any time,etc...........but mostly they balk at paying a $200 tax and waiting 9-11 months.

Theories need to be based on something other than feels.
 
Sorry, but I've yet to hear any customer say anything of the sort. In fact, I've yet to read a post on any gun forum that bears any resemblance to your theory.
And anyone who brags about owning a silencer? Get real. That's like bragging you own a single cow. If your crowd is impressed by a guy who owns a silencer, its a pretty pathetic crowd.

On the contrary, I HAVE heard many a customer say they weren't considering purchasing a silencer BECAUSE it involved jumping through hoops, fingerprints, registration, allowing the ATF to enter your home at any time,etc...........but mostly they balk at paying a $200 tax and waiting 9-11 months.

Theories need to be based on something other than feels.

$200 today isn’t like $200 of 1934 what made me balk for a while is the 9 to 11 month wait and yet having to pay the complete price of the silencer in advance! I don’t like the idea of having my money tied up in a product that I can’t use for almost a year!

FFL’s Might sell more silencer/suppressors if they allowed the customer to put the silencer/suppressor on layaway and pay it out over the time it takes to get approved. If the customer doesn’t get approved by the ATF the FFL has to refund the money on the suppressor anyways, so why not let the customer pay it out over to the time it takes to get approved. It’s not like the suppressor is leaving the store!

However, The wait I am having to wait for a form 1 approval on a SBR build isnt so bad because I can still use the gun I am going to convert to an SBR while I am waiting for the form 1 approval. I don’t mind the $200 tax for the form one. No I am not using the firearm as an SBR yet.
 
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$200 today isn’t like $200 of 1934 what made me balk for a while is the 9 to 11 month wait and yet having to pay the complete price of the silencer in advance! I don’t like the idea of having my money tied up in a product that I can’t use for almost a year!
For some its the idea of paying a tax period.


FFL’s Might sell more silencer/suppressors if they allowed the customer to put the silencer/suppressor on layaway and pay it out over the time it takes to get approved.
Some do.
I never will.
It ain't a $50,000 car. Few gun dealers want to bother with the hassle and extra bookkeeping that layaway/financing/payment plans require. Car dealers don't mind because they know they rarely sell $50,000 cars for cash.

If the customer doesn’t get approved by the ATF the FFL has to refund the money on the suppressor anyways....
Says who?:scrutiny:
If someone comes in to buy a silencer, that silencer is pulled from inventory and unavailable to be sold to anyone else. The Form 4 will be submitted with that specific serial number. Wanna go bankrupt fast? Offer no interest layaways, financing, payment plans and full refunds if the Form 4 is denied. If you do you'll have every jackleg gangster within a hundred miles testing to see if they can fool the ATF background check, meanwhile you can't sell that particular can for months or years. Unlike a Title I NICS background check, it takes months for NFA Branch to get to that point.


so why not let the customer pay it out over to the time it takes to get approved. It’s not like the suppressor is leaving the store!
Retailers love customers who want to finance or make payments with interest accruing. For Title I firearms it's not a bad idea, but for NFA its terrible.

Your dealer doesn't offer layaway/financing/ payment plans? Use your credit card. Pay your CC company every month. Pretty soon you'll discover you shouldn't buy toys you can't afford to pay cash for.
 
Because awesome. The quietness makes shooting much less of a chore (even with comfy earpro, the blast of even small guns gets to you after a while), I had some money, and do not mind paperwork/fear the government, or even paying taxes (though this is a dumb punitive one and NFA Branch is perpetually underfunded as a matter of policy) so went for SBR and suppressor. Together, handier and happier to use than a 16" carbine.

Agree with a couple, zero interest in handgun suppressors. Used them some, and I don't get it. Handguns go into and come out of holsters and nothing else. A handgun I have to assemble or so on is no fun to me, and I never liked super-long revolver barrels, so a pistol that's functionally 12" of barrel is similarly no fun.
 
My theory is that a lot of people buy suppressors precisely because they are regulated by the NFA. Bragging rights for being among the "gun owning elite." This is particularly true now that machine guns are not affordable.
I agree there’s definitely a cool factor to owning an NFA item. But in my experience the NFA process puts off more people than it entices. In fact, I’ve sold thousands of NFA items and I’ve never once had a customer tell me he wanted it because it was more restricted. But I’ve lost countless NFA sales due to the hassle involved (primarily the wait; we tried to make everthing else easy).
 
For some its the idea of paying a tax period.
Says who?:scrutiny:
If someone comes in to buy a silencer, that silencer is pulled from inventory and unavailable to be sold to anyone else. The Form 4 will be submitted with that specific serial number. Wanna go bankrupt fast? Offer no interest layaways, financing, payment plans and full refunds if the Form 4 is denied. If you do you'll have every jackleg gangster within a hundred miles testing to see if they can fool the ATF background check, meanwhile you can't sell that particular can for months or years. Unlike a Title I NICS background check, it takes months for NFA Branch to get to that point.

Guess that depends on your location and local laws as well, I know personally if I knew I wouldn’t get a refund on a can, especially the nearly almost $1000 cans, and trusting the government for approval I would have never bought one. It would be one thing if I knew I had a shady past, but with muckups in the current system with misidentifying someone and identity theft, I’m not about to take a gamble with our government and the stupidity of those in it! If your able t get your customers to buy a can or any other nfa item knowing they won’t get a refund if they are denied... then I congratulate you on your sales capability.

My question is this, if they don’t get approved, they paid for the can, you can’t give it to him, and legally you can’t really sell it to someone else unless you do give a refund. (Varies based on local laws of course) so what do you do with it?

I don’t buy toys I can’t afford, but I also don’t like the concept of paying for something I can’t use for a year.
Luckily the shop where I bought my cans, allowed me to make a down payment, then pay the rest when I was approved. If I was denied, I would get my money back, and he would sell it to someone else. The again local law I think has some influence in that as well. They also charged a $50 fee for that capability too.

I think it’s nice, but barring your local laws, if an FFL doesn’t want to offer that service (layaway/refunds) then that’s their right to do, as is a customer has the right to choose to do business with that FFL or not.

In DFW there is a lot of competition in our area. I have at least 6 gun stores within 3 miles of me, and almost 30 gun stores within 10 miles, some big box as well, such as Academy sports, Bass Pro, Cabellas, Schnells (opening soon) of which Cabellas sells suppressors, AOW, SBR’s and SBS. 12 of the 30 stores 2 of which are in 3 miles of me also sells a full line of NFA items. Some of them have lawayays, some don’t. None offer financing, other then Cabellas, Bass Pro, & Academy sports, and that’s because they have their own credit card. I talked to a guy at Cabellas, and they have a store room storing almost 600-700 suppressors that are in NFA jail! He said they had to build a special room to hold them all. They don’t offer layaway but you do get a refund if your not approved.

I don’t mind paying taxes, the government needs to be funded in one way or the other. So if it’s not this $200 tax it will be another one on ammo or something else. It is what it is. I do think it’s crazy it has to keep being paid for every transfer though. It should be treated more like a sales tax. Pay it once. Then pay a $25 transfer fee or something. Oh well, it’s not likely to change soon. So for now we pay it,
 
Agree with a couple, zero interest in handgun suppressors. Used them some, and I don't get it. Handguns go into and come out of holsters and nothing else. A handgun I have to assemble or so on is no fun to me, and I never liked super-long revolver barrels, so a pistol that's functionally 12" of barrel is similarly no fun.

Well I would never use a suppressor on any carry gun. I agree that would be a PITA. Why I only use it for my home defense guns. They aren’t in a holster. But one is stuck to a biometric locking magnet mount, the other is in one of those secret compartments that are built into a specific piece of furniture. (With a biometric lock) Thus allows my family to have a quick easy safe access to the firearm when needed in a HD situation.

I have been thinking about getting one for the SBR I am building so that I can eliminate pesky critters at my cabin from the porch without everyone having to done ear protection on the back porch first. (Cabin is on a huge acreage)
 
I agree there’s definitely a cool factor to owning an NFA item. But in my experience the NFA process puts off more people than it entices. In fact, I’ve sold thousands of NFA items and I’ve never once had a customer tell me he wanted it because it was more restricted. But I’ve lost countless NFA sales due to the hassle involved (primarily the wait; we tried to make everthing else easy).

I agree most people are deterred by the wait.
Back when the NFA first started, the wait was extremely short. So the deterrent back then was the $200. Now that $200 isn’t much money now (heck a date out with the wife or family is nearly $200 any more) more people are wanting NFA items, which is now the main reason why the wait is 9-11 months. Which now is the deterrent to more people getting NFA items. It’s a catch 22 system. Imagine what the wait would be if it didn’t deter anyone! Yikes! Maybe the $200 still deters a few, but I would suspect it’s not many.

Thing is it’s not deterring many though, Suppressor sales are increasing every month nationwide. Cabellas and other big box retailers are helping with that though. DFW has at least 30-40 or more FFL’s where you can buy a suppressor now, more then half
in the entire area
 
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