‘Twas the night before Christmas… something, something subsonic 300 Blackout. That’s the way the poem goes, right? One of the best parts about Christmas is thinking about how the generations before us celebrated the season in years past. Candles instead of LED lights. Wooden toys instead of iPads. Flintlocks instead of open tip match bullets. Today we are blessed with groceries full of food from around the world as well as the technological advancements that have made shooting firearms both safer and quieter – Silencers for a Silent Night.

Good evening quiet readers and thank you for joining us once again for TFB’s Silencer Saturday, the only place where single shots can be more fun than select fire weapons. Which leads me into today’s topic: is there a market in the U.S. for a modern Welrod pistol? While many of today’s suppressor manufacturers focus on space age materials, full auto ratings and heavy abuse, I often wonder if a single shot repeating centerfire pistol purpose-built to be suppressed would have a large enough consumer market to be successful. Would the barrel need to be ported? Would the silencer need to be designed for wipes? Is the classic Welrod styling a must-have for buyers? Let’s take a look.

Silencers can do an excellent job of suppressing flash on a host firearm.  They provide a large expansion chamber for gasses that are rapidly expanding behind the projectile.  Not only are they able to suppress the sound, but a vast majority of the muzzle flash as well.

A new ATF documented posted today outlines the final ruling, officially banning bump stock devices once posted to the federal register. Signed by Acting Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker, the narrative for the final rule change is 157 pages long and includes an analysis of comments submitted both in support and against a rule change, cost analysis, legal analysis and alternatives to using bump stocks. A link to the full document can be found below.

Good evening everyone and thanks for once again stopping by TFB’s Silencer Saturday, where even our single shot airguns are suppressed. As we slog through the meat of the holiday season, try not to think about those tax stamps that may still be six months away. Instead, let’s look forward to some reviews that we have coming up in the weeks ahead.

A little over a year ago, we wrote about the Discreet Ballistics PopStop which is a barrel mounted valve and a CO2 cartridge system designed to inject a non-flammable gas into the suppressor replacing the oxygen inside the can thus eliminating the phenomenon of the first round pop. Back then, the PopStop was patent pending. Lately, Discreet Ballistics has announced that the patent ( US 10,145,636 B2) has been issued.

The Czech ZB30 was probably one of the better light machine gun designs that saw extensive use during the Second World War. Nations such as Japan and Britain copied aspects of it in the Bren and Japanese Type 99 LMG. It was also license-produced in some other countries as well. It was a top mounted magazine-fed, gas operated, light machine gun that incorporated a bolt hold open catch when rounds ran out. A variant of the ZB26, the light machine gun had a number of unique features that came to be standard on light machines of the time.

In an email announcement sent to ATF mailing list subscribers, the Firearms Technology Industry Services Branch (FTISB) stated that they will no longer accept any accessory for determination without a being installed on a corresponding host weapon. In the past, manufacturers could submit firearm accessories to the FTISB for a classification under the Gun Control Act (GCA) and/or the National Firearms Act (NFA) as a stand-alone item. Effective immediately, the procedure has changed, with previously submitted items being returned to the manufacturer without a classification.

Good morning suppressor freaks and geeks, and welcome to the 50th edition of TFB’s Silencer Saturday. Thank you for stopping by to read my decibel rants every week – without you guys the series would have been dead by episode four. Last week we discussed the value of full– size pistol suppressors and their roles in different situations. This week I’d thought we could take a look at a beautiful binary trigger equipped pistol caliber carbine with a twist. This CZ Scorpion has been sent down to the silence scientists at Innovative Arms for a transformation into a true integrally suppressed SD model. The result? An awesomely compact and quiet 9mm pistol (or rifle).

Today we’re taking a look at the Barrett that never was, the XM109 AMPR.  

Good evening everyone and thanks for joining us back here for another episode of TFB’s Silencer Saturday. As we charge full speed towards the holidays, we’ll spend some time discussing ways to spend your end of the year money on NFA gifts for friends, family or even yourself. But before I recommend silencers that you want to slip under the tree (ok your SOT’s tree), let’s discuss pistol cans and whether they are actually worth your time and money.

B&T USA has been awarded a contract to supply the Westchester, NY Police Department with integrally suppressed semi automatic carbines. And yes, Westchester’s new APC9-SD carbines take Glock mags.

Our friends at the American Suppressor Association are entering the last hours of their $15K raffle and membership drive. Join the ASA to support the legal and responsible use of silencers as well as helping to spread the joys of quieter shooting among American gun owners. Active members are automatically entered in tomorrow’s raffle, but raffle tickets are also available for additional chances to win.

Do you drive a Prius? Looking for an exciting new mod to spice up your daily commute? How about a 20mm M61 Vulcan Cannon? The team at Black Rifle Coffee Company have shared their latest project – a Toyota Prius with a mod that probably voids the manufacturers warranty. Road going BRRRRRRRRTTT.

In the early 1900s Hiram Percy Maxim, son of the inventor of the Maxim gun, began developing early suppressors which he christened ‘silencers’. It wasn’t long before the US Army took interest in these new silencers and began testing them.

Three years ago a batch of Dead Air Sandman silencers arrived at my local gun shop.  It was clear in only a matter of minutes that these would be a game changer for the quick detach silencer market.  Dead Air Sandman silencers have no barrel length restrictions, they are full auto rated, have interchangeable end caps, and are rated up to .300 Win Mag.  There really wasn’t another QD (quick-detach) silencer that had all these features. The QD-Mount is inevitably what sold me on a Sandman. Using a two-stage taper lock the mount is pure engineering genius.

The Istanbul based ATA Arms brought out their 40x46mm BA40 standalone and UBGL grenade launcher to the show in Indo Defence 2018 this year. The launcher is the first such design from ATA Arms, which actually won a major contract this year for 8,000 launchers from the Turkish Land Forces. Another Turkish company MERTSAV completed a design that appears to have been for the launcher competition as well, known as the TAR-40.

Hello fellow pewpew lovers and thank you for joining us here at TFB’s Silencer Saturday, where the only thing better than leftover turkey sandwiches are discount silencers and fast Form 4 approvals. Speaking of which, this week I have put together a Holiday Deals Extravaganza that I think includes the best prices of the year on some solid performing silencers and accessories. We’ll also update these deals as a part of TFB’s 12 Days Of Christmas series in the weeks ahead.

When I visited GSL Technology they had a few projects they were working on. At the time I could not post about them since they were still works in progress or they were waiting on patent pending like the GSL Technology Boss emergency suppressor. One of their other projects has just got the green light to be published. They are making a Sten suppressor.

Today we’re taking a closer look at the General Dynamics GAU-19.  

The RPD was the culmination of Soviet light machine gun designs that began with the DP-28 of pre-World War Two days, and ending with the RPD, or Ruchnoy Pulemyot Degtyaryova. It was a lightweight, belt-fed from a drum, gas operated machine gun chambered in the Soviet M43 7.62x39mm cartridge. Some call it one of the first true squad automatic weapons, being introduced at least a decade before the Minimi ever came on the scene. It was produced by the Soviet Union, Poland, Egypt, China, and North Korea under various designations. In China it has been asserted that it might have been part of a covert export line of light machine guns, being marked without Chinese markings and with the designation “M23”.

In this article you will meet a brand new Romanian Cugir WS1-63SB chambered in 7.62×39 mm. The rifle is available for just a little short of 900 Euro or roughly 1 000 US Dollars in Germany.

A corrupt border officer has been prosecuted for attempting to smuggle drugs and firearms into the UK. A joint operation involving the UK’s Metropolitan police, National Crime Agency and French police arrested two other men in connection to the smuggling.

Hello everyone and thanks for reading TFB’s Silencer Saturday, where only good boy and girls get NFA toys. This week officially marks the beginning of the 2018 Holiday Season. With Thanksgiving Day and the dreaded (or glorious) Black Friday following just hours later, most Americans will be searching for gift-giving deals for friends, family or even themselves. Be honest, you’ve earned it. On the surface, buying NFA items as Christmas gifts might seem to be a terrible idea. You plunk down hundreds of dollars, fill out a bunch of forms, take pictures, roll fingerprints and sit back and wait. If you are lucky, your gift will be enjoyed sometime in the summer of 2019. However, with the forced delay of gratification comes two opportunities for joy: one on the day of gift giving and the other on the day the silencer is released from NFA purgatory.

The 40x46mm low-velocity SL40 grenade launcher has been in Australian Defence Force service for some time now, serving primarily as a modular under-barrel grenade launcher attached to the 5.56x45mm NATO F90 service rifle within the infantry at the squad or section level. It was first chosen to accompany the F90 family of  rifles in 2014, a derivative of the Austrian Steyr GL40 launcher (the SL40 being a derivative of the GL40). The original design competition was between the Steyr GL40 and the Madritsch Weapon Technology ML40AUS, another Austrian armaments company. The Steyr design was selected for integration.

Schrombo from Germany continues to deliver another interesting project, this time in 300 Blackout.

Welcome back everyone and thanks again for joining us here for TFB’s Silencer Saturday, where we hope to one day be the silent majority. Today we we we touch on the regulatory, legal and yes political (gasp) challenges of shooting quietly. And ultimately what options there are for those of us around the world who are unable to own and use silencers. Unfortunately, there is an overwhelming majority of our readers worldwide that currently have no legal means of suppressor ownership.

The Burmese state-owned arms manufacturing wing Ka pa sa Industries (Defence Industries) has a long history of working within limited resources to meet the operational requirements of the Tatmadaw (Burmese Military). Operationally this has been seen in the cycle of retiring Tatmadaw small arms to national police forces where they often continue to see service, many years after they have become obsolete elsewhere. On the industrial and manufacturing side of the house, this has been seen through the lens of adapting surplus arms to outfit modern components or firearms themselves. This No.4 Lee Enfield that has been turned into a dedicated rifle grenade launcher is just such an example of that concept in practice. Today the launcher featured in this essay lies on display in the Defence Services Museum in the Burmese capital of Nay Pi Taw where any visitor to the museum can view it on display. Before we dive into describing the rifle grenade launcher we would like to extend a gratitude of thanks to the staff of the Defence Services Museum for allowing TFB to visit in an official capacity and research Burmese small arms.

Can we all agree that paying a $200 tax and waiting six to nine months to cut a rifle barrel from 16.1 inches to 14.5 inches is extremely ridiculous? Yet, if you live in the United States, legally making a rifle with short barrel requires an application process that makes car loan and college application processors jealous. Whereas companies like SB Tactical have done a great job in showing us that the NFA laws and regs are arbitrary and don’t do anything to prevent violent crime, the law of the land is that rifles with barrel lengths shorter than 16” and shotguns with barrel lengths shorter than 18” need a tax stamp. So, for those of you who still want a rifle with a stock or a vertical fore grip, the following TFB Tutorial on the ATF EForm system may help you get your tax stamp faster than the paper submission process.

GSL Tech posted this photo of an old Gemtech Raptor. As you may recall Greg Latka of GSL Tech was the one who designed and manufactured most of Gemtech’s suppressors when he was President of Gemtech. This Gemtech Raptor has seen over 1 million rounds and no longer suppresses rounds.