#Silencers

Our recent segment on the American Suppressor Association and the subsequent support of the Hearing Protection Act was well received. As a reminder, even though we are all feeling the positive vibes from a promising pro-gun political climate, now more than ever we all need to continue our support of the organizations who work hard to preserve our second amendment rights. So if you have yet to join, the ASA, please do so. Today I’d like to speak directly to a unlikely segment of our community – Airgunners.

On the defense side, sound suppressors have been relegated to special roles ever since their invention. Used to give stealth to special operatives, assassins, and direct action teams, silencers have been valuable tools, but not central fixtures in normal military operations.

Part 1 of our ‘Build Your Own Silencer’ series is my most-read article that I’ve had the pleasure of posting here at TFB. And I think that’s great – the more people we have interested in purchasing, owning, transferring and making suppressors legally the better. So as I work on Part 2 of the BIY series, be prepared to see yet another set of warnings and disclaimers. After that we are going to walk you through the ATF “Form 1” application, and then talk about parts suppliers. One of which is eBay.

Suppressors are one of the fastest growing parts of the firearms industry at the moment. And for good reason – given the right combination of host, suppressor and ammunition, shooting goes from fun to awesome. Besides that, they also just look cool. However, for many of us who have a lifetime of shooting under their belt, some form of hearing loss is a given. A suppressor in conjunction with quality ear muffs and/or plugs can reduce your exposure to damaging noises. Here’s a brief look at tinnitus, one of the more common types of hearing damage among shooters.

We have heard very little about the Hearing Protection Act (H.R. 3799) since it was introduced into Congress last October. For those that missed its initial media buzz, what the Hearing Protection Act would effectively do is eliminate the $200 Tax Stamp required for silencers and change the way you purchase them. Instead of going through a trust process or a long NFA background check, silencers would fall under the same category as traditional firearms requiring only a Federal NICS check. This would make silencers a lot more desirable for those who have not bought them yet.

As July 14th is now only a few weeks away, thousands of NFA buyers are wondering what the new application process is going to entail. Suppressor buyers have the option of using Silencer Shop’s network of “Powered By” dealers to facilitate their transfers. And in a post 41F-world, that will include the use of a new Kiosk system that will take electronic copies of fingerprints for submission into the BATFE’s National Firearms Act (NFA) application process.

Found this photo with little to no context other than it is a monocore suppressor baffle design. I could not find out who made this or any other developments about this design. It looks cool but I know nothing about fluid dynamics. It sort of reminds me of the SilencerCo Maxim pistol.

When we broke the latest installment of the SureFire vs Operators Suppressor Systems (OSS) saga last Thursday, I expressed my devotion to both data and facts over unreliable emotions. Within hours, the comments section, internet forums and my inbox were flooded with unsupported claims ranging from license revocations to an end of business operations within a few months. And after speaking with multiple parties intimate with the situation, none of the allegations seemed to be rooted in fact. That is, until last night.

It seems strange to do a ‘Spotlight’ installment on the Bowers Group. After all, Tom Bowers has been making silencers for almost two decades. And even if you aren’t a suppressor owner (yet), I can almost guarantee that at some point in your life you have lusted after one of his subgun models mounted on a MAC or UZI. But even after producing silencers for nearly 20 years, Bowers and company continue to innovate while still offering the most attachment options in the industry.

In business since 1991, Thompson Machine has been a silent mainstay of the the suppressor community, producing quality cans at affordable prices. Today, their entire product line is composed of monocore silencers – the internal baffle structure is composed of a one-piece lattice-like structure instead of individual cones. In addition, every one of Thompson Machine’s can be disassembled for cleaning, which wasn’t always the industry norm.

There are many opinions and views on the future of suppressors not only after the NFApocalypse happens on July 13th but following the general election.

At the 2016 National Rifle Association Annual Meeting, Blackhawk! was present showing off their new products, including the new suppressor line we reported on earlier this week. Blackhawk! was also showing off their new improved GI triggers, which we’ll cover later in the article.

In the third installment of the ‘Spotlight’ series we bring you Curtis Tactical – quite literally a “Mom and Pop” operation. And that is exactly how owner Joe Jones and his wife like to operate. Besides periodic crunch times when Joe needs to hire part time help to run the machines making baffles, he and his wife are perfectly happy running a silencer business on their own. “I don’t want to get any bigger; I like being able to make exactly what our customers want,” said Jones.

In the second installment of the ‘Spotlight’ series we take a look at Thunderbeast Arms, arguably the manufacturer of the best precision silencers in the world. I am willing to bet that if you take a walk down the line at a weekend long-range match, a strong majority of the suppressed rifles would wear a Thunderbeast can. And there is data to support that bet: in the last eight years, Thunderbeast has doubled its growth every ten months.

It’s not a secret that I love suppressors of all shapes, sizes and flavors. But from time-to-time it seems that a handful of manufacturers dominate the stage. And rightly so; there are some awesome silencers and accessories hitting the market and many of them are made by the “Big Three” companies (I’ll let you figure out who those are). But, there are a lot of other suppressor manufacturers that may not get the proper airtime they deserve. In the ‘Suppressor Spotlight’ series we are going to highlight the work being done by the lesser-known muffler makers.