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Suppressors for hunting?

viper

Titanium
Joined
May 18, 2007
Location
nowhereville
Now, I am just a person that love a high energy, quiet rifle. It rather torques me that most stated prohibit suppressors for hunting because it "may be unsafe for hunting area personel". Biggest line I have ever heard. Suppression saves hearing, reducing noise annoyance, does not spoil everyones party when you pull the trigger, etc.

I get really irritated that suppressors get such a bad rap like they are like having a full auto (they ARE in the same class level) which just is not the case. It has been proven that you can illegalize anything and it will still get in the hands of criminals. that being said, I don't know of many drive bys where suppressors are used. Thugs are much tooooo stupid to use them. Suppressors can be bulky, heavy, and don't make for a "silent" shot, just quieter than unsuppressed.

thoughts? I have to wonder what the future holds. Obviously if the whole US bands together on an issue, that is the only way things get done anymore.
 
Shhhhh, you don't want the wrong ears to hear you. They may try to make supressors MANDATORY for hunting if they hear your arguments for them! :D

I hunt with my .30 thundertrap here in MD. I dunno if it is legal/illgeal, but I'm sure my neighbors appreciate it when I am hunting on a weekday at 6am :)
 
Precisely! They make us have mufflers on our cars, but guns are ok??? There just seems to be a sigma hanging around silencers and the movies do not help. If I had the choice, I would build every gun with built in or integral suppression. Now mandatory??? Uh, that a word the govt loves to use. I like optional but strongly suggested to keep peace among all... Doesn't that sound better?
 
In the UK we have a more 'enlightened' attitude, I use a moderator on all my deer rifles and have done for 2-3 years, the drawback is the poor balance and greater weight. The big pluses are
1 It saves my ears
2 It saves the ears of others
3 Get the wind right and the target animals may not hear the shot so you may get a second shot off at another target
4 And most imortant, the recoil is much less so you gan see the strike and so watch the amimal in those few microseconds before it recovers from the shot.
5 You can ear the shot hit

If I wanted to comit a crime I would not bother with a mod, what advantage would I have.
Peter
 
I can see using a supressor when hunting feral hogs. Sometimes those guys come in bunches and if we're ever going to get a handle on that particular problem, we're going to have to kill lots of them. The upside is that they're very tasty.
 
They are legal for hunting in PA. One has to get the $200.00 "stamp" which requires approval from the local Sherriff, or get it through an attorny for a living trust and no approvals are required.

I don't have one, but a friend does. He happens to also be a gunsmith and has made a supressor for his Walther P22 and .300 Whisper, both shooting subsonic ammo. I've seen them both in action and I'm here to say they are really very quiet with the subsonic ammo. I hear the action noise from the Walther but that's it. He shoots a 220g bullet in the 300 whisper. Since MV is limited to subsonic values, one shoots the heaviest bullet one can find in the gun to get as much muzzle energy as possible.

Fitch
 
If you are looking for a nice hunting round for suppression 44 mag. does a very nice job, you can load is subsonic if you want it super quiet.

As an added bonus heavy weight 44 mag bullets that are made for hunting are readily available. They are also made to expand at these velocities.

Ruger 77/44 makes a very nice host rifle.

BTW, sorry your state has lousy regulations for hunting with suppressors. Lobby your states game department, most are desperate for money (i.e. hunters) and seem to be letting all kinds of regulations change to encourage new and continuing hunters. Want an example, PA bastardized their muzzleloading season, letting in inline muzzleloaders. I grew up on iron sight only, flintlock. Sorry, that is how I think it should be if you are going to bother to call it a muzzleloading season.
 
If you are looking for a nice hunting round for suppression 44 mag. does a very nice job, you can load is subsonic if you want it super quiet.

As an added bonus heavy weight 44 mag bullets that are made for hunting are readily available. They are also made to expand at these velocities.

Ruger 77/44 makes a very nice host rifle.

BTW, sorry your state has lousy regulations for hunting with suppressors. Lobby your states game department, most are desperate for money (i.e. hunters) and seem to be letting all kinds of regulations change to encourage new and continuing hunters. Want an example, PA bastardized their muzzleloading season, letting in inline muzzleloaders. I grew up on iron sight only, flintlock. Sorry, that is how I think it should be if you are going to bother to call it a muzzleloading season.

I have two inlines, they both load from the muzzle, I will agree they are not very primitive, but I like them. I have shot primitive long rifles, and I think there was a lot more game lost, and not near as much participation as we have now. I think the good out weighs the bad, at least here in OK.
James
 
Washington State is passing legislation that will allow the use of registered silencers this year. WA is the only one of the 37 states that allow ownership but ban use. As far as I know there are no regulations prohibiting the use of silencers while hunting, but I have to dig in to it more after the bill becomes law.

Ranb
 
I can see using a supressor when hunting feral hogs. Sometimes those guys come in bunches and if we're ever going to get a handle on that particular problem, we're going to have to kill lots of them. The upside is that they're very tasty.

Ahh. Another connesiuor of the feral porcine. A little care in selection of the intended main course, aka get a youngish sow instead of the biggest boar, and with a bottle of nothing more than some Italian salad dressing and some mesquite firewood on which to grill it, and you have some delicious tablefare.
Amen to the suppresor for hunting hogs. Fit your can onto something subsonic, with a heavy bullet and hopefully a semi-auto action, and you can put a serious dent in the herd. For a while at least, since they bread like rabbits. Bon appetite.
 
Suppressors can be bulky, heavy, and don't make for a "silent" shot, just quieter than unsuppressed.

thoughts?

Here in Arkansas they are legal to hunt with and lots of people do it.
I've killed deer with a .300 Whisper that I built, among other things.

That rifle is very quiet. I also build integrally suppressed .22 rifles using the target barrels on Ruger 10/22 rifles that all you can hear is the bolt slapping back and forth. They are very popular with squirrel hunters around here.

Those shots would be virtually silent,except that the bullet thumping the target can actually be pretty loud. As an 07/02 FFL, I do lots of things with suppressors.
 
Well because of my work I have had the opportunity to putz with cans a bit over the years. Admittedly they are quite a novel thing until you understand them a bit better. I have worked a lot of the pits in rifle rodeos and from experience I can tell you that the sonic boom of the bullet passing over you is much more un-nerving and louder than the report of the gun 100 yards away from you. So as far as not spooking what you are shooting at they don’t offer much of an advantage. However, they do make it extremely difficult for the target to pinpoint your position. I have never had a deer shoot back at me. So to date none have ever detected my position without one, I assume. The only real beef I have ever had with them was making guns shoot little groups after I had hung a couple pounds off the end of the barrel. It can be done. But it’s a pain in the butt. Like Quigley its not that I don’t understand them or like them I just simply never had much use for one.
 
The only real beef I have ever had with them was making guns shoot little groups after I had hung a couple pounds off the end of the barrel. It can be done. But it’s a pain in the butt. Like Quigley its not that I don’t understand them or like them I just simply never had much use for one.

everything i have read points to well made silencers actually making the gun *more* accurate - but they will affect point of aim.
 
I can see using a supressor when hunting feral hogs. Sometimes those guys come in bunches and if we're ever going to get a handle on that particular problem, we're going to have to kill lots of them. The upside is that they're very tasty.

I have heard that in texas although most game is prohibited that you can actually hunt feral hogs with a silencer and possibly also at night? they are supposed to be a giant (albeit tasty) nuisance due to overpopulation and their generally uncivilized temperament. I was reading last year about the state coming up with creative ways to encourage their eradication.

We can't use silencers in alabama for hunting, but I am hoping that this will change soon. it isn't an actual law that I can find, and I can't find a penalty (or fine) for it in the statutes, but then again I am not a lawyer. I think here it is regulated by the DNR.

they are legal for hunting in tennessee and I think also in mississippi.

45 LC would be even better for silenced hunting since they are big bullets and heavy to boot. and of course all the standard loading are subsonic to being with. a really long (and heavy) .30 bullet might also be nice if you had a bbl. with fast enough twist rate. I think 1:10 is fast enough for almost everything up to the 200gr range, so long as they are round nose flat base projectiles. spitzers are supposed to be harder to stabilize at low speed.
 
In Texas, suppressors are illegal to use on game animals or game birds, but are not restricted to use on non-game animals. The use of light to hunt at night is defined as follows (directly pasted from the regs): "Non-protected nongame animals and fur-bearing animals may be hunted at night with the aid of an artificial light on private property. If hunting at night, please make a courtesy telephone call to your local game warden."

A Texas state game warden once told me the primary reasoning for restricting suppressors and .22 rimfire is concern over poaching. A whisper-quiet .22 at night is deadly on most anything you can pin with a spotlight.
 
I never could understand this rationale... it is already illegal to "poach" game at night... I don't think questions of legality regarding hunting with suppressors is going to slow down someone who is already breaking the law.

so the rest of us can't hunt with them, even if we want to hunt legally during daylight hours. :rolleyes5:
 
We can't use silencers in alabama for hunting, but I am hoping that this will change soon. it isn't an actual law that I can find, and I can't find a penalty (or fine) for it in the statutes, but then again I am not a lawyer. I think here it is regulated by the DNR.

When I called the main Game Commission office in PA I was told, I am paraphrasing now, "We don't have anything on the books about suppressor use, so as long as the suppressor is on a firearm that is legal to use for what you are hunting you are not in violation of any Game Commission law."

It took a few calls around to get to a person high enough up to tell me that and I had to call the main office in the state capitol. I assume you know what your state laws are, but if you are in doubt about something plan on devoting a couple hours some weekday to calling around till you get someone who really knows what is going on.

90% of the people you talk to think suppressors are illegal period. So it takes a while to get good info.
 
everything i have read points to well made silencers actually making the gun *more* accurate - but they will affect point of aim.

A well built suppressor will not adversly affect accuracy, only POI change. People think because theyre POI changes when they slap a can on its less accurate. Cans are fun and so are form 1's so you can make your own.;)
 








 
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