Silencer Saturday #361: Hunting With Suppressors

Welcome back to another edition of Silencer Saturday. Last week we looked at suppressing the Beretta Cheetah. This week we’re jumping from little subsonic pistol calibers up to hunting rifles. Last month, TFB writer and OutdoorHub editor Rusty wrote a great piece about why he loves hunting with silencers. That inspired me to share some of my own thoughts on the topic.

Silencer Saturday @ TFB:

Silencer Saturday #360: Suppressing The Beretta Cheetah Silencer Saturday #359: A Primer On Subsonic Ammunition Silencer Saturday #358: A Holiday Suppressed Gift Guide Silencer Saturday #357: Black Friday Suppressor Sales Silencer Saturday #356: Reflex Silencer Roundup

Just to set expectations from the outset, I am an awful hunter. I love it and always look forward to my annual elk hunting trip, but my success rate is less than admirable. There is a reason I write for a shooting-focused site rather than a hunting blog! But, as an avid shooter who also hunts, I do have some observations to share.

Noise Reduction

Unsurprisingly, the first major benefit is sound reduction. Loud noises like gunshots tend to push animals away, and muffling that sound can help in hunting situations where you can take multiple animals at once (like coyotes or feral hogs). None of us would ever admit it, but if you have buck fever and miss that first shot you may have an opportunity for another shot, depending on how quiet your setup is and how skittish of an animal you are after.

Wearing hearing protection while hunting is a hotly debated subject among some people. Hearing is a key sense when trying to find an animal and reducing your ability to hear animals by wearing ear plugs may cause you to miss out. But touching off any centerfire rifle cartridge without ear protection is very bad for your hearing. Modern active noise protection like Walker’s Game Ear or Axil earbuds can provide the best of both worlds by protecting your ears while also providing ambient sound, but even with hearing protection the muzzle blast of a .338 Win Mag can still ring your bell. A silencer controls the sound at the source and reduces the exposure with or without additional hearing protection. It is unlikely that any silencer is truly “hearing safe” without earplugs on a magnum rifle, but if you must shoot without hearing protection, a suppressed rifle will do much less hearing damage than an unsuppressed one. And when shooting hundreds of rounds per day at prairie dogs a suppressor also helps you come home with less of a headache.

Apart from taking that one shot you have waited and worked for on an animal, suppressors are nice to have on the gun for other tasks. On one of my hunts I took a nasty spill down a rocky mountainside, and my rifle bore the brunt of the fall. A quality scope will usually be alright after rough handling but I was still worried that my zero could be off. Once I got back to camp I decided to go fire a round to make sure things were still sighted in. I had a suppressor on the rifle, so I headed back toward the main road a few miles and found a spot to confirm my zero. It was still dead on! Without a silencer though, I would have had to travel much further before I felt comfortable that the sound would be masked.

In a similar vein, if you are a bad hunter like me you often end up in places where there are definitely no animals, but there are opportunities for impromptu shooting practice in field conditions. The age-old “I bet you can’t hit that rock on the far side of the canyon” challenge is a lot more fun with a suppressor. It also is less likely to spook animals in the next county without the booming report of a magnum rifle.

Recoil Reduction

Hunting rifles tread a delicate balance between portability and power. Heavy guns are a pain to carry but help soak up recoil, and calibers intended for big game tend to produce ample recoil. Lightweight, hard-kicking rifles are difficult to shoot well and many hunters add muzzle brakes to reduce the recoil. Unfortunately, brakes make guns loud. Silencers also reduce recoil, with the baffles acting somewhat like an internal muzzle brake. But unlike brakes, silencers cut down on sound instead of making everyone in your hunting party hate you.

General Courtesy

My hunting opportunities are all on public lands which means there are usually other people around. Many are hunters, but not all. With a suppressor, my shooting is less likely to disturb other people’s outdoor enjoyment. I think of this as the firearm equivalent of not hiking around with a Bluetooth speaker blasting music. Even if I like what you are playing I still don’t want to hear it instead of the wind and the birds. Other people may not mind guns generally, but if they are trying to enjoy the sounds of nature my .300 Win Mag will not add to their experience, so I do what I can to make it quieter. This goes doubly for areas where hunting is legal but the recreating public does not like it.

Trade-Offs

Like any other equipment choice, there are also some cons. One of the most obvious downsides is the expense. Manufacturers take great pains to reduce weight in hunting suppressors and often use more expensive materials like titanium. On top of the cost of time off work, hiking boots, tags, binoculars, a rifle, Mountain House meals, and everything else, putting $1,000 into a suppressor is not a small investment. Heavier silencers will usually be more affordable but at the cost of even more weight hanging off the muzzle of the rifle where it impacts the balance even more.

There are also legal considerations to keep in mind. Silencers are not legal everywhere, and taking one into a prohibited jurisdiction even inadvertently could be a life-ruining mistake. Be absolutely sure you understand the legalities of possessing and using silencers in your hunting destination before you go! Also, even in places where they are legal, some game wardens may not be up to speed on the applicable laws and hunting regulations. Even just ten years ago many states banned silencers for hunting and the news that they are now legal may come as a surprise. Make sure you have reference copies of your tax stamps and any applicable hunting regulations so that you are able to explain things even if you don’t have cell service. This is much less of an issue than it was a few years ago, but prior preparation can save you a major headache if you happen to find an old-timer who is not up on the current laws.

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