I couldn't hold out any longer so I finally called the ATF NFA branch to check the status of my Form 4. After letting the phone ring about 30-35 times a very nice lady answered the phone. I told her I wanted to check the status of my Form 4. She asked for the serial number of my suppressor and the name of my dealer. She immediately responded with "Oh that was approved on the 28th". Needless to say I was delighted to hear that and immediately emailed my dealer and asked if they received my stamp. 2 hours later I received a reply saying they had my stamp and my Can was ready for pick up.
Now that I knew my stamp and suppressor was ready to go I was feeling really silly because i had procrastinated on purchasing a mount. I frantically began searching online for a mount only to find "Out of Stock" on every website I checked. The rest of my day at work oooozed by as I imagined myself at home with my brand new can and no way of mounting it to my rifle. Finally the clock hit 3pm and it dawned on me to check with my dealer. A quick call to Scott at Silenced America and I was relieved to hear they had both AAC Brakeout and Blackout mounts in stock. I rushed to Carrolton and picked up my can and a 51t BrakeOut mount. A few hours later and I was home admiring my new AAC M4-2000 attached perfectly to my AR. Scott sent my Form 4 in on Aug 12, 2012, it was approved on Jan 28th, and I have the can and stamp in hand today Feb 08, 2013. So all in all it took a little less than 6 months. About 5 months since it went pending. So just FYI if anyone else is waiting on approval just be patient it's running about 6 months. Can't wait to go to the range!!!
Ewe...nice! I just picked up my warlock ii and can't wait to get a 5.556 can. I shot a whole federal 550 box through it last weekend, it was just a blast! I actually have emails out looking for a 762sdn6 I enjoyed it so much, also trying to decide on a 9mm one. Grats! Let us know how you like it!
Why is shooting through a can so much fun? I have never personally seen one but from the stats of the cans I have read about it reduces noise level by roughly 35 dbls right? That doesn't sound like it reduces it a whole lot, but again I've never heard one. So is it a really big difference? Like no ear plugs and it wouldn't bother the neighbors if you were shooting outside with the can.. Living in the country on 5-10 acres..
Oh, and congrats! Did you use your name or a trust?
Ericstac wrote:Why is shooting through a can so much fun? I have never personally seen one but from the stats of the cans I have read about it reduces noise level by roughly 35 dbls right? That doesn't sound like it reduces it a whole lot, but again I've never heard one. So is it a really big difference? Like no ear plugs and it wouldn't bother the neighbors if you were shooting outside with the can.. Living in the country on 5-10 acres..
Oh, and congrats! Did you use your name or a trust?
Shoot one, then you'll get it.
It seriously depends on what caliber and type of round you are shooting. A standard velocity 308 doesn't benefit that much from a can. A subsonic 300 Blackout is a different story, sounds like a pellet gun. Anything shooting subsonic through a can is very quiet otherwise you still have to deal with a sonic crack. I wear hearing protection regardless of what I am shooting, you never know when it might come in handy.
Ericstac wrote:Why is shooting through a can so much fun? I have never personally seen one but from the stats of the cans I have read about it reduces noise level by roughly 35 dbls right? That doesn't sound like it reduces it a whole lot, but again I've never heard one. So is it a really big difference? Like no ear plugs and it wouldn't bother the neighbors if you were shooting outside with the can.. Living in the country on 5-10 acres..
Oh, and congrats! Did you use your name or a trust?
Shoot one, then you'll get it.
It seriously depends on what caliber and type of round you are shooting. A standard velocity 308 doesn't benefit that much from a can. A subsonic 300 Blackout is a different story, sounds like a pellet gun. Anything shooting subsonic through a can is very quiet otherwise you still have to deal with a sonic crack. I wear hearing protection regardless of what I am shooting, you never know when it might come in handy.
I shoot mainly 9mm and .223/5.56, would this be pellet gun-like?
Ericstac wrote:Why is shooting through a can so much fun? I have never personally seen one but from the stats of the cans I have read about it reduces noise level by roughly 35 dbls right? That doesn't sound like it reduces it a whole lot, but again I've never heard one. So is it a really big difference? Like no ear plugs and it wouldn't bother the neighbors if you were shooting outside with the can.. Living in the country on 5-10 acres..
Oh, and congrats! Did you use your name or a trust?
Shoot one, then you'll get it.
It seriously depends on what caliber and type of round you are shooting. A standard velocity 308 doesn't benefit that much from a can. A subsonic 300 Blackout is a different story, sounds like a pellet gun. Anything shooting subsonic through a can is very quiet otherwise you still have to deal with a sonic crack. I wear hearing protection regardless of what I am shooting, you never know when it might come in handy.
I shoot mainly 9mm and .223/5.56, would this be pellet gun-like?
Ericstac wrote:Why is shooting through a can so much fun? I have never personally seen one but from the stats of the cans I have read about it reduces noise level by roughly 35 dbls right? That doesn't sound like it reduces it a whole lot, but again I've never heard one. So is it a really big difference? Like no ear plugs and it wouldn't bother the neighbors if you were shooting outside with the can.. Living in the country on 5-10 acres..
Oh, and congrats! Did you use your name or a trust?
Shoot one, then you'll get it.
It seriously depends on what caliber and type of round you are shooting. A standard velocity 308 doesn't benefit that much from a can. A subsonic 300 Blackout is a different story, sounds like a pellet gun. Anything shooting subsonic through a can is very quiet otherwise you still have to deal with a sonic crack. I wear hearing protection regardless of what I am shooting, you never know when it might come in handy.
I shoot mainly 9mm and .223/5.56, would this be pellet gun-like?
Ericstac wrote:Why is shooting through a can so much fun? I have never personally seen one but from the stats of the cans I have read about it reduces noise level by roughly 35 dbls right? That doesn't sound like it reduces it a whole lot, but again I've never heard one. So is it a really big difference? Like no ear plugs and it wouldn't bother the neighbors if you were shooting outside with the can.. Living in the country on 5-10 acres..
Oh, and congrats! Did you use your name or a trust?
I wear hearing protection regardless of what I am shooting, you never know when it might come in handy.
I shoot mainly 9mm and .223/5.56, would this be pellet gun-like?
Not pellet gunlike but it does drop it below 140db which is what OSHA considers to be the safety threshold for momentary sounds. That means technically it is hearing safe but like Carry-A-Kimber said it's still a good idea to wear hearing protection when shooting a lot at the range. This is especially true if it's an indoor range. They make the muzzle blast much much quieter. You can find lots of Youtube videos but must tell you that video don't do suppressors justice. You have to listen to how much louder that impact on target is compared to the blast. I know 35db doesn't sound like a lot but a little understanding of sound intensity measurements and you can see then that 35db is actually quite a lot. I am an Electronic Tech for a living but its been 10 years since I studied sound and decibel theory. I don't really use the formulas for decibel readings at my current job so I am not an expert nor am I going to get too in depth about it. You really just need to understand that decibels are logarithmic units of measurement. A power ratio reduction by a factor of 10 is 10db. Thus an increase of 10 dB means that the sound is 10 times as loud. So a sound that is 70 dB in strength is 10 times as loud as one that is 60 dB.
Hopefully that helps to show you that 35db is a significant reduction. However, as Carry-A-Kimber pointed out, you still have a sonic crack with using supersonic ammo like 5.56. That being said subsonic rounds can be very quiet but subsonic 5.56 is pretty much useless. It also reduces the way a gun recoils and pretty much eliminates muzzle flash. The fact that the gun is now hearing safe and has almost no muzzle flash makes adding one to a Home Defense gun a pretty smart choice. Now I know that some people have a problem using NFA items for Home Defense but I don't really see it being a problem in Texas. Especially now that the are legal to hunt with and are becoming more common place. A suppressor on a HD firearm helps tremendously to reduce or eliminate momentary blindness and deafness when firing a weapon inside a dwelling. Basically if you light off a rifle (or any gun for that matter) inside a home you are flash banging yourself in the middle of a gunfight. I don't even want to imagine what the blast from a 5.56 carbine inside a hallway would be like!!
This can will stay attached to my HD rifle. To me a suppressed AR loaded with Hornady TAP rounds makes an almost perfect home defense weapon but YMMV. You mention a 9mm and those can be made pretty quiet if you use 147gr subsonic rounds. However, pistols are harder to get below the 140db safety threshold unless you fire them wet. I do think that AAC's newest 9mm can is hearing safe when fired dry. A warning thought if using for a defensive weapon suppressors can make semi-auto pistols less reliable but again companies are advancing their technology to where pistol cans are pretty dang reliable now days. Other than all those advantages above, they are also just make shooting more comfortable even with hearing protection in. They can help reduce flinch from recoil and muzzle blast in new shooters and children.
Ericstac, supersonic rounds still emit a sharp "crack," which is really just a miniature sonic boom, as the bullet passes near the observer/target. However, even supersonic ammo fired through a suppressor provides the shooter with a tactical advantage as it muffles the muzzle signature, making it extremely difficult to pinpoint the bullet's origins by detecting the muzzle blast if fired in an open battlefield. So a military sniper armed with a .308/.300 win mag/.338 Lapua with a suppressed barrel won't give away his firing position when he shoots. The enemy will still hear the cracking sound of his bullet when it arrives on target (not before, because the bullet is travelling faster than its own sound), but they will have a hard time determining its direction of flight. This can be a significant tactical advantage on a battlefield. Subsonic rounds will produce a soft pop, like opening a soda can, plus whatever mechanical sounds are produced by the weapon itself as the action cycles. In fact, the first time you shoot a suppressed weapon with subsonic loads, you'll become aware of weapon noise of which you were previously unaware simply because muzzle blast overwhelms the other sounds.
I have personally only fired one suppressed weapon, an M4 carbine firing M855 ball, and in my experience it drastically reduced the sound signature, but it didn't eliminate it. Also, I was wearing good hearing protection at the time because we were on a range with other unsuppressed weapons nearby (including my own), so I could only make a general comparison. From my own perspective, behind the muzzle, there was a significant reduction in noise, but it wasn't completely eliminated. A couple of years later, my son and I attended a "Silencers Are Legal" event at Elm Fork shooting range in 2012, and there was a LOT of suppressed fire going on, with everything from a suppressed .50 BMG bolt rifle suppressed AR10s and AR15s, to a suppressed KRIS SMG, to suppressed .22 LR pistols. Anything you can screw a can onto the barrel of, somebody had one there. Interestingly, the suppressed AR10 was easier on the ear than the suppressed AR15....I think simply because of the pitch of the sound. The suppressed higher crack was harder on the ear than the suppressed deeper boom. I stood nearby a lot of these weapons without any hearing protection at all. It is not something I would want to do ALL the time, but it did make it noticeably less painful to the ear. Eventually, I stuck some foam earplugs in my ears that I had brought along with me.
Last edited by The Annoyed Man on Sat Feb 09, 2013 11:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
Oh and i used a trust. I had [Pre-paid legal service] set it up for me. Can't recommend them highly enough. Very nice people and a very competitive price. $299 bucks and they give you a client card and number so you can call and ask advice whenever. They will help you fill out a Form 1 or 4 but your dealer should help you with the Form 4. Once I had talked to my dealer and picked out a can, I didn't even see my dealer again till the stamp came in. He filled out the Form 4, i mailed him a money order for the $200 tax, and he mailed if for me. All of this was done through email and regular mail. I faxed a copy of my Trust to him and mailed him the money. If you are considering buying a can I would like to recommend you check out Silenced America. They have a store front in Carrollton but like I said before most of the process is done through email and mail. They keep a variety of suppressors in stock. AAC, Yankee Hill, Thunderbeast, SureFire, etc. They have the best prices by far of anywhere i checked. I got the m4-2000 for $860. Thats way cheaper than most places. I attached their price list to this post.
man i still need to get my butt in gear and order a supressor, i just cant decide which i want. the m42k looks nice and compact since i'll be using this on my sbr (once i get the stamp)
People keep telling me the 7dn6 or yhm ti but no one has anything in stock.
I really like the saker but that thing seems more mythical than a unicorn
I'm kinda curious about something. How long does a suppressor last? Do you have to rework or replace any of the internals after so many rounds or something?
They are tacticool, but man they make the rifle a bunch longer.
I am not and have never been a LEO. My avatar is in honor of my friend, Dallas Police Sargent Michael Smith, who was murdered along with four other officers in Dallas on 7.7.2016. NRA Patriot-Endowment Lifetime Member---------------------------------------------Si vis pacem, para bellum.................................................Patriot Guard Rider
C-dub wrote:I'm kinda curious about something. How long does a suppressor last? Do you have to rework or replace any of the internals after so many rounds or something?
They are tacticool, but man they make the rifle a bunch longer.
I have the Liberty Mystic and the only thing that needs replacing is an o-ring inside. I drop mine in the ultrasonic to clean it, lube it and it is good to go. I am shooting 300 AAC blackout suppressed and in a couple weeks will be using it on a Sig 716 with subsonic 308 loads.
Needless to say I was delighted to hear that and immediately emailed my dealer and asked if they received my stamp. 2 hours later I received a reply saying they had my stamp and my Can was ready for pick up. 
