Is it possible to silence a shotgun

Skip to main content Pulling out the big guns—like, actually for-real We had three weapons left to shoot, and they were all large—large guns that fired large rounds. The rods guide the shell's shot and wadding out of the suppressor, while still allowing the shot to expand as it normally would. Taking a crack at the Salvo. It doesn't add any noticeable amount of weight onto the end of the barrel.

Lee Hutchinson. Stephen taking a turn. Shooting a shotgun without hearing protection was a pretty remarkable experience. Another look down the business end of the Salvo, with rods visible.

View of the Salvo's attachment point and segmented sides. We fired the maximum-length, maximum-suppression 12" Salvo, but Schauble had also brought along a shorter, lighter, louder variant. I asked Schauble for an off-hand shot i.

Doing this with a heavy bipod weapon and actually hitting something is a lot harder than it appears. Shooting the XM from a prone supported position, in the manner the weapon is most often meant to be fired. The suppressor on the end saved us from being deafened by the big. It fired about how it looks—harsh. But the suppressor kept its bark down to reasonable levels. From left to right:.

Guns are loud , and shotguns are no exception to that rule. With a properly-configured Salvo 12, you can turn your thundering beast of a scattergun into a polite, easy-shooting, quieter shotgun.

Here are just a few of the reasons why adding the Salvo 12 suppressor to your shotgun may be the smartest move you make this hunting season:. Hearing protection is one of the most important reasons to own and use any silencer. Shotguns can generate sound up to decibels or higher. This means even one shot fired from an unsuppressed shotgun can permanently destroy hearing without adequate protection!

The Salvo 12 can reduce noise to under decibels, which is the threshold for safe levels of noise. Because the Salvo 12 is user-configurable for different lengths, not all configurations on all guns with all loads can drop below decibels. But it is important to note that any reduction in sound is a net positive. Even if you opt for a shorter configuration, you are still gaining many advantages like including recoil reduction and improved accuracy.

The Salvo 12 is a proven recoil reduction tool that makes even the heaviest magnum loads easier to shoot. Nobody loves a loud gun. During hunting season the woods become noisy — sometimes irritatingly so, and the noise stresses out humans and animals alike. Not only does this make it harder to share the fields and forests with non-hunters, but it also makes hunting harder.

And shooting ranges benefit from quieter shooting too! Shooting a shotgun indoors amplifies the sound and can further damage your hearing. But with a Salvo 12 shotgun silencer, you only have to worry about protecting your family and home. The main states where silencers are illegal to own or use for any purpose are California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Although many people think that silencers were banned in the s to fight a rash of Mafia-style killings, The Washington Post reports that authorities were more afraid that poachers would use silencers during Depression-era food shortages to hunt out of season.

In fact, the NFA never made silencers illegal. It simply included them among other exotic firearms and accessories — machine guns, most notably — that require a special tax to purchase. Even though silencers are legal in dozens of states, that doesn't mean they're easy to buy. There are thousands of gun shops nationwide selling popular brands like SilencerCo and Liberty Suppressors, but the only way you're going to walk out of the store with a new silencer is if you pass the ATF background check.

And that can take up to nine months. Here's a simplified view of how the process works: You purchase the silencer at the gun dealer and get a serial number for it. After the ATF approves your application, you can collect your silencer. If you do buy online, the silencer is shipped to a dealer after you're approved. You can read more about the whole process here.

The American Suppressor Association, a silencer industry advocacy group, estimates that an ATF background check typically takes between four and nine months. This is the main obstacle to legal ownership that the silencer industry wants to see abolished.

The gun industry is positioning silencers as a health issue. There's no doubt that repeated short-range exposure to gun blasts will inflict lasting hearing damage. But why can't hunters and other sportsman simply wear ear plugs? The American Suppressor Association argues that many hunters don't wear ear protection because they want to be aware of their surroundings.

It's hard to hear the call of a migrating duck or the sound of a buck moving stealthily through the underbrush if you're wearing earplugs or noise-reducing earmuffs. With silencers, gun advocates argue, hunters don't have to sacrifice awareness for safety.

Another safety benefit touted by the silencer industry is accuracy. The anticipation of a loud blast causes some shooters to flinch as they pull the trigger. This may lead to inaccurate shots, which could endanger other hunters or result in an injury to the animal.