The Pros and Cons of Hunting with a Suppressor

Still, as with anything gear-related, there are trade-offs. Whether you decide to take a suppressor into the deer woods or elk mountains this fall depends on how you feel about the pros and cons below.

We all know that a suppressor dampens the report of a shot, but how does that help you in the tree stand?

From my experience, a .30-caliber suppressor on a bolt-action rifle reduces the sound of most common hunting cartridges to the point that your ears don’t ring or hurt after you pull the trigger. Experts say you should still wear hearing protection if you’re firing multiple rounds at the range, but one or two shots on a black bear isn’t going to damage your hearing (editor’s note: won’t damage your hearing too much).

This means you can leave the hearing protection in the truck and take advantage of the situational awareness afforded by unimpeded earways. You’ll hear that buck walking through the woods before he knows you’re there, or simply be able to enjoy the sounds of birds chirping and leaves rustling.

If you’re one of those people who carry hearing protection with you and try to put it on before the moment of truth, you’ll also be saved the trouble of fumbling around with foam earplugs while you watch your target animal walk away.

A suppressor doesn’t make a rifle more mechanically accurate (at least, not usually), but it can make you a more accurate marksman. That’s because hunters sometimes flinch before pulling the trigger as they anticipate the report of the shot.

Without a suppressor or hearing protection, firing a big game cartridge is painful. Your ears ring, your head hurts, and it usually takes a few minutes for everything to get back to normal. And you can’t exactly acclimate yourself to that pain by firing rounds at the range without doing serious damage to your hearing.

A suppressor removes that pain–and, more importantly, the anticipation of it. That will reduce the odds of flinching and help you be more accurate in the field.

A suppressor can also alleviate another pain point of the shooting process: recoil. Some suppressors only reduce recoil a small amount, but others are outfitted with brakes on the end that act like a muzzle brake. They redirect gases from the burning powder and lower the energy of the rifle hitting you in the shoulder.

In my experience, hunters more commonly flinch due to the shot report than to recoil, but it’s nice to have both bases covered.

Humans aren’t the only creatures to feel discomfort at the sound of a rifle. Deer will run at almost any noise, and that includes a shot from an unsuppressed firearm. That’s not a problem if you make a good shot, but if you miss or wound the animal, it’s hard to make a follow-up shot with deer in the next county.

With a suppressor, on the other hand, that whitetail or elk is more likely to stay within shooting distance even after you pull the trigger. If you’re hoping to get multiple animals from a herd or pack, that will also be easier if you have a can on the end of your rifle.

On a recent pig hunt, I missed a shot at a boar with a suppressed rifle chambered in 7mm Backcountry. But while the pig was clearly agitated, it only trotted a few more yards and let me take another (this time good) shot.

Many of the properties I hunt here in East Texas are small. They’re 40- or 60-acre plots that landowners give me access to, which means I’m never far away from a neighbor, road, or farmhouse. If I want to keep that permission, I think it helps to not disturb any of those adjacent property owners.

It’s legal to fire a rifle on the properties I hunt (God bless Texas), but there’s space between legal and polite. A suppressor keeps things polite–the neighbors aren’t disturbed around the family dinner table, which means they aren’t complaining to the landowner about the hooligan he lets hunt his back 40.

A suppressor is also nice in other contexts where the noise of a rifle might be disturbing. Again, know the laws in your state, county, and city. This isn’t about evading detection, and you can get in serious trouble for discharging a firearm in a place you’re not allowed to. But for me, living outside city limits on a small acreage, I like shooting my .22 in the back yard without worrying that a neighbor is going to call the police. My neighbors aren’t like that (see: Texas), but you get the idea.

Throwing a suppressor on the end of a 24-inch barrel can extend the rifle’s overall length by six, eight, or 10 inches. That’s fine at the range, but carrying a 32-inch barrel through the woods can be a headache. It smashes onto overhead branches or trees as you walk or ride through the woods, or it catches on chairs and support beams as you finagle it into position in a blind.

A suppressor will also increase the rifle’s weight. These days, titanium suppressors can weigh as little as 10 ounces, so it’s not a huge amount of weight. But if your hunting rifle is already heavy, you’re probably hesitant to add even more to that burden.

Depending on how your rifle is designed, adding a suppressor on the end can make it front-heavy. This isn’t always a bad thing. A front-heavy rifle can actually be a little easier to shoot off-hand (i.e., unsupported), but there’s a limit.

Too much weight on the end can make it difficult to stay on target, whether you’re shooting off-hand or from a fence post or other barricade. I once took a defensive firearms course from a trainer who never ran a suppressor on his AR-15 because he said it upset his rifle’s balance and made him miss shots. Front-heaviness can always be counterbalanced with weight in the stock, but if your hunting rig is already well-balanced, you might not want to go through that hassle.

Suppressors are expensive. There’s really no getting around that. A good suppressor will run anywhere from $600 to $1,200, which for many of us equals or exceeds the cost of the rifle we’re putting it on. What’s more, thanks to a bill passed by Congress in 1934, you’ll also have to pay a $200 “tax” on each and every suppressor you purchase. A suppressor can be swapped back and forth between rifles, but the cost is still a hard pill to swallow for what is essentially a gun muffler.

In the United States, purchasing a suppressor legally requires jumping through more hoops than purchasing a firearm. You have to submit fingerprints and a photo, contact your local law enforcement agency, fill out a separate form, and pass a background check (among other requirements).

Then, you have to wait. As I mentioned at the top, wait times have been significantly reduced in the last year, but some still report not getting approval for several months. If you’re in any kind of time crunch (like an impending season opener), it’s best to start the process at least six months before that due date.

If you ask me, the pros of hunting with a suppressor significantly outweigh the cons. Length, weight, and balance can be mitigated with a shorter barrel. The cost is similar to purchasing another gun (which I’m always saving for anyway), and third-party companies will facilitate submitting a photo, fingerprints, and forms, and some will even ship the suppressor to your door once it’s approved. I’ve been hunting with a suppressor for the last four or five years now, and I don’t think I’m ever going back.