Hello there,

My first posting as I am a new Hunter but have had silencers for a while now. The postingquoted above, and I am not trying to be a smart ass, is very much indeed erroneous and misleading. The $200 fee is nothing else but the TRANSFER TAX fee collected by the ATF's NFA bureau. It has been $200 since 1934 and was primarily instituted to make it harder for the average Joe to own a suppressor. In 1934 $200 was equivalent to 5 month's salary and it has not changed since (it's predicted by many that under Obama's regime it will go to $2500).
Thanks to Hollywood, the device that Hiram Maxim invented and commercialized in 1902, became an image of the modern Mobsters, Yacuza and Ex-KGB operatives. In real life, the sound doesn't evencome close to that portrayed in modern James Bond movies... unless you shoot a Walter P22 or an integrally silenced rifle with Subsonic rounds.
Many people on this forum know a lot about silencers, however obtaining one is not as hard as it looks. I legally own 3 silencers, a .22, a .45 and a .223 for my M4; and I have not been photographer, fingerprinted orexposed to the sarcasmof aChief Law Enforcement figure. Anyone(without a criminal record)can own a silencer as a Grantor/Trustee of it's own Revocable Living Trust or a Corporation. Both are entities, however they cannot be photographednor fingerprinted.
The procurement/purchase of a silencer is simple:
1.make sure your state is listed under silencer ownership(NJ,NY,CA... NOT)
2.find a Class 3 firearms dealer
3.chose the silencer you want(the smaller the caliber the better suppression and price. Eg. .22 silencer costs $300-450, .45 is about $750)
4.have a notarized Revocable Living Trust set up with you as Trustee
5.dealer will fillout2 ATF form 4s, attach a $200 check made out to NFA and mail it
6.wait for 1-2 months for approval (NFA will affix a nice $200green stamp on your original ATFform 4)
7.dealer will call you to pick up the item

Hunting with silencers is a common practice among owners, however on a personal note, I would not do it because:
1.I consider itcheating
2.other hunters might be near you and will not hear you and possibly shoot your direction
3.if the game warden catches you with a silencer he will notify the Police, SWAT, Border Patrol, CIA, NSA and god knows who else because they(wardens) have no clue that it is LEGAL TO POSSESS!!!!! By the way many Law Enforcement officers have no clue that is legal to own a silencer...

With that said, I hope I didn't offend anyone, and by the way there are hundreds of videos on youtube featuring weapons shot with silencers. It's fun to watch them, and hey,they might even make you get one