Eider

Does anyone know if a silencer is availble for shot guns. I have to reduce some deer from the local population on a commercial farm. The area surounding the farm is residential and they want to keep any conflicts to a minimum. We do use archers but need to excelerate the harvest. Any help would be appreciate it.

Nomercy

Are there any shotgun silencers available? Yes.

Are they available to you? No.

What first comes to mind when people are asking for a quiet way to "hunt" deer is that they're actually looking for a way to poach without anyone hearing them. I'm not saying that's the case, but if you're in the right with what you're doing, why do you need to hide it?

Suppressors of any sort are considered Class III, prohibited in many states completely, and requiring a background check and annual $250 excise tax just to be able to own one...A lot of money to just buy a suppressor.

From what I have seen, you wouldn't want to use one for hunting of any sort. The only available models I've seen are military contracted weapons, the suppressor is mounted to the muzzle of a 12ga 500, looks to be about 4.5" diameter and 10-12" long. It is designed to allow the covert implementation of "riot" shotguns, however, the extreme size of the suppressor kind of limits the capabilities of the weapon, since you change from a Tactical length gun to a full length goose gun. (14"-->26" bbl)...not to mention the extreme weight of the device's effect on muzzle control in a close quarters combat situation. I grab that thing and you're not going to be able to control your own gun, and good luck swinging it quickly. But that's how I feel about it in combat...

Back onto hunting/harvesting. If you're able to legally cull this herd and this herd is legally established and zoned, the neighbors can complain until they're blue in the face and they have no power.

As far as hunting with this thing, I've HEARD that these are only effective with shot, and don't pattern very well even then (although tighter than the original 14-18" bbls) and perform rather poorly with slugs.

Not to mention that the rounds must be under 1100fps, otherwise you've still got a sonic boom that can't be silenced, which limits the power of your weapon. Typical 12ga 1oz. slugs run between 1500-1800fps, you're going to have to sacrifice between ~30% and 45% of your power to bring it down to sub-sonic levels. That's not as much of a problem in power as it is in accuracy and trajectory.

Personally, I'd either get a 20ga with slugs, or a relatively quiet rifle round (.357mag, .44mag, .30-30, .243 etc) and put up with your neighbors complaints if there are any.

DM

When the "neighbors complain" it's called "bad press", and pretty soon it's on TV.... How many of those "townies" (most are anti hunters) that are watching there TV sets, are voters??????

Anyway, no matter what he's doing, personally i'd like NOT to see any bad press come from it...

Drilling Man

DM1975

Since when is there an annual $250.00 tax? Last I heard it was a one time $5.00 tax stamp for silencers and AOW's, and a one time $200.00 tax stamp for full auto and SBR's...

Eider

DM, you are right. Here is some backround info. The town that has this problem has a ban on firearm discharge to start with. My permit comes from the warden service, and yes, we can legaly make all the noise we want, is worth the bad press given the current atmopsphere here in the Northeast, NO. If we fail to take the required amount of deer with archery equipment in the next 2 months they will bring in a hired sharp shooter, with a rifle with silencers and surprsors and all sorts of high tech stuff and shoot the deer, that is a last resort. The wardens considered using shotguns but felt in the end it would be best to do this as quitely and as discrete as possible and archery fills that requirment, except for the fact it is winter, -15 here today with the wind chill and shooting a bow, at night in the winter is a challenge. I was simply curios about silencers for shotguns. Thanks for all the imput

BDHUNTR

I know somebody makes a barrel extension that threads into your screw-in choke threads for urban waterfowl hunters. Supposedly it really quiets the sound of the shotgun blast, but since it is only a barrel extension, it is not considered a silencer. But I'm guessing it would only work with Foster-type slugs at best, and maybe only with buckshot, if that's an option for you.

Brian

DM1975

Eider, I completely see your point in wanting to be silent. Making noise just because you can when it is going to tick off everyone in the country is stupid. Why not use a 22? I am not familiar with your laws on this but a 22 is a very quiet rifle, no one would probably hear it.

PapaD

not to mention if your at the range or shooting a lot it can damage your ears pretty good.

johnch

It is called a Metro barrel extension by Hastings .
Cabela's has it for $194.99.

ths78

Buy a NEF HandiRifle in 357 Mag and shoot 38 specials through it, or get a 44Mag NEF and shoot 44 special through it. These rifles are fairly cheap, and then you'd have a great plinker/carry gun/hunting rifle for another day.

I'd use heavy cast bullets and only take Heart/Lung shots out to about 75 yds.