It would be interesting to know how many actual “hunters” who seek and stalk their prey do so with suppressors attached to their rifles. Is the advantage of doing so really worth the inconvenience and effort?

Suppressors vary in length, but mine would turn a non-NFA minimum 16 inch barrel into a 24-inch beast and without the advantages of the higher bullet velocity from the longer bore. Then there is the added weight and bulk of any suppressor that would bring the noise of a centerfire hunting cartridge down to an acceptable level. If shooting with no hearing protection, any reduction in sound level is better than none, but I still use plugs when shooting my rifles and can.

And I am not referring to someone who waits in a blind or stand for game to appear, and especially if he might be firing multiple shots as in the hog hunting videos I’ve seen. I’m not suggesting that anyone should fire any shots without hearing protection, but wearing that while stalking would also be a pain, and countless hunters don’t use cans or other hearing protection.

Comments?

* By “full length” I am referring to at least 16 inches. This is not about someone who uses a thermal sight and a 10-inch SBR in 300 Blackout with subsonic ammunition to kill nuisance hogs at night or something similar.

Not me, but a friend of mine had a Remington 700 cut to 16.5" and has an AEM5 on it. He took a deer about a half hour into the opening day of rifle season with it this year and said it's the best setup he's hunted with in decades. He does both stalks and stands, I'm not sure which scenario he took the deer in, but he's been raving about that rifle and that suppressor combo.

Not knowing what 'prey' we are talking about I'm lost on what caliber we are discussing. But in almost anything in the non magnum area one can easily get suppressors that are not 8" and not heavy that will provide excellent suppression.
I value my hearing, I suppress everything.

I’m just looking for a general discussion and didn’t specify prey or cartridge for that reason.

But if I specified I was interested in only 338 Lapua Magnum and red squirrels, someone would be sure to chime in with a comment about hunting musk ox with an FN 5.7×28mm pistol. As it is I won’t be surprised to see a post about hunting nuisance hogs at night with a thermal sight on a 10" SBR chambered for 300 Blackout and using subsonic ammunition from a tree stand.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Not me, but a friend of mine had a Remington 700 cut to 16.5" and has an AEM5 on it.

Do you know what cartridge he was shooting?

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Do you know what cartridge he was shooting?

5.56, 55gr Barnes TSX. Sent me a picture of a fist-sized wound channel. Went for a high spine shot, projectile blew the shoulder to shreds. Knocked him down, he thrashed a little bit, got up and ran a short ways with his front down, leaning towards his left side (destroyed shoulder), then dropped and didn't move. Said "he was straight fucked up." Good looking six point buck, decent sized for his region.

I haven't shot that exact rifle, but I have shot another rifle he had set up with that suppressor and it's very quiet, sounds great. Good tone. A single shot without ear pro would, yes, probably damage your hearing some and you wouldn't notice it because of the auditory exclusion effect, but I think you'd be a lot better off than shooting without one.

I can't contribute to your question directly. Where I live for game that takes a cf cartridge we don't stalk, its generally heavily wooded with short ranges and we mostly stick to some form of ground blind, tree stand or cover. But it might be several miles of hiking to get there. In general these are .30 cal rifles (or stuff derived from it), almost all are short 16" ish barrels (nothing long) with a LPV scope. most probably weighing in the 7-8 lb range. On these adding 5-7" of length and 8oz of weight doesn't mean much while hiking.
Of course in different terrain for different game it might mean a lot, but the friends I have that have gone out west to do long range open terrain hunting all shot suppressed and none of them bothered mentioning that it was an annoyance.

I don't stalk, and I haven't been in a deer stand in years, but if I were to get up in a stand in the future I'd carry a can with me. I really can't afford to lose any more hearing at this point. For the kind of hunting we do around here the extra length wouldn't matter a bit.

I save a couple doe tags for rifle season. I generally use a 44 mag or my inline. If I have the chance to shoot a bear or there is the possibility of a longer shot, I would take my tikka in 30-06.
My ruger American in 308 with the Nomad 30 is just a hair longer than the tikka. The weight difference isn’t very noticeable between the two when waking. I plan on picking up a titanium 30 cal suppressor this year which would bring the weight down.

Only use case I can get behind is shooting a godawful magnum. Something that really needs a brake but you really can’t expect the time to get the ear pro in place.

I schlepped one around a bit deer hunting this fall. It was mounted for use in a box blind. Too heavy for my needs, too long as well. This was eastern woods though, out west length would be less of an issue

I stalked with my 1894 and Marlin 444 lever actions with a hybrid 46 attached. Not often but I did. I have also with my CVA cascade 350 legend with the same suppressor attached. One of the reasons why I am working on getting a Rugged alaskan Ti, for that along with my 7mm RM.

Integrally suppressed barrels are a great option.

I don’t think there’s a reason to regularly hunt unsuppressed, other than shotguns - and I’m trying to figure out how to balance a shotgun with a suppressor. (My brother and I only hunt suppressed, now.)

My neighbor hunts elk, deer, and antelope. He has used a suppressor for the past two years.
He currently uses a Sig Cross in .308 Winchester.

He backpacks into the forest and would not use any other combination. He claims that if he misses, the suppressor won't spook the game.

PC

Thanks for the comments that refer to my original question. Not as many as I somewhat expected, but not none, either.

I have been hunting suppressed for a few years. For me, it is 100% about hearing protection. Growing up, I deer hunted without hearing protection. It didnt bother me. Usually the excitement of the harvest helped tune out the blistering noise. Of course my ears would ring and feel fuzzy afterwords, but they always returned back to normal after a while. You ears are an important part of hunting so at the time, wearing ear muffs or plugs would cause you to not hear game movement.

I guess it's not surprise but eventually I developed tinnitus and I also didnt want to stop hunting. So I started just putting on muffs right before I shot, but this can be a problem because the move movement you make, the more likely you are to be spotted. So putting on muffs, then raising your gun is a lot of movement.

Then electronic hearing protection came out, and those were mostly great. I could wear them for my hunt and also hear what's going on around me. The limitation with them is you lose some auditory directionality and identification, but to me this was a good enough trade off to protect my hearing.

When I got suppressors, that changed everything. I can use my natural ears to hear game movement, and I can shoot without my ears ringing. So the sacrifice of added length to the barrel is worth it to me.

You also get reduced recoil and I have noticed that the deer tend to be a little more confused after shooting suppressed vs unsuppressed giving you more opportunities for additional deer before they completely run off. This isn't always the case, but it's much more so the case for me vs unsuppressed.

Weight/balance of the rifle isn't an issue anymore with today's modern suppressor materials and manufacturing. Throwing a Dead Air Sandman L on a rifle, yes that would be cumbersome, but these new cans that weigh 8-9oz you dont even notice.

quote:

Originally posted by JohnV:
I have been hunting suppressed for a few years.

Thanks.
Can you detail your hunting rig: rifle, barrel length, cartridge, method of hunting (stalking/sitting)?

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by JohnV:
I have been hunting suppressed for a few years.

Thanks.
Can you detail your hunting rig: rifle, barrel length, cartridge, method of hunting (stalking/sitting)?

95% out of a Deer Stand (box blind). 5% still hunting (stalking).

My Current Rig is an Sig Cross 6.5cm with 18" barrel and a Silencerco Omega. I have used and suppressed a 16" Ruger American 308, a 24" Browning XBolt 30-06, and a 20" Remington 700 308.


Most shots under 120 yards. Have shot up to 300 yards.

Thanks. Just the information I was seeking.

I’ve hunted everything Alaska has to offer with rifles cut back to 18” with silencers.

I went on one hunt with a 22” barrel and a 7” silencer and realized that just wasn’t going to work.

I've been doing this for some years now, mostly with the following setups:

Sig Cross (same package almost as listed above) in 6.5 with Sig 338Ti can. It's long but the titanium can keeps it light and balanced. 80% glassing from hills, 20% on the move.

Henry .45-70 with SiCo Hybrid 46. The gun is heavy enough that you don't really notice the can out front. 80% woods walking, 20% just keeping it propped up around camp in case a bear wanders in.

Remington 700 .338winmag Mountain Rifle with barrel cut to 20" and use the Sig .338Ti can - still balances ok...it's long but when you fire off that shot, it's worth the can in reduced recoil and noise. 60% walking/hiking, 40% stuck in tent weathered in on hunts where I usually bring it along.

The smaller suppressed stuff, I don't really consider hunting rifles.

If you're talking using a rifle with an 18" barrel, adding a 6"ish or so length can brings it to 24-26" overall length, which isn't that much over older traditional barrel lengths anyway. Sticking a can on those old barrels definitely stretches it out and is best for sitting in stands, etc. Just walking in the woods with that overall length would be a pain. Might practice with a 6" 2x4 and it'd replicate the issue.

I've recently grabbed a Ruger 16" .450Bushmaster that I'm going to use my SiCo Hybrid 46 on for a woods gun, should be just about perfect for it's intended use.

Thanks for the new comments. It doesn't seem to be that common, but definitely works for some of you.