Just thought I’d add some other experience. I mostly deer hunt with a 450BM Ruger American Rifle with a Banish 460 suppressor on it. While I do hunt from a stand or blind a lot, I also have set up my property to allow sneaky access to most of the fields/plots and I will hunt on foot, shooting from sticks. The rifle itself is already very light and compact and the Banish is also quite light. The overall outfit is very comfortable to carry and easy to maneuver. I have ordered a suppressor for my Christiansen 6.5 PRC for western hunting. I am worried that the combination might be a bit unwieldy for western spot and stalk hunts. We shall see.

Your question was specifically about stalking hunting with a can, but it is unclear to me why you are only considering cans. I like cans but hunted deer unsuppressed using only electronic hearing protection (Peltor). It not only allowed me to shoot WITH hearing protection but also allowed me to hear MUCH BETTER in the WI woods in which I hunted. Cans are great but electronicly augmented protection allowed me better SA without any NFA items.

quote:

Originally posted by Devereaux:
it is unclear to me why you are only considering cans

I asked the question because I was curious how many hunters have suppressors on their full size rifles when stalking type hunting, not because I was considering doing anything myself.

Whenever someone asks a question like this here on the forum there is a tendency for some people to assume that it’s motivated by a personal interest in performing the activity oneself; i.e., that I’m wondering if I should put a suppressor on my rifle as I’m hiking the local hills looking for elk or deer. That is not the reason for my question, but I would tend to agree that just wearing conventional active hearing protection would be my practice if I did that sort of thing.

Decades ago when I hunted prairie dogs I used passive (non-noise canceling) muffs and long before having a suppressor was any sort of possibility. That sort of hunting, though, was closer to fixed than to stalking per se in which we might be required to take a shot quickly from offhand or other improvised position before the game sees us or otherwise moves away. When hunting the prairie dogs it was almost always possible to don my muffs and get into a good supported prone position for the shot(s) before the critters were aware of my presence. If they saw me, they disappeared into their holes immediately so stealth was critical.

As a last point that probably isn’t a consideration for most hunters is that if I were to take up hunting again, a suppressor wouldn’t eliminate my need for supplemental hearing protection. When I use a can at the range these days simple foam plugs are sufficient, but using them wouldn’t be feasible for hunting. They couldn’t be left in all the time, and when needed a set of muffs would be easier and quicker to pull into position for a shot than plugging my ears.

Interesting. Thanks for taking the time to elucidate what your position was on the question. As I noted in my post, I personally hunted deer in the woods of WI using electronically augmented hearing protection. They were amazing! I wore them ALL the time hunting. They significantly augmented my SA, especially since I have a significant hearing loss from gunfire, LAWS, explosives - and jet airplanes. These days I try to shoot mostly suppressed but still ALWAYS wear electronic muffs.