10676239_10107551601267414_4180816061627850066_n (1)

For the last two years I have been hunting with suppressed rifles in the state of Texas, and in my experience silencers just make everything better. For starters, it removes the need for hearing protection so you can hear your surroundings much better and often hear animals before they approach. The real reason they rock, though, is plain common courtesy. Guns are loud, and especially in an area densely packed with hunting blinds, one or two big loud guns can scare the game away for everyone else. Plus, the barking of the guns ruins the early morning calm for non-hunters looking to just enjoy the beauty of the day. According to the American Suppressor Association, it looks like those in Florida can now enjoy this same awesome experience effective immediately . . .

From their website:

Today, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted unanimously to repeal the 57 year old prohibition on the use of firearm suppressors for taking deer, gray squirrels, rabbits, wild turkeys, quail, and crows. Following the passage of the new regulation, the Commission then voted unanimously to authorize an Executive Order to allow the measure to take effect immediately. Minutes later, Executive Order # EO 14-32 was signed, making hunting with suppressors for all animals in the state legal, effective immediately.

There’s still work to do — some states still make hunting with silencers illegal. Heck, some places make just owning them illegal. One step at a time.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

36 COMMENTS

    • Still, some people care about their long term hearing.
      Especially if you want to go hunting with kids.

      • Not trying to say I don’t care about mine.

        I care heavily for my hearing, and general well-being. One shot during a hunting trip doesn’t bother me though… Never has.

        • It probably should. Hearing damage is cumulative, and a single shot at 140 dB or more is enough to cause a slight amount of hearing loss.

        • Considering that I take fewer than ten shots per year sans hearing protection, and each one of them is in wide open country, I’ll lose much more of my hearing to construction than I will to hunting.

    • What? what? my ears are shot from too much time around jet engines before we knew better. It sucks wearing hearing pro in the woods, but it sucks even more having tinnitus for days after.

      • Yeah, but military turbojets sound really cool….. 🙂

        In the 70’s at Altus AFB my friends and I snuck out about a 100 yards behind the engine test stands late at night…

      • “… my ears are shot from too much time around jet engines …”

        Oh jeez, mine too. And I wasn’t even a Jet Mech.

        I was just recently boring my co-workers with stories about being with the SR71 out on the trim pad, both engines running full military and having to climb up on the back of that pig to pull panels for access to the systems I worked with.

        That noise would literally scramble your brains. It’s too late now but I would’ve taken the whole ‘hearing protection’ thing a little more serious had I known what was down the road thirty years later.

        I’ve been paying attention to this hunting/silencer issue because it’s a big deal to a lot of people.

  2. “Today, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted unanimously to repeal the 57 year old prohibition on the use of firearm suppressors for taking deer, gray squirrels, rabbits, wild turkeys, quail, and crows.”

    What about vermin like Progressives, hogs and whatnot?

  4. Why is it that we gun guys are sticklers with magazine/clip nomenclature but not so much with the suppressor/silencer one? Not trying to make a federal case about it but the little details gnaw at me sometimes.

      • How so? I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that I’ve always heard that the term silencer was a misnomer as it doesn’t actually silence the report.

        • Its the name the inventor of the device gave to it, and what is listed on the first patent. Silencer is the name he gave it, suppressor is the later “corrected” name.

  7. As a Floridian I’m pumped, I’m even more pumped my lgs just got their SOT. I wasn’t considering a suppressor til now. Oh also what’s up with the blue gloves?

  8. One of the many cool things at the Gun Fest was getting to hear these things in action. I didn’t shoot one, but I got close enough to hear the difference. it really is the way to go. We need to get rid of that stupid unsafe law.

  9. Question for Ask Leghorn: If everyone starts hunting with silencers, how will I, while sitting in a stand, count the gun shots and know the shots the OTHER guys are getting?

  11. When will I be able to buy a ‘can’ without all the miserable/privacy killing federal paperwork? this also drives up the cost of a can due to the effort required. Defacto restriction/ban? A can shouldn’t even be on the NFA list. Maybe someday…

  13. 20 years in the military I have 85% bilateral high frequency hearing loss. Wear hearing protection people. Suppressors go a long way towards saving your hearing. They have been using them in Europe for decades.

  14. at post 42: barkeep, “hey, oly. you look happy today.”
    oly points at head, “got a new hearin’ aid.”
    barkeep, “hows it work? do you like it?”
    oly, “best one i’ve ever had.”
    barkeep, “well, that’s fine. what kind is it?”
    oly looks at wrist, “about four thirty.”

Comments are closed.