Last week, Nick reported on the layoffs at SilencerCo that saw a sizable portion of their employees left without jobs. There was a good deal of speculation about what prompted the move, but the general assumption by Nick, myself, and others is that Hearing Protection Act, or rather the possibility of it passing, has gutted demand for silencers. Everyone I talk to in the industry agrees that things are down across the board, and they all blame the hype around the HPA. Nearly every consumer seems to be biding their time, thinking, “Why would I buy now? Why not wait for the HPA to pass and save the cost of the tax stamp?”

Clearly recognizing the reality of the situation, SilencerCo announced a rebate program today to give consumers an amount equal to the $200 tax stamp they’d normally have to pay. The rebate can only be used at SilencerCo’s online store and is available to all purchasers of a SilencerCo suppressor from February 1 to April 30, 2017. All you have to do is purchase any of their silencers from your local dealer, register your purchase online, and within 72 hours you’ll get a redemption code good for additional muzzle brakes, three lug mounts, end caps, or apparel.

To give this rebate some context, SilencerCo’s new-for-2017 Saker 7.62 ASR will set you back $835 at Capitol Armory. The Saker ASR line comes with a mount, but the $200 rebate will net you two more mounts to put on your other rifles. One can, three guns. All for a couple Jacksons over $1000 including your tax stamp.

If and when the HPA passes, the legislation as written will refund your tax stamp. In a post HPA world, your $835 plus sales tax gets you a full auto-rated can, three mounts, and the joy of knowing you have a silencer when everyone else who waited is scrambling to buy product that doesn’t yet exit.

I’ve already given my thoughts on why the threat of HPA passing shouldn’t stop you from buying a silencer now, and this deal only sweetens the pot. My local dealer, Capitol Armory, is currently running specials from 9%-54% off select SilencerCo silencers. Stack a $200 rebate to be used for mounts, and the potential for getting your tax stamp back, and you’re talking about a real buyer’s market.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

44 COMMENTS

    • I got the SC Omega. Then the case. Then the ACR mount for the AR. Then the mount for the hunting rifle (smaller). And now I would like a new endcap to remove the brake.

      So a good silencer can be a system of parts and options. And expenses.

      • Seriously. Just putting ASR mounts on a handful of rifles so you can share the love around can quickly add up.

  2. Okay, so to offset the $200 suppressor tax, they give you a gift card worth $200, that you can only use… to buy another suppressor…. which would require another $200 tax…..

    I’m not sure if this is the greatest marketing ploy since “$5 each or 4 for $20” or just the brainchild of a moron.

    • If you’ve got other cans those adapters and quick mount flash hiders do add up pretty quick. Think I have that much in flash hiders just for my 30 cal can.

  3. My biggest problem and reason why I haven’t bought a can just yet isn’t the paperwork or the 200$ tax it’s damn waiting period. I just can’t justify spending a good chunk of money on something that I can’t have for 7-8months.

      • I’m a June baby too sitting at 8 months now without a peep. Not even my first sticker, 2nd one only took 3 months.

    • My issue isnt the tax stamp or the pain the ass paperwork or even the wait. For me its paying 900bucks for a tube of metal. I understand the idea of it. Low demand high r and d costs equal a price tag to boot. Ive gone this long i can hang out a little longer till a good can is 100 or less like it should be.

    • My biggest issue would be that if I get the suppressor before the HPA passes or goes into effect, it’s going to be registered and controlled by NFA issues. I don’t want that scrutiny or to worry about if/when they scrub the registry from their records. Frankly I don’t trust that they will and likely keep copies, like the RCMP did up in Canada after their firearm registry was canned.

  4. “…and you’re talking about a real buyer’s market.”

    It’ll be an even bigger buyer’s market a year after HPA passes and everybody and their brother is making and selling silencers, driving the price way down. That’s why these companies are offering deals now – they want you to pay today’s inflated prices, before competition forces them to lower their prices. Sure, immediately after HPA passes, demand will be high and supply will be low, but after the initial surge, the market will settle at a much lower average price point than today.

    Nice try, SilencerCo, but I’ve lived several decades without a suppressor. I can wait a little longer.

    • Stinkeye,

      Not sure if your comment included this idea: assuming it is legal I would like to make my own suppressor. Aside from the threading aspect (and even that isn’t too hard), making a basic suppressor is rather simple and easy. I would much rather make my own for $15 in parts than pay $800+ (and wait for 10 months right now).

      So, between a bazillion new manufacturers and home builds, the prices will have to come down.

      If I were SilencerCo, I would be looking at how to increase the scale of their manufacturing operation by a factor of 100 and reduce their prices by a factor of 5. Both should be easily achievable.

      • Yes, from-scratch home builds and kits (I imagine kits will be a huge part of the market eventually) will do a lot to drive prices down.

        Your last paragraph is exactly the advice I would give to companies like SilencerCo. They have name recognition and and established product line. If/when HPA passes, they need to hit it hard, and get out as far ahead as they can, because every major gun manufacturer is going to be selling silencers within a year or two. Ruger already has a couple, and you know they’re just waiting to turn the production line up to 11. So if you’re the little guy, your best bet is to get to be a big guy in this new market before the existing big guys catch up.

        The tricky part is timing – whether HPA will pass or not, and what the final version will look like if it does, are open questions. It’s really hard to invest a lot of money into a factory without a high certainty of return. If something happens and HPA fails, then you’ve screwed yourself.

    • See, that’s where I am on all this. I understand the laws of supply and demand as well as anyone; suppressors are expensive because makers need to make a LOT of money for the relative few they sell to those willing to go to all the trouble… they are a seriously overpriced product considering the lack of moving parts. Even if (a big IF, I don’t have much gun habit money) I buy a gun with a threaded muzzle and be out hundreds of dollars, I’ll then have to spend hundreds or thousands more to suppress it? No thanx. Too rich for my meagre income. I will wait for the HPA and the inevitable reduction in price.
      Sux for Silencerco and the other suppressor companies but thats just economics.

      • I’m getting my old beat-to-hell heavy barrel .22lr threaded for an auto filter to tide me over for the time being.

        My first pistol can will probably be for a threaded barrel Glock.

        Local machine shops are gonna be swamped for a while…

  5. I bought during AAC’s version of this promotion a few years back thinking that I’d apply the $200 toward a can for my new SBR. I was sorely disappointed to find that their store, while flush with ball caps and other swag, didn’t offer the option to buy their real products. The Silencerco shop is much the same.

    • It’s not really surprising that they don’t sell SBR’s and other NFA toys online.

      SilencerShop has a pretty unique thing going and most manufacturers aren’t going to bother with doing that.

  6. Pretty sure I don’t want to hear anyone in the industry bitching about things being “down.” You’ve had years of record profits so suck it up, buttercup.

  7. Laughable. The moment the hearing protection act is enacted. Friends of mine will switch on the manufacturing in China (specializing in low volume high tolerance machining) and the overpriced quite cans will drop dramatically.

    • Doubtful. Should the HPA pass, importing a ChiCom can will be about as easy as importing a Norinco SKS.

    • “The moment the hearing protection act is enacted. Friends of mine will switch on the manufacturing in China (specializing in low volume high tolerance machining) and the overpriced quite cans will drop dramatically.”

      Expecting quality machine and metal work out of China? Yikes. There’s a reason that the company I used to work for had 95% market share. Our competition was in China and their product was total dogshit.

      • If China is off the table, Pakistan, India, etc. will pick up the slack.

        Just like that ‘Dogs of War’ movie, where they filled steel drums with bulk Chi-Com 7.62×39 and declared it not on the banned country list, China will make ‘Metal Parts’ and someone in a non-forbidden country will import them and screw them together and call it manufacturing…

  8. I am with Jm and Bigred: most suppressors should not cost much more than $100 and I don’t want to be on some ATF registry.

    Get the prices to reasonable levels (like 1/5th the prices of a firearm rather than 2x the price of a firearm) and eliminate the ATF registration requirements and I will purchase multiple suppressors.

    • $100… bahahahahahaha, that was a good one, I just about spit coffee all over my monitors at that one.

      Oh you are serious? Dude, you can’t even get a reasonable muzzle brake for much less than $75-100 and most of them are over $100, and that’s made out of cheap cast metal, carbon steel, or maybe some some low grade stainless if the manufacturer felt really spendy. A decent suppressor is going to have probably 10-20x the amount of time/labor to make than a muzzle brake and materials (high quality SS, titanium, inconel, satellite etc) are going to be several times more expensive too.

      Heck, Spikes tactical has made a market selling fake supressors to all the #mypistolbraceisjustadgoodasarealSBR neckbeards for not a whole lot less than $100 and you think the real deal is going to be anywhere close to that?

      That’s some special kind of stupid right there.

      • I don’t know about $100 for a decent silencer (decent is rather subjective, and what caliber are we talking here?), but the real world prices in countries where they are not restricted do no bear out your pessimism. Silencers in places like NZ tell a tale of outrageous US prices. For example, it looks like the going entry-level rate for a silencer for .308 in NZ is around $300 NZD… which is right around $200 USD. Compare that to the prices you see here; I think the cheapest .308 silencer I’ve ever seen was around $700, before tax stamp.

        And guns are a lot more common in the US, so the market here is larger in both absolute and relative terms. Of course there is a chance that no one will decide to capitalize on that gigantic market, and so the current manufacturers will never make commodity level silencers…. but I think that chance is “fat” as it where (or perhaps akin to a ball of frozen precipitate’s chances in an extremely high energetic punishment environment, if you prefer).

  9. I have 18 suppressors. I’m buying more. I have learned to never wait on the good Fairy Godmother of politician’s promises.

  10. Really it’s a pretty nice deal. If the HPA doesn’t pass you basically get your necessary accessories for free. Just the pistons for the Osprey are $85 a piece and you need the disassembly tool at $20. If the HPA does pass, you get your accessories for free and a $200 refund.

    For all the talk about suppressor prices the truth is that the price is going to come down but it’s not going to come down to the level that some people seem to think if you’re talking about buying something that effectively lasts forever. I’d expect a price cut on high end cans in the 50%-60% range over time. That said, I’d expect various levels of suppressors to start showing up just like the car market where you can buy a KIA, a Ferrari or anything in between.

    I’ll let other folks beta test the cheaper suppressors first though because I imagine some of them will be low quality and some will be flat out dangerous.

    • “…the price is going to come down but it’s not going to come down to the level that some people seem to think…”

      A look at the cost of suppressors in countries that don’t restrict their sale seems to suggest $100 for a decent rimfire can is very realistic, and “economy” models will likely be even cheaper. And since those countries tend to also restrict firearm ownership, they’re small markets, nothing like the potential suppressor market in America, which will further drive prices down (economies of scale and all that).

      • Using ellipses to make it appear as though I said something I didn’t doesn’t make your response to what I didn’t say correct.

        Rimfire ≠ all suppressible calibers. It doesn’t have to handle high pressures. Generally when things are that cheap they’re disposable. Most of the cans made and sold in the US are not. No matter how you cut it a .338 suppressor that lasts multiple lifetimes is going to cost more than a .22 suppressor. Personally I don’t think asking $400-$500 for a high quality center-fire rifle can is too much to ask.

        There really isn’t a comparison between the US market and foreign markets. Until suppressors are a commodity item they will continue to be somewhat pricey on the high end and even then they’ll be comparatively pricey on the high end just like the car market.

      • Rimfire supressors can be primarily aluminum and are easy to machine with an extremely low material cost. You can often find $200 rimfire silencers in the US already. A Google search of .223/556 suppressors, adjusted for exchange rates seem to put them around the $400 to $500 mark in European countries.

        • A *durable* centerfire can will continue to cost at least 4-5 hundred, simply for the reason Titanium, Inconel, and other exotic alloys are damn difficult to work. My own experience incorrectly drilling a high nickel alloy stainless and feeling the metal work harden on you and your already slow drilling progress *stop* is beyond aggravating…

  11. It’s not about the $200 fee. It’s about registering with the most incompetent and capricious alphabet-soup agency to ever exist. It’s about jumping through more hoops to own a metal tube than to carry a sidearm. $200? Sheeeeit, nigga. I got 99 problems but coughin’ up two Benjis ain’t one.

    • So, what you’re saying is filling out some paperwork is hard and you’re somehow superior for not taking part in it…I’m sorry if I don’t follow your logic. If you don’t want to play or you’re too lazy to fill out the paperwork then just say that. It’s really not difficult and your argument of “ATF SUCKS!” is just a poor excuse.

      FYI AAC has done this promotion in the past during tax season. You’re just a late troll to the party.

      • I read “Nyne’s” comment a different way. I don’t think it is laziness. It’s the principle of the thing. You can demean that by distilling it to “ATF SUCKS!” and okay, fine that’s your opinion. But here’s mine: it really does suck, insofar as the bureaucratic mission to regulate tools and parts that really have no sound reasonable basis to be regulated… it’s bunk. I can afford a can, too. I’d like one. I am not about to “jump through hoops” (as Nyne’ put it), and go through a meaningless examination/registry for overly regulated tools that risk my freedom if I misstep and tread wrongly. Forget it. I sympathize with the suppressor industry, to a certain extent– it is a good thing that some people and companies are doing their best to offer the freedom of choice to consumers, despite the hostile regulatory environment in which they must function. But, while you might think it is being “simple,” I say I just don’t support these rules, and I won’t play by them and legitimize this system. Suppressors should be something you can buy over the counter, without any registration, background check, or additional tax, at any sporting goods store– period. When it is that way, then I will. If the industry wants it that way, they’ll fight for their livelihood like every other American industry must… they can tell their/my reps: I *will* buy such products if the industry is deregulated, pinky swear.

        For the record: I do not hunt, nor do I live in a rural area, and therefore suppressors have limited practical value to me and the wildlife I’d spare from disturbance.

        I always found those SilencerCo ads in hipster-gun-nut mags like “Recoil” so weirdly incongruent… there’s a bearded buff operating operator type dude sitting in the desert/mountains, miles from “civilization” next to his campfire and SUPPRESSED rifle… and the copy says something like, “Live off the grid” or some such nonsense. Because it is abundantly clear that Mr. Operator is either NOT living off the grid at all, having surrended his rights and $200 bucks for the privelege of a goddamned metal can– or, the reason he is out in the middle of nowhere is because he’s a fugitive from the feds because he decided that a stupid can on his rifle was worth giving the finger to Uncle Sam. Heck, we all know, if civilization ever broke down to the point where we needed suppressors to survive, none of us would give a hooey about the stupid NFA/BAFTE regs at that point anyway….

        TL;dr — Stupid laws, nonsense regulations, over-priced tools and parts. Deregulate, make sensible industry competition, and more customers (like me) will participate. The “tactical” allure of shiny-new-chrome-cool toy is not enough to surmount the principle of the infringements.

        Be safe.

  12. Why would I do that? Look if I wait a year or three, prices will go down and a lot of the hardware is going to be a walk in/walk out proposition.

  13. I ain’t buying a can until the can and adapter if you need one is $200 and I can walk in and walk out with it anytime I want to buy one. The prices are ridiculous and so is the BS paperwork/wait times. I already have an NFA trust and I still ain’t doing it.

Comments are closed.