Another reason for lifting the ban was for those new to shooting or hunting with firearms, including women and children, who might be overly apprehensive about loud noises.
鈥淚鈥檓 one of them,鈥 Dodd said. 鈥淚鈥檓 sensitive to loud noise. I can鈥檛 help myself. I flinch every time because of the noise. For kids and first-timers, it鈥檚 good if you can reduce that noise. It also makes for better marksmanship.鈥
The third reason for lifting the ban was the use in wildlife management, such as the control of feral pigs or the harvest of does.
鈥淪ometimes that loud report scares the does into the next county,鈥 Dodd said. 鈥淪o if you can suppress that noise, you may be able to take out three or four pigs as opposed to one. And those does may not be as afraid to come into a food plot.鈥
Dodd said WFF has actually used suppressors in the past for deer control programs near urban areas.
鈥淧eople need to understand that these are not the James Bond-type silencers,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e utilized them in nuisance deer control. They are kinder to the ears, but not completely silent.鈥
Russ Sockwell, a gunsmith at Mark鈥檚 Outdoors in Birmingham, said he also doesn鈥檛 expect to see a rush of people trying to get suppressors. Although Mark鈥檚 Outdoors doesn鈥檛 sell them, Sockwell does thread the end of barrels to accept suppressors.
鈥淚 haven鈥檛 had any more requests for barrel threading than normal,鈥 said Sockwell. 鈥淎 suppressor should not affect the accuracy of the guns because the suppressor is lined up with the bore of the firearm and the crown of the barrel is not touched. In theory, it should not change the point of impact. In real life, it鈥檚 probably going to change the point of impact, at least a little bit. The biggest problem I think people are going to run into is, for the suppressor to work properly, you have to shoot subsonic ammunition. Most everybody does not do that.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 get the boom, but you get the loud crack. With subsonic ammunition, your range is going to be diminished tremendously. I just don鈥檛 see a lot of people getting them. I think the biggest thing that is going to stop a lot of people is the acquisition of the stamp.鈥
Joe Songer, staff photographer/videographer with 黑料天堂 Media Group/The Birmingham News, has been through the process to acquire the suppressor stamp, and he agrees it鈥檚 an arduous process.
Songer said the first step in the process is to find a dealer with a Class 3 firearms license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
鈥淎 lot of places just don鈥檛 want to do that,鈥 Songer said. 鈥淚t requires a different level of experience. I know dealers who just don鈥檛 want to go through the hassle. People need to know that suppressors are heavily regulated. The ATF gets involved. You have to get an FBI background check. You have to have county and federal officials sign off on your application. You have to have a sheriff or police chief sign off on it. You have to go in and be fingerprinted. You have to get a passport-type photo. All of that gets sent to the ATF. The thing is you鈥檝e got to pay for all this up front about six months prior.鈥
Songer went through the process to get a suppressor for his .22 Long Rifle firearms.
鈥淚鈥檝e always wanted one, but it鈥檚 a commitment,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 got one for my .22s. When I got mine, ammo was plentiful and not expensive. I wanted to get introduced to it, and I wanted one that I was going to use quite a bit.鈥
Songer experimented with his suppressed .22s and found that ammunition is a huge component in the amount of noise suppressed.
鈥淭he velocity of the round and the barrel it鈥檚 coming out of make a huge difference,鈥 Songer said. 鈥淎 rifle barrel is going to have a higher velocity than a shorter pistol barrel with the same round. On my guns, I have the best luck with rounds at 1,050 feet per second. When it gets up to around 1,100, I start to get that crack from the bullet going supersonic.
鈥淧eople who are hunting, most of those rounds are supersonic. If somebody takes a hunting rifle and puts a suppressor on and the bullet is traveling at 2,700 feet per second, it鈥檚 not going to be silent. It鈥檒l be quieter, but you鈥檙e going to get the crack when that bullet breaks the sound barrier. That鈥檚 going to happen pretty fast. The thing is, the sound suppression is coming from the muzzle, so it鈥檚 going to be harder to tell where it鈥檚 coming from.鈥
Songer agrees with the opinion that there aren鈥檛 going to be many hunters who will go to the trouble to acquire a suppressor.
鈥淭here are going to be some because there is a cool factor to it,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut when you apply for a suppressor you鈥檙e opening yourself up to a whole lot of scrutiny. And another thing is that the stamp has to be with the suppressor at all times. I can let you shoot it, but I have to be with you and have the stamp with me.鈥
Dodd said if there鈥檚 anything questionable in the applicant鈥檚 background, that person is going to be flagged and the application process stopped.
鈥淓ven if you get the permit, you鈥檙e going to be in their files, so to speak,鈥 Dodd said.
Dodd continued, 鈥淪ome people said to us, 鈥極h, the night hunters are going to go crazy.鈥 That鈥檚 the same argument we heard about crossbows. It didn鈥檛 really come to fruition with crossbows. We鈥檝e actually made night-hunting arrests of people with crossbows. We鈥檝e been able to maneuver around the silent weapon, so to speak. I don鈥檛 anticipate any change with suppressors.
鈥淚鈥檇 be surprised if even five percent of the hunters decide to get a suppressor stamp. Ear muffs are cheaper.鈥