Hunting Rifle: Anyone Else Have No Desire for a Silencer?

I have a suppressor and I like it. Many outfitters in Africa supply their hunters with rifles equipped with suppressors. There was a bill in congress to allow suppressors without the stamp for hearing protection. The idiots in Washington watched too many Al Capone movies
 
I enjoy shooting suppressed. I own 2 cans. A YHM Resonator and a Surefire 300 SOCOM. Both are very nice to shoot with. They definitely cause a POI shift that's more significant on my carbon wrapped barrels than my steel barrels. I also find they cause my rifles to run dirtier. Brass looks completely different when inspected after running suppressed. If I plan on running a rifle primarily suppressed then I do load development with the suppressor attached. I would be curious of others experience as I mentioned above, @lancetkenyon maybe you can shed some light here on my above comments. Thanks in advance.
 
It's hard to not use a suppressor when you've used one. They reduce the noise significantly, reduce recoil and more often than not your accuracy will improve and velocities will increase. I've only got one rifle that I don't run a suppressor on and that's the one that travels out of state/across borders. That's simply just to remove the chance of hassle.
 
Don't like them, won't use one, and they are ugly. Been a voting Republican for 52 years. If your worried about noise then use some of the really good ear protection devices on the market and they are not registered with the FEDS.
 
I don't have one, I don't think I NEED one. I want one, or five, really bad. Of course that might mean I need to build a gun(s) for them. I couldn't imagine putting a suppressor on the end of the 26" barrel on my 28 Nosler, that think would stand as tall I am if I did that.
 
I can see suppressors being a have to item. The north Texas metro area say about 65 /70 mile perimeter land is getting pieced up and there are more people to contend with and many do not care for noise pollution.
 
I see a lot of folks are putting silencers on their hunting rifles, even sacrificing ballistic performance by shortening barrels.

Anyone else prefer their hunting rifle to not have a silencer? Maybe I'm old school but I don't have muzzle brakes or silencers on my hunting rifles.
I would prefer to hear the surrounding sounds. Without hearing protection. As I live in grizzly country now. I have lost hearing from an unexpected firearm discharge. If it would have had a suppresor on that rifle i would still have my hearing. The state I lived in wouldn't allow them. A bunch of Commy's! I am all for suppressor.
 
I really like this post and it is interesting to read everybody's post so here is my two cents worth. I'm 63 years old and when I was in high school I bought a 357 colt python. I was 6'3" 175 lbs invincible so I thought. Didn't wear hearing protection and my ears would ring for days afterwards. (I was not the smartest tool in the shed on this one). At age 22 my wife keep complaining about my hearing so I went and had it checked and to my GREAT surprise the Doctor told me I was 80% deaf on high pitch sounds!! He said I had the hearing of a 60 year man that was on a gun boat in world war 2. He told me I had Nerve damage and there was nothing I could do to improve my hearing other then hearing aids. 40 years later and after buying over 12-15 set of heat aids that cost from $2-6k I have become a big fan of suppressors. I just went to a shoot a couple of weeks ago and shot between two guys with breaks and I wore walker muffs and finally got up and put a set of in Canal ear plugs to help. My ears are still ringing from the shoot. (Can I just say I hate breaks.) There are trade off by putting a can on but for me there is only one answer, yes. By shortening the barrel 1" you give up 30 fps but you also gain some back with the can but you also gain accuracy in the Gun by shortening it up. JMO.
And to the comments that joked "what did you say!" It unfortunately not a joke to me because it's a daily commitment I have to use. So please do what you can to protect the hearing that you have.
Randy the deaf guy from Idaho.
 

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