Banish 12

[voltage]

As many of you know, Silencer Central released their shotgun suppressor this week….what do you guys think?

I’m 31 and unfortunately already dealing with pretty significant hearing loss… mostly from years of hunting pheasants and ducks without ear protection. The last few years, I’ve been wearing hearing protection religiously while bird hunting, even though I absolutely hate it. I wear molded hearing protection from an ear doctor. It’s great relative to the stuff at Bass Pro, but there are still trade offs (such as difficulty hearing a pheasant getting up behind me). I’d love to go without the hearing protection, but I also want to be able to hear a turkey gobble for as many seasons as I’ve got left. My dad is 58 and hasn’t heard a gobble since he was 50… I’m trying not to follow that path.

That brings me to the new Banish 12 that was released this week. I like the idea. However…candidly, Silencer Central seems like a marketing company with a suppressor division. I can’t help feeling like the whole brand leans way too heavily on the marketing and mid-tier influencers who all got theirs for free and act like it changed their lives. The Banish 12 unboxings is all I have seen on the gram this week. That makes it harder to trust real feedback. I don’t want to drop $1200 on something that’s mostly hype.

What do you guys think of this suppressor and the shotgun suppressor category in general?

 

[taxidermybycam]

I have shot a shotgun with a suppressor before. In my opinion it wasn't even worth it. Usually I'm shooting Dove loads for pigeon hunting that travel at 1250 ft per second or boss shot shells which I think are around 1,300 ft per second. Maybe 1,400 noticed a little bit of a noise difference and I'd say my hearing is fairly decent, but I think it's just a gimmick to sell stuff. I'm sure it does work but I certainly wouldn't waste the money on the suppressor and the tax stamp. It is a lot of extra weight on the end of the barrel. When I swung my gun it felt like I had a sandbag. On the end of it .you got all that extra weight up front which isn't the whole lot but it does make a difference and then you've got the bulkiness. It affected my swing a good bit. I don't bother with all these influencers and internet personalities. Everybody gets paid to say something or do something people look into that stuff too much

 

[ElPollo]

As many of you know, Silencer Central released their shotgun suppressor this week….what do you guys think?

I’m 31 and unfortunately already dealing with pretty significant hearing loss… mostly from years of hunting pheasants and ducks without ear protection. The last few years, I’ve been wearing hearing protection religiously while bird hunting, even though I absolutely hate it. I wear molded hearing protection from an ear doctor. It’s great relative to the stuff at Bass Pro, but there are still trade offs (such as difficulty hearing a pheasant getting up behind me). I’d love to go without the hearing protection, but I also want to be able to hear a turkey gobble for as many seasons as I’ve got left. My dad is 58 and hasn’t heard a gobble since he was 50… I’m trying not to follow that path.

That brings me to the new Banish 12 that was released this week. I like the idea. However…candidly, Silencer Central seems like a marketing company with a suppressor division. I can’t help feeling like the whole brand leans way too heavily on the marketing and mid-tier influencers who all got theirs for free and act like it changed their lives. The Banish 12 unboxings is all I have seen on the gram this week. That makes it harder to trust real feedback. I don’t want to drop $1200 on something that’s mostly hype.

What do you guys think of this suppressor and the shotgun suppressor category in general?

I have severe and constant tinnitus mostly from a life of hunting with shotguns. I’ve considered a suppressed shotgun for years, but haven’t pulled the trigger thus far. The primary reason is that I am mostly a desert quail hunter.

Due to the NFA, the US suppressor industry makes suppressors that are built to last a lifetime, but are also heavy enough to really wreck the balance and swing of a shotgun. I think the current US made 12 gauge suppressors have potential allocation for high volume waterfowl hunting like snow geese, but I certainly wouldn’t want to stick one on the end of an upland gun and carry it around in the desert all day. I also tend to hunt with O/U shotguns that don’t work with suppressors. I’ve seen some integral suppressors built around 20 ga O/U shotguns from England that are really tempting, but you’d have to find someone to make that here and jump through the paperwork hoops. I might actually reconsider that once the tax stamps go away, but they are still not exactly a light, quick upland gun.

The fix I’ve been using for the last 6 years is in-the-ear, electronic plugs that I refer to as my hunting hearing aids. They are not a perfect solution. They cut off high pressure impulses at safe levels and allow you to hear everything else. But they magnify background sound, which leaves me feeling exhausted at the end of a day of walking the windy prairie. It’s not perfect, but it’s still better than being deaf. It’s also better than putting a 12-inch, 1# can on the end of an 24-30” barrel and trying to hit birds with it.

Here’s a link to a video on the English, integrally suppressed O/U.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I’m not in the market for a suppressor for a shotgun, but I think a properly executed suppressed shotgun is a “good idea.” A suppressor would be good to have for the sake of the dogs. To me, what really doesn’t work for shotguns are the Rube-Goldberg devices we add onto a firearm.

The shotgun, shells, and the suppressor need to be designed to work together. A purpose built 20-gauge suppressed shotgun would be interesting to me.

A “proper” suppressed shotgun would have an overall length, balance, terminal performance, equivalent to a similar shotgun without a suppressor. There will have to be tradeoffs, but trying to stick an extra pound on the end of an existing shotgun is just silly. I’m okay with a heavier shotgun, but not with one with terrible balance.

The only real use I have considered for a suppressed shotgun is on a dedicated slug gun, where the purpose would be to accurately deliver a one ounce hunk of lead to a deer within 100 yards. But I think that would be a role that is largely driven by legality, not practicality, since similar lethal effects could be achieved with smaller cartridges from a suppressed rifle.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

 

[Q_Sertorius]

That integrally suppressed over under strikes me as a far better option than the Banish 12.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

 

[ElPollo]

That integrally suppressed over under strikes me as a far better option than the Banish 12.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

Agreed. If we could get them here, I’d have bought one a long time ago. It’s not an elegant bird gun, but it would be practical for the majority of bird hunting that I do. And my dogs would thank me.

 

[molliesmaster]

Electronic hearing protection. Alclair. Tetra. Soundgear. There are probably others I'm forgetting.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I don’t think I’d like putting a 17 ounce silencer on the 28” barrel of my benelli. I would be cool to have a suppressed shotgun but that banish 12 would make things pretty weird.

Who knows, I’m interested to see some of the reviews it gets used through a season.

 

[ElPollo]

That integrally suppressed over under strikes me as a far better option than the Banish 12.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

I had an interesting discussion today with a guy who is developing an internally suppressed O/U shotgun that would be for sale in the US. What he described would be an improvement over the British version in that YouTube video. It’s confidential at the moment because it’s still in development, but I told him he’d have my money if he could pull it off.

 

[z987k]

Phoenix makes integral shotguns. You send them your shotgun and they turn the barrel into an integral.