ztc92
WKR
- Joined
- May 8, 2022
- Messages
- 368
The short version - For anyone looking to get their first suppressor or considering purchasing a suppressor online for the first time, I wanted to share my experience (so far) with Capitol Armory, which has been excellent. Even after reading multiple positive reviews online, it has still been far better than I anticipated.
The long version:
My only other suppressor experience is purchasing through a big-box store (Scheels in Montana) and that experience was also quite good as they walked me through every step and made it very easy. I've since moved to rural Wyoming and no longer have any large stores/dealers locally that I trust.
A family member that lives nearby recently used a Silencer-Shop approved dealer that has their kiosk system and thais experience left much to be desired, pushing me to look for alternative options. The biggest issue they had was trying to play ring-leader and coordinating things between SIlencer Shop and the local dealer. There was an error made by the dealer related to the tax stamp and this delayed receiving the suppressor almost 6 weeks. I can understand an error may happen but the bigger challenge was talking to a real person who could help identify the error and then remedy it. She would be on hold for 30+ minutes any time she called SIlencer Shop and their business hours made it very hard to speak with them while working full time due to long wait. The local dealer only had one employee (the business owner) approved to run the Kiosk and make changes in the system, so any time the owner took time off or wasn't working, she couldn't make any progress on the issues she experienced. Even once Silencer Shop identified the issue and told her how to remedy it, they were unable to do anything further to help on their end and she was at the mercy of the store owner, who was very hard to work with due to being over age 50 and technology illiterate.
In summary, this made me look into Capitol Armory as an option that could ship directly to my door since I have no good local options. I was on the fence but when they ran the $200 gift-card promotion on the Scythe-Ti, I decided to take the leap. Here are some key takeaways from my experience so far and why I would recommend them to anyone interested.
- Buying the suppressor via their website was extremely easy, no more difficult than buying a product on Amazon.
- The gift card promotion was explained well and was easy to qualify for by following the steps on their website.
- Less than 12 hours after "buying" the suppressor on their website, I got a very thorough email explaining all the next steps to formalize the purchase and do the paperwork. This was all done online from the comfort of my home and took me about 30 minutes to build an account and input all my personal info.
- I had extra fingerprint cards available from my previous suppressor purchase (the police station gave me 3 cards when I got them done). I was able to mail these prints with an updated address to Capitol Armory and they had them uploaded into their system less than 5 days after I put them in the mail. Now that they are in the system, they can be used instantly for all future purchases.
- From purchasing the suppressor to being ready to certify my Form-4 too, approximately one week as a brand new customer.
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- A few days after this I got the $200 gift card sent to me via promo code in an email. Due to the amount, the email asked that I call to have it applied to an order as it wouldn't allow it to work through the website. After waiting on hold about 3 minutes, I spoke to a sales assistant who spoke fluent English and helped me apply the gift card. The entire call took less than 5 minutes.
- Because I'd already built a profile and they had my fingerprints, my second suppressor purchase with them was ready to certify Form-4 in less than 12 hours. I did nothing besides purchase the can and wait for them to input all my information.
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- Creating a trust for the purchase of these Suppressors was a breeze. They have a pre-made trust for NFA items and for $70 you can buy it and use it. The process of completing the trust paperwork is extremely easy and uses the Docu-Sign program so it is all done at home on your computer with no physical paperwork or lawyers. I didn't use a trust for my first Suppressor as the process was overwhelming and I now regret it.
- Now that I have a Trust on file with Capitol Armory, I can easily use it for all future purchases. There is no additional cost since I've already paid the one-time $70 charge to set it up.
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- Certifying Form-4 was the process that impressed me the most. When I did this at Scheels, I used a laptop in the store and they had me enter most of my own information. It took about 30 minutes from start to finish, mostly due to inputting all the information and waiting for ATF website to load/update.
- With Capitol Armory, we spoke on the phone and used a "screen share" through the internet so I could "Certify" the form myself while talking to them. I was on hold about 7 minutes to reach the sales person who could help me certify. Once again, they spoke perfect English. They had computer issues and got me to another employee right away when they realized it wasn't working. The second attempt worked perfectly. They had me log into their website and click a link on my account to reach the screen share. This brought me to a screen where they had pre-populated all my information in the AFT Form-4 website. All I had to do was look over it with them and verbally confirm all information was entered correctly. I then used my mouse/keyboard to check boxes certifying that I was the individual applying, then entered my ATF username/password and we were done. Counting the wait time and delays due to computer issues, the entire certification process for TWO suppressors took about 25 minutes.
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- Bonus Points: Since I was buying 2 suppressors via trust, I asked if they could ship them as a batch to cut down on shipping costs. They were happy to do so and negated the shipping charges on my second suppressor, which saved me about $50.
I'll plan to update this thread once my form 4 gets approved and explain how the rest of the process plays out, but so far I'm extremely impressed. The biggest problem I foresee is that with how easy subsequent purchases will be due to having all my information already loaded, it's going to be hard to resist purchasing more suppressors...
Edit- Clarifying cost of the trust.
The long version:
My only other suppressor experience is purchasing through a big-box store (Scheels in Montana) and that experience was also quite good as they walked me through every step and made it very easy. I've since moved to rural Wyoming and no longer have any large stores/dealers locally that I trust.
A family member that lives nearby recently used a Silencer-Shop approved dealer that has their kiosk system and thais experience left much to be desired, pushing me to look for alternative options. The biggest issue they had was trying to play ring-leader and coordinating things between SIlencer Shop and the local dealer. There was an error made by the dealer related to the tax stamp and this delayed receiving the suppressor almost 6 weeks. I can understand an error may happen but the bigger challenge was talking to a real person who could help identify the error and then remedy it. She would be on hold for 30+ minutes any time she called SIlencer Shop and their business hours made it very hard to speak with them while working full time due to long wait. The local dealer only had one employee (the business owner) approved to run the Kiosk and make changes in the system, so any time the owner took time off or wasn't working, she couldn't make any progress on the issues she experienced. Even once Silencer Shop identified the issue and told her how to remedy it, they were unable to do anything further to help on their end and she was at the mercy of the store owner, who was very hard to work with due to being over age 50 and technology illiterate.
In summary, this made me look into Capitol Armory as an option that could ship directly to my door since I have no good local options. I was on the fence but when they ran the $200 gift-card promotion on the Scythe-Ti, I decided to take the leap. Here are some key takeaways from my experience so far and why I would recommend them to anyone interested.
- Buying the suppressor via their website was extremely easy, no more difficult than buying a product on Amazon.
- The gift card promotion was explained well and was easy to qualify for by following the steps on their website.
- Less than 12 hours after "buying" the suppressor on their website, I got a very thorough email explaining all the next steps to formalize the purchase and do the paperwork. This was all done online from the comfort of my home and took me about 30 minutes to build an account and input all my personal info.
- I had extra fingerprint cards available from my previous suppressor purchase (the police station gave me 3 cards when I got them done). I was able to mail these prints with an updated address to Capitol Armory and they had them uploaded into their system less than 5 days after I put them in the mail. Now that they are in the system, they can be used instantly for all future purchases.
- From purchasing the suppressor to being ready to certify my Form-4 too, approximately one week as a brand new customer.
----------
- A few days after this I got the $200 gift card sent to me via promo code in an email. Due to the amount, the email asked that I call to have it applied to an order as it wouldn't allow it to work through the website. After waiting on hold about 3 minutes, I spoke to a sales assistant who spoke fluent English and helped me apply the gift card. The entire call took less than 5 minutes.
- Because I'd already built a profile and they had my fingerprints, my second suppressor purchase with them was ready to certify Form-4 in less than 12 hours. I did nothing besides purchase the can and wait for them to input all my information.
---------
- Creating a trust for the purchase of these Suppressors was a breeze. They have a pre-made trust for NFA items and for $70 you can buy it and use it. The process of completing the trust paperwork is extremely easy and uses the Docu-Sign program so it is all done at home on your computer with no physical paperwork or lawyers. I didn't use a trust for my first Suppressor as the process was overwhelming and I now regret it.
- Now that I have a Trust on file with Capitol Armory, I can easily use it for all future purchases. There is no additional cost since I've already paid the one-time $70 charge to set it up.
----------
- Certifying Form-4 was the process that impressed me the most. When I did this at Scheels, I used a laptop in the store and they had me enter most of my own information. It took about 30 minutes from start to finish, mostly due to inputting all the information and waiting for ATF website to load/update.
- With Capitol Armory, we spoke on the phone and used a "screen share" through the internet so I could "Certify" the form myself while talking to them. I was on hold about 7 minutes to reach the sales person who could help me certify. Once again, they spoke perfect English. They had computer issues and got me to another employee right away when they realized it wasn't working. The second attempt worked perfectly. They had me log into their website and click a link on my account to reach the screen share. This brought me to a screen where they had pre-populated all my information in the AFT Form-4 website. All I had to do was look over it with them and verbally confirm all information was entered correctly. I then used my mouse/keyboard to check boxes certifying that I was the individual applying, then entered my ATF username/password and we were done. Counting the wait time and delays due to computer issues, the entire certification process for TWO suppressors took about 25 minutes.
----------
- Bonus Points: Since I was buying 2 suppressors via trust, I asked if they could ship them as a batch to cut down on shipping costs. They were happy to do so and negated the shipping charges on my second suppressor, which saved me about $50.
I'll plan to update this thread once my form 4 gets approved and explain how the rest of the process plays out, but so far I'm extremely impressed. The biggest problem I foresee is that with how easy subsequent purchases will be due to having all my information already loaded, it's going to be hard to resist purchasing more suppressors...
Edit- Clarifying cost of the trust.
