The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - What's Stopping You From Buying a Silencer?

Theohazard · November 16, 2013, 03:18 AM

Another thing that drives this market is customer service. Most suppressor owners I know are worried less about cost and more about having the latest and best suppressor on the market. After all, when you're buying a product that already costs a lot, has a $200 transfer tax, is hard to get and takes 9 months to get it, and is virtually impossible to sell or transfer to someone else, they want to know that the company will stand by their product.

Imagine a company comes out with a good handgun, and then another company comes out with a better one, so the first company redesigns their handgun and offers all customers a free upgrade to their latest version. That happens all the time with silencers. AAC came out with the Prodigy, a simple monocore baffle .22 can. Then other companies beat it in terms of loudness. So AAC made a minor tweak and upgraded to a new quieter 2nd generation baffle design for the Prodigy and offered a free upgrade if you sent your 1st gen Prodigy in to them (it's against federal law for them to send out extra baffles). Then other companies beat the Prodigy in terms of ease of disassembly when dirty, so AAC completely redesigned the baffles and again offered a free upgrade. Still, many years after AAC introduced the Prodigy, if you have a 1st or 2nd gen Prodigy, AAC will upgrade it to the new 3rd gen design for free.

And many other companies do this to; a customer bought an SWR Octane 9, and when it was sitting in one of our safes while he was waiting the many-month wait to get it, SWR completely re-designed the Octane's baffles. So we were able to send it back to SWR for him, where they upgraded to the new baffle design for free. So when he was finally able to take his can home he had the newest, best baffle design. They've made a few minor changes to the Octane since then, but it's not really worth mailing it back for those changes - I might mail my Octane 9 back for a free upgrade to make the first baffle that surrounds the piston easier to take out when dirty, but I haven't really had a problem with it yet so I haven't bothered.

November 16, 2013, 03:18 AM	#59
Theohazard Senior Member Join Date: April 19, 2012 Location: Western PA Posts: 3,829	Another thing that drives this market is customer service. Most suppressor owners I know are worried less about cost and more about having the latest and best suppressor on the market. After all, when you're buying a product that already costs a lot, has a $200 transfer tax, is hard to get and takes 9 months to get it, and is virtually impossible to sell or transfer to someone else, they want to know that the company will stand by their product. Imagine a company comes out with a good handgun, and then another company comes out with a better one, so the first company redesigns their handgun and offers all customers a free upgrade to their latest version. That happens all the time with silencers. AAC came out with the Prodigy, a simple monocore baffle .22 can. Then other companies beat it in terms of loudness. So AAC made a minor tweak and upgraded to a new quieter 2nd generation baffle design for the Prodigy and offered a free upgrade if you sent your 1st gen Prodigy in to them (it's against federal law for them to send out extra baffles). Then other companies beat the Prodigy in terms of ease of disassembly when dirty, so AAC completely redesigned the baffles and again offered a free upgrade. Still, many years after AAC introduced the Prodigy, if you have a 1st or 2nd gen Prodigy, AAC will upgrade it to the new 3rd gen design for free. And many other companies do this to; a customer bought an SWR Octane 9, and when it was sitting in one of our safes while he was waiting the many-month wait to get it, SWR completely re-designed the Octane's baffles. So we were able to send it back to SWR for him, where they upgraded to the new baffle design for free. So when he was finally able to take his can home he had the newest, best baffle design. They've made a few minor changes to the Octane since then, but it's not really worth mailing it back for those changes - I might mail my Octane 9 back for a free upgrade to make the first baffle that surrounds the piston easier to take out when dirty, but I haven't really had a problem with it yet so I haven't bothered. __________________ 0331: "Accuracy by volume."