Silencer Central Performs On-Site Barrel Threading For Suppressors
Silencer Central Will Make Your Deer Rifle Suppressor-Ready
Click to listen to the audio version of this article.
Deer hunters are passionate about their hunting rifles. Once a deer hunter finds that special rifle, he or she isn’t going into the woods with any rifle but that one. That could be problematic, especially if the hunter’s rifle doesn’t sport a threaded barrel for suppressor use.
Silencer Central has the solution: in-house barrel threading for suppressors, done fast and at a reasonable cost. As I recently discovered with a rifle of my own, Silencer Central's in-house barrel threading for suppressors is the real deal.
Savage Model 11 Threaded-Barrel Makeover
One of my go-to deer hunting rifles is a Savage Arms Model 11 bolt action chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor. Compact and lightweight, the rifle’s a fine choice for tight quarters like a hunting blind or a treestand. Add a good scope and it can also reach out 300 yards.
However, I purchased the rifle nearly a decade ago, when barrel threading was not very common. So, no threads and a beastly muzzle blast!
Off To Silencer Central
In June of this year, I traveled to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Silencer Central’s headquarters. I brought along my Savage Model 11 and dropped it off at HQ the afternoon I arrived in Sioux Falls.
The next morning I and a small group of other content creators were back at Silencer Central HQ for a tour of the facility and to receive some suppressor insights from Silencer Central’s Founder and CEO Brandon Maddox.
Part of the tour included visiting the area where barrel threading for suppressors is performed. Silencer Central has its own high-tech CNC machine to do this and we watched the gunsmith fit a barrel into the machine, lock it into place, and turn on the machine to cut the threads.
The room adjoining the CNC machine held a couple dozen rifles already threaded and ready for returns, plus rifles recently arrived for threading.
Insider Intel On Barrel Threading
Silencer Central threads approximately 5,000 barrels a year, 95 percent of those rifle barrels, using a single-point threading on a HAAS II commercial CNC lathe.
They can thread handgun barrels, too, but only blowback-style pistols such as the Ruger Mark series. Most other handguns require an aftermarket pre-threaded barrel if owners want to use suppressors.
Not all rifle barrels are capable of being threaded by Silencer Central, either. According to information provided by the company, “We don't thread lever actions because either the magazine tube is too close to the end of the barrel and/or the receiver with lever is too large to fit in the throat of our CNC.”
Carbon fiber barrels are also on the “no-threading” list, as are various other platforms like the AK-47.
Is your firearm a candidate for Silencer Central's barrel threading service? Contact their customer service team at [email protected], and the company’s gunsmith will review your information to determine whether it can be threaded.
360 Shipping Program
Yes, one can simply drop off their rifle at the HQ for threading as I did. Of course, most of us don’t live within an easy drive of Sioux Falls! Not a problem, as Silencer Central established its 360 Barrel Shipping program. For $39.99 Silencer Central ships customers a box and soft case(s) along with a prepaid return shipping label. One box (8″x4″x48″) can hold up to two barrels. The barrel is threaded and sent back in the same box. Turn-around time is seven (7) days.
Barrel threading itself runs $124.99. Silencer Central also offers additional services such as cutting and recrowning the barrel, moving or installing front sights, muzzle brake timing, and checking threads/alignment.
Silencer Central Tour Insights
On a more personal note, I’ve spent most of my adult life avoiding that “real” job. Oh, I’ve had a few. No, thanks! That said, I’ve toured a good number of shooting industry companies across the nation. Those tours have almost always convinced me that my self-employed gun-writer gig is and was the right choice. There’s just something about the closed-in office spaces and so many employees looking like they just left a funeral.
Touring Silencer Central made me think I could work there. The office and warehouse spaces were bright and airy. HQ also has a workout area for employees, and there’s even an open kitchen set up with free water, coffee, tea, soda, and snacks that employees can access as they see fit.
More importantly, I didn’t see those long, “work sucks” faces so common on other job sites I have visited. Silencer Central employees seemed genuinely pumped up and ready to work, something which is not easy to fake.
Silencer Central people clearly feel they are on the cutting edge of the industry, always moving forward, and are always working to be better. Maddox and his enthusiasm are a key reason for those positive feelings, and he proved to me yet again that a committed and genuinely excited leader is the key to real success.
Currently, Silencer Central moves out 100,000 suppressors a year; when I was there, remodeling work was in progress to enlarge the operation to sell upwards of 200,000 suppressors annually.
Much of the company’s success is built upon the work Maddox and his team has done to streamline the federal application and tax stamp process so that all of it can be done online. Additionally, Silencer Central can ship a unit right to a customer’s door in 42 states once a unit is approved.
The BANISH 30 On My Old Savage
With the tour and lunch over, we headed to a local shooting range outside of Sioux Falls. By this time, my Savage Model 11 was returned, the tip of the barrel neatly threaded at 1/2x28” pitch.
At the range, I mounted a Silencer Central BANISH 30 onto my rifle. The most versatile suppressor in the BANISH line, it works on rifle calibers from .17 to .30 magnum. BANISH suppressors are 100 percent made and assembled in the United States.
Fashioned entirely from titanium alloy, BANISH suppressors easily disassemble for cleaning—no special tools required. In its 9-inch configuration, the BANISH 30 weighs only 13 ounces.
I took a half dozen shots with the Model 11 without hearing protection and the blast was very moderate, even though I stood under an awning. The BANISH 30 also cut the recoil noticeably.
I have a BANISH 30 on order. Once it arrives, I will be 100 percent ready for 2024 deer hunting! And coyotes and elk and hogs and…
For more information, visit silencercentral.com.