Legal Suppressors ?

Questions about Queensland gun and ammunition laws. QLD Weapons Act 1990.

Legal Suppressors ?

Post by Die Judicii » 10 Sep 2018, 9:32 pm

Has anyone here seen the ones advertised from time to time on "Used Guns" ?

Made by an engineering company in Tasmania (I think by memory)

If this is true, how do they get around the law ?

I thought they were still illegal in Australia.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by Apollo » 10 Sep 2018, 9:41 pm

That would probably be RARCO Engineering perhaps and the Wedgetail Suppressors. At a guess.

Perfectly legal if you have the required licence and permits. Permit required for the Suppressor and then the Firearm it is fitted to as both become restricted items.

Getting the licence and permits is a different story.

Check your local state regulations.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by Apollo » 10 Sep 2018, 9:54 pm

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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by bladeracer » 11 Sep 2018, 3:36 am

Die Judicii wrote:Has anyone here seen the ones advertised from time to time on "Used Guns" ?

Made by an engineering company in Tasmania (I think by memory)

If this is true, how do they get around the law ?

I thought they were still illegal in Australia.


There's a manufacturer in SA too I think.
Suppressors are legal in all states I think, you just need the permit - but I think the permits are banned.
They used to be legal in some states, including SA - I bought one in '83.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by Daddybang » 11 Sep 2018, 6:57 am

"I think.the permits.are banned".... That about sums.it.up BR!!!!! :lol: :drinks:
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by Wombat » 11 Sep 2018, 7:46 pm

There are pest controllers that use suppressors legally around Melbourne, on golf courses,large cemeteries and the like for Rabbit and Fox.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by Die Judicii » 11 Sep 2018, 7:49 pm

Wombat wrote:There are pest controllers that use suppressors legally around Melbourne, on golf courses,large cemeteries and the like for Rabbit and Fox.


I'll bet they never see the "light of day" so to speak,,,,,, :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by bladeracer » 11 Sep 2018, 7:55 pm

Wombat wrote:There are pest controllers that use suppressors legally around Melbourne, on golf courses,large cemeteries and the like for Rabbit and Fox.


Rose is a conservation volunteer and they have had rangers with suppressors brought in to deal with foxes in wetlands in Perth.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by Oldbloke » 11 Sep 2018, 9:36 pm

Yeh, not cheap. But do they do much on the bigger stuff like 223 or bigger? They are all supersonic.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by Faedy » 11 Sep 2018, 11:10 pm

You need to load subsonic for them to have an effect.
Once you break the speed of sound, the ":crack" will be there
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by wanneroo » 12 Sep 2018, 1:21 am

Oldbloke wrote:Yeh, not cheap. But do they do much on the bigger stuff like 223 or bigger? They are all supersonic.


Yes actually they do. If you shoot supersonic ammunition through them yes you do get the supersonic crack but the muzzle report is much reduced and will still bring the sound to close to hearing safe levels or right at them. If I get a Youtube channel going I should probably string a video together from last year when my brother in law shot a Rem 700 in 308 first unsuppressed with regular supersonic ammo, then with regular ammo with a suppressor and then subsonic ammo with a suppressor. You can definitely hear the difference. The suppressor cuts down the noise significantly. Subsonic 308 or 300 Blackout with a suppressor doesn't sound much more than a loud branch cracking and from a distance of a few hundred meters away probably would not even be noticeable.

Personally I'd like to reach the point of suppressing all of my modern firearms.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by bladeracer » 12 Sep 2018, 12:34 pm

Oldbloke wrote:Yeh, not cheap. But do they do much on the bigger stuff like 223 or bigger? They are all supersonic.


Yep, they reduce the explosion of the hot gas hitting the air right in front of you.
The supersonic crack is a different sound.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by bladeracer » 12 Sep 2018, 12:35 pm

Faedy wrote:You need to load subsonic for them to have an effect.
Once you break the speed of sound, the ":crack" will be there


Not correct, even supersonic ammo will be significantly quieter though a suppressor.
Loading them subsonic merely takes away the supersonic crack of the sound barrier compression wave.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by JSS » 12 Sep 2018, 1:41 pm

Bladeracer is spot on.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by Gaznazdiak » 12 Sep 2018, 4:49 pm

fideles usque ad mortem
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by Die Judicii » 12 Sep 2018, 7:45 pm

Putting it quite simply,,, it is all relative.

ie: from a .22rf up to for example a .308,,,,,,,,,,,

The bigger the suppressor is,,,,, as in , number of baffles, length of body, diameter of body, the more effective the moderation.

:thumbsup:
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by ash_hendo » 23 Aug 2021, 10:58 pm

I was just reading this in the NSW regulations prohibited weapons section - " Any firearm to which there is attached any article or device capable of muffling, reducing or stopping the noise created by firing the firearm."

The "or device capable of muffling, reducing or stopping the noise created by firing the firearm" is interesting, so a pillow is a prohibited weapon under NSW law.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by deye243 » 23 Aug 2021, 11:42 pm

well only 3 years late to the party but so is a Coke bottle
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by womble » 24 Aug 2021, 6:02 am

Wait what.
Gainfull employment shooting bunnies on a golf course with a suppressed 10/22.
And you can take your golf clubs to work.
This can’t be real.
Do you get quads or just use the golf carts.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by straightshooter » 24 Aug 2021, 8:03 am

ash_hendo wrote:I was just reading this in the NSW regulations prohibited weapons section - " Any firearm to which there is attached any article or device capable of muffling, reducing or stopping the noise created by firing the firearm."

The "or device capable of muffling, reducing or stopping the noise created by firing the firearm" is interesting, so a pillow is a prohibited weapon under NSW law.

The curious thing about laws and regulations is that they mean exactly what the words say, not what a reader hopes, likes or pretends they mean.
Notwithstanding deliberately vague 'catchall' legislation.
Assuming the reader is not an ESL type person then to that attentive reader the key word in the above quoted portion of the law would be "attached".
Thus any improvised muffler would thus be deemed prohibited only when in the act of preparing for or used in actual improvised muffling while attached or having been attached to the firearm.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by MontyShooter » 24 Aug 2021, 8:10 am

womble wrote:Wait what.
Gainfull employment shooting bunnies on a golf course with a suppressed 10/22.
And you can take your golf clubs to work.
This can’t be real.
Do you get quads or just use the golf carts.


Get a 1 iron. Quiet and shoots flatter than a 22.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by Tilb004 » 24 Aug 2021, 10:30 am

Hope they are legal before I die
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Post by animalpest » 24 Aug 2021, 10:41 am

Bladeracer wrote :
Rose is a conservation volunteer and they have had rangers with suppressors brought in to deal with foxes in wetlands in Perth.

Well if that actually happened then the "rangers" were breaking WA law.

Rangers or anyone else cannot use suppressor for foxes in WA
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by Bugman » 24 Aug 2021, 11:44 am

I helped a mate of mine out, many years ago when he was targeting bunnies on golf courses. we started "Hunting" around 3 in the morning and used nothing but subsonics with suppressor as practically all the shots were taken from a few metres to maybe 40 metres. As far as I can recall he never used standard or high velocity ammo. The rifle was a Ruger 10/22. No, I didn't get to shoot, I was spotlight and battery carrier as we walked the selected sections, plus dead bunny picker upper.
I was young and fit in those days. I do remember that when he retired from that line of work, he had to surrender the two suppressors he had to the coppers.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by bladeracer » 24 Aug 2021, 1:13 pm

animalpest wrote:Bladeracer wrote :
Rose is a conservation volunteer and they have had rangers with suppressors brought in to deal with foxes in wetlands in Perth.

Well if that actually happened then the "rangers" were breaking WA law.

Rangers or anyone else cannot use suppressor for foxes in WA


I doubt it was illegal as they had a government grant to pay for it. That was in the Wilson Wetland. More likely a professional shooter working with a ranger. They got the idea from one of Rose's friends that had a major pigeon infestation in their business in Queens Park, they got a shooter in to drop tons of them while they were asleep at night using suppressed IR.

My guess is that, as in all cities, it's possible to get permits to shoot in built-up areas.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by northdude » 24 Aug 2021, 2:36 pm

we are allowed to use them over here and they are pretty common. Yes they do make quite a difference. At a distance you can sometimes shoot at game and if there's a few animals in the group they will quite often stand around trying to figure out where the shot came from...
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by animalpest » 24 Aug 2021, 2:42 pm

The only suppressor legal in WA are those used by APB officers and only for Starlings.

Everyone else is certainly illegal.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by bladeracer » 24 Aug 2021, 2:43 pm

straightshooter wrote:
ash_hendo wrote:I was just reading this in the NSW regulations prohibited weapons section - " Any firearm to which there is attached any article or device capable of muffling, reducing or stopping the noise created by firing the firearm."

The "or device capable of muffling, reducing or stopping the noise created by firing the firearm" is interesting, so a pillow is a prohibited weapon under NSW law.

The curious thing about laws and regulations is that they mean exactly what the words say, not what a reader hopes, likes or pretends they mean.
Notwithstanding deliberately vague 'catchall' legislation.
Assuming the reader is not an ESL type person then to that attentive reader the key word in the above quoted portion of the law would be "attached".
Thus any improvised muffler would thus be deemed prohibited only when in the act of preparing for or used in actual improvised muffling while attached or having been attached to the firearm.


We know for sure that people have been charged with possessing and importing "silencers" for solvent traps even though they were never actually modified to be used as suppressors (you need to bore a hole through them to be able to shoot through them), or ever fitted to a firearm. If the authorities think something _could_ be used illegally, they will take steps to keep it from us, despite our right to legally own such things. I'm guessing at least a few of these importers did intend to use them as suppressors, so they got what they deserved, but I doubt many of them were actually busted in possession of a modified one.

A few years back there was a major stink when a list of people that had imported these things was stolen from a Police vehicle in Tasmania.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by Gamerancher » 25 Aug 2021, 11:27 am

I've shot suppressed firearms in the U.S, from a .22 handgun to a shotgun. The action on the handgun made more noise than the fired round, the shotgun made about as much noise as a normal .22 round. These were firearms with "integral" suppressors, awesome bits of gear. https://txsilencers.com/integral-suppression
Another time a mate gave us a go at his suppressed M4-A1, with a 9mm upper. We could just carry on a normal conversation while my young bloke, who was 11 at the time, emptied 32 round mags on full auto a metre away. :shock: I suppose it was about as loud as subsonic .22's.
I was at Bisley ( UK ) shooting my muzzle-loader in 2019 from the 500 yard line. Kept hearing a cracking sound to the left of the line, thought is was just blokes "capping-off". Then I noticed that no-one was, turned out to be blokes shooting from the 600 yard line with suppressed centrefires. Yes, from behind us, albeit, about 50m to the left of our match. We also had blokes shooting from the 200 yard line in front of us to the right. It was a bit disconcerting to see people in front of you when shooting. They do it a bit different over there.
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Re: Legal Suppressors ?

Post by bladeracer » 25 Aug 2021, 1:39 pm

animalpest wrote:The only suppressor legal in WA are those used by APB officers and only for Starlings.

Everyone else is certainly illegal.


Was that the law between 1998 and 2010 though? I'll have to see if I can dig up the old legislation. Not that it matters now, it was done, and it was done legally at the time.
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