For the month of August, we asked our readers the colossal question of what are some of the BEST Suppressors on the market today! Since that is such a blanket question when there are so many niche silencers out there, we divided the voting into 4 unique categories: rifle, rimfire, pistol and specialty. Your voting came in droves and provided us with over 4,000 responses! That is awesome so THANK YOU to all of our readers for participating.

There were tons of suggestions from our staff, and you provided ample suggestions of your own as well. For the results since we are going to be covering a lot, we will provide you with the Top 5 in each category. Let’s get this rolling, and as always, shoot us some of your thoughts in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback.

---

TFB BEST SUPPRESSORS – RIFLE

1. Surefire SOCOM556 RC2 5.56mm – 20.56%
2. Dead Air Nomad-30 – 10.42%
3. Dead Air Sandman-S 7.62mm – 10.18%
4. Allen Engineering AEM5 5.56mm – 9.99%
5. SilencerCo Omega 300 – 7.53%

• Remaining Miscellaneous Voting Choices – 41.31%

This rifle category for BEST Suppressors presents some interesting data. Surefire, which has a military contract, took home the Gold Medal of 1st Place with 20.56% of the voting making them a deserving winner. Then, you have in 2nd and 3rd place the same company of Dead Air. If we would have forced voters to only vote on one silencer per manufacturer Dead Air could have edged out Surefire by 0.04% in an incredibly tight race. With the way the voting panned out though, Dead Air’s good silencers might have cannibalized each other in the voting diminishing their chances of taking home 1st place. Congratulations to all of the products and manufacturers that made it into the Top 5 though!

TFB BEST SUPPRESSORS – RIMFIRE

1. Dead Air Mask – 28.72%
2. Q Erector – 18.09%
3. AAC Element 2 – 14.05%
4. Rugged Oculus22 – 13.71%
5. Thunderbeast Takedown 22 – 7.20%

• Remaining Miscellaneous Voting Choices – 18.23%

With your voting on the BEST Suppressors in the Rimfire category, we witnessed a pretty strong victory for the Dead Air Mask! Voting beneath 1st place was pretty close and the list as a whole rounds out a group of very solid silencers for anyone who is looking to get their first or seventh. Something else that is a trend on that list is modularity. If you are in the game of rimfire silencers as a manufacturer, more and more shooters want modularity in their suppressors.

TFB BEST SUPPRESSORS – PISTOL

1. Rugged Obsidian45 – 24.23%
2. Dead Air Odessa-9 – 19.28%
3. SilencerCo Osprey 45 – 19.28%
4. AAC Ti-RANT 9M – 19.04%
5. Bowers ASP .45 – 2.27%

• Remaining Miscellaneous Voting Choices – 15.88%

The race for BEST Suppressors in the pistol category was the closest one we saw for silencer voting and it provided us with our first tie ever in Reader’s Choice polling! The Rugged Obsidian45 edged out all other competitors to take home 1st place with 24.23%, but then we have a tie technically for 2nd place. Both the Dead Air Odessa-9 and Silencerco Osprey 45 pulled in 19.28% of your votes. Even the AAC Ti-RANT 9M was mere percentage points behind them as well. With voting this close it is a strong tip of the hat to all manufacturers producing pistol silencers because there is a lot of quality to go around at the top.

TFB BEST SUPPRESSORS – SPECIALTY

1. SilencerCo Hybrid 46 – 29.78%
2. SilencerCo Maxim 9 – 20.85% 
3. Dead Air Wolverine 7.62×39 – 11.57%
4. Thompson Machine Poseidon 9mm – 7.56%
5. SilencerCo Salvo 12 – 6.53%

• Remaining Miscellaneous Voting Choices – 23.71%

The Specialty category of BEST Suppressors shows something fairly unique in that one company dominated all of the voting. Silencerco took 1st, 2nd, and 5th with three different silencers and owned over 57% of the voting in this category! That is a truly impressive feat and speaks volumes as to what Silencerco accomplishes as a company. They are putting out lots of “specialty” silencers to fill the unique needs of suppressor shooters.

READER COMMENTS

When we run the Reader’s Choice every month what can be more entertaining than the results you guys and gals create through your voting is your side commentary. This month was no exception because you bust our chops and you have some pretty good one-liners. We appreciate you engaging in our monthly Reader’s Choice polls and growing along with us as we learn and expand this all out. So let’s dive into some of the more cringe-worthy, feelings-triggering, and hilarious comments you all posted!

The problem with this poll is that most readers don’t actually own a suppressor. So the real poll is “Which suppressor do you wish you owned?” Or “Which suppressor looks cool?”

It’s like having a “best machine gun” poll. Sadly, most who participate have no real world experience to base their opinion on.

-AZgunner

This reader puts out a decent point that silencers are not legal in all 50 states, are not readily available everywhere, and there are still quite a few barriers to entry into the silencer market with the additional $200 tax stamp fee and the colossal amount of paperwork. With all of the being said, it is all the more reason to go out and buy one to defy the NFA and support strong associations like the American Suppressor Association (ASA) who are fighting for our NFA rights.

I know about as much of suppressors as I know quantum mechanics.

-USMC03VET

Soooo… we are going to take a guess that you are not a mechanic of quantum?

I am unfamiliar with the intricacies and limits of 3D printing but can a printed polymer version of a .22 can very similar to the Erector Q be produced? Threaded segments that can just be screwed on to one another to make it as long or short as you want? The pressure of a .22 is so low it seems like it could be doable in polymer form.

-Henry65

This might be a great question for our resident expert in all things regarding silencers, Pete. Maybe it has been attempted (with no success), or maybe no prominent manufacturer has given it a go yet. That, I am honestly not sure.

Sick of these nonsensical polls

-bert saxby

HEY! Thanks for commenting on our article and participating in the discussion 🙂

Leviathan —-hehehe (They had potential…just went the way of Hudson)
Arcadia Pantera is a beast for any PRS shooters out there….

-Steven Littrell

A couple interesting suggestions from some smaller-known manufacturers, but very good products nonetheless.

---

CONCLUSION: TFB BEST SUPPRESSORS – rifle, rimfire, pistol & SPECIALTY

Once again, thank you to everyone who participated in our August poll of Reader’s Choice for the BEST Suppressors on the market in Rifle, Rimfire, Pistol and Specialty categories. Here are your voted on Winners one last time in each of the categories:

• TFB BEST Suppressors (Rifle) – Surefire SOCOM556 RC2 5.56mm
• TFB BEST Suppressors (Rimfire) – Dead Air Mask
• TFB BEST Suppressors (Pistol) – Rugged Obsidian45
• TFB BEST Suppressors (Specialty) – SilencerCo Hybrid 46

Be sure to be on the lookout for September’s Reader’s Choice poll as we enter a new month and start a new topic! Also, let us know what you think of the results we posted. Do you agree? Disagree? Let’s keep the conversation going in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback.

---

---

We are committed to finding, researching, and recommending the best products. We earn commissions from purchases you make using the retail links in our product reviews. Learn more about how this works.