SILENCER SATURDAY: Join, Or Die - The Honey Badger Pistol BraceThe Firearm Blog

Good afternoon readers and thanks for joining us for another edition of Silencer Saturday brought to you by Yankee Hill Machine, manufacturers of the new R9 suppressor. Last week we got a peek at impressively quiet, integrally suppressed, bolt action 9mm rifle from Curtis Tactical. We’ll get another look at this setup in a few weeks. Today I’d like to discuss the recent news about the Q Honey Badger Pistol Brace receiving undue scrutiny from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE).

SILENCER SATURDAY #146: Join, Or Die – The Honey Badger Pistol Brace

The older I get, the more I appreciate the rare moments of quiet contemplation. Wandering the woods with stops every now and then to quietly shoot at random targets is one of my life’s little pleasures. So after the news this week of the ATF issuing a cease and desist for Q’s iconic pistol, I grabbed the Honey Badger, a few mags and my Gandalf pipe and disappeared into the foliage to think. (Someday I’ll actually have a Gandalf pipe).

Almost two hours later I left the woods with more questions than answers. Why are gun owners automatically treated like criminals for the ownership of inanimate objects? Why are devices designed to protect hearing, that cannot fire a bullet, treated as firearms and regulated on the same level as machine guns? While we are at it, why can’t I make my own machine gun? How is a firearm with a 15″ barrel a bigger threat to public safety than a rifle with a 16″ barrel? How did we get ourselves into a regulatory quagmire of subjective rules, regulations and even laws that could make any one of us felons for using a device that has a hook and loop strap, a vertical fore grip or a simple miscalculation in a measurement?

Actions, not objects, should be what is judged by a free society. When a government agency decides that a product that has been on the market for years is suddenly regulated under the National Firearms Act, jeopardizing an American company and individual Americans alike, quiet contemplation starts to become anger. There has to be a way out of this mess that allows free men and women to own what the please as long as it doesn’t endanger the life and liberty of other citizens.

Among the many things we have learned in the past six months is, like it or not, America is a gun culture. Tens of millions of us own firearms for protection, entertainment and sport. Ten’s of millions of us own AR-15 rifles and 30 round magazines. And yet violent crime is at all time lows. Leave us out of your arguments and your laws.

Join, Or Die. We have to stand together and denounce arbitrary rules that make us fear for our own welfare. Death by a thousand cuts makes us all bleed.

I’ll hop off my soap box by saying that I don’t have any solutions for what we, free Americans, are currently facing in terms of over-regulation. Support your friends, family and the firearms industry as a whole.

In case you are wondering, this Honey Badger is a registered SBR. I still play by the rules.

But, since this is Silencer Saturday, let’s talk about the Honey Badger as a 300BLK host for the recently released Yankee Hill Machine R9 suppressor. A word of caution, the YHM R9 is rated down to eight inches when using 300 Blackout. Since I was running subsonic, pistol cartridge pressure rounds, I felt safe using R9 in the seven inch Honey Badger barrel. Please follow all the manufacturer’s recommendations when using any firearm or suppressor.

Firearms, gear and ammunition used in today’s episode:

Q Honey Badger Pistol – $2,599 MSRP
- 7″ 300 BLK Pistol
- WEIGHT: 4 lbs 8 oz
- LENGTH: 20 IN – 25 IN
- BARREL: 7 IN, 1:5 TWIST
- HANDGUARD: 6 INCH MLOK
YHM R9 Suppressor – $449 MSRP
- DIAMETER / LENGTH: 1.562” / 5.2”
- WEIGHT: 10.7 Oz.
- RATING: 17HMR – 9mm / .308 Win
- MATERIAL: 17-4 Ph SS
- FINISH: Matte Black Cerakote
Trijicon MRO – $579 MSRP
Surefeed Magazines – $8 MSRP
Esstac Daeodon ASS Plate Carrier (title image) – $240 MSRP
Discreet Ballistics 190gr 300BLK Target Load – $28.99 MSRP

As I’ve said before, I am not usually a fan of multi-purpose, do-it-all suppressors. But the YHM R9 has proven itself to be the exception to the rule. The only host that the R9 has yet to get trigger time on is the SIG 716 in .308, which will be coming up shortly. The modularity, performance and price make the R9 the multi-caliber can to beat in 2020/2021.