Silencer Saturday #365: New Angstadt Arms Suppressors at SHOT 2025

Welcome back to Silencer Saturday, sponsored by Yankee Hill Machine, creators of the new Victra-12 shotgun suppressor. This week we are all recovering from SHOW and continuing coverage of the new things we saw at the show. Angstadt Arms was there, and we got our first look at the new Reticent family of silencers. They use a unique internal design to change the sound profile instead of just the loudness. Also on display was the Prophet barrel-through silencer. Let’s dive in.

Silencer Saturday @ TFB:

• Silencer Saturday #364: New Design From Contra Cans
• Silencer Saturday #362: Liberty Suppressors 10/22 IDF Clone
• Silencer Saturday #361: Hunting With Suppressors
• Silencer Saturday #360: Suppressing The Beretta Cheetah
• Silencer Saturday #359: A Primer On Subsonic Ammunition

Disclaimer: Silencers are highly regulated items in the United States. If you are going to buy a silencer be sure you understand and comply with the applicable laws. Failure to do so can result in serious criminal penalties.

Angstadt Reticent

The newest announcement from Angstadt is the Reticent series of suppressors. This series of silencers focuses on limiting sound in a different way that most other products. As you probably know if you are a regular reader of this column, sound intensity is measured in decibels (dB). Many suppressor manufacturers advertise the decibel reduction figures of their silencers but it is not a very effective way to explain how loud a silencer actually sounds.

We should probably take a detour here to talk about how decibels work. You see, decibels are a logarithmic unit. Unlike weight, where 10 more pounds is just ten more pounds whether you are adding it to 225 or 5 pounds, decibels do not increase in a straight line graph. Adding ten decibels adds an order of magnitude, not just ten more. So the difference between the “loudness power” of 90 and 100 goes from 1,000,000,000 to 10,000,000,000. When we are talking about a 135 dB silencer and a 141 dB silencer, the difference is not just 6. 141 dB is twice as loud as 135 dB. 141 dB is 12% louder than 140 dB. So when someone says “It’s only a couple of decibels different” than a competitor product, that is actually a very big change.

Adding to the challenge, the peak sound level of a gunshot is extraordinarily brief. Most sound meters are not capable of accurately measuring it, and those that are cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and must be used in scientific laboratory environments to get good data. A phone app cannot measure silencer sound levels.

Then, we arrive at a more human problem, which is that we perceive sound differently than the decibel pressure. Lower-frequency sounds seem quieter to people than higher-pitched sounds. In actual sound pressure that is not true, but silencers exist to interact with people. A silencer with a measured sound level of 135 dB will sound louder if it produces a higher-pitched sound than a lower-pitched sound. This, combined with people not being able to explain sounds in dB because it is not a unit we use everyday (unlike, say, temperature), means that we can tell when things are quieter or louder, but we can’t say by how much or why.

Enter the Reticent line of suppressors. The design goal of these cans is a lower-pitched sound rather than only focusing on reducing raw decibels. Angstadt calls this OptiWave baffle design, and it offers a better tone without compromising on the decibel reduction figures. The OptiWave is a complex design and Angstadt uses 3D-printed titanium to create it. This also makes for a very light suppressor at under 7 ounces.

Angstadt has several models planned, including a short and long .36-caliber and a .30-caliber option. The .36-caliber can handle pistols up to 9mm and rifles up to .36, which includes fun options like the .35 Whelen. The anticipated price point is $795. All models have HUB mounts, so they are compatible with a wide range of aftermarket options for that fitting pattern.

Angstadt Prophet

Luke C. got a look at an earlier version of the Prophet at TriggerCon, and that fed into an earlier Silencer Saturday article as well. The most recent version was on display at SHOT as well. James Reeves got the inside scoop from Mr. Angstadt at the show, and the full video is worth a watch if you want to see all the details from the man himself.

The short description is that the rifle’s barrel is 16 inches long so the rifle itself is not regulated as a short barrel rifle, subject to a $200 ATF tax stamp. The Prophet suppressor slips over that barrel and lines up with the muzzle of the rifle. With regular silencers a 16-inch barrel with 8 inches of silencer on the end works out to 23 or so inches of overall length. You would have to use a shorter barrel to keep the overall length closer to 16 inches.

The suppressor itself is $795, and the barrels are $250. This will be sold as a package

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