The recent NFA thread wait time thread inspired me to post about my experience with Form 1 suppressors.

I ordered a few Form 4s in January of this year. Got a bit impatient and decided to try out Form 1 (build your own suppressor). Ended up becoming a new hobby for me. The process of building a suppressor is a lot of fun. So much fun that I bought a lathe.

Pretty happy with the Form 1 performance. The building process can range from easy (with a kit) to taking many hours (when sourcing parts). Either way, the fast approval times are great. I've managed to build 5 Form 1 suppressors while waiting on my Form 4s.

The most recent approval for a Form 1 took only 13 days. Submitted my last Form 1 online on July 19th, shipped the documents the same day, and was approved at 2am on August 1st. Wait times will vary from what I've read. Fortunately, background checks for me are always quick as there must not be anyone with any negative prior history with a similar name/location as myself. Seems there are groups of people like me that get approved quickly and other groups of people where it takes much longer.

Sometimes I regret buying the Form 4s though I may change my mind when I finally get approved to see how they compare. For the price I paid for each Form 4 - I could have 3 Form 1 suppressors. My main use is hunting and I usually hunt from a blind or a short walk/stalk. No need for anything "full-auto rated" or anything super lightweight.

Thank you for sharing. I think I'm going to give this a try.

Let's see some pics. What sort of performance are you getting on suppression? Which kits did you order?

I'll get some pics later tonight. These are what I have -

Quietbore 30 kit
Quietbore 223/556 kit
Quietbore 9mm kit
WTTactical Flo kit
8.8 inch suppressor with titanium tube from SD Tactical, 8 cones from Dino Precision, 2 cones from Pure Performance Armory.

The Quietbore kits are quite awesome for the price considering they are frequently on sale and they engrave for you (which saves me $50 compared to engraving locally).

Performance-wise, you can check out Silencer Student Youtube channel for decibel readings for most of the kits I listed above. Each of the kits intended for rifles bring the decibels down to nearly hearing safe on 6.5 Grendel and 6.5 Creedmore supers. I don't bother to bring ear protection when hunting hogs now, but if I was to sit down and target practice - I'd put on ears just to be safe. I estimate the kits bring the noise level into the high 130s. Very little POI change too surprisingly.

My Quietbore 30 kit is very comparable to the suppressor I built from parts sourced by various vendors. Hard to tell the difference from my ears, but the 8.8 inch one I built is certainly much lighter. I don't have any Form 4s to compare to since those are still awaiting approval, but I must admit that I had a huge smile after shooting suppressed for the first time in years. My buddy has quite a few suppressors that I used in the past, but his were mostly on pistol calibers and SBRs. The two Form 4s I'm waiting for are the CGS Hyperion and the OSS HX-QD.

After using a drill press for the first few kits, I ended up buying a cheap lathe from China to bore the holes with a drill bit and then use a boring bar to get the size of the bore exactly how I want. Previously used a drill press along with jigs to drill the holes but it was quite a PITA to get consistency. In hindsight, I probably should've used a hand drill as I've read that cheaper drill presses have significant wobble that can cause issues when drilling with a jig. Using the $440 lathe from China makes drilling a breeze and I figure I can sell the lathe for close to what I paid when I'm done. Each time I saw a similar lathe on craigslist in the $300s - it sold within hours.

Great info! I should have bought one and tried it myself, but I just got 4 stamps approved so I'm good....for a little while.

Did you have to submit design drawings?

Nope. All you need to do is put in the suppressor length and caliber during the application process. Select "N/A" as the model from the drop-down when prompted and as the manufacturer - type in "FMI" - which means you are making it yourself. Selecting "N/A" as the model avoids it going into "pending research" which delays another 30 days or so.

Real easy process. There are guides to do it online with more detail that I suggest yall read, but here is the process in a nutshell -

1. Register here: https://eforms.atf.gov/EForms/
2. Select Form 1
3. Fill in personal/trust details. Upload your passport photo and filled out & scanned form 5320.23 in the "registered persons" section
4. Fill in the details for manufacturer (FMI), model (N/A), length and caliber. Fill in the details for your local LEO. Upload your trust in the files section if you are not applying as an individual.
5. Pay the $200 tax
6. Mail your set (2) of finger print cards to the ATF and mail the documents for notifying local LEO to the LEO address
7. Wait a few weeks for approval
8. Drill holes after approval

I ordered fingerprint cards and ink from Amazon but you can get them free through the ATF. Spent a lot of time getting my fingerprints real nice on the first application, but now do it fairly quickly and still get approved. I've got the process down now where it takes less than an hour to apply - assuming the ATF website doesn't bug out. That includes filling out the docs, printing, scanning, uploading, fingerprinting, and dropping the documents in my mailbox. Always double check after submission to make sure your documents uploaded properly. I've heard of people getting denied due to the website buggyness where the uploaded documents will show 0kb instead of the appropriate file size.

Kicking myself for not doing this sooner. I always had a fear of the process, but once you understand it - it's real easy. Just make sure to fill in everything properly and double-check. I had 2 denied that I had to resubmit. The first one was due to putting in my name instead of the name of my NFA trust. The second was for making a serial number without a number . You can put in whatever you want for the serial number as long as it has a number in it. The ATF will refund your $200 if your application is denied. Refunds seem to come fairly quickly.

Thank you very much!

I made a Form 1 SBR a few years ago, and have a Form 1 SBS in process now (both via eForms).

I was curious about a Form 1 cans.

My FIL has a lathe that I bet would be the perfect size for this...wheels are turning...

tag