Guns, we do love them right. Being a gun buff is just like being a car enthusiast. It is probably as dangerous as going all out in a vehicle and as thrilling. With laws that allow almost everyone to own a gun, we see a huge market for gun mods and equipment.
This is what we are about to discuss today. The Gun market is huge and according to a gun survey, U.S. civilians account for 393 million or 46% of the worldwide total civilian held firearms. If you translate this into a number per civilian you will get an estimate of 120.5 pieces of firearms per 100 residents which is remarkable. Having and owning a gun is not that difficult but it is a highly responsible thing to do. Those that collect these because of their love toward a particular gun or gun tend to care and safely keep these.
Thanks to such big ownership of firearms we see a huge market for both military and civilian gun modifications that are very accessible. You can get anything from scopes, barrels, stocks, pads, silencers, and much, much more. There is one thing in particular, that we already mentioned, and you read from the title of the article, and it is the silencers.
Next to scopes, these are probably the favorite mods that are added to civilian-owned guns. What is interesting enough is that there are silencers made out of oil filters, but as of lately we saw ones made out of fuel filters as well. Today we will discuss those a bit and try to tell you if these really can work as a suppressor. For more info visit kmwhisper.com and see what you can find there.
OK, so silencers. Most gun owners who browse pages or search the web for a new piece of modification to their gun have probably seen an ad somewhere about a fuel filter that incredibly resembles a silencer. You have as well?! Great, then this is where we tell you more about it and will it work as a silencer at all.
See a proprietary gun silencer or sound suppressor, suppressor or sound moderator is an attachment that goes on the end of your gun barrel and it has the purpose of lowering the acoustic intensity of the muzzle when the shot is fired. It is also made to reduce the recoil of the gun when shots are fired by modulating the speed and pressure of the gas that propels the round.
As you can see a silencer has a double purpose. Does a makeshift silencer out of a fuel filter have the same benefits and purpose? Let’s see!
When doing things like this you have to be mindful of legal implications. If you are to buy a fuel filter and repurpose it into a silencer there is a legal form you must fill out before you drill the hole in it. The best thing to do before you head in this is to inform yourself and see if your area has some special laws for doing this.
To the best of our knowledge, this action is not illegal, but we have heard of places where sheriffs are tracking down people who order these online, so be careful. Another thing to be careful about is when buying these fuel filters to see which rounds they can handle.
The one that we saw was advertised as a 7075 aluminum silencer which in theory should handle 9mm rounds, 22 and maybe even subsonic 300 black. The 5.56 and .223 should destroy this so be extremely careful if you want to avoid injury or worse.
When you open this fuel filter it looks just like a mono-core suppressor and in essence, it is but it is called a fuels filter. Why? We are not sure.
One thing that you should pay attention to if you are buying these is to go for a mono-core filter because you will have a lot less drilling, meaning a lot fewer ways to break it or not do everything as needed. You will have some fiddling around this if you want to make it into a silencer so if you haven’t done this before, hit some forums and read what exactly you need to do, where you need to drill and cut so this entire thing doesn’t blow up in your face, literally.
Now for the performance part. We saw and read about tests and remarkably this fuel filter turned into a gun silencer works. Depending on the round, your preparation and the endcap bore you can lower the noise levels of your gun. The noise reduction will probably not be as much as you expect. It does reduce the noise levels but by only 5-10 dB which is not that much.
Traditional and proprietary silencers can lower the noise level to around 30 dB which is 3 to 5 times more than with these fuel filters. If you want to have fun in the comfort of your range or somewhere where you can safely discharge these you can go with these cheap fuel filters as a suppressor but if you are professional and if you tend to use these for anything serious, we simply do not recommend these.
They do a weak job at sound moderation and they also do not do a good job when recoil control is in question. These can be the home product that you can have fun with but anything besides that, they are simply not worth your time, money and fiddling around to make them fit your gun.
In conclusion, these do work as a suppressor but what you get out of them is questionable. You have materials that are not tested, you’re not aware of the material tolerances and measurements which can get you into some risky situations.
If you are enthusiastic about your guns then have a piece of mind and get yourself a silencer that is made from a reputable company. Having something that should initially be a “fuel filter” and make it into a makeshift silencer neither adds to your safety, nor your effectiveness on the range.
Rhydian Choi 
Kim Marks