Is This .22LR Suppressor Worth The Money?

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Image courtesy GSL Technologies, Inc.

When many Americans think of suppressors, their minds go back to Hollywood movies in which a “silencer” (they never call them suppressors in the movies) on a gun keeps you from hearing anything but what sounds like, basically, a puff of air.

Of course, if you’ve ever used a suppressor, you know that’s not how they actually work. That’ lack of sound is pure Hollywood gimmickry.

Having said that, suppressors have their place, and they still sell. In fact, GSL Technology, Inc. recently released a .22LR pill box suppressor. GSL’s website says,

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The Pill Box is the smallest suppressor available for the 22LR cartridge. The unit is considered as a “last ditch” item for self-defense and is not designed for target shooting at the range. The Pill Box uses a special wipe which should last at least fifty rounds minimum before needing replacement.

With an MSRP of $285.00, that’s not quite $6.00 per suppressed round. For many, that may be more than they want to pay, but, maybe it’s a nostalgia issue. Chris Eger writes,

[The GSL suppressor should provide] a sound reduction of some 24 dB. The wipe, a standard of suppressors dating back to WWII, has largely been phased out in recent years in favor of larger but more durable internal baffle systems.

At a length of 1.44-inches and a diameter of under an inch, Pill Box weighs in at less than an ounce. The company says that it is the smallest can available on the market at the moment. As such, it stands to take the place of the old Gemtech Pill Bottle and gives newer cans such as the Armtac Covert some serious competition in size.

To replace the wipe once it is worn out, GSL says a Type 7 FFL can do the work or they can replace it for $25 in-house. Sorry guys, they can’t ship spare wipes as they are considered to be regulated “suppressor parts” by the ATF.

You can see an image of this GSL suppressor above.

What do you think: Is this worth it for $285? Tell us below.

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43 COMMENTS

  1. Nope. About $2 in raw aluminum stock, $10 in CNC machine time and a buck or two to anodize (I own a CNC machine shop). This is a $50 retail item, max. An additional $25 to replace the internal “wiper” component is ridiculous as well…I suspect it’s a two minute job and a $1 component, as is the ATF “rule” about components in the first place. This thing should ship with at least a dozen wipers for the price they’re asking. If you can break down and clean your gun you can disassemble the can and replace the wiper insert.

    • BATFE REGS make it unlawful for you to do the replacement yourself, and the paperwork jacks this price way up. Every replaceable component has to be registered with the Batties along with notification of replacement along with the serial numbers of the parts being replaced and the SN’s of the parts being installed. All in violation of our rights, despite what the despots in charge think.

  2. Not in my book, or, for that matter on any gun I own. Pay $400.00/$500.00 and get a real suppressor.You still have to pay for the tax stamp.

  3. If a person was wanting it commit a crime it might be worth the cost. But for the reason a legal person wants a suppressor it is excessive. I want a suppressor for hunting and for Target shooting. This tool would NOT fill that bill. I want hearing protection for ME. No one wears hearing protection when hunting. Hearing the woodland sounds is half of the hunt. I am a gunsmith and shoot a lot of customer guns. If they were all suppressed my job would be a lot easier. At the range you need plugs of muffs even when you are not shooting to protect your hearing form those around you that are shooting.

  4. The nay-sayers offer no reasoning except for an assumed one that they do not approve of such devices. They have a right to say so. Personally I do not see any necessity for such a device unless the shooter’s ears are sensitive to the noise produced. In the case of a .22 caliber gun, I see no advantage for such a device. That might be useful on a really loud rifle and perhaps large caliber pistols which are closer to the ears. Personally I have never been bothered by the noise a firearm makes. But on handguns I do pay attention to recoil.

    • ” Personally I have never been bothered by the noise a firearm makes. But on handguns I do pay attention to recoil.” Yeah and I thought that way until a 30 years ago when my daughter wanted to purchase a revolver. We took it out for a test shoot and my ears have rang ever since.
      A few years ago I read an article that said 22 rimfire was actually worse for your hearing than more powerful guns.
      They only nay-sayers I have read down to here do not oppose suppressors they say this one isn’t worth it.

    • .22 rimfires are responsible for more hearing damage than any other calibers around, due to the simple fact that people are ignorant of the amount of damage they can do to your hearing. The Frankfort Arsenal did an extensive study on this matter, finding that the fast, short report of the .22LR did more damage than the longer report of the more powerful rounds.

  5. Hmmm… Lemme work my poor ol’ CHT/addled brain. Fire up the synapses…
    Ok, $200 BATF “tax stamp”, $285 for the mini-can, plus whatever misc. fees might be involved in notary service(?),
    Special postage with receipt. Rounding it a little bit, I’ll say $500 cost. Plus the hassle, the beaurocracy wait, potential BATF loss of documents, exposing oneself to the massive intrusion and loss of privacy. Being forevermore in the crosshairs scrutiny of “the feral gubmint”. The useful life of the discussed device is limited to about 50 rounds. Fifty. (50). That’s it. Done. Over.
    Its now inched up to $10- per .22 round fired thru this micro-can.
    So, a micro-can that puts you out $500 to get. $10- per round cost to use with an extremely short half-life. Exposes your privacy to gubmint hacks that we’ve seen, especially lately, may not exactly be who folks might want to
    trust to have information related to firearms, let alone the “ooh-aah”
    attention and scrutiny of a suppressor.
    Ok, so, if we decide its ok, worth the oppressive hassle and expense of having a suppressor, is this micro-can the right suppressor for my needs?

  6. A suppressor in a firefight reduces your signature, keeps you for being found by others. It’s not about whether you can take it, it’s about not letting others know where you are.
    The best suppressors are oil filters, make an adapter that fits your barrel usually one half by 28 and that fits a common oil filter; 19, 20, or 21mm. Drill an oversized hole to let the bullet out. You can get 15-20 rounds depending on caliber and filter size. Replacements are 5-6 bucks a piece.

  7. Its would mean reworking my Henry lever action.and there’s no one close I would trust.
    I would consider buying a 30 cal re worked
    To accomate it But I’ll have to back to work to swing it.

  8. It probably has it’s limited applications but for the majority, it’s not a cost effective alternative. Just my opinion. Thanks.

  9. “It’s not that people don’t know so much…it’s just that so much of what people ‘know’, just ain’t so!” -Mark Twain.
    First of all it isn’t a matter of the term ‘silencer v. Suppressor’. Both types of these devices exist. Just as there are flash ‘suppressors’ and flash ‘hiders’. Hiders eliminate most flash for all pragmatic nighttime applications, while suppressors merely diminish the muzzle flashball to tolerable night time levels. The differentiation came about during idiot gun propaganda games between the Anti-2nd/A totalitarians and the complying mewling whiners who preferred to suck their way into protecting their gun ownership instead of standing like Men and demanding that these Tyrannists cease all efforts to make any more anti-Constitutional illegal laws or fiat mandates such as BATF prohibited categories, or else face the legal wrath of true American Patriots in the criminal justice system? Likewise, why weren’t we all organized at least half as well as Soros’ gang of treasonous leftist political infiltrators, So that we could seriously influence our legislators to begin repealing and banning all gun laws under penalty of strict USCC 18-241-242 enforcement? So We, the Sheeple, FAILED!

    Why? Because we were too fucking busy doing Couch commander Moutholution instead of the proactive political legwork and organization needed to protect our rights. Which happens to be the patriotic responsibility of each liberty preserving citizen in this country to preserve our rights if you still believe the government should be run by, of, and for the people?

    Even Trump failed in his 2nd/A protections with signing the bump stock ban and don’t even imagine the hearing protection act ever going anywhere now that we lost the house by almost 40 seats that ‘could never happen’ according most nitwit pundits who don’t know their assholes from a bullet holes.

    And instead of rolling back and eliminating gun laws, we are now going to face everything from mandatory mental health exams (very easypeasy to set up at already inplace local DMV licensing facilities for CDL categories) to purchase a firearm as soon as they pass a universal registration back ground check system to include transfers even between your own family members thus eliminating their long time totalitarian goal of eliminating gunshow loopholes of private transfers. And the very slippery slope of no return latest ‘Red Flag’ laws that will really end it all for gun ownership once the moron leftist citizens learn how to get maximum mileage out of snitching on their pro gun neighbors!

    But I digress in very compressed anger.

    So, back to what you don’t know about silencers and suppressors and this midget muffler in the article.

    Contrary to the ‘fake-knowledge’ in the first part of the article I’ve stood next to a small .22LR automatic pistol with about a six inch ‘Silencer’ tube that, indeed, when fired actually sounded no louder than a puff. Even less than the movies depict (less noise than a fancy feminine fart at a food fest ).

    It virtually cannot be heard if it was fired on any given busy street in a city with car traffic going by. Or even in a group of normally conversing people. (more on why that’s important later for the real reason they won’t allow them without strict knowledge of who owns them). That’s why this type of set up is called a silencer, as opposed to a suppressor. For all pragmatic purposes it is a completely Silent shot.

    These mainly fall into the .22long rifle caliber rounds and other pistol rounds which require a sub-sonic cartridge/bullet load to accomplish true ‘Silenced’ fire. But I’ve seen a subsonic .300 Blackout round with a good can also fire so quietly that the back slapping and charging of the bolt action noise was louder than the muzzle noise.

    In decibel levels it roughly equates like this. Standard .22LR round fired out of an unsuppressed pistol is between 100 and 125 decibels to the ear at arms length. Depending on barrel length and a couple other factors. Regular sustained firing of this round will eventually cause some hearing damage. (so a ‘silenced’ Ruger 1022 with an 18 inch barrel using CCI 1100 fps rounds would be one of the quietest sounding firearms causing no damage) Larger pistol rounds, especially those over 1200fps can be as high as 140db or so and can sometimes cause permanent ear damage from one shot. High powered rifles can go up to 170 plus decibels and will definitely cause some damage after a short period of unprotected firing.

    Now here’s where it gets convoluted. The best ‘silenced’ pistols or rifles use subsonic ammo but you can fire regular high velocity supersonic rounds through the but they still sound ‘loud’ due to their extra power and supersonic crack as they exit the barrel. In other words any well made can/silencer you try to fire a very high velocity high power rifle round out of only ‘suppresses’ the noise, but doesn’t eliminate it. That’s why it’s only referred to as a ‘suppressor in that capacity.’ The overly defensive gun owner crowd stupidly uses that reality as an equivocation to say that “see it’s still loud enough to be ‘heard’, but it just doesn’t damage your hearing so badly.”

    But suppressing a 170 decibel 300 Winchester Magnum by only 40 rated decibels for the average can for a suppressed version will still cause some hearing damage over prolonged use and time if you don’t also wear ear protection.

    So if this little snub can only drops the decibel level of 24 decibels from a .22 LR, it wouldn’t do much at all to protect your hearing if you supersonic .22’s or fired a Stinger round out of your pistol it but would be ‘noticeably’ less of a blast with a subsonic .22 LR, but still not as good as a cheaper six inch by one inch can with decent permanent baffling and subsonic ammo.

    So, no, for the money and lack of utility it wouldn’t be worth ‘wiping’ your ass with it.

    So in that pusillanimous submission, much like the NRA’s capitulation to the recent bump stock

    • $ = NO – as 50gr SubSonic shorts are much quieter then an airgun yet have incredible energy in short ranges[-50yds]= the 50gr weight causing that impact at lower speeds is amazing + quiet.
      Must be experienced to appreciate…

      • Yeah well sorry to say most gun owners don’t even vote= the Far-Left knows this and laughs while they have gaggles of sycophants that will VOTE…

        The average “American” regardless of persuasion is clueless what being one is worth, what it means nor the responsibility to learn and uphold their part of it = ENTITLEMENTATALISTIC plebes.

        1) They’re not taught who WE are,
        2) how “WE the People” came to be,
        3) nor whats required to maintain it.

        The true history of our founding onward nor the 3-Founding documents * should be top shelf fodder from Headstart on into higher learning= 20yrs learning of the wisdoms of our Founders which they wrote for posterities sake- that’s now ignored..

        However education from from cradle to grave has been allowed to be hijacked incrementally for over 100yrs now + esp so since WWII til now.
        Leveraged unConstitutionally in 1979 by Carter signing FedEd Act- til now with Commie Core being the coup de gras.

        Either right now “WE the People” [aka “the sleeping giant”] – awaken – to stand on Americanism or let it get shoved over the cliff of socialist led by Globalism where this last generation will hand it all over willingly as the Sheople we’ve become.

        Reagan warned that “We’re only ever one generation from a 1,000yrs of darkness” by not learning just who WE need to be. That man said so much and awoke so many yielding the remnants of today’s stand who realize had it not been for him WE ‘d already be gone.
        He belongs on Mt. Rushmore more than Teddy or Abe for breaking the Soviet Union system and standing for our Founding fathers daily best he could while facing a hostile media + DemocRat Congress.

        For a good listen Google Reagans -“Rendezvous With Destiny” speech he made while a private citizen in 1964.

        * If that doesn’t move you nothing will

  10. $ = NO – as 50gr SubSonic shorts are much quieter then an airgun yet have incredible energy in short ranges[-50yds]= the 50gr weight causing that impact at lower speeds is amazing + quiet.
    Must be experienced to appreciate…

  11. NO, NO and NO!
    Gary, on December 17th laid it out best. A $50 item that is waaaay overpriced. Of course, the “tax” the government charges is insidious to begin with.
    As many times as I have read the Second Amendment, I have yet to see the word “unless” or the word “except” after the word “infringed”.
    The 1938 Federal Firearms Act is as unconstitutional as it can get, yet the Supreme Court leaves it in place to allow government domination.

    • Funny. I have been looking for those same exact words in my printed copies of the 2A. Thought it must be a typo. With Roberts and the current SCOTUS not sure that I want them reviewing any 2A judicial questions anyway. We need one more constitutionalist on the court before we go there. Maybe RBG might open her seat up in the next two years, or the next four after that.

  12. Like so many things nowadays the economics on this product just does not meet muster. I would love to have a “can” to fit several of my weapons but, 1) cannot make them economical enough to do that; 2) can achieve the same thing with earplugs and hearing protection; 3) never seemed to be smart enough to know what to do with my money so just saved it. To me that is three strikes against a .22 can.

  13. I like the idea of just going down the local Auto parts and picking up a 1/2 case of PH4’s Oil filters and jury rig ’em… nobody tells… nobody knows…

  14. Way too much money for hat you get. For under $2 you can make your own muffler with a large empty coke bottle and a roll of electrical tape!

  15. Before you spend any money on such a gadget, try a .22 standard velocity short in a 27″ barrel. Worked very well for me as a kid, 80 years ago.
    I used a Winchester Model 68 in those days, & shot rats in silence on the local dump. With shorts, one has to aim well.

  16. I’m guessing this cute lil’ puppy won’t make my Desert Eagle .50cal sound like clicking my writing pen, heh? LOL!

    As always thanks for sharing!

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