You have your silencer and you’re ready to take it to the range. Congratulations! We know that feeling; we love that feeling.

But with great power comes great responsibility, so we wanted to give you a peek inside of our range bag to see what we pack specifically for silencers. If it makes our lives easier, then we hope it might make yours easier as well too.

D’OH!

Now we aren’t trying to be captain obvious over here with the first few items we are about to list, nor are we trying to insult anyone’s intelligence, but it is something that can be so obvious that people have been known to overlook.

First and foremost, you need a firearm. Due to the wait to get a silencer, we’ve known people to wait to get the gun that they want to shoot with their new suppressor. A silencer isn’t nearly as fun without a host firearm attached to it. Trust us. We know.

To piggy back on the notion to obtain a firearm for your silencer, you’ll need a threaded barrel. If you’re shooting a rifle you already own, you’ll need to get the barrel threaded (if it isn’t already). Alternatively, if you’re shooting a pistol that doesn’t have a threaded barrel, you’ll need to buy a drop-in barrel that is threaded.

Lastly, you’ll need to tote around your paperwork. Your form for your silencer is required to be with your silencer at all times. Keep the originals in a safe spot and put copies of your form in your range bag, under the couch, in your glove compartment, behind the freezer-burned chicken; anywhere that helps you remember it when you take your silencer out on a range date. Also, if you’ve got a big, long trust or you own more than one silencer, it’s handy to keep it all together in a folder or one centralized location.

Okay, now that we’ve got the more obvious ones out of the way, let’s dive deeper into our range bag.

Wrenches

Probably the most utilized tool in our range bag and something we never leave for the range without are wrenches.

An open-ended adjustable wrench is a handy thing to have in your range bag in general. It makes it easier especially when removing a stubborn silencer. Most silencers have a wrench flat included with it just for this reason.

Another wrench we like to have handy is a strap wrench. These can be found at any hardware store, or you may just have one lying around because it’s a useful tool in many situations (looking at you, pickle jar with the permanently affixed lid). Strap wrenches are especially useful when there’s any carbon fouling present and you need to apply a little extra force in order to get the silencer off of your firearm. But it also helps in situations you need a hand in securing your silencer onto your gun as well.

Word to the wise: remember that the rubber part of the strap wrench is NOT heat resistant, so let your silencer cool down a little bit before you try to take it off or else you’ll be visiting the hardware store for a new strap wrench.

Heat Protection

Silencers don’t get hot; they get really, really hot, so bringing a heat proof oven mitt helps a lot.

We’ve received a few calls about people using their wives’ favorite kitchen oven mitt in their range bag. We’ve been told that it leads to an angry wife, so we’d caution against doing that. The good news is that every single one of our silencers that you purchase from us comes with a suppressor removal tool. And if you need another one, or you lost yours, they’re really easy to replace.

Think of these oven mitts as a cheap piece of insurance. When you set your suppressor down, it’s still going to be hot, so protect whatever is underneath the silencer with the mitt so you aren’t leaving a suppressor mark everywhere you go.

Thread Locker

We’ve gone over in a recent blog post the implications of a silencer backing off, so how do you make sure that it stays in place? By using rocksett or loctite. These two adhesives work in completely different ways, so make sure you reference your silencer’s user manual to know which adhesive will work best.

If you’re using rocksett, a little dab’ll do ya – a little bit goes a very long way. But if your manufacturer only stipulates the use of a thread locking compound with no description of what kind, we’ve had the best luck with blue or red loctite.

Shims

We’ve mentioned before some instances as to when you should time your muzzle device. It can be pretty important depending on what you’re wanting to do. As we’ve mentioned before, in order to time your muzzle device, you might need a few shims. Almost always, muzzle brakes will come with shims, and some flash hiders come with them, but we also sell them separately if you misplaced yours or need more.

Cleaning

Cleaning a warm, NOT HOT, silencer is much easier than cleaning a silencer that’s cooled down. We recommend letting your silencer cool to the touch and then to hit it really quickly with a brush. You can always go home and clean the silencer thoroughly but getting off the big stuff before getting home will save you a lot of elbow grease that you might otherwise have had to use. Keeping some basic cleaning gear in your range bag can save you a ton of time when you get home.

Proprietary Tools

Proprietary tools that come with your silencer come with your silencer for a reason. It’s always good to have on hand if you need to service your silencer or switch it to a different gun. Also, we don’t know about you, but it’s pretty easy to misplace things in your range bag, so we like to put these tools in a designated pocket so it doesn’t get lost in the black hole of our range bag.

Pouch

This isn’t a necessity, but it’s nice for those kinds of people who don’t want to ding or scratch up their silencer. A silencer pouch is an easy way to remedy that. Some suppressors already come with one included in the purchase (check our product description page to see if it does), but if you need an extra one or your silencer didn’t come with one, we’ve got a few you can choose from here.

Lubrication

Let it be known that Silencer Shop does not recommend using your car without oil or your pistol silencer without grease.

That being said, if you’ve purchased a silencer for your pistol, remember that there is a moving piston in there that should be greased in order to work properly. We’ve had the best luck with a cheap tube of white lithium grease that you can find at any hardware store. If you’re in a pinch, gun oil can be substituted on the range if you’ve got nothing else, but the gun oil will burn off eventually (like in a magazine or less), so it’s best to use a lubricant to keep that pistol silencer running like a top.

Outside of the Bag

Now this isn’t something that you can bring to range day, but we feel like bench vises deserve an honorable mention because they’re a great addition for any gun enthusiast to have. For silencers, the ability to hold something secure (i.e. your firearm to the bench) to install your silencer is a handy thing to have. Also, using in conjunction with an open or adjustable wrench is almost required if you’re planning on installing your own muzzle device.

So there you have it. Our silencer-catered range bag. Drop a comment below and let us know what you bring for your silencer on range days!