try the 17 cals less noise still kills dogs. The HM2 should be quiter than your 22 plus you get a new gun!! It probebly cost less than a silencer to.
Herd a story of two guys tring to make a silencer and got cought. They each received 5 years in the federal pen. And they lost their gun rights to boot. Could be true could be bull? An officer told us that at the concealed weapons class.

I am now with my 45-70 22" T/C Contender carbine down to 290fps with 2grs Tite-Group powder held in place with styrofoam and a deeply seated 450gr 4 lube groove .452 cast bullet.

With iron sights my group is under 2" @ 25 yards and hitting about 6" high. The load is not totally silent yet but is a very quite deep muffled boom. I'm going to try these loads on coyotes later this week when I'm at my inlaws for the holidays in central Alberta.

Just shoot the dogs with whatever, your in your rights and you can also get paid for your loss of livestock...If you use a silencer and especially now that you have notified the whole world, you will end up in prison, its a serious felony that carries hard time, not some light weight little charge carrying a fine....even if you won the case in court it will cost you several herds of cattle to pay the lawyers that kept you out of prison...

I would think that the dogs have a much worse effect on the deer than gun shots...especially if you use a rimfire. Not that I would want to be blasting away with even a .22 around deer season, but you have the rest of the year to get rid of the dogs.

Isn't Kentucky a Class II, Class III State??? If so, go the BATF route and register the silencer, then do what you gotta do. That's what the guys and gals who own Class III stuff here in Idaho do. No problem, so long as you dot the "i"s and cross the "t"s.

If it were I, living out in the boonies as you claim, I wouldn't worry about a few shots from a small caliber centerfire rifle.

JMHO. L.W.

This does not really help you but in these parts virtually everybody has a silencer on their 10/22. With subsonic ammo they work extremely well. Your rifle will make about as much noise as a BB gun.

On shooting dogs, please use enough gun to kill them quick. A centrefire 22 would do the job much better than any rimfire.

If your deer are going to run away at an unsilenced centrefire shot then they will run away with a silenced one. The silencer is only effective on the muzzle blast, the supersonic crack is still there and is bloody loud if over any range.

i understand that the Feds don't like silencers, but is there anything that can be done legally to at least tone down the muzzle blast?

If you do some research on superlong barreled shotguns, you may find that something on the same principle could apply. The super-long barrels aren't really barrels, as I understand it, but sleeves. I think that they may be perforated, as well, but never having had any experience with such things I only can report what I think I remember reading. Give it a shot?

My friends in Africa this year had what I thought was a bull-barreled 22 target rifle. Closer examination showed it to be a ported rifle with a gas expansion chamber all the way from the action to the muzzle for a silencer. They shot some sub-sonic 22 loads in it, and it wasn't as loud as a paintball gun. We could tip over jackals at the waterhole and never even disturb the other animals! SWEET! They also had a 30-06 with a large silencer on the end of the barrel for culling purposes which did drop the noise down to manageable levels also.

Depending on youe state of residence, you can own a silencer. First, check your state laws to see. Next, look up a Class III dealer. He can guide you through the process. You will need passport photos, fingerprinting, clearance by your local chief law enforcement officer, and approval by the feds. It is alot of paperwork and hassle. It usually takes around six months, not to mention a $200 federal tax stamp! After this, you have a legally registered, NFA compliant silencer/suppressor.
It is dificult and do-able!
Jeff in Texas

Well ,I know its not politicaly correct to be shooting dogs or using silencers but I can definitley symathise with your problem. Hypotheticaly ,what you should do is get a muffler off a Kawasaki KX80 86 or 87 model motocross bike. One of those years ,I think the 86 model ,had a fairly long muffler with a very small diameter inner pipe which fits well over most sporting muzzles. If you cant get one of these ,then go to a motobike wreckers and look for muffler for a 50 -65CC 2 stroke motocross bike. These are straight through. They arent as efficient ,but if you are caught with one of these in your car or house ,no problems, they just slide off the muzzle if they are held on with a hose clamp. All hypotheticaly off course as I know you wont try it as the law says you cant be trusted to do it on your own property.

I have a registered silencer on my 10-22 that "only" took 5 months to get clearance. The application process is simple as gas57 described. Mine is a screw on to the outside threads of the barrel and it only make a "psssst" sound, however you do hear the action cycle, might need a recoil buffer for that, and you definitely hear the bullet impact. Mine was made by George Vais the original maker of the Vais muzzle brakes in Boise Idaho owner of High Tech Gunworks at 208-323-7674 and he has improved it to also function on the .223 with a decibel rating close to a subsonic 22LR. The cost is around $350-$400 if I remember correctly, excluding the $200 stamp. Its sweet to shoot!!!!!