Browsing the Chinese shopping app Temu for shiny objects to scare hawks away from my yard, I was surprised to successfully find “fuel filters.” I thought this stuff went the way of the dodo after our friends at the ATF visited the homes of hundreds of Americans who had ordered similar items via Wish, Ali Express, and other Chinese crap apps.
Okay maybe this pistol booster assembly would be legal. I mean, most mounts aren’t considered silencer parts and are therefore readily available, with ATF’s blessing, a la carte on the interwebs anyway. But just in case, DON’T BUY ONE FROM CHINA.
First, I wouldn’t trust anything Temu is selling to be manufactured well enough to use with my suppressor. Given the moving parts inside a pistol booster and how easy it is to get baffle strikes should tolerances not be up to snuff and things aren’t square and concentric, etc., I wouldn’t risk an expensive silencer just to score a really inexpensive booster from across the Pacific.
Second, one of the issues with all the “fuel filters” and such on the Chinese apps isn’t just that they are easily converted into silencers (or ARE silencers in some cases), but that they were imported into the U.S.. It’s legal to manufacture your own suppressor and it’s legal to start with components that are close to final form, but ATF had a big problem with these things coming from overseas. Some suppressor companies like to advertise “Made In America” on their products, but that’s very much legally mandatory in the case of silencers.
As you can see in the photo above, that totally modular “car fuel filter” complete with QD mount and silencer industry-standard HUB 1.375×24 thread pitch has “baffles” that do not have a bore hole drilled. That’s, uh, “good,” I guess, in that it isn’t a functional silencer when it shows up to your door so you’re not, like, obviously committing a blatant felony. I guess.
You’d have to file a Form 1, pay your $200 tax and receive approval before you could drill out those baffles and serialize the thing to have a functional silencer. But, again, it still wouldn’t be legal and it would get confiscated if ATF figures out you ordered the components via Temu. They got lists of purchasers from Wish, so you have to assume it will happen.
That’s quite a novel silencer design. Errrr, uhh, I mean “monocore solvent trap filter.” I love how these “fuel filters” are marketed in the app to “reduce the noise created by cars.” Yeah, .22LR and 9mm and 300 Blackout “cars” threaded 1/2-28 and 5/8-24 that require a pistol booster.
Ha! Now that’s funny. A muzzle device that appears to be designed to slip over the non-threaded muzzle of a Ruger 10/22 with a front sight, with set screws to hold it to the barrel. Then the other end is threaded with your standard 2-liter bottle thread pitch.
I guess that makes a suppressor? Maybe, on a .22LR, if you fill the bottle with steel wool or something. The one time I did this was in a dream and it totally didn’t happen in real life, but I was 18 years old and had recently purchased a Yugoslavian SKS. My friend and I realized that the grenade launcher muzzle device fit perfectly and snugly inside the mouth of a 2-liter bottle. We pressed one on and fired a shot…and it was twice as loud as a normal gunshot, because the exploding bottle sounded like a freakin’ bomb going off.
Okay that’s a silencer. Like, all the baffles and the front cap have a “9mm hole” bored through them and the direct thread mount is in your standard thread sizes for 9mm and 300 Blackout. If you’re actually dumb enough to order this from a Chinese shopping app…just…seriously, don’t do that.
This one has some actual, legal value as this is a common design in the firearm industry for an actual solvent trap. A plastic bottle at the end of your barrel will catch barrel cleaning solvents and dirty patches pushed through the bore. For instance, HERE’s one on Brownells and HERE’s one that even uses plastic bottles.
There’s a crazy-long screenshot of “fuel filter” parts sold by just one supplier on Temu. Tons and tons of options, as you can see. I could have kept going. but figured that long screenshot would already cause issues displaying correctly (click it, perhaps a couple of times, to see it in full size).
The bottom line, really, is don’t order any of this stuff. Just don’t do it. You’ll eventually get a visit from the ATF and if you’ll be very lucky if they only confiscate it and give you a stern talking to. You don’t want a felony charge and prison time over a $50 illegal silencer. It just isn’t worth the risk. Now, if you want to fire up the ol’ VPN and order some cool camouflage shoes for under $20 with a virtual credit card like I did…I mean, they’re actually super comfortable shoes and I did, indeed, get all the shiny things to keep the hawks away from my chickens.
EDIT: About 24 hours after publishing the piece above I received the following email from a U.S.-based Temu representative, as they apparently caught wind of the article:
Needless to say I don’t think these should be considered weapons or firearms! But, you know, given the various laws we have in the U.S. of A. at this time it’s still quite illegal. So…what can ya do?