For 30 years the answer to “how long does it take to buy a suppressor?” was “sit down.” Nine-month waits. A $200 federal tax on top of the can. Paperwork thick enough to shim a door. In 2026 that story is basically over. The federal tax stamp dropped to $0 on January 1, and eForm 4 approvals are running in days rather than months. If you’ve been putting this off, the wait finally ends.
What Actually Changed in 2026
$0
Tax Stamp
~3 days
eForm 4 — Individual
~10 days
eForm 4 — Trust
21+
Minimum Age
Wait figures: Silencer Shop ATF wait-time tracker, median of observed approvals, retrieved September 6, 2026. These move week to week — check the tracker before you plan around them.
Step 1
Pick the Can
Choose a suppressor sized for your host firearm and caliber. We’ll show you what fits your rifle, pistol, or shotgun.
Step 2
Buy It From Us
Pay for the suppressor at Elk River Guns. It stays in our safe until the ATF approves the transfer to you.
Step 3
Fingerprints & Photo
Two sets of prints and a passport-style photo. Done in-store on the kiosk, no mail-in prints.
Step 4
File eForm 4
You file electronically as an individual or trust. Include a “responsible person” packet for each trust member.
Step 5
Wait for Approval
ATF emails you when it clears. Timelines are theirs, not ours — see the tracker note above. We’ll reach out when it lands here.
Step 6
Pick It Up
Bring your ID. We do the final 4473 transfer in-store, hand you the approved stamp, and it’s yours to take home.
The single biggest decision on your Form 4. Both are legal. Both work. They answer different questions about ownership and about who is permitted to possess the can — and those possession questions are genuinely legal ones, so here’s the shape of each rather than a recommendation.
Colorado allows suppressor ownership, and CPW’s regulations permit suppressor use when hunting big game, predators, small game and furbearers. Colorado adds no state permit or state registration on top of the federal process. The current CPW regulations are the authority on manner of take for your season — read them, or call CPW, before you hunt with one.
We’re a full-line NFA dealer. A few popular starting points by mission:
All Suppressors
Full lineup
Rimfire (.22 LR)
First-can starter
Subsonic Ammunition
Pair with your can
Barrel Threading
In-house gunsmithing
The Elk River Guns Suppressor Kiosk
We’re a Silencer Shop Powered Dealer. You can walk in, pick your can, and do your prints and photo on the kiosk in one visit — no trip to the sheriff, no mail-in prints, no notarized signatures to chase down.
Related: Whisper Quiet: How Suppressors Actually Work • Firearm Optics Basic Guide
Wait times reflect Silencer Shop’s public tracker as of September 6, 2026 and change constantly. Tax figures reflect H.R. 1 as effective January 1, 2026. Elk River Guns is a licensed Class 3 SOT dealer. Nothing here is legal advice — for your own situation, consult an attorney familiar with NFA law.
The date under the headline is the last time we checked this page against its sources — not the day it was first written. Rulebooks get amended, regulations change and season dates move, so we review these guides on a regular cycle and re-stamp the date whenever we revise one. If you find something here that has changed before we caught it, email [email protected] or tell us at the counter; we will verify it against the source and correct it.
We write these because people ask us at the counter. Everything in them we either sell, service, or shoot ourselves — and if you'd rather talk it through than read about it, come in.
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