This is a long one, so here is the bottom line. Don’t purchase cans and other NFA items off of silencershop’s website. Instead, go to your local dealer, and purchase their cans and NFA items directly from them. Doing so will save you time and frustration.
Prior to eforms, I believe silencershop was the way to go when it came to Form 4 transfers. Simply use one of their kiosks once, and you could buy NFA items as easily as buying AR parts off of Brownells. The form 4 paperwork would be autogenerated for every purchase, based on the information provided into their kiosk. Extremely convenient. I used to recommend silencershop to anyone that asked me about buying a silencer.
Now that eforms is here, the silencershop process is clunky, convoluted, and adds extra steps that wouldn’t exist if you didn’t order off of their website. I purchased a can about three weeks ago off of their website. This was my first purchase since this iteration of Form 4 eforms has come about. Upon placing my order, all electronic documents were signed within minutes of receipt. It took 14 days for the form 3 approval, and for the can to be shipped to my local dealer. Pretty good in my opinion. It took 5 days of my can sitting at my dealer for me to receive the “ready to certify” email from silencershop. This “certifying” is eforms specific and used to not be a thing. I traveled to my local dealer to certify. Turns out, silencershop’s website is down or not working properly, and hadn’t been working since the previous day. This was told by my dealer. Therefore, the hour round trip to my dealer was a waste. Hopefully the next hour round trip won’t be a waste. So 19 days after purchase, the clock still hasn’t started on the estimated “90 day” approval time.
Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m fairly certain that all this can be avoided. How? Just go to your local dealer and purchase NFA items directly from them. When you do, you’ll handle all the eforms paperwork right there on the spot. No waiting on your silencer or sbr to be shipped to your dealer, no waiting on somebody else to do your paperwork, no waiting for websites to work. Buy the silencer (or sbr/sbs, machine gun, AOW, or destructive device), submit the electronic form 4, pay the tax, all in the same day. Doing this will probably save a month or so off of your wait.
In my opinion the only thing silencershop is still good for, is if you have a traditional trust. It’s probably the best solution for those with a traditional trust, due to their kiosks, and ability to save everyone’s fingerprints and 5320.23s. Trying to collect these two items from everyone in your trust, even if it’s just three people, is like herding cats.
I know eforms has brought about unprecedented sales from silencershop, and both they and the AFT were/are struggling to keep up with demand. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with silencershop’s customer service in the past. I have no doubt they are good people. There is just no reason for them to be anyones primary means of purchasing silencers anymore. Eforms has killed them as being the easiest way to buy a silencer….except for very specific circumstances.
Prior to eforms, I believe silencershop was the way to go when it came to Form 4 transfers. Simply use one of their kiosks once, and you could buy NFA items as easily as buying AR parts off of Brownells. The form 4 paperwork would be autogenerated for every purchase, based on the information provided into their kiosk. Extremely convenient. I used to recommend silencershop to anyone that asked me about buying a silencer.
Now that eforms is here, the silencershop process is clunky, convoluted, and adds extra steps that wouldn’t exist if you didn’t order off of their website. I purchased a can about three weeks ago off of their website. This was my first purchase since this iteration of Form 4 eforms has come about. Upon placing my order, all electronic documents were signed within minutes of receipt. It took 14 days for the form 3 approval, and for the can to be shipped to my local dealer. Pretty good in my opinion. It took 5 days of my can sitting at my dealer for me to receive the “ready to certify” email from silencershop. This “certifying” is eforms specific and used to not be a thing. I traveled to my local dealer to certify. Turns out, silencershop’s website is down or not working properly, and hadn’t been working since the previous day. This was told by my dealer. Therefore, the hour round trip to my dealer was a waste. Hopefully the next hour round trip won’t be a waste. So 19 days after purchase, the clock still hasn’t started on the estimated “90 day” approval time.
Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m fairly certain that all this can be avoided. How? Just go to your local dealer and purchase NFA items directly from them. When you do, you’ll handle all the eforms paperwork right there on the spot. No waiting on your silencer or sbr to be shipped to your dealer, no waiting on somebody else to do your paperwork, no waiting for websites to work. Buy the silencer (or sbr/sbs, machine gun, AOW, or destructive device), submit the electronic form 4, pay the tax, all in the same day. Doing this will probably save a month or so off of your wait.
In my opinion the only thing silencershop is still good for, is if you have a traditional trust. It’s probably the best solution for those with a traditional trust, due to their kiosks, and ability to save everyone’s fingerprints and 5320.23s. Trying to collect these two items from everyone in your trust, even if it’s just three people, is like herding cats.
I know eforms has brought about unprecedented sales from silencershop, and both they and the AFT were/are struggling to keep up with demand. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with silencershop’s customer service in the past. I have no doubt they are good people. There is just no reason for them to be anyones primary means of purchasing silencers anymore. Eforms has killed them as being the easiest way to buy a silencer….except for very specific circumstances.
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