Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome back to TFB’s Silencer Saturday, brought to you by Yankee Hill Machine, manufacturer of the new Victra 20-gauge shotgun suppressor. Precision rifle competition is one of the most popular shooting games these days, and a recent match in Utah may have been the first of its kind. The Silent But Deadly match was a PRS-style competition for suppressed centerfire rifles firing subsonic ammunition. Silencer Saturday @ TFB:Silencer Saturday #451: Return of the LVAW Silencer Saturday #450: 4473 vs. Form 4 TransfersSilencer Saturday #449: A One-Of-A-Kind Ruger American Silencer Saturday #448: Liberty Suppressors Infiniti X First LookSilencer Saturday #447: Thunder Beast Silencer Summit 2026 It seems like everyone is shooting precision rifle competitions these days. PRS really started the party, and that energy spread to related formats like NRL Hunter and gas gun matches. Each has its own take on the concept, but all share the core idea of engaging steel targets at extended ranges from suboptimal shooting positions.The Silent But Deadly match takes that same idea and focuses it on suppressed firearms. The rules are simple: rifles must be centerfire, equipped with a silencer, and have an average muzzle velocity below 1175 FPS. Those low velocities and compromised ballistic trajectories result in a match that is sort of like an NRL22 rimfire match as far as the shot distances.The inaugural Silent But Deadly match was held at the Garth Kilpack shooting range in Springville, Utah. You can view the match rules and results at this Impact Scoring link. Jim Cannon, owner of Next Shot Precision (and @22lrmarksmen on Instagram) hosted the match. Here are a few pictures stolen from his social media showing some stages: I was not able to make it to this match, but Collin (who some of you may remember from his “Collin’s Creations” bits in this column) and my brother Barrett both were able to shoot in the match. They both also compete in SPARC matches as well as NRL22 and are familiar with this general style of competition shooting. They each used guns chambered in 300 Blackout. Colin shot a straight-pull built on an AR-15 action. He cobbled this together in the effort to make a quiet, dedicated host gun. Barrett shot a Brownell's BRN 180. Neither of these seems like a true race gun built for competition, but they had startlingly different results with each. Collin’s straight-pull AR Barrett’s BRN-180 You see, Collin, who often places in the top 10 or so in precision gas gun matches, ended up in the middle of the pack. Barrett, who usually places a few positions behind Collin, was in the top 5. Both were shooting 300 Blackouts with roughly equivalent optics and barrel lengths. What was the difference? Ammunition. Barrett shot handloaded subsonic ammo with a 220-grain Sierra MatchKing bullet. Collin was shooting factory. They both noticed, across shooters, that those who were shooting handloaded ammunition tended to dramatically outperform shooters with factory-loaded ammo.Another observation was the lack of correlation between the price of a gun and where it was placed.There were also shooters with rather expensive custom setups that were outperformed by much more modest equipment. Much of this, again, tied back to the ammunition selection and whether or not someone had access to handloads. Even if you have a very nice rifle, that is not going to be enough to make up for poor-quality ammunition.The match winner shot an 8.6 Blackout. This was a custom rifle built around that cartridge. I have no details or information about the load or the rifle, but I would hazard a guess that ammunition quality and retained momentum from the larger, heavier 8.6mm bullet played a part in this finish. Two of the top five shooters at the match were shooting Ruger American rifles. Those do have a reputation for accuracy generally but are often thought of as accurate among the budget tier of rifles. Two in the top five suggests that they are more accurate options when compared across all rifles, not just the affordable ones.One of the great things about competition is how it quickly highlights what works and what doesn’t. The 25-pound 6mm Dasher became the meta in PRS after many shooters tried a lot of different options. Subsonic PRS is a new game, and the competitors are still figuring out what wins matches. A major takeaway is that the standards of accuracy are much lower than in other games. Some of the targets used included a 4-inch plate at 75 yards and an 8-inch target at 127 yards. If those dimensions sound generous, that is because they are. Subs at extended ranges need the help! You can watch an example stage here.Another observation they made was that longer barrels and higher velocities were an advantage. There is a significant difference between 800 FPS and 1,100 FPS. Both are subsonic, but that difference is over a 25% pickup. They also observed that the longer barrels tended to be more consistent.Another match is planned for November. Signups are live now on Impact Scoring. If you want to see how your setup stacks up and be part of developing the meta for this kind of competition, you should check it out. And the prize table included a lot of silencers last time! SILENCER SHOP – HANSOHN BROTHERS – DEADEYE GUNSMAC TACTICALALL YHM PRODUCTS AT BROWNELLSDEALERS: If you want your link to buy YHM suppressors included in future Silencer Saturday posts, email: silencers@thefirearmblog.com