I've been thinking about this proposed regulation that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is considering: allow hunters to use silencers and sound suppressors on rifles to hunt deer. I'm not sure how I feel about it.

I already use a silenced firearm for whitetails. It's called a bow.

The real discussion is about rifles altered so that the sound is mostly silenced or suppressed. None of the silencers I'm familiar with are totally silent. And all of them compromise the speed and power of the bullet.

When you fire a rifle, the bullet leaves the barrel at something in excess of 1,100 feet per second — faster than the speed of sound. That crack you hear is basically a small sonic boom. To eliminate that portion of the noise, the velocity of the bullet has to be reduced within the gun, and that impacts the hunter's effective range.

It's a matter of physics.

The proposal that Texas Parks and Wildlife commissioners have sent to the Texas Register for public comment actually refers to altering shotguns and rifles for the purpose of hunting game birds and game animals.

I'm not sure there is anyone out there who would consider silencing a shotgun to hunt quail or turkeys.

So what we're talking about here is deer, the Captain America of game animals, the apparent reason that Texas Parks and Wildlife exists today. They are to hunting what trophy bass are to fishing.

Last Wednesday, without any discussion, commissioners approved the silencer proposal for public comment. Kind of the silencer treatment on decision-making. I was disappointed about that, because it came out of the White-tailed Deer Advisory Committee with no warning and no explanation about why this should be a hunting regulation.

I know there were others in attendance who had questions.

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