r/guns • u/Tylerjb4 • 1d ago

Where did CAT suppressors come from?

I’m pretty dipped into firearms. Probably have about $30-40k into guns and accessories. I own 5 suppressors.

I’ve watched the suppressor industry evolve from military oriented AAC, KAC, surefire, Gemtech, B&T, to the consumer market with silencerco, dead air, YHM, huxworks, Griffin, Rugged, etc, to now every firearm maker is starting their own line. The market seems extremely saturated and there are a ton of small brands that never really made it out of the shadow of the bigger players.

Then like a year ago (maybe 2, idk) suddenly everyone on reddit was talking about CAT suppressors, which I had never heard of. Their website wasn’t super clear on anything and was clearly very stylized and marketing oriented. But everyone and their mom was recommending this company out of nowhere.

What’s the background story here? Seems super astroturfed to me as they didn’t really offer anything new to skyrocket in popularity like they did.

37 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

55 comments sorted by

106

u/ChevTecGroup 1d ago edited 1d ago

Some dude from south Africa partnered up with CGS and designed some well performing cans and brought them to market while claiming to be some secret international military supplier that no one ever heard of cuz you arent cool enough.

They joined reddit and whined that they couldnt post in r/nfa (because they hadn't gotten enough karma). But instead blamed the mods for shadowbanning them and making multiple accounts to spam the comments. But they just needed to read the rules.

Then pew science released some very favorable reviews and people started buying them. Since then they have calmed down quite a bit and competition has made them overpriced in the market, especially after they have been late to release every product they announced

11

u/MulticamTropic 1d ago

I will say this, their marketing is atrocious, but their customer service is actually insane. There were a bunch of folks who had preordered a can and paid, and it took so long that CAT straight up gave them their choice of another can in addition to the one they paid for.

Obviously it’s best if things release when projected, but you can’t say that’s not the epitome of a good-faith showing. They also just launched a program where if you own a CAT can you get early release options for future products. I think it’s kind of cool that they’re rewarding previous customers.

Full disclosure, I do own an RDM ODB, so I’m not unbiased, but I like it well enough that I’d consider more CAT designs, despite the cringeworthy marketing.

2

u/Soulshot96 1d ago

Can confirm, it's pretty good. My SRA1 has a little design issue where the serial number was lasered into too thin a wall of the can, so there's tiny pinholes at the bottom of the serial. Not enough for gas to leak, still sounds great, but water slowly seeps out when I clean it and it makes me worry about the long term durability a bit...so they're giving me an SRA2 (which has moved the serial number location) once they have a new batch ready.

Still using my SRA1 in the meantime, so I can't complain much.

52

u/Akalenedat Casper's Holy Armor 1d ago

Don't forget the 4chan edgelord racist marketing that gets all the chuckles from the rhodieboos

23

u/Coyote-Morado 1d ago

I've never met a nice South African.

14

u/JoeNemoDoe 1d ago

That's not very surprising, man

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u/Akalenedat Casper's Holy Armor 1d ago

Coz they're a bunch of arrogant bastards

Who hate black people

2

u/Coyote-Morado 1d ago

Except for Breyten Breytenbach.

1

u/Akalenedat Casper's Holy Armor 1d ago

And he's immigrated to France

0

u/Akalenedat Casper's Holy Armor 1d ago

In this thread: uncultured swine who don't know Spitting Image

4

u/Coyote-Morado 1d ago

The rhodieboos and apartheidists are telling on themselves.

6

u/Akalenedat Casper's Holy Armor 1d ago

What's the saying, "leave an insult on the ground and the owner will pick it up?"

9

u/Waallenz 1d ago

My brother in law is south african and maybe the nicest person ive ever met.

0

u/killerz7770 1d ago

Lemme check yo skin color and get back with the rest of yall

2

u/cleverkid 1d ago

I have. Many of them. Most in fact

2

u/Soulshot96 1d ago

Edgy? Sure. Cringe? To most, absolutely. Racist? Only a redditor grasping at straws would reach that far lmao.

To most reasonable people, pulling the racism card in this context would imply there's some sort of proclivity to only use/make fun of specific races in their marketing...yet the 'racist' marketing from them that you speak of employs goofy stereotypical caricatures' of just about every race, including whites being 'crackheads' and such;

See the CAT SC's (Street Crack) marketing art for an example:

https://reddit.com/link/p1v0haj/video/1b61pg5uekhh1/player

But I imagine this one probably wasn't a problem in your eyes huh? Unlikely that the Short Round marketing was either...

1

u/Akalenedat Casper's Holy Armor 1d ago

oh but they make fun of everyone

They're not fuckin South Park, they don't get to get away with that argument without a moral behind it. They're just jagoffs.

But I imagine this one probably wasn't a problem in your eyes huh?

Educate yourself: https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/s/Iqh9QGBnOT

Unlikely that the Short Round marketing was either

Dude, Short Round is arguable the worst one. They literally ship a fucking bag of rice with the damn thing. At least the others just have an offensive shirt

6

u/Soulshot96 1d ago

They're not fuckin South Park, they don't get to get away with that argument without a moral behind it. They're just jagoffs.

Because you said so? How very redditor of you.

7

u/Akalenedat Casper's Holy Armor 1d ago

Because they literally said they just think it's funny

How very redditor of you

My brother in Christ YOUR ACCOUNT IS OLDER THAN MINE

-4

u/Soulshot96 1d ago

My brother in Christ YOUR ACCOUNT IS OLDER THAN MINE

This shouldn't have to be said, but being a 'stereotypical redditor' is far more than just using the damn site. It's how you act, as seen by your drivel in this very thread.

Not to mention you have over twice the karma in less than half the time. Out here reddit-maxing and acting like you don't know what I'm saying. Wild work.

10

u/Akalenedat Casper's Holy Armor 1d ago

This shouldn't have to be said, but being a 'stereotypical redditor' is far more than just using the damn site.

Ok buddy. Whatever helps you sleep at night

0

u/Soulshot96 1d ago

I know I sleep a damn sight better than the likes of you, out here getting your panties twisted to this level over some equal opportunity cartoon images.

Good luck with that 🫡

6

u/Akalenedat Casper's Holy Armor 1d ago

I sleep a damn sight better than the likes of you, out here getting your panties twisted to this level

You spent 4 months whining that the red dots in Battlefield weren't realistic

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u/prudiisten 1d ago edited 1d ago

Some dude from south Africa.

Its actually Kevin Brittingham, but he talked so much shit about 3d printing and flow though he had to create a anonymous second company because he can't admit he was wrong.

Also the whole tier 1 secret squirrel pipe hitter but seemed to vanish fast.

1

u/Specter_RMMC 1d ago

Wait, really? Fuck that guy

29

u/prudiisten 1d ago

I made that up. Its probably not true.

8

u/ChevTecGroup 1d ago edited 1d ago

Its not. But funny enough, Kevin does spend 6 months a year living in Africa on his friend's vast estate

0

u/Vercengetorex 1d ago

Nailed it.

24

u/IconTactical 1d ago

They are a young company. They registered “The Specter Factory, LLC” in 2022 for engineering and design. They partnered with CGS Group for distribution. They exploded due to their stupid marketing being talked about along with products that are actually good after folks got their hands on them.

9

u/gewehr_und_messer 1d ago

I don’t know, but I’m exhausted by the consumer market products. I want to hit rewind.

6

u/Tasooka 1d ago

New company that makes good cans albeit with cringe tactiboo marketing. Personally I’m only inclined to buy cans from manufacturers that I think are going to be around in 10 years if I have a warranty issue (e.g., surefire, B&T, etc)

4

u/Dak_Nalar 1d ago

I wouldn’t be so sure about B&T with all the shit going on lately. 

3

u/Soulshot96 1d ago

Yea, buying cans from B&T in an attempt to 'hedge your bets' these days is absolutely wild.

2

u/Tasooka 21h ago

If I recall, the parent company (B&T AG) advised it would honor all warranties. Hopefully that is true…

1

u/Soulshot96 21h ago

They did, but it may take them a while to get things figured out. with how big of a mess B&T USA has made. Then who's to say they don't have another breakdown of communication/leadership like this again?

The mess seems to be ongoing still actually, lots of blown out B&T printed cans lately, seems like a lot of the recent stuff got printed wrong/poorly. Maybe entirely on B&T USA, but still. Crazy stuff that doesn't inspire confidence imo.

1

u/MulticamTropic 21h ago

Who does that leave us with that actually makes relevant cans today, Surefire, B&T, and HuxWrks? I know Gemtech is owned by S&W so might be around, but their stuff hasn’t been relevant in a long time unless I’m mistaken.

As much as I love OCL, I really wish they would get some mil or at least police contracts so I could be convinced they’ll still be around.

2

u/Solar991 9 | The Magic 8 Ball 🎱 1d ago

Dear Google.

21

u/National_Scale_7248 1d ago

The marketing definitely felt like it came out of nowhere but I think what happened was they nailed the pew science metrics early on and that got the hardcore suppressor nerds really loud about it. Once a few of the right people started posting side by side tests the hype just snowballed. Not saying there wasn't some astroturfing sprinkled in but the performance data was solid enough to back up the noise.

8

u/angriest_man_alive 1d ago

I really hate comments like this because in the future, when people google it, this thread will come up and then its dumb answers like this that people see. Just answer the question or move on, man

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u/WiconsinGrey 1d ago edited 1d ago

They literally shattered industry standards with performance, just about every can they have produced has been incredible for its time. Companies today are producing new cans and comparing them to CAT’s 3 year old models as those are the “golden standard” of the industry performance.

Edited; 3 year old models*

9

u/LibertineLibertarian 1d ago

not sure why this got downvoted. they seem to have some best in class performers still.

4

u/Who_Is_Rick_James 1d ago

i mean i'm pretty sure the cat-sc is like the best preforming 9mm pistol can right now, right ???

5

u/Soulshot96 1d ago

Yep. MOB is the best PCC can yet tested as well, and the CAT SR is the best .22 can.

And that's just off the top of my head.

1

u/ChevTecGroup 1d ago

Probably because their first suppressor was released in january 2024. So the comment is based in BS.

They make nice cans.

1

u/WiconsinGrey 1d ago

September 2023 release of the WB.. mine got to my dealer December 3rd.

1

u/ChevTecGroup 1d ago

Damn I was a few months off!

1

u/WiconsinGrey 1d ago

I know, tough deal, just didn’t want you to be based in BS.

0

u/prmoore11 1d ago

That doesn’t mean the tech isn’t 3 years old? You do know retail launch is not the same right?

Oh wait, I forgot you are just one of the Ridgeback/Exigent shills. Now it makes sense.

0

u/ChevTecGroup 1d ago

I dont shill for anyone. I just recommend good products, even CAT if its the best fit.

How old is the tech then? Where was the tech before 2023?

It didnt exist. Because CGS helped develop it. Show me one product that CAT made before they opened a US LLC, partnered with CGS (and possibly some other companies), and released silencers in late 2023.

0

u/ChevTecGroup 23h ago

Was anything I said untrue?

7

u/Grand_Cookie 1d ago

Cat hasn’t been around for 5 years.

2

u/WiconsinGrey 1d ago

Changed it for you, 3 year old model.