The firearms community has always been home to a broad cast of characters, but they broke the mold after they made Mike Pappas. It’s not the way he looks, either; Pappas could be used as the archetype for an American dad. He’s not a business magnate, but he’s been a founder of two separate successful silencer companies. Pappas isn’t a professionally trained engineer, but he’s designed and patented some of the best suppressors in the world. His sense of humor is so dry that it can make the unaccustomed uncomfortable, and occasionally something equally true and bombastic bursts from his mouth.
If you’re familiar with Dead Air or SilencerCo at all, then you’re at least familiar with his work. And if for some reason you’re here from the heavy military equipment community, you know Pappas for his OT-90 (basically a Czechoslovakian BMP-1 — featured in RECOIL Issue 26).
While firearms are now so common and ubiquitous even the Wall Street types are involved — and silencers are getting there — Pappas was here back when suppressors were considered only for spies and murderers. He didn’t just jump on this train; Pappas is a conductor.
Today, we'll learn a little more about him. We’ll talk about silencers, of course. But also guns, demolition derby, and a bit about life.
EARLY YEARS & HEAVY EQUIPMENT
In some ways, Pappas represents an older, more traditional way of doing things. He hates to travel, to be away from his family. In a world where the major lesson of popular culture is that you have to move far from home in order to “make it,” Pappas has never lived more than 30 miles from where he was born. “Just a small town on the other side of the mountains,” he says.
The original
