Inside The Silence

Terry visits Huggett headquarters to discover the facts and fancy behind our sport’s most radical moderators

- Terry

Andrew Huggett is a quiet and genial genius, an unassuming master of what he does, and exactly the sort of bloke you’d like to talk to for hours over a pint. He’s also a nightmare to interview. It’s as if recounting his many achievements is a type of bragging, and Andrew Huggett simply doesn’t do that, or anything like it. I’ve known him for years, spoken to him for many hours and used his superb silencers since they quietly announced themselves over 10 years ago, but this time I threw my journalist’s hat into the ring and went at him, pencil purposefully sharpened, seeking only the facts. It was still hard work, but I got there in the end.

A BRIEF BACKGROUND

Andrew Huggett has been ‘making stuff’ since the mid-1980s, and silencers since 1988. He’s been a shooter all of his life, as was his dad and also his father-in-law. Andrew’s father-in-law was prone to dropping his rifle’s magazine and losing it, so Andrew made him some with a brightly coloured finish, to help locate them. One of these magazines was shown to Ben Taylor, who, after moving on from his pioneering exploits at Theoben Engineering, was the proprietor of a bespoke airgun outlet, BTAS. Ben is also a genius, and although he’s not always in the ‘quiet and genial’ category, he knows talent when he sees it.

A MEETING OF MINDS