Sound Moderator review

[Guest rogern]

This link should take you to a review of sound moderators by Bruce Potts in 2005

A bit old I know but some of the info is still fresh I think.

 

By the way, does anyone know anything about 'DM 80 Moderators.

 

The Link: http://www.suppressor.co.nz/news.htm

[Jager SA]

The Atec moderator has failed to last longer than a few hundred rounds but what it has done is make others think and hopefully improve there designs so we the shooting public can benifit.

 

 

Sorry Dave but you are incorrect in your statement, the A-TEC didnt wear out after a few hundred rounds. The baffles wore in the moderator thats all. The same baffles are still in use and are working just fine and dandy. The wear doesnt render the moderator useless and it certainly hasnt failed. Please get the facts right Dave.

 

I will add that the Stealth baffles wear just the same as any other good or bad thats the trade off for light weight. If you dont want baffles wearing, dont buy a moderator period.

 

ANYONE IS MORE THAN WELCOME TO COME AND USE THE MODERATOR WITH THE WORN BAFFLES. IT HAS MADE NO DIFFERENCE TO IT PERFORMANCE AND IS STILL PROTECTING MY HEARING.

 

 

Kal

[6ppc]

Keep it civil everyone and it will be fine as everyone is entitled to their opinion good or bad. If people try to kick something off again i will ban them without warning as i am sick of all this crap.

[Jager SA]

so now I am lying ?? James has the burnt powered alloy stopped falling into the chamber ?? and has the hole which was once 6mm turned into something bigger than a 30 cal ??

James i dont want to get into an argument mate as i know you are only protecting your investment,but please when I met you you even said it was unacceptable

Still a good mod if used on a suitable caliber,your service was second to none its a shame the manufactor wasnt so helpfull

 

 

Pete we are not getting into an argument mate, facts are facts, the baffles still work regardles. Powder comes off all mods its just a fact of moderator life

 

The holes in your baffles are not 30 cal holes I can assure you, they are just the same as you gave them to me and are working just fine.

[Jager SA]

James

no one said the mod didnt work,just the mod worn out rather quickly and deposited burnt alloy into my chamber which you must agree is dangerous as any foriegn body in a chamber can cause problems mine even more being a tight neck

The stealth mod has not done this YET and has not shown any signs of wear YET (notice the word yet) but Iam only just over half way through my fireing buy Iam also using the same mod on my 7mm WSM so its really getting a spanking,nothing fallen into the chambers yet

have you got spares on the shelf now ??

 

Pete, the baffles didnt wear out they were just worn beyond your personal acceptability, so I changed them for you. I dont know how powder got into your chamber but I guess it can happen moddy.

 

The Stealth does wear the same ive seen the evidence but it makes no difference as the baffles are a replacable item, which is great as before this was never really avaliable until the A-TEC came on the scene.

 

Baffles are on the shelf and im picking more up soon.

[ejg223]

Took my a-tec apart yesterday, after about 60 308 rounds.

There was some ammount of crud inside, I would never leave

a mod on the rifle after shooting and especially not barrel up.

Be it black or white crud.

Funky I saw what you mean with white powder. In my case it was

very little and never appeared again if I shoved a very lightly oiled

brush through the mod after use.

By the way I was in Pete Lincolns workshop on sunday and had a good look at

many many a-tec baffels lying around from varies tests I presume. None of them

looked in any way badly worn, of coures I didn't ask about the history of each.

 

No matter what people say, aluminium is a compromise in this application. With a

melting point a bit over 500 C what do you expect.. and so soft you can cut

it with a pen knife. I just know from the looking at my baffels very closely that

my moderator will last me a very long time. The first bit will wear quick and then

further wear will slow down.

 

edi

[Jager SA]

[James in my opinion and that is all i can go by the baffles of the ATEC moderators have failed now if you want to say that its general ware then who am i to disagree. What i would say is most of the paying public want oneof the most exspencive moderators on the market to last longer. Now you keep sateing that there isa trade off and it is only the baffles .Well to me there is not much else inside a moderator. infact you have tham and the can thats it. I remeber asking how much were the replacmebts witch is a very important question when the insides of the mod all burning out so quik . We are stll waiting o an answer mate .

You always want to put things down to a personal attack James cant you understand some times we just want a product to do what it says on the tit or at least get told the truth in the advertising. Go back and read your adverts on the moderators and you will see wha i mean. It didnt help that you lied your tits off at the begining to try and distance your self form that lowlife roedale ( for that i cant blame you ) but all things add up to the the byer and we need trust in the product trust in the seller and hopfully a good after sale.

 

 

Dave as usual your talking h*rseshit, you dont have a clue about what you talking about. All you have is your continuing vendetta on Roedale, thats fine but leave me out of it. Dont drees this up as though you are caring sharing moral Citizen, its nothing short of you trying to have a go as usual without the slightest idea of what your on about.

 

I tell you now dont call me a liar either, everyone knows the score here so dont insult their Intelligence by pretending to be the patron saint of equipment testing.

 

When you find a moderator that dont wear let me know and I will use the incredible non wearing metal you found and make a moderator. As I said the Stealth moderator wears the same ive seen the evidence after 50 rounds, big deal. But the difference is the Manufacturer hasnt had anything to do with Roedale.

[shootingbags]

come on guys lets not get this post deleted or locked,

so James is saying the stealth has worn with only 50 shots ?? strange I have seen these photos and i personally could not se any wear,now am I being called a liar ststing after 100 odd rounds of a litle 6mm and 30 odd rounds of a 7mm WSM by Stealth has shown no signs of wear and not depositing any burnt alloy int the chambers of my expensive custom rifles.

Now certaim people are just waiting to jump all over the Steath when I post pgotos of the baffles after 200 shots,that fine i dont have a problem with that

But what people fail to see is the after care on the stealth will be better with a no questions or excuses asked returns policy,unlike the trouble I had getting a replacement baffle stack form A tec which James kindly sorted out for me and did agree the servcie I got from the manufactor was poor

Iam sure James will do his best to help out his customers BUT his hands will be tied as if the manufactor wont supply spares and then does not offer to warrant his product James then has to take to flack which follows

I do know of a chap who has been waiting nearly 3 weeks for baffel replacment

I must stress this is not James fault but the manufactor who has not supplied him

Hence why I have sold the A tec and gone for a Steath at least I know repalcement parts are availabe next day

Pete,

 

Let's not get into the replacement baffle debate again - James has VERY CLEARLY stated on post 8 that he has spare baffles on the shelf. I don't know how he can state this any clearer!

[Guest rogern]

There is more chance of learning to speak fluent Mandarin in 10 minutes flat, than being able to come away from this topic with a confident opinion of moderators (sound)

 

F*** it, I will stay with the ugly, heavy, not rusted away in 4 years T8 on the .204, (the T8 is mine and I can call it all the names I like)

[Guest rogern]

Edited to add a couple more criteria.

 

Funky, thats the best comment yet.

 

What the majority of (non pro, none trade) readers want, I presume, is a simple, currently available Sound Moderator list showing:

 

Muzzle mount or over barrel

Overall length

Extends barrel length by

Diameter

Weight

Suitable for calibres

How effective (maufacturers DB reduction claim)

If baffles burn out during warranty are they replaced FOC without arguement

Cost of replacement baffles.

Retail price

 

All new ones will have a warranty so If you buy one and it burns out etc and the supplier does not honour the warranty you 'name & shame' them, we all have a trading standards dept, what could be simpler?

 

As a pure consumer with no vested interest in any make of moderator, I will try and do it one of these days.

My only experience with moderators is Reflex T8 on .308, 25-06, 6.5x55 & .204 so far, I would like to test them all and do a report, but I cant afford to buy them to do it.

[shootingbags]

[Rodger mate i am with you lets get rid of all the issues with mods and get down to the real deal. I would like to know how much replacement baffles are. Shootin bags you seem to know that james has got baffles on the self do we have a cost on these as that will be very important to the ATEC OWNERS and while we are at it if the baffles ware in the first two years do we get a replcment set free of charge or do we get hit with excuses saying general ware and tare .Unlike you rodger i want to know before a by because i dont want to try and get cash back off the money men or name and shame i want a good product. simple.

R

Wireviz,

 

I am sorry but I do not know about any costs - I was just merely pointing to where James had stated this.

What I will say though is that I have PES, Reflex and A-tec mods and I definitely wouldn't hesitate in buying PES or A-tec again .

[Wsm]

This topic has turned into an Atec v Stealth battle again which shouldn`t be the case so if I may I`ll try to get back on track to involve a whole host of other manufacturers

 

Thi is my own opinion of all the mods that I`ve been fortunate to own.We don`t get more financial benefit from selling one to the next.It matters not if its a Reflex to a Pes.If you want it you can have it but if I`m asked my opinion I can honestly say that this is what I `ve found

 

First off lets start with how quiet they all are.Now I don`t have the use of any sound meters but to be honest all the following sound very similar to my ears.I`ll defy anyone to tell me they can tell the difference of a decibel out in the field.We all have different sensitivity levels of hearing so what I thinks loud might not be to the lad standing next in line.I know of a test done recently where the mod with the worst reading on a meter sounded the quietest to the group doing the testing Now I know that several manufacturers are moving onto the next level and are working on the next generation but until the time that they`re out we`ve got the current batch which are all so close together

 

REFLEX- The first real commercial over barrel sound mod available to us and still the benchmark that others base their strategy on.Traditional baffle stack.This is still the best selling mod on the market today probably outselling the others 20-1

It seems to me that you either get a good or bad Reflex.I`ve had them last for years and some just months.Obviously down to the cheap materials used.Softened by the importers offer of discounted replacement if faulty

 

 

Pros- Relatively cheap-excellent service from distributor

Cons-Problems due to quality of material

 

ASE-Another model from Jackson Rifles.Adds 5" to the muzzle.Stainless construction so doesn`t suffer the problems as the Reflex.Traditional baffle stack.Creeping up around £50 more to £250

Pros-Stainless and very durable.Can`t remember ever seeing a return

Cons-Feels heavy on the end and unbalances the rifle

 

Jetz-Yet another Jackson import.Steel honeycomb construction-Similar set up to the ASE with slightly slimmer profile.£300

Pros-Virtually bombproof

Cons-Same unbalance problems adding 6" to length

 

Wildcat- To be honest I only had the latest Wildcat for a few hours so couldn`t really give it a fair review.The build quality looked excellent with a unique interchangable baffle system.In the short time that I had it it sounded very much like the Reflex.Around the same price as the ASE`s

Pros-Modular system-quality manufacture

Cons-May suffer from bad press from some quarters of previous model

 

PES-Imported by JMS and the second best selling mod on the market today behind Reflex.All stainless steel construction and available as a semi strippable model.Solid workmanship and available in endless custom models.Price £150-250

Pro`s-Again bombproof.This is the first mod that I`ve seen stay intact after having the wrong calibre open up the bore

Con`s-Standard models are quite heavy due to the stainless materials

 

ATec-Hit the UK market 12 months ago as new kid on the block.The first completely strippable mod.Very light & easy to maintain.I don`t need to go over the ins and outs regarding the current issues regarding the baffle wear on these mods.I have two in use at the moment which both show wear but don`t seem to lose anything in performance.I`ve had the slight powder coating on the baffles on inspection but not to the extent of falling into the chamber.Price £280

Pro`s-Light -quietest I`ve tried on standard calibres-good build quality-facility to change the entire baffle stack when necessary

Con`s-Extends 6" on barrel even though its classed as an over barrel mod-facility to change entire baffle stack

 

Stealth-The Whole Shooting Match`s creation of the fully strippable.Easy to maintain.Near identical findings to the Atec.Again slight wear on the first few baffles nearest the muzzle on the magnum version that I`m using on a WSM.Price £280

Pro`s-Very well balanced on rifle-well made- modular system allowing the user to upgrade in the future,excellent back up

Con`s-I`d personally prefer the option of screwing things down a lot more than recommended but the manufacturer insists this is catered for in the design and to be fair it hasn`t been a problem to yet.May suffer from press of previous model

 

The baffles will wear to a certain extent on all the mods above but we obviously only see it on the fully strippable models.Now Atec & TWSM are in the process of looking at ways to slow this process down even further and both seem to offer a good warranty system.My advise if you were to buy either of the last two models is to only worry about opening them up if theres an obvious problem or after 100 rounds for maintenance/inspection.That way we`ll get more time shooting and less time worrying

 

I apologise if I`ve forgotten anything glaringly obvious and I`m sure that one of you will remind me but I hope this will go some way to putting this topic in perspective

 

Cheers

 

Tim

 

As a footnote I`ve enquired to both ATEC & TWSM as to the cost of replacement baffles and await their reply

[Guest northernchris]

Tim some true words there,talking like that will get you banned

[Wsm]

Tim some true words there,talking like that will get you banned

 

Never thought of that -Forget I said anything then