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The bang is caused by the hot compressed gasses meeting the colder, lower pressure air as they exit the barrel. To suppress this rapid expansion a moderator provides a chamber (into which the gasses can expand and cool) and an exit path to allow the bullet (projectile) to exit.

Inside the chamber there are baffles which are designed to slow the gasses down and offer a large surface area to aid cooling.

The quietest moderator will be the one with the largest internal chamber, greater number of efficiently designed baffles and an exit hole which is close to the diameter of the bullet/projectile. If you fire a .22-250 (5.7mm bullet) through 2 similar moderators, 1 with a 6.2mm bore and exit hole (.25mm radial clearance) and 1 with a 9mm hole (1.07mm radial clearance) then the moderator with the 9mm bore will be significantly louder. You may not be able to tell the difference firing the rifle but someone standing 600yds away will.

Manufacturers have differing criteria for the bore size of thier baffle stacks and exit holes. Interestingly not many tell you what that bore size is, they just say it's 22cal or a 308cal. I use a magnum, vertex chambered (over barrel) DPT with a 6 baffle stack stamped "20cal" on my .224 rifles and, with the same config but with a .22cal baffle stack on my .25-06. All of my rifles are factory cut and DPT (like all really) have tight tollerance threaded components with align to their bore.

The danger is that if you get too tight (bullet diameter to moderator bore) and if your rifle barrel has been threaded out of aligment with the bore. then you run the risk of clipping the baffle stack as the bullet passes through. Given that the baffle stacks are often less than 6" long things would have to be awfully awry to become a problem however, most manufacturers (in my experience) cautiously provide a 20 to 22.5% margin of error so thier 243cal (or 6mm) is actually 7.4mm in diameter. Which (in my opinion) is too big.

Here's an interesting test .....  http://new.ersg.com/reviews-and-tests

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23 hours ago, terrierman said:

Hi. 

I’ve got a.204 on order but would just like to see what recommendations there are out there. I’m not bothered about the weight. More concerned about which is the quietest. 

All suggestions appreciated. 

Hi 

I have a 20 practical so slightly smaller than a .204R. So my experience may well differ from others none the less i thought i would contribute. My experience with .204 is that its a noisy calibre and hard to moderate and as yet i haven't found the ultimate moderator. Of course others may hear it differently and have a different opinion. 22" barrel helps, i would prefer shorter but i would expect it to be even noisier. Tried old faithful T8 and was probably best but heavy and rust problem. Replaced with wildcat predator, weight saving but no light weight, better build but not as quiet. Now use a wildcat evo which is noisier than predator but is lighter. Velocity is faster through evo than predator but don't know why. I have both .223 and .204 baffles for evo and no difference in sound moderation. I want to try Stalon one day only because its lighter -  i don't expect any miracle improvements the .204 is noisy just not quite as bad as 22/250. Compared to .223 i find the same sound moderators more effective on .223.  

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