Huggett - FX Royale FAC - all they're cracked up to be?

I have just had a major breakthrough with my FAC FX Royale 400. After some two years of frustration with the rifle (one minute 'spot on', the next with the accuracy of a sawn off shotgun), I finally looked at the Huggett moderator as the potential source of the problem. "Two years" you are saying. Why wouldn't this idiot not have considered this angle earlier. Well, I'll tell you why, the 'sage' Ben Taylor, told me personally that it was the 'best moderator you could wish for; perfectly balanced with the FX400' that he set up and regulated. I took this at face value and never doubted that any problems I faced with the rifle that related to the moderator. When I mentioned to Ben that it (the rifle) sounded 'loud' even when dialled down to 12 ftlbs I was told that 'you won't get quieter than that'. Well, to my shame, two years later (last night) I found reason to test that theory. After some loosening of Huggett parts, involving my wife's hairdryer, I replaced it with an HW moderator......An instant and massive improvement. Half the sound and an amazing return to accuracy. It is like owning a new rifle and I have rediscovered the joy of owning it. At 12ftlbs it is all but silent. At 28ftlbs it is extremely quiet. I should stress that I am not the most technical of participants on this forum, more your average chap trying to make sense of FAC air.

I should further stress that this is not a thread designed to beat up Huggett. I have no doubt that they produce some amazing air rifle sound reducing kit. They look great but after owning two of their products I have yet to experience the 'amazing' reduction in noise and I have yet to find a moderator to beat the Weirauch up to 28ftlbs. Am happy to test Huggett's product on any of my rifles from 12 ftlbs to 30 ftlbs if they see fit and report back, but I do fear that many of us are being forced into form over substance (they look good, but do they work)? Do any of you have similar experience?
 
Depends on the gun. I have a Huggett on my FX400 with power adjuster, about 30, 22, and 12 or so fpe. Its satisfactory at 22 fpe and under, but not extraordinarily quiet in my opinion. Maybe a little less quiet from the standard FX mod. Looks great and is well balanced. Shoots straight. Never an issue with clipping. Now I do have the same Huggett on my .22 FX T-12 400 and all you hear is the spring. Absolutely quiet. Thought at first there was something wrong such as low fpe until chronied at 30 fpe. Makes backyard shooting a joy. But then again my Huntsman XL with Hugget/shroud at 27 fpe sounds loud unless 10-15 feet away. Tried with Huggett off and difference leaves your ears ringing. For the FX400s I am glad to have the Huggets. Cost was not an issue and I like to experiment with the internals. But I also have an HW mod on a 8-1/2 inch barreled ranchero carbine and that works just as well sound-wise IMO, and costs half the price.
 
There is a 1/2 thread on FX barrels (if you remove the shroud). No need for adaptor for the Weirauch silencer.

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FX ELITE with the .25 ST barrel
 
I've used Huggett regular (Air Wolf MCT) and have a Huggett Belita on my Steyr Hunter Scout. The only other moderators I've used are airstream and the small ones that come with the FX Wildcat (2 pieces).

I have no experience with others. I can only compare with and without these LDCs. I'm very satisfied with all that I've used but I think the Huggett looks the classiest. The Belita is the only one I found that was short enough to keep my Scout under 40 inches which is one of my requirements for my hunters.
 
Comparing silencers is always complicated by the the subjectiveness of perceived loudness affected by pitch and tone. In side-by-side comparisons with stock Fx moderators I can hear only slight differences on the .22 Royale, not worth the cost of the Huggett, but on my Boss (.30) I chose to pay for the difference. The most impressive moderator I have owned was the stock one on my .22 Colibri. By the way, the accuracy on my latest Fx 400, after tuning by Justin Jacobson at Utah Air Guns, is dead on. It will regularly go 25 shots at 25 yards without a flyer.
 
I just had a huggett shroud, meant for a royale 500, put on my raw hm1000x .22. It does about 920 fps, and works really well, at least sound wise.
However, the alignment did give issues for, most likely due to the way the huggett adapter, that screws on the barrel. While I expected this adapter to be exactly machined to perfectly fit the huggett shroud tube, I was disappointed to find that this adapter is not at all exactly machined to fit the shroud but instead has a big fat o-ring on it to ensure fit and alignment with the shroud... and I am not sure that does the job.
In fact, I arranged to get .22 cap and inside rivets... unfortunately that did nt work, and i had to revert back to the .25 versions of each. Btw, i did not notice much difference in sound, and even if it did, they are flying straight now....