Quieter than stock and easier on the eye.

[OldSpook]

I have been working since April of this year with three or four other members of the forum who have been kind enough to test my work. It's been very frustrating at times because progress hasn't been as fast as I had hoped it might be. In order to establish a standard reference moderator I tested a number of commercial moderators, two Donnie's and a "no name" commercial, in addition to sending a couple of dozen moderators to different testers. I built baffles of various types and researched valves. I looked at a whole lot of pictures of silencer guts. I built some of those and modified them and tested them. I have written so much OpenScad code that I am dreaming in code again. Now here we are. A better engineer would have done it in a third the time (or less), but we have arrived.

In the end I chose the stock Stormrider moderator as my reference moderator because it was so surprisingly good. A microphone placed at 3 o'clock, 15 ft away and 4 ft off the ground routinely read 67.5 decibels for that moderator. I tweaked it with a chain saw file (notched the conical baffles) and got it down to 66 decibels and have been using it as my reference moderator since then. My goal has been to build one that beats that.

This section of the forum is littered with threads discussing different types of baffles I have tried, arguing with and getting advice from other members. Special thanks to @MikeVV for motivating me to research microphones and test equipment and @qball, @woogie_man, and everyone else who opined in particular that more baffles wasn't "more better." The feedback from the guys testing has been very important and I'd thank them publicly but I'd rather they step up and take a bow if they feel like that. That way I don't "out" them if they would rather remain quiet.

Just before EBR, while one of my testers was preparing for it, a moderator that I shipped him for a 22 caliber Daystate failed spectacularly due to a bad glue up and a weak design.

I was frustrated and upset and just about ready to quit. Mind you I had been getting good reports but I was discovering that it's very hard to build a competitive moderator at a low price point.

I am happy to report that this moderator exceeds the performance of the stock Stormrider moderator by two decibels and it is easier on the eye!



I tested accuracy this morning.


The moderator is so tight that it required about 70 shots to settle down and shoot groups as good as it does with the stock moderator and the H&N FTTs I am shooting. Generally those are 9 shot groups about the size of a dime at 25 yards, a nickle at 30 yards, and a quarter at 40 yards. The moderator settled in and I adjusted zero. It is going to wear this moderator for the rest of it's life, I expect. Now I am not trying to say these are good groups. I am saying that this is as good as this rifle groups with these pellets. These were shot at 30 yards in a very light breeze.






Now here is the good news:
I am going to build these and sell them, probably on EBay. The one in the image on my Stormrider is a .177. It is very, very, quiet. This morning with my standard test setup. It tested at 64 dB average over 9 shots with a standard deviation of about 1 dB. That is a full 2 dB better than the stock moderator performs. Each will be available in .177, .22, and .25. They can be had with 1/2 UNF printed threads, 1/2 UNF helicoil threads, and the M10x1.0 Stormrider printed threads. The helicoil threads will cost more. I have not calculated that cost yet. Other threads can be made available, contact me via PM if you want me to make a certain thread.

I intend to keep them on EBay to begin with and sell them as I build them, rather than try to keep up with orders. I have sold other items in the past and really prefer to have the unit in hand before I take someone's money. So EBAY ...

I will post information here as to what you should search on when I have the first one up there.







Link to my EBay account.

 

[JungleShooter]

It's awesome there are people like you
▪︎ who research stuff extensively,
▪︎ who try to create something new or better or cheaper, and
▪︎ who don't give up when results aren't the way they expected.


You're right on target. Keep it up, Mike. You're an inspiration.

Matthias

 

[Scotty1]

And tenacity pays off! Very well done, congrats!

 

[knothead]

Really sounds good, and good to see. I bought dad a storm rider 2, have yet to set it up and wondered if the stock can was glued on or replaceable. His is in .22 so ill be way hung this to see when you go "public"

 

[Revoman]

Looks and sounds good Mike!
Will be on the lookout for one if these guys.
mike

 

[OldSpook]

Really sounds good, and good to see. I bought dad a storm rider 2, have yet to set it up and wondered if the stock can was glued on or replaceable. His is in .22 so ill be way hung this to see when you go "public"

That moderator is epoxied on the barrel. You will have to heat it at the joint between the barrel and the cone to about 350f and use some sort of protected pliers to remove it from the barrel. Best to put the barrel in a padded vice and heat slowly. The moderator is aluminum so it will scratch if you handle it roughly. Leather padding works when you get the heat up enough to melt the epoxy. Work quickly but PATIENTLY.

 

[Miami Airgunner]

Looking pretty awesome, and cost is outstanding.

I think if I was doing this I would look at some sort of ring cover to clean up the look of the glue joint (and it would add custom color options) would make this look even better than it already does, and would let you be a little less clean during assembly... Even a 3-D printed type would be fine I think.

Not that it needs it, they look darn fine where they are, even more so for an early production sample.

Next, see if you can hush up an AEA HP SS MAX... I'd really like mine to be spooky ...

 

[OldSpook]

Looking pretty awesome, and cost us outstanding.

I think if I was doing this I would look at some sort of ring cover to clean up the look of the glue joint (and it would add custom color options) would make this look even better than it already does, and would let you be a little less clean during assembly... Even a 3-D printed type would be fine I think.

Not that it needs it, they look darn fine where they are, even more so for an early production sample.

Next, see if you can hush up an AEA HP SS MAX... I'd really like mine to be spooky ...

Yes it could look better and perhaps some decorative corners would look nice. It would not be that hard to include them and let the user decide for himself if he wanted to superglue them on because the moderator doesn't come apart. To clean it you just toss it into warm soapy water and shake the water out a couple of times. That's it. Let it dry or shoot it dry. It is 100% CF and plastic.

I am concerned about being able to contain that kind of energy with printed parts. I am hitting a wall around 75 fpe. The design you see here probably won't handle that kind of energy without some changes. Within the next couple of weeks the high power .22s will have a chance to be tested (again). If they blow up again I'll modify this design (they are a different design) and we will find out if we have any hope of 150 fpe.

 

[knothead]

That moderator is epoxied on the barrel. You will have to heat it at the joint between the barrel and the cone to about 350f and use some sort of protected pliers to remove it from the barrel. Best to put the barrel in a padded vice and heat slowly. The moderator is aluminum so it will scratch if you handle it roughly. Leather padding works when you get the heat up enough to melt the epoxy. Work quickly but PATIENTLY.

Thanks for the info. It is still sitting in the box waiting for me to get to a good point with my other airgun projects. I may break it out and see what I can get out of it accuracy wise in a few weeks.

 

[OldSpook]

Thanks for the info. It is still sitting in the box waiting for me to get to a good point with my other airgun projects. I may break it out and see what I can get out of it accuracy wise in a few weeks.

It will do better than the groups I posted here. With the right pellet you should be able to shoot dime sized groups at 40 yards. When I am shooting the rifle tuned for the JSB 8.44s at about 860 fps it shoots that well.

 

[SilentSquirrel]

Just reading about your project is very invigorating.
As others, I too look forward to the eBay marketing
Nice work!
Ed

 

[knothead]

It will do better than the groups I posted here. With the right pellet you should be able to shoot dime sized groups at 40 yards. When I am shooting the rifle tuned for the JSB 8.44s at about 860 fps it shoots that well.

His is a .22 so we shall see, thanks.

 

[OldSpook]

Here's a link that will search for any moderator listing I have on EBay.