Xavierdoc - you are right about the reputation, but i do try my best - glad you are happy with your kit, glad we could make you happy and contented, thankyou for letting us try.
Swarovski - i’m sorry, but I didn’t get your emails, I don’t personaly deal with webshop matters usualy, Scott who is an Ex Reme VM is usualy pretty good with info and spot on with answers. Its not often his misses something, but he is only human.
As you say, never mind now
Bavarian Brit – Yes in the states where Hunting with moderators is allowed, the Forestry guys are getting moderators. Mainly Hessen, Brandenburg, Baden Württemberg,Rheinland Pfalz at the mo, NRW, Saarland and few others will follow. We’ve supplied many to several Forstamts and individualy Foresters in these states already, In Bavaria it is forbidden to use a moderator, as it is in a couple of other states, but this will slowly change, so you’ll have to be patient I’m afraid and let Germany catch up on EU health & Safety law.
Hornet 6 – I generally forward all UK enquiries on to Sportsman without comment as they are our outlet in the UK for moderators, it states that on our website, they have them on their website. I’m sorry if you didn’t get feedback from there, I wish you had contacted me again sooner via email. I do not do as a rule do business via PM on any web forum. I don’t generally get time and only get on here twice a year.
Minikeeper – I am unsure which of the mods was yours, what I am telling you is that all mods we received back from Sportsman failed due to the reasons I stated above. There was no design fault with the original design, but to make the design better, able to cope with extended use by larger more powerfull calibers generaly found on the continent and to prevent mishaps when the parts where not tightened together tightly enough we lengthened the amount of connecting threads. This means that a baffle can unscrew much further before it reaches a point where it is likely exit down range because there isn’t enough thread contact, the hope is that the fact that it has unscrewed will be noticed before it it’s too late. The mods still incorporate a shear point should a baffle strike of enough force occur, this is an important safety feature that prevents injuries and it is a feature sadly lacking from many of the moderators available today.
The only way you will get a baffle strike is either:
The mod is not tightened to the muzzle thread correctly
The muzzle thread is off
You get an unstable projectile, this happens often enough, you’d possibly see it as a flyer on the target.
The caliber of the mod is not the same as the rifle.
I did not say that it was your error – I am aware that some of the mods we sent to the UK where swapped and changed about to get the right required number and caliber of baffles onto the right rear end for some customers before they were sold and appear not to have been tightened more than hand tight. We replaced these all at no cost to Sportsman as a gesture of good will, provided Sportsman with a detailed inspection report and photo’s of our findings, we reminded Sportsman that correct assembly means tightening correctly to a torque that is greater than hand tight and made them aware that future warranty issues that are found to be down to human error will not be replaced free of charge.
I can only guess at what happened to yours, I would suggest that whilst running your barrel in, if you may be checked that the rear end was tight on your barrel thread but that you were unaware that the baffles where not tightened to one another, this caused the separation. Certainly not down to design fault, absolutely 100% down to human error (not nesseceraly yours, as if you bought a car from the main dealer, you'd rightly expect the wheelnuts to be tight) on inspection, lining up the shear marks on the separated baffles with the shear marks on the remaining partsmakes it absolutely apparent proved beyond any doubt that the mods was not tightened together correctly. The change to design was made to provide a margin to compensate for human error, not because of a design fault. You could say that a car produced prior to 1965 had a design fault in that it didn't have seatbelts and that the 1965 requirement for new cars to come fitted with front seat belts was an improvement to the faulty design, but that isn't technicaly correct.. fitting the seatbelts provides a margin to compensate for human error whilst driving... same scenario from where i'm standing..
I and many others on here will know of many cases of the Reflex T8 splitting and failing, but I don’t hear anyone claiming a faulty design.
I am very sorry for the problem you had with the mod you recieved, it should have given you stellar service as many many many hundreds of exactly the same design have given and still give to other very satisfied customers. I personaly used the exact same design mod on my .308 for over 2500rds with no problems what so ever, ive recently changed to use the newer design with the tighter bore and longer threads because i need to use what we are selling now and not the previous model and my previouse one is now serving on a loan rifle that we give to foresters who cannot work without a rifle for the time thier own is in for threading-reproof and fitting of a mod.. I do wish that the situation with your mod hadn't been allowed to get out of hand in the first place, i suppose thats one of the problems that can develope in a triangled relationship, but i can only appologise after the fact from my end as the manufacturer and trust the UK distributor to sort such problems to a satisfactory outcome asap. I would suggest you contact them again as i feel you are owed a replacement if you didn't get one. I would certainly back that up from here.
Best Regards