Cleaning a moderator: what I found.

[archiekale]

i remove all moderators on rifles before putting back in cabinet the 410 hushpower gets crudded up really fast so that is stored upside down when i clean it i put copper slip on the threads as they soon become hard to strip down.

 

[MAH]

should come with a reassembly rod.

I have one somewhere, I just need to find it..

 

[Rob-E]

I recently acquired a well used Stalon, I’ve taken it apart and it’s full of crud. What I’ve yet to do and the only solution to it’s well used life so far I think is to soak it in either diesel or gun oil.

 

[kenbro]

A knitting needle will do for reassembly of a P-H mod.
Just make sure all the baffles go back in the right way around. I inadvertently reversed the whole stack in mine, and the result wasn't good. Took me some time (and wasted a lot of ammo) before I realised what I had done.

I do that with Picatinny rails

 

[Koenig]

I recall scotchbrite being removed from the cleaning kit, because someone decided to use it to clean the lens of the SUSAT

I could tell some horror stories from Phase 1 Soldiers Under Training. I’ve seen SUSAT sight lenses ‘oiled,’ and all the parkerisation on an SA80 A1 barrel rubbed off with scotchbrite before the hapless recruit was stopped (that takes some doing). A good friend of mine saw some weapon sight lenses sprayed with a coyote brown paint (to break up the shape of the weapon). Thing is, it was done by two - let’s call them intellectually challenged but experienced individuals as opposed to recruits. The QM apparently nearly had a stroke on the spot. My buddy who was waiting for his tea leaves to be read over a bit of minor damage to a car got off with a ‘ohh is that all, we can sort that out’ response!

 

[User00040]

The military do turn cleaning things, especially firearms into a fetish. It sometimes, and I stress sometimes does more harm than good through stripped threads and extra wear on components. This is maximised with weapons owned and used in training establishments. Sometimes certain weapon parts are better off being oiled up and left well alone. Ask me how I know this???

What about that SA80 stripped to bare metal in the Gurkha Officer's mess?

'Communication failure' is what reads below IIRC?

 

[User00040]

I bought my Parker Hale mod for my 22rf back n 1982, it finally gave up last year. This is after many thousands of rounds. I cleaned it, so no shame to it at all. I have an Ase utra on my 243, 14 years old and going strong. I give it a little squirt of oil after use, it’ll last a while yet. T8’s and Stalons are other mods I’ve used at work. Stalon was pathetic, less than 300 rounds before it developed holes. The T8’s last but you have to look after them, a wee squirt of oil inside and loads of oil on the outside.

Rather have the Stalon than the rusty T8 baked bean tin that goes 'ting' on everything...

 

[Bowland blades]

My two oldest moderators are a Parker hale of unknown vintage on my 22 rf I can remove the front screw no way of seeing anything else but the outside face of the first baffle . Bought it second hand 20 something years back like that ! I used to shoot it a heck of a lot 500 rounds a month for a long while . Since getting into the 22 hornet it hasn't seen much use . I also have one of the first T8 moderators , when it was a real novelty to folks to even see one . That T8 still does me all i need and no failures , pin holes or anything and its been on three different rifles . Its older than my youngest daughter and she is 18 now . Let it come to room temp and a squirt of spray in both ends after coming to room temp . Round count unknown but very high !

 

[Steff]

I‘ve always wondered where the oil goes that is sprayed into the mods.
Do you store them above a dripping pan? Does anything run out at all during storage? Or is it burnt on the next firing?

 

[Greenmist]

I had a T8 mod recently that had flakes of rust between the baffles. Though the killer was that the threads were rusted and stripped out.
I suspect it had been left on a rifle all it's life and had to be forcably removed.
It went in the bin.

That was silly, jackson rifles give a good trade in on them against new mods

 

[MAH]

Update;
After removing most of the crud manually, and a spell in the ultrasonic bath, the baffles look like new.
Reassembling was easy, line them up on the guide rod, slide the whole thing iback nto the tube.

I have a second PH mod, same vintage currently uncleaned.
I test if the clean one performs better.

 

[Mark120555]

The way I view this is if a moderator had been a key component of a military issue 303 Lee-Enfield, can you imagine being allowed by your SM to chuck it in a bed locker uncleaned when presenting the rifle and other kit for critical inspection?

There clearly aren’t as many ex-military types on this Forum as I had imagined until this subject arose.

K

No, but I wouldn't clean the muzzle crown with a steel tool, or my rifles.with scotchbrite for that matter

 

[Ranger22]

Rather have the Stalon than the rusty T8 baked bean tin that goes 'ting' on everything...

View attachment 334611

Neoprene cover on the T8 does away with the pings. I would have the Stalon too if would last longer

 

[MAH]

Update 2:
I just put a few cci subsonic rounds through both the moderators. (The cleaned and uncleaned).

I don't have a noise dosemeter, but to my untrained and old ear, the uncleaned one sounded louder.

So I've cleared the gunk out of the 2nd moderator too.
The baffles on this one were virtually full.
And the pile of gunk on the paper, came out of the 1st section of the tube, before the baffles.

It has reinforced my view, not to leave a moderator on the barrel in storage. And maybe strip/clean a little more often.

PS. Are the any Parker Hale experts on here?
The 2nd moderator had a large spring washer in it at the mussel end (15 baffles).
Whereas the 1st one didn't, and had 17 baffles.

Any thoughts?