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.223 moderator melting


WalkedUp
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I bought a rifle from a pal and it came with a free moderator etc as he was packing in his FAC. The moderator is one I have never heard of before:

Nielsen Sonic 35

It is an over barrel moderator with an original plastic rear bush as adaptor to neck down onto the barrel width. Well the damned bush has melted. Ok I rattled off a few shots in quick succession but 20 rounds in 45 minutes isn’t exactly machine gun rate. Any idea on replacement? It’s a simple 1” UNF to 16mm (5/8”) Ø bush surely someone makes an aluminium version? 

5EA2D37E-D58C-46ED-A930-BC7A5E49A1F6.jpeg

Edited by WalkedUp
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Did you have the moderator off the barrel before shooting to see if it was melted before you put 20rounds through it? I really doubt 20 rounds over 45 minutes is going to melt plastic. Perhaps it's quite an old moderator and the plastic has just gotten fragile over time or cleaning fluids have deteriorated it iver time.

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Unscrew the plastic bush, bin it and crack on. The over barrel part of the moderator will cool more efficiently without it and the lack of a bush will have no effect on the operation of the mod. IMHO it should not be supporting anything either, why is it a support bushing?

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1 hour ago, London Best said:

To prevent bending the thread on the muzzle if you should tap the end of the mod against something.

Exactly, or the threads in the mod itself.
It also helps line it up when putting it on, I would strongly advice not using it without the bushing.

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if you are load testing 20 rounds in 45 minutes is not at all excessive, nor unusual, personally I would buy an all metal moderator though.

I have had my shotgun too hot to touch on several occasions, all simulated game days, even with a leather glove on and a leather/metal barrel protector. It probably was around 200 C or more which would be high enough to melt plastic.

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1 hour ago, 243deer said:

if you are load testing 20 rounds in 45 minutes is not at all excessive, nor unusual, personally I would buy an all metal moderator though.

I have had my shotgun too hot to touch on several occasions, all simulated game days, even with a leather glove on and a leather/metal barrel protector. It probably was around 200 C or more which would be high enough to melt plastic.

But you can’t ruin the rifling in your shotgun.

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If I fire three quick shots through my .308 I cannot touch the barrel. It then takes 30 minutes before it is cold to the touch.  The most it ever fires at once is nine during the annual FC range test and I do my best to space those out as much as possible.

12 minutes ago, chilly1981 said:

That’s not even a quick string of shots or many shots. If that damages your barrel then it’s not a particularly good barrel in my opinion 

Walker570 is a very experienced rifleman and he is right. 
You WILL ruin you rifle barrel if you habitually shoot it until it is hot.

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The most we would fire from our Parker Hale heavy barrel sniper rifles was 4 or 5 shots. Mine lasted me 14yrs and was still sub moa when I handed it in. To my mind if the first shot is on, why fire any more unless it is soft and furry. Yes, on monthly practise days we probably fired 50 rounds in eight hours but never more than 4 or 5 in a string and even then they would be well spaced out.   If our cold shot first thing in the morning was on, then all the rest of the day was on tactical shooting.

 

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My .308 rifle has a very lightweight 20 inch barrel, little more than .5 inch in diameter at the muzzle, so is particularly liable to heat up. I bought the rifle new in 1989, so 32 years use.  It will still cloverleaf shots if I can do my bit. Round count, at a guess would be circa 2500 rds. It has never been on a formal range in it’s life. The very clever riflesmith from whom I bought the gun warned me never to let a rifle barrel get too hot.

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10 hours ago, Rob85 said:

Did you have the moderator off the barrel before shooting to see if it was melted before you put 20rounds through it? I really doubt 20 rounds over 45 minutes is going to melt plastic. Perhaps it's quite an old moderator and the plastic has just gotten fragile over time or cleaning fluids have deteriorated it iver time.

I did have the moderator off before shooting and noticed the weird cloverleaf shape of the inner bush. I assumed it had been badly machine widened by hand at home and so was tutting to myself thinking I’d need a new one. Once I finished shooting I realised it was the heat melting it. The barrel was hot to the touch, but not so hot as to melt plastic or burn your hand in anyway. It may have been the hot gases escaping the rear expansion chamber that did it?

The shots were in 3-5 shot groups, no spotting scope so a 115m walk across the fallow field (it was on an arable permission of mine) to the target, tinker with the target, walk back, tinker with the gun/scope then shoot. So probably a minimum of 5mins between groups.

With regards to using 20 rounds being a waste, it is a new gun for use on fox - 1.  I believe you need to be confident in your equipment before pointing it at a living animal. 2. I need to demonstrate good usage of all my rifles to keep them come renewal in less than 12 months. 

Thank you everyone for all the comments, all gratefully received. Keep them coming if there is anything else to add. 

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Just one further thing. 
When the over barrel moderator is initially fitted the plastic bush should be bored concentrically to have minimum clearance on that individual barrel. That is to say, the clearance should be the minimum obtainable; in the region of .0005 inch to .015 inch clearance, no more.  Therefore, over barrel mods should not be swapped from barrel to barrel without the appropriate bush for each barrel.

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4 hours ago, chilly1981 said:

 

obviosly diffrent if home loading and running hot loads through them

I can confirm these are factory rounds 👍

 

25 minutes ago, London Best said:

That is to say, the clearance should be the minimum obtainable;

I’ll try and get a properly fitting plastic one and see if that works 👍

 

YouTube algorithm trolling me - it just recommended me this video 🤣:

 

 

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If 20 rounds a couple or three times a year on range days can damage the rifling on any modern hunting rifle I would very much like to see the proof and not just written conjecture as I have never seen any evidence of this. Nor are there any warnings included with new modern rifles even remotely suggesting this might be the case. As a manufacturer you would not last long if this were to happen.

Target shooting is a completely different world where you can easily create 20 years wear in a barrel in a year using rounds near the limit.

 

 

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49 minutes ago, 243deer said:

If 20 rounds a couple or three times a year on range days can damage the rifling on any modern hunting rifle I would very much like to see the proof and not just written conjecture as I have never seen any evidence of this. Nor are there any warnings included with new modern rifles even remotely suggesting this might be the case. As a manufacturer you would not last long if this were to happen.

Target shooting is a completely different world where you can easily create 20 years wear in a barrel in a year using rounds near the limit.

 

 

Must say I couldn’t agree more we have weeks where our rifles fire 400 rounds plus in a week with out much thought and there’s no lasting damage as long as the barrels are properly maintained as target rifles we get 7000 round life but they are still shooting 1-11/2 moa by then

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