SAK .22lr Moderator Review

SAK Moderator Specifications

Price (RRP): £39.99
Thread: ½ inch UNF
Weight: 160g
Design: End Of Barrel
Overall Length: 145mm
Diameter: 34mm
Calibre: .22LR / .22WMRF /.17HMR and .177/ .20 / .22 / .25 air rifles
Manufacturer: SAK Products
Country of Origin: Finland

SAK Moderator First Impressions

Exit Hole Size of SAK Moderator

The buzz around the net is that this rimfire moderator is cheap and cheerful and does the job, my experience is much the same. As the saying goes; with this moderator you get a lot of bang for your buck, or in this case, less bang for your buck! The moderator seems to bring my .22lr down to an almost acceptable level without ear defenders (since I shoot mainly indoors at targets – sustained fire – I wouldn’t shoot without ear defenders regardless).

Build quality is good, it does feel quite agricultural compared to the Wildcat Whisper, but then it is also a third of the price.

SAK Moderator Business End

Since this came with my Sako Finnfire when I bought it, I don’t know exactly what it was like brand new, but I can tell you that it is easy to take apart, and mine appears to have had a few thousand rounds put through it without being cleaned, and is still working well, however it did make it a little stiff to undo when I first opened it. Made in 3 parts, it is a simple, yet effective design.

Thankfully I haven’t had to contact the manufacturer, it’s difficult to pin them down via the internet, and maybe it’s because they’re a Finnish company, however given the low price of the moderator, provided you could find an RFD that stocks the SAK, it would be easy enough to buy a new one if there were any problems, however, besides cross threading something, there’s not a lot to go wrong!

SAK .22LR Moderator Effective Moderation

This is not meant to be a Laboratory test, but an effective, repeatable test that can be used to compare against other moderators.

To test the effective moderation of the SAK Moderator I took a sample of 10 rounds unmoderated to give a baseline average unmoderated sound level on the rifle in question. A cut down heavy barrelled Sako Finnfire. The ammunition used is Batch Tested Lapua Centre X – This ammunition was the most accurate batch at 50 yards, one may speculate that is was therefore the most consistent, which makes it perfect for this test.

This ammo is deliberately sub-sonic. I don’t want the supersonic crack provided by some ammo to influence the SPL reading.

Prior to this test, the only thing that concerning me is that being conducted on a range can u buy ambien in mexico with a steel walled trap the ring of the bullet hitting the steel butt-stop may have skewed the results.

The test was conducted on a closed indoor range at 25 yards, the sound pressure measurement was provided by a Testo 815 Sound Level Meter placed 60cm from the muzzle at 90° with the microphone pointing directly at the muzzle.

Sako Finnfire Unmoderated Sound Pressure Level Testing

Unmoderated

1^st. 109.8 db(a)
2^nd. 109.8 db(a)
3^rd. 108.2 db(a)
4^th. 108.5 db(a)
5^th. 107.9 db(a)
6^th. 108.9 db(a)
7^th. 108.7 db(a)
8^th. 109 db(a)
9^th. 107.4 db(a)
10^th. 108.5 db(a)

Average Unmoderated Level: 108.67 db(a)

I then screwed on the SAK to the barrel and did the exact same test as outlined above.

Sako Finnfire SAK Moderation Sound Pressure Level Testing

Moderated With SAK Moderator

1^st. 84.3 db(a)
2^nd. 85.7 db(a)
3^rd. 86.4 db(a)
4^th. 86.7 db(a)
5^th. 87.0 db(a)
6^th. 86.6 db(a)
7^th. 84.9 db(a)
8^th. 88.0 db(a)
9^th. 87.8 db(a)
10^th. 85.9 db(a)

Average Moderated Level: 86.33 db(a)

This gives us an average effective moderation of 22.34 db(a)

And a cost per DB of moderation at £1.79 per DB(a)

Cleaning SAK Moderator

Stripped (Dirty) SAK Moderator

As mentioned above, the mod is user strippable even if it does get left for a few thousand rounds between cleaning. The internal baffle system is quite simple and expansion chambers go straight through so a pipe cleaner would be brilliant with this moderator, along with ultrasonic cleaning if one so desired. Just beware to dry the internals thoroughly and lightly oil the internals before storage. If this mod was being used on an air rifle however, I don’t think it would need cleaning at all, save for rare occasions to remove condensation and drying if being used out in the wet.

Disclaimer

The effective moderation test within this article is for comparative use only, using the same methodology and equipment. This article is not compliant with any standardised military test or equipment. Figures should be used as rough guides. The author always advises the use of ear protection along with moderators as additional hearing safety. Once your hearing is gone, it’s gone. Be careful out there.