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UK Custom Shop Panther

UK Custom Shop Panther

UK Custom Shop Ltd (or Wildcat Rifles) has been producing sound moderators for all types of rifles for years now and they are synonymous with large, efficient and wellengineered units. Their relatively new modular Evolution has proven to be very popular, due to its innovative design and state of the art machining.

Here we have a new .22 model called the Panther that is designed for maximum noise reduction for the .22lr and .17/.22 HMR AND WMR cartridge range and is also good on the .22 Hornet and .17 Hornet cartridges too. It is a smaller design than their signature Predator range and is light beautifully engineered and well-priced at £149.

Panther spec

First up, you notice how light the Panther is, at only 220-grams it will not add too much extra weight to any firearm and on lighter barrels will not shift point of impact excessively either. It is a reflex type design, so shrouds the barrel and gives the Panther an even better balance on the rifle. You have only a 112mm overhang from the muzzle from a total length of their mod of 168mm.

Because the design is a reflex unit, you can get away with a bigger diameter and still keep balance and this means a bigger expansion and baffle area inside to maximise noise reduction. The Panther has a 38.3mm diameter and is made from aircraft-grade, seamless aluminium tubing, with a threepart construction consisting of rear over-barrel section, outer tube and inner baffle stack. You also have a stainless steel section threaded to the baffle stack that forms a flame resistant core and incorporates the threaded section for fitment to your rifle.

It is all CNC machined and exceptionally well made, with a flawless finish of satin anodised black to the outer surfaces and the UK Custom shop signature Diffuser Hi Viz inner anodising to the baffle stack.

Inner workings

The outer tube has a semibanded top surface, purely for design but has a neat recessed slotted crown with three locations that secure the top baffle hat.

The baffle stack is one piece but is constructed from a front face with 6.50mm diameter bullet hole, mid section, which is the purple anodised baffle stack and rear stainless blast baffle section.

The baffles are a unique, almost concertina type design, with a series of discs/diffusers stacked on top of each other and of one unit, with 15 5mm diameter holes drilled down at an acute angle to meet the inner central bore axis. You have four of these discs, so 60 venting holes that re-direct the expanding hot gases from the burning powder to swirl around the outer tube and thus cool before exit through the front section at a reduced heat/ velocity and therefore quieter.

Below the discs is a thinner section with six holes that start the initial gas expansions and below this a sealing lip that has the stainless steel initial baffle, again with six holes that this time re-direct the gases against the sealing lip and back down the Panther into the rear aluminium expansion chamber. This rear section screws into the stainless section and is sealed by a rubber O-ring and the outer shroud also seals at the top and bottom with an O-ring, so that no gas escapes and keeps the unit tightly together.

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All-in-all a very clever and well-executed and machined design, let`s see how it performers.

Field tests

This moderator is ideally suited to cartridges that use 20-grains or less powder as a rule but is best or more effective at Hornet and below performance. I therefore fitted the Panther to a Venom Arms custom .17 AK Hornet rifle, a .22WMR Ruger and a new Webley and Scott Xocet .22 LR rimfire to see how it performed at all these powder and pressure levels.

First up, the .17 AK Hornet. I used a load of 11.5gr Vit N120 with a Hornady 20 grain V-Max for 3778fps and with the Panther secured via its ½-inch UNF thread, although most UNF, UNEF and metric sizes are available also. You have a good rear clearance of 25mm diameter, so larger or varmint profiled barrels are not a problem for fitment. This .17 AK Hornet had a skinny barrel and the Panther looked right at home and kept the good balance this rifle had.

Noise reduction was very satisfying and improved when some of inner grease had burnt off and sealed together. There was a very muted muzzle report, with a good lower resonance that I like and no high pitch ring that some lighter moderators have.

Take the mod apart and you can see the Panther working hard to get all that gas swirling around the rear section first then diverted off via the successive baffle stack.

Next up was the .22 WMR, which can be a ‘cracky’ little round and loaded up with the Hornady V-Max round would give it a good test. Again, very good noise attenuation and stifled muzzle report you could almost hear the baffles re-directing and absorbing all that energy of firing.

Then came the .22 lr rimfire, my main reason for my test. The W&S Xocet has a new carbon fibre wrapped barrel and a Varmint profiled diameter but the Panther’s larger rear section allows any barrel up to 25mm to be used. I use subsonics for the test, as this would be the intended end user preference but I did shoot some RWS HV rimfire at 1253fps, supersonic and the noise levels were really good with a quick sonic crack only on report.

The Winchester Max 42gr and Eley 40-grain subs were incredibly quiet. I have used all the high-spec sound meters for correct decibel reductions for tests in the past but really with a rimfire it’s pointless. You can hear the difference instantly and with the Panther it is at a point where a rimfire with its small powder payload cannot be moderated any more. A lovely low, soft muted ‘thut’ was all that exited the muzzle end of the Panther, very impressive design.

Conclusion

Yes, it is aluminium and people will say ‘flame erosion’; with rimfire ammo forget it, Hornet maybe but that’s why there is a stainless steel initial baffle, so no flame erosion here. Aluminium can gall and O-rings can fail, so be sensible, check these areas at periodic intervals but other than that, no real maintenance is needed.

Construction is excellent to be honest and noise reduction, which is people’s primary concern, is superb. This sound moderator is a very creditable addition to the UK Custom Shop range and should sell very well, as it does double duty for people, either .22 rimfire, HMR and Hornet uses alike.

 

  • UK Custom Shop Panther - image {image:count}

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  • UK Custom Shop Panther - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • UK Custom Shop Panther - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • UK Custom Shop Panther - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

gun
features

  • Name: UK Custom Shop Panther
  • Length: 168mm
  • Weight: 220-grams
  • Diameter: 38.3mm
  • Price: £149
  • Contact: UK Custom Shop Ltd/Wildcat Rifles. www.wildcatrifles.co.uk
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