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Third Eyes Tactical Spartan Sound Moderator

Third Eyes Tactical Spartan Sound Moderator

Bruce Potts casts a knowledgeable eye (and ear) over Third Eye’s Tactical Spartan sound moderators

Third Eye Tactical have made a very good name for themselves with their superb range of scope mounts and rail systems that are made here in good old blighty – and their sound moderators are also gaining great favour too. The Third Eye RF, as its name suggests, are for .17 and .22 calibre rimfire rifles, but here I am looking at the unique modular centrefire range of mods called the Spartans.

These moderators are available in both the over barrel (reflex designs) or straight forward muzzle mounted units, either way you can opt for a .22/6mm or .30 baffle stack to maximise effective sound suppression for your chosen calibre.

Each moderator uses aluminium and stainless steel construction for lightness and longevity in key areas and the design allows you to instantly change the thread size for differing guns, baffle sizes, and replace internal parts if necessary. They are also competitively priced at £220 for the over barrel design or £280 for the long muzzle mounted unit and both are rated up to .30-06 Springfield.

Spartan Reflex Type

Outside diameter is 42mm which is a good size because it does not look too bulbous, like a 50mm moderator, yet still gives maximum suppression unlike a 32mm mod. The outer aluminium tube is threaded at both ends into which end caps are secured using the three pronged tightening tool supplied with the moderator. With the top or muzzle end cap removed (itself a baffle), then five baffles slide out easily followed by a spacer ring of one baffle depth and then the bottom end cap is unscrewed. This is actually the internal spigot that forms the inner sleeve that covers the barrel and at its far end holds the muzzle thread, in this case 5/8 UNF. A muzzle brake system bleeds gases and allows them to vent rearward into the “over barrel” section effectively. This rear cap also has a bush fitted so it needs to be drilled out to fit your barrel’s outside diameter before fitting.

Each baffle is profusely drilled with venting ports to delay and re -direct the hot expanding gases from the combustion to stay a little longer in the Spartan to reduce the noise levels. They are aluminium 7075T6 in construction and hard anodised in a fetching red! Each baffle is a dished design with a stainless steel insert (Grade 316) at its centre to eliminate the age old problem of flame cutting/erosion that aluminium moderators are prone to – this is a good detail. Eight holes and eight troughs surround the baffles circumference and the entire surface is ribbed to enhance surface to its maximum.

Max barrel diameter it can fit over is 25mm or less. The weight is 490 grammes, which is not heavy at all and the length protruding in front of the barrel when fitted is only 135mm with an overall length of 227mm.

Muzzle Mounted Spartan

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The Spartan muzzle mounted moderators are available in two lengths; the smaller one is 174mm long with the same 42mm diameter as the Reflex type but weighs 440 grammes and extends 160mm in front of the barrel. I however I favoured the longer version that is 222mm long, 42mm diameter and weighs 545 grammes.

Remove the muzzle end cap and again this has a baffle format with the same baffles as the interior of the Reflex but this time there are ten baffles with a spacer of nearly three baffle lengths.

The other end cap is removed with the tool provided and reveals the same muzzle brake and venting system but this time of only 45mm length as all the gasses are projected forward through the baffles directly, and not venting down the rear voids as in the Reflex. Removal of this end cap also has the benefit that the muzzle thread is inserted into it and is stainless steel so you can simply just change this section to fit to another rifle with a differing thread size.

Although longer than the standard length Spartan and Reflex design it offers maximum sound suppression and when fitted onto a shorter barrel rifle say a 20 inch the overall length really isn`t that bad. On my 14.5 inch .308 RPA barrel it looks superb and performs just as good.

Field Test

Decibel or dB reduction was really good, obviously better on the muzzle mounted can, primarily due to the extra number of baffles in its construction. Comparing it to other muzzle cans I use regularly I would put the decibel reduction at about 26-28 dB with a nice dull thud and sound crack with little muzzle blast thus eliminating that rolling boom carrying forward.

The Reflex Spartan design sits very nicely on my 20 inch barrelled Steve Bowers Predator 30-47L rifle without it looking overly long or unbalancing the rifle. On this .30 cal the Reflex is working hard with only five baffles in front of the barrel but a dB reduction around 25dB can be expected on a .243/6mm and 22-24dB reduction on a .308 or .30-06.

The thickness of materials used helped to avoid excessive heat haze that can cause mirage problems when using high magnification scopes. When sighting in you need to leave your barrel to cool anyway, to achieve best accuracy, so no real problems, and out hunting a single shot and heat build up is obviously no issue at all.

The matt external finish on the main body is certainly good at stopping reflections but it does seem to hold dirt and finger prints well.

Conclusions

I really like these moderators, there’s a lot of designs and copies on the market these days but the Spartan is very well built obviously by a chap who knows what he’s doing. The design and build quality is excellent and although the Reflex design is very popular and certainly adds little overall length to your rifle I still favour the muzzle mounted option as this gives maximum sound suppression. True, if not kept clean the aluminium threads often clog and become difficult to unscrew but a little diligence in maintenance and this should not be a problem as it is designed to come apart easily. Noise reduction was really impressive and the 42mm diameter does not give your rifle that bulbous end look. Third Eye Tactical are offering a good range of moderators here - and check out their scope mount range as there are some good offerings there too.

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