Third Eye Tactical Moderator

Third Eye Tactical is an offshoot of a well-established precision engineering firm in Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire. Craig, the company owner, is a very keen shooter himself, looking for extra ways to utilise his state of the art CNC machinery and sophisticated tools like these, offer a clever designer the opportunity to realise his most innovative ideas.

Amongst muzzle brakes, Picatinny rails, scope rings, recoil lugs, bolt knobs and various other interesting products, Third Eye offer a very smart, lightweight sound moderator, which is the subject of this test. The “Spartan” has undergone a year of design, testing and development, evolving into Craig’s answer to the increasingly competitive centrefire moderator market. So what sets it apart?

Innovative Material Selection

The Spartan uses a compact design and combination of materials as a solution to regular sound moderator design questions. It is a reflex type (end of muzzle model also available) with approximately 100 mm of its 227 mm length shrouding the barrel. It can be disassembled with a simple tool (included) for cleaning, inspection or modification. The predominantly aluminium structure is high tensile strength 7075 T6 grade aluminium alloy, which means a weight of only 490 grams is screwed onto your barrel. My test moderator was threaded 5/8” UNF and many other threads are available to suit your particular gun, any of which can be retro-fitted along with baffles suitable for anything up to .30 calibre projectiles. A rear bushing screws into the back end of the moderator to be precision fitted to your barrel, it gives an absolutely solid fix with no worries about the odd knock misaligning anything. The tube, internal bushings and four baffles are aluminium where weight saving is needed, allowing 316 grade stainless steel to be used in areas of either high stress or hot gas erosion and corrosion. One critically important piece of advice came with it - “Tighten it together when it is hot.”

I tested the moderator on several rifles and was very pleased with the results. I like to keep things simple when shooting and I don’t like heavy or bulky accessories at the best of times. When foxing or rabbit shooting, especially in urban areas, any sound reduction is invaluable. Testing .222 and .243 calibres with the smaller baffles, the moderator offered me a lighter solution to my regular BR Tuote T8 unit offering similar performance. Noise reduction was comparable, although recoil reduction in these small calibres is hard to gauge as there is so little anyway.

Take No Prisoners

I decided to give the Spartan a tougher test and stalking some fairly jumpy fallow deer was a perfect test of this unit. Culling work often requires several shots into a herd and the noise reduction made things a lot easier. I was using a 300 Winchester Magnum shooting 150 grain Nosler Bullets at 3200 fps. A bit big I know but my trusty 30-06 was awaiting a new barrel. The compact Spartan gave credible results with noise moderation using the .30 cal baffles and was now displaying a good level of recoil reduction on a calibre that is starting to get a bit pokey. I could spot the bullet impact point precisely and was able to quickly move onto the next shot with less re-alignment of the rifle after recoil induced jump from the previous shot.

Truly Modular Build

Extra calibre specific baffles and threaded inserts to fit your chosen barrel thread allow one moderator to be modified for virtually any rifle. I have a set of prototype baffles that should be in standard production by the time this is published. They are slimmer, allowing 5 to be used where 4 were before, they also feature extra gas bleed holes combined with a graduated surface to further enhance gas dispersion and noise reduction.

PRICE: £220