DarkLordOfOptics

Here is the summary from days 1 and 2.

My voice is finally back, so let's do a final wrap-up for what I ran into during SHOT last month. Naturally, I'll address your questions as I go along.

When a question came up on the impact temperature fluctuations have on riflescopes, I immediately thought I should bring Tyler Patner on and pick his brain. FIeld Target shooters have been paying attention to this for a long time since thermal shifts introduce a unique problem for their shooting discipline.

Here is a closer look at the fiber illuminated ACSS NOVA reticle in the new SLx 1-6x24 scope by Primary Arms. https://bit.ly/3XjFBY6

I'll start off with a few points on modern day politics, COVID, riots and the election. Then, we can move onto a general purpose Q&A and discussion on pretty much anything you want to talk about. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8LveRHZgnq469aWVQVhM2w/join

Travis of Silvercore Podcast and Alex of Affordable Rifle and Optics Reviews are both in Canada and they will join me to discuss what's happening there with the Freedom Convoy.

An old tradition I used to have was an occasional re-visit of how different optics companies have been growing and evolving. It has been a little while, but I think it is worth resurrecting. This time, I am going to spend a little time talking about Tract Optics and I hope one of the founders of Tract, Jon LaCorte, will join me for this. Aside from the general company and product line overview, Tract has just announced a new interesting 4-25x50 design that is worth discussing. I have briefly seen the prototype several months ago and I plan to test in the future. Post show notes: There was a brief aside on the critic I wrote down of a video by Brassfacts. The write-up is here: https://darklordofoptics.locals.com/p... A couple of time tags. 0:00 we kick off with a general introduction 10:45 I go over which Tract products I ahve personal experience with 16:55 Jon goes over different product lines Tract offers 38:48 We talk about the new 4-25x50 Toric scopes that has just been introduced 48:00 We kick of the Q&A part of the show.

For this show, Matt, The Everyday Marksman, and Jacob, the Pro-gun Millenial, will join me to discuss whether an offset RDS has rendered the LPVO superfluous or not. We will cover a few other related topics including a discussion of BDC vs mrad reticles. Post show notes: We did not get to the subject of BDC vs mrad reticles. That will have to be addressed separately, perhaps in the coming inaugural Everyday Marksman livecast. The discussion meandered around a bit, but we largely focused on why LPVOs are there, why they give you nearly unrivaled flexibility and why it is not a bad idea to add an RDS to them, whether for redundancy or for speed. That having been said, if you want to save some weight at the cost of a little redunduncy and long range reach, one of the modern microprisms with an offset red dot can sneak in under 10 ounces altogether. An interesting question came up on whether to use open or closed emitter designs. For me personally, if there is no weight/size penalty, I'd lean toward closed emitter RDS, but I mostly use open emitter micro-red dot sights due to how small and robust they are. Some of the different sights mentioned and shown: If you want an LPVO to truly do it all, my current favourites for general purpose use are: SAI 1-6x24 https://bit.ly/3B5zkn4 and Vortex Razor Gen3 1-10x24 https://bit.ly/30SzdPm If you do not need 1x and simply want a red dot added to a general purpose hunting/precision scope, Vortex' new Razor HD-LHT 4.5-22x50 is a near ideal condidate given it's light weight and excellent performance https://bit.ly/30HGW2w As far as microprismatic scopes go, the upcoming Primary Arms SLx 3x might be the one to beat in terms of what you get for the money, but is not officially out yet. The GLx 2x is out and while marginally bigger, it is better optically and seems to be damn near bombproof https://bit.ly/3b2ZZq8. Burris' RT-3 has a reticle that is on the small side, but it really works well with illumination in low light and with/without illumination in daylight https://bit.ly/3E5Be91 Vortex's Spitfire Gen2 5x is really growing on me if you want little more magnification https://bit.ly/3ju2hD4 With red dot sights, nearly any compact RDS can be set up as an offset or piggybacked optic. I have a lot of them and most are robust and capable. On balance, I prefer the ones with autoadjust dot brightness simply form the standpoint that these exist to be deployed rapidly, so I want them always on and ready to go in any light without having to press buttons. I am really fond of Shield Sights' RMS and SIS series and have, at the latest count one RMS, one RMSc with plastic lens, one RMSc with glass lens, one RMSw (waterproof version), one RMS 2.0 (this one has a glass lens and for some reason the dot is perfectly round even with my astigmatism) and on SIS. While I do not intentionally try to destroy them, they have been through some rough treatment. I damaged two so far and Shield promptly fixed everything for me although it was my fault that they got damaged. One was dipped in caustic nitrocarburization fluids and another got smacked with rocks and flying brass which damaged the window. In both cases, only the window got damaged. The electronics kept working, I could still see the dot and point of aim did not change https://bit.ly/3G9Bvtv and https://bit.ly/3b1Prrd Another small red dot sight, though a little bigger than the RMS, I have grown to like immensely is Holosun 507C-X2 with ACSS Vulcan reticle. I'll do a separate video on it explaining why. https://bit.ly/3B5t3I5 Lastly, if you are on a budget, consider SwampFox Sentinel that fit sin the RMS footprint. It is proving to be nicely robust and compact: https://bit.ly/3b324lW

Here is an abbreviated overview of my riflescope and reflex sight recommendations for different flavours of the AR-15. 7 mnutes: SPR/DMR/Precision scopes 13:30: LPVOs for General Purpose use 19:50: Prismatics for General Purpose use 24:00 Red Dot magnifiers 28:20 Red Dots and Holographics 34:35 Conclusion and Final Thoughts Join to support this channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8LveRHZgnq469aWVQVhM2w/join My website has a fair bit more in terms of details and recommendations. Riflescope recommendations are sorted by price here: http://opticsthoughts.com/?page_id=623 Here are some product links to retailers who support my efforts: Tangent Theta scopes at Eurooptic: https://alnk.to/1BYFuOF March scopes at Eurooptic: https://alnk.to/clOTkCe Leupold Mark5 HD 3.6-18x44 with illuminated TMR reticle https://alnk.to/dAehDB3 Vortex PST Gen 2 3-15x44: https://alnk.to/eODv49q SWFA SS 3-9x42 https://www.swfa.com/swfa-ss-hd-3-9x42-tactical-30mm-riflescope.html S&B PMII Dual CC 1-8x24: https://alnk.to/hDhCL9Z Vortex Razor Gen3 1-10x24: https://alnk.to/7qbFRRo https://alnk.to/31iOMWF Steiner P4Xi 1-4x24: https://alnk.to/a3V2AB0 Elcan SpecterDR https://alnk.to/74mfluk Elcan Spectre OS 4x https://alnk.to/87QNer6 Crimson Trace Battlesight 3.5x https://alnk.to/cSzfIzg https://alnk.to/aLA9WMN Vortex Micro 3x Magnifier https://alnk.to/aAFoXZh https://alnk.to/2Qo3O7f Aimpoint 6x Magnifier https://alnk.to/bP4HPSS https://alnk.to/1MTvVxF Meprolight MOR https://alnk.to/8EB4bnF Vortex UH-1 Gen2: https://alnk.to/cSzfIYm https://alnk.to/2Qo3Ouh Leica Tempus: https://alnk.to/dAehEgx Aimpoint T2: https://alnk.to/60RHtcb Shield SIS: https://alnk.to/cSzfJ1W

SHOT 2022 Takeaways

One of the most common questions I get is whether a particular scope is worth the money. It comes so often that I think it should be discussed in more detail. If you are trying to get the best bang for your buck, where is the sweetspot? Post show notes: Alex's Youtube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/c/AffordableOpticsandRifleReviews/featured Some of the scopes mentioned as being in a price/performance sweetspot of their respective categories. Long range precision: Vortex Razor Gen2 4.5-27x56 https://bit.ly/3il7M7p Athlon Cronus 4.5-29x56 https://bit.ly/2T0p4MI Trijicon Tenmile 4.5-30x56 https://bit.ly/3fN0Uhm Tract Toric ELR 4.5-30x56 https://tractoptics.com/all-products/toric-uhd-4-5-30x56-34mm-ffp-mrad-elr-extreme-long-range-rifle-scope Delta Stryker HD 4.5-30x56 https://www.edgunwest.com/store/optics/item/delta-stryker-4-5-30x56/ General purpose hunting: Vortex Razor HD-LHT 3-15x42 https://bit.ly/34SyKex Leupold VX-5 3-15x44 https://bit.ly/3wZaYJR Meopta Meostar R1 3-12x56 https://bit.ly/3cj9kuP Vortex Razor HD LH 1.5-8x32 https://bit.ly/3uPeiGb Get the HD LH tweener while they still have a few. At $430 these are a steal. AR-15: Vortex Razor Gen 3 1-10x24 https://bit.ly/3ihtSYk Delta Stryker 1-6x24 https://www.edgunwest.com/store/optics/item/delta-optics-stryker-1-6x24/ Swampox TriHawk 3x30 https://bit.ly/3uUhxvP Primary Arms GLx 2x https://bit.ly/3vWrUks Vortex Spitfire Gen2 5x https://bit.ly/3vS5pwL

Join me at www.darklordofoptics.com for further discussion. Here is a brief initial look at the Primary Arms SLx 1-6x24 with fiber illuminated ACSS NOVA reticle. This is the first $300-ish scope I know of with a truly day bright reticle illumination and the rest of the scope is not letting the reticle down either. https://bit.ly/3QAarcu

Join me at www.darklordofoptics.com for further discussion At first glance, it seemed like a solution looking for a problem. After some reflection, it is a perfectly viable idea on a rifle not used for home defense or hunting. The trigger feel was indeed spectacular.

One of the most common riflescope question I get is on best scopes for different PRS and NRL disciplines. There is no simple one sentence answer to that and there are many tradeoffs to discuss. Will, who goes by Covertnoob5 on Youtube, joins me for this discussion. Will is a prolific competition shooter and his experience is going to bring a different angle to this discussion. He just published a video on production division scopes that is worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otsAEE6pZ7I There, he discusses two of the better precision scopes for the production division: Leupold Mark 5HD 5-25x56 https://alnk.to/7fpLbOw Zeiss S3 6-36x56 https://alnk.to/90zkZYL

Join me at www.darklordofoptics.com for further discussion. I have been messing with the 1x and 3x SLx Microprisms from Primary Arms for quite a while now. Long enough to comfortably add both to my list of recommendations. I have talked about these tiny prismatics here and there for quite a bit, but it is time to be offering some parting thoughts. There will be a couple more installments of these, but here is the first one. Something to clarify: if I were to buy only one of PA's small prismatics, it would be the slightly bigger GLx 2x (https://bit.ly/3vWrUks). It kicks ass. As I will talk about in the next video, the tiny 3x Micro prism (https://bit.ly/3KuU7oL), while a very nice sight on its own is also a perfect back up scope for ARs. For any rifle I use a good bit, I also have backup optics setup. Just so that you understand the overall levels of my paranoia. For rifles, I tend to have a primary scope with secondary offset or piggy-backed sights on the gun and I ALSO have a pre-sighted in backup sight of some sort. For boltguns, I use the SWFA SS Ultralight for this. For ARs, I usually have a backup red dot sight of some sort, but I like having a small amount of magnification. The tiny SLx 3x Microprism is easy to keep available just in case without weighing anything down or spending a fortune. To be fair, there are other microprisms out there, most notably from Burris and Vortex, although I happen to prefer the reticle arrangement of the PA SLx. They all work pretty well and I have the Burris one here as well, set up in exactly the same way: as a backup scope for a larger LPVO or larger prismatic. That's one of the big things that I got out of this: to get a nice LPVO, there is going to be a weight penalty and, most importantly, you'll spend some money. In the meantime, with this new generation of small prisms, I can get a pretty mature and well thought out scope product for not a lot of money. It is a great first time user magnified optic and if you later decide to upgrade to something bigger (LPVO, etc), you already have your backup optic squared away.

In the spirit of continuing my coverage of commercial electro-optics, I decided to spend some time on iRay thermal products. While we are at it, this is a good opportunity to discuss how thermal clip-ons work and how they are different from conventional thermal riflescopes. I currently have two iRay products on hand. They need to go back, so this is a good time to discuss them while they are here: iRay RL42 thermal riflescope: https://bit.ly/3Mrj4Dy iRay Micro RH25 thermal monocular and clip-on: https://bit.ly/3lfAuqM Post show notes: A question came up on what would be the lowest cost of entry if you are looking for a decent clip-on, but do not want to go all out. I use Burris BTC-50. It is around $3k and gets me a 50mm lens albeit with a lower resolution sensor. https://bit.ly/3E1bb2w If you are just new to thermal, there is a lot to be said about Accufire Incendis that can be used as both riflescope and clip-on. It is about $3k and for hunting with it, I'd stay within about 250 yards. Detection distance is much longer, of course. https://bit.ly/3LkHPj4 Nothing with thermals is cheap, but $3k is roughly the starting point for the decent stuff. If you care more about portability, but still want to be able to use the device as a clip-on, iRay Micro RH25 linked above is a really capable general purpose device that can be used handheld, on a helmet and on the gun. However, if you are trying to use is side by side with PVS-14 and sorta blend them in with each other, you need wider FOV. PVS-14 has 40 deg FOV. There are not a lot of thermals with FOV as wide. N-Visions NOX18 is not quit that wide at 30 degrees, but wider than most and very compact: https://bit.ly/3vHH1Qi

Join me at www.darklordofoptics.com for further discussion. The way things are going, eventually YouTube will find an excuse to ban all gun and 2nd Amendment channels. All of my videos are also on my website and on Rumble. Make sure you subscribe there as well.

My original plan was to go over a few precision reticles out there and look at where I think their strengths and weaknesses lie. However, since David Tubb agreed to stop by for an hour or so, hwe started with his explanation of the DTR reticle methodology and he took a few questions as well. Later in the show, I went over a couple of reticle designs I made for Meopta and March, followed by the usual Q&A. Post show notes: David Tubb's website is found here: http://www.davidtubb.com/ The page on his Adaptive Target Rifle is here: http://www.davidtubb.com/David-Tubb-Rifle-Gun it is a very clever design. Keep in mind that he is competing in ELR with that rifle against set ups that are sometimes twice the weight and doing perfectly fine. The page on the DTR reticle that David talked about is here: http://www.davidtubb.com/dtr-scopes The manual for the DTR reticle among quite a few other interesting bits of information is in the "Articles" section of his website: http://www.davidtubb.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=10 I really recommend reading through the DTR manual, which is essentially a well written white paper. For the second half of the show, I talked about the two reticles that I designed for Meopta and for March. There was also a question about the ZCO's MPCT3 reticle. March 5-42x56 with FML-TR1 reticle: https://bit.ly/3oOwspn Meopta Optika6 5-30x56 with MRAD reticle: https://bit.ly/3nQvW8S

I've been trying to do a final wrap-up of this 8th installment for months, but work kept on getting in the way. On the positive side, that gave me an opportunity to spend a significant amount of time with all of these. Ask me anything.

Now that I made it home for a couple of days, I fished two mounts out of the mail that I plan to test. Here are first impressions. The mounts discussed were: Sig Alpha2: https://alnk.to/7BeynX3 Daniel Defense: https://alnk.to/44VoLF4 The scopes shown were: Leupold Mark4HD 2.5-10x42 FFP with illuminated TMR https://alnk.to/ge5GrY6 Primary Arms PLxC 1-8x24 SFP with Nova reticle. This scope is not up for sale yet, but soon. It is essentially a SFP version of this one: https://alnk.to/a43a7qG For the time being, if I were to pick a simple robust one piece mount in the $200 and under range, it would still be Badger Unimount. Allegedly, it has been discontinued, but there is still some stock https://alnk.to/dAmjJLY

Here are some impressions from the range day that happens eveyr year the day before SHTO exhibit kicks off.

Observation Optics for shooters. Let's have a discussion of how to look at binoculars and spotters if you are a shooter. Post show notes and links: The subject of good binoculars for kids came up. I really like lower magnification options for this. Budget and surprisingly decent option is Kowa YF 6x30 https://bit.ly/3F69q5W A little higher end and more compact is Maven B3 6x30 https://bit.ly/3meDYcO For LRF binoculars, for $1200 Delta Titanium RF 9x45 is probably my favourite if you are on a budget: http://darnfineshot.com/deop9xhdrfra.html As you go up in price a little, Meopta Optika LR is looking very promising: https://bit.ly/3A0EIaI If you can live with a large porro bino and do not need an angle indicator, the depth of field of Steiner 10x50 LRF is really something and it is the only one to combine LRF with a reticle in the other barrel: https://bit.ly/3zRBfuN I was surprised with how good it is optically. For a general non-LRF binocular, I have been using my prehistoric 6x32 Vortex Viper and the much newer Vortex Razor UHD 10x42: https://bit.ly/2WopuhJ Someone asked a question about vintage binoculars. If you want a vintage look and modern performance, consider Swarovski's GA 7x42. Amazing depth perception. https://bit.ly/3CSRoC6 If you are ready to spend some money on a truly world class bino LRF, I think this Leica is probably your best bet: https://bit.ly/2Y3W49H With spotters, the best currently available spotter for shooter is Hensoldt: -Spotter 45 https://bit.ly/2ZNR9dz -Spotter 60 https://bit.ly/3m9HoxM Swarovski STR (https://bit.ly/2Y1QDaC) is up there and I used it for several years, but Hensoldt's depth of field wins the day. Personally, my two "beater" spotters that use all the time are not as nice, but not priced like Hensoldt and Swaro. Athlon Cronus Tactical 7-42x60 https://bit.ly/3kUJuSC Athlon Ares G2 UHD 15-45x60 https://bit.ly/3D1ZNDc with 22x reticle eyepiece https://bit.ly/2ZDogQV

In this live show we catch up with the latest on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. To better understand the military aspects of this Eugene Fratkin who served in the USMC during the Iraq War and Dima Medved who was an offices in the paratrooper division of the Ukrainian armed forces join us for this show. Dima was wounded during the conflict in Donbass several years ago. He is now based in the US.

This one is going to get nerdy, folks! As you all prepare to dust off your pocket protectors, I am mostly looking to go into more detail on the technical aspects of how FOV and resolution work with electro-optical sighting devices. Naturally, there will be a Q&A as well. Post show notes: A question came up on thermal scopes in the $5k range that I like. There are plenty I have not tested, but I really liked Steiner S35 (these guys have it in stock for $4500: https://bit.ly/3JNasGC) and Bering Super Yoter. Stiner is heavier and bulkier, but has longer battery life. Bering is trim and compact, but battery life is shorter. Pick your poison. There was a good amount of conversation about precision scopes in the $500 range. There are several good options there. I am quite partial to the Element Helix FFP 6-24x50 https://bit.ly/3QBRWDb The guys at Element really pay attention to tracking consistency. If you are looking for some extra adjustment range without breaking the bank, Arken seems to have cornered that territory: I have only tested their SH4 Gen2 4-16x50, but I rather like it. With Vortex, I think the Venom is a very user friendly scope if you do not need illumination: https://bit.ly/3AfXA8F If you are willing to step up in price a little, I have to admit that Element Titan 3-18x50 is really growing on me. It is a nice scope with a huge adjustment range. https://bit.ly/3bBFfJP

Join me at www.darklordofoptics.com Tract Toric 1-8x24 is a really capable general purpose scope.