DiscoveryOpt updated its HD with the new Gen3 5-30×56. It adds a tool-less, resettable turret and zero stop. It keeps its multi-coated HD glass and 56 mm objective. 34 mm tube, FFP reticle, and most appreciated, it retains its mid $300 price-point.,
The standout feature is the fully tool-less turret and zero stop. No Allen keys required to reset to your established zero after dialing for long shots. Under the turret, a brass clamp with a quick-release lever sets your zero stop. Easy peasy.
The Gen3 continues Discovery’s incremental improvement to the glass quality. Its clarity is good but with a warm cast and not quite the quality of its more expensive big-brother the ED Gen3. But the HD Gen3 is certainly impressive compared to entry-level offerings from Vortex or Burris at twice the price.
If you’re building a long-range hunting or range rifle and don’t want to spend four figures on glass (or even $700), the HD Gen3 5-30×56 is worth a look.
The SV29 is a budget 25-75×80 mm spotting scope aimed at target shooters, birders, and anyone who wants high magnification without paying a premium-price. I got the tripod starter kit which comes with an SVBony light tripod, and a phone adapter for taking photos and video. In addition, the scope has a Vixen-style dovetail so you can slap on a red-dot or optical finder, a feature usually only found in astronomy telescopes.
The 1.25″ eyepiece is detachable, so you can swap in astronomical or electronic eyepieces from 3rd parties and SVBony. The tripod kit includes a forgetable but basic, light weight aluminmum tripod. While there are higher quality spotting scopes, I haven’t found many as good or feature packed as the SV29 for a street price under $200.
Amazon is full of cheap photo tripods pretending to be shooting tripods. The Trakiom aluminium shooting tripod is one of the better exceptions. It has 36mm fat legs, a 360° clamping head, and a tilt knob that actually does something useful. 3-position leg angles cover prone, kneeling, sitting, and standing.
I did find that most of the leg tube clamps had loose screws. Not just the tension screws but, more critically, the set screws that kept the clamps in place needed tightening with the included Allen keys. I can’t say I’ve ever had to tighten an entire tripod out of the box, but the tripod functioned without issue after I did.
Telescoped in and folded, it is about 26″ inches long and eight pounds. The ballhead is solid. The specs don’t state the size of the ballhead, but it looks like it’s ~40 mm in size. There is a bubble level next to the ballhead clamp.
It is not backpack-light, but it will hold still when a rifle is on it. If you want an ultra-light tripod, you can buy a carbon fiber one for 6x more. If you’re getting to your shooting hide or match by car, truck, or quad, you won’t care about the tripod’s weight, but you will care about the extra gas money.
Watch the prize drawing on my TMI LIvestream on Wednesday, November 2, 20206. Must be present to win.
Each prize is supplied by Arken, CVLife, Trakiom, and Vector Optics is awarded at their sole discretion and direction.Entries must be received no later than 12pm noon EST on October 31, 2026.
CONTEST INSTRUCTIONS
Prove you have the skills to fill out a form and upload screenshots to get a free entry. And earn bonus entries for donating to the Breast Cancer GoFundMe
4. Take a screenshot/photo showing both your COMMENT and the section of the video showing an Elvis guitar cover. Upload it and fill out the entry form.
NO PURCHASE OR DONATION IS NECESSARY TO ENTER. MUST BE PRESENT DURING THE LIVESTREAM TO WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.
1. Sponsors and Platforms
Arken, CVLife, Trakiom, and Vector Optics (known as the SPONSOR) and Moondog Industries (known as the CO-SPONSOR) is a video entertainment producer based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, X, and online video platforms (known as PLATFORMS) are not SPONSORS or in any way affiliated with the contest or content.
2. Entry Period
Contest email entries must be received between: 12:00pm EST 1 October 2026 and 12:00pm EST 31 October 2026
3. Eligibility
Void where prohibited by law. Must be a legal resident in the USA. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, and employees’ immediate family members are ineligible to participate in the contest/giveaway.
Entrants must be willing and able to appear on YouTube to discuss the contest and post images of the prize on their social feed should they win the contest.
Entrants must be present and able to post comments during the TMI Livestream show to identify themselves in the Chat during the live drawing.
4. Agreement to Rules
By entering the contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retains the right to refuse, withdraw, or disqualify entries at their sole discretion. By submitting an entry, the participant agrees to accept the decision of the SPONSOR as final and binding.
5. How to Enter
This contest requires your skill in navigating your phone or computer controls to screen capture an image of the following YouTube channels/Social Media accounts. Subscribe or Follow and make a screen capture of those pages showing a greyed-out Subscribe button or an indicator that your account is following that page. If the page is not functioning, please contact contest@moondogindustries.com . One entry per, or per Social Media account. Fraudulent methods of entry, photo retouched, or other methods of circumvention of the rules may result in the SPONSOR invalidating a participant’s entries.
6. Prizes
The winner must be able to receive the prize by e-mail or by physical mail. Prize may be substituted at the sole discretion of the SPONSOR. Acceptance of the prize grants SPONSOR permission to use the winner’s entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.
7. Odds
The odds of winning are dependent upon the number of eligible entries received.
8. Selection and Notification of the Winner
The winners will be chosen at random by the SPONSOR from among the entrants who demonstrated the skill to navigate the electronic entry and have met the minimum requirements. The selected entrant must respond in the Livestream chat within 30 seconds of selection to be designated the Winner. Winners must email contest@moondogindustries.com within 24 hours of selection to confirm their shipping address. The winner must have a legal address within the US to ship the prize.
SPONSOR is not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided the wrong email address or if their email security settings caused your prize notification to go into the spam or junk folder. If a winner does not respond within 24 hours of selection with a confirmation email, the SPONSOR will select an alternate winner. Receipt of the prize is upon the condition of compliance with federal, state, and local laws.
9. Rights Granted by the Entrant
The SPONSOR, upon submission of an entry into the giveaway or contest, has the right to use the participant’s submission, voice, likeness, image, statements about the contest, etc., for publicity, news, advertising, promotional purposes, trade, and so forth, without any further notice, review, consent, compensation, or remuneration.
Participants shall defend or settle against such claims at their sole expense, and shall indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the SPONSOR from any suit due to damage of or by the prize.
10. Terms & Conditions
The SPONSOR reserves the right to modify, suspend, cancel, or terminate if unauthorized human intervention, a bug or virus, fraud, or other causes beyond your control impact or corrupt the security, fairness, proper conduct, or administration of the contest/giveaway.
11. Limitation of Liability
Entry into this contest constitutes the participant’s agreement to release and hold harmless the SPONSOR and PLATFORMS, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees, etc., against all claims, liability, illness, injury, death, loss, etc., that occur directly or indirectly from participation in the contest or use/misuse of the awarded prize.
12. Disputes
As a condition of participating in the promotion, the participant agrees to resolve all disputes with an arbitrator designated by the SPONSOR in the state of California, without resorting to any form of class action. Entrants waive all rights to punitive, incidental, or consequential damages, and waive all rights to have damages multiplied or increased.
13. Privacy Policy
Participants agree to abide by all privacy and NDA laws in the State of California and any federal laws of the United States of America.
14. Winners List
Participants may request a list of winners by submitting a request in writing to Moondog Industries, for up to 30 days after the contest ends.
15. Social Media Platform Rules
Winners will agree to post a photo of the prize on their social media channels in such a way as does not violate any rules of that platform. The winners also agree to appear for an interview where they will discuss the prize and its performance. If there are functional problems with the prize, the winner agrees to make a good-faith effort to resolve all issues with the SPONSOR prior to posting reviews or opinions about the prize.
16. Affirmation of Acceptance of and Agreement to All of the Official Rules
By entering the contest, the entrant has affirmatively reviewed, accepted, and agreed to all of them.
Humans have been making and drinking wine for over 8000 years. In this episode, we’ll be talking to the former owner of a winery and demystifying this everyday drink for everybody. This Livestream is sponsored by Aura.com. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed.
We’ve been drinking wine for a long time. The oldest evidence of winemaking dates from 6000 BC in the Central Asian steppes of Georgia. It’s written about in the Old Testament and in Greek . It forms the basis of the earliest Christian traditions.
For most of Europe, it’s an everyday drink. But for us here, it’s a snobby drink. What do you think about wine. Is it something you drink regularly or something you’ll drink if served and you have no options?
Confession time: I’m a recovering wine snob. I’ve been attending wine tastings in NYC since the early 1990s. From 2015-2017, I was one of the owners of a winery in Argentina.
But I learned enough to learn this. It’s mostly B.S. Wine should be enjoyed with food like beer.
If you’ve got no clue about what wine to buy if asked to pick up a bottle on the way to a dinner or housewarming, I can give some advice.
This episode is sponsored by MattHat jerky. This week, get $10 off and FREE Shipping on orders over $85 using code: STOCKUP
Get 15% off code: MOONDOG https://matthatjerky.com/products/sample-pack?ref=moondog
EARLYBIRD Visual Clue:
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
Wine used to be a snobby drink. And many people still think it is.
I DON’T LIKE WINE
If you like funky cheeses or dry cheeses, you’ll like more sophisticated wine. If you only like American slices or mozzarella sticks. You should enjoy sangria, a dry rosé, or a sweet White Zin.
Sweet wine like White Zinfendel is popular for a reason. Just like when you started drinking you started with a cocktail, then later got into vodka or whiskey.
FOOD AND WINE
Pair wine with your food eg. Sweeter wines with sweeter dishes.
BBQ: Red Wine (Merlot, Red Zinfendel, Red Blend, etc.) or Frutier White (Sauvignon Blanc), or a White Zinfendel by Josh, Sutter Home, Barefoot Cellars
Steak: Dry or bold red (Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Malbec, Chanti) by Mondavi, Kendal Jackson
Seafood: Light red or Dry (Fume Blanc, Pinot Grigio)
ORDERING WINE AT RESTAURANTS
Avoid the cheapest wine on the list.
Avoid the most expensive unless somebody else is picking up the tab.
Ask the waiter/somilier. They want a good tip, so they won’t steer you toward a bad wine.
HOW TO SHOP
Buy your wine at COSTCO.
As a beginner, avoid wines that cost less than $10 and any wine that costs more than $50 from a grocery or liquor store.
Store your wine sideways to keep the cork moist
Avoid boxed wine or jug wine.
Cork is not a guarantee of a good wine.
Avoid fancy labels with lots of gold foil or complicated graphics.
Matte, dull labels are better than shiny labels.
If they put a Wine Score on the label thats good. But it really doesn’t mean much. Almost every decent wine scores a 92 or above if they buy an ad in the magazine.
TIPS
Buy a bottle that is at least 5 years old. Age matters for good wines but not crappy ones.
Wine doesn’t always get better with age. Don’t save your wine for more than 5 years unless you know it’s a very tannin-heavy wine.
Air your wine. Use a decanter or an electric frother. If you can open your bottle an hour or more before serving it will taste better.
COUNTRIES AND REGIONS
Napa is the US’s most famous region but it’s now mostly marketing and money. California is known for bold wines.
French wines are good but there is a huge range of qualities. Most are mild and less bitter/tanin.
Australia is known for good wines. The ones sold in the US are generally good value. They’re most popular variety is Shiraz which is their name for the same grape as Syrah wine here.
Italian and Spanish wines can be great good but generally not as available here nor as good of a value. The cheaper Italian bottles are kind of mediocre and more expensive than mediocre California wines.
Chile and Argentina are known for good value wines. Argentina’s most common variety is Malbec which is a originally from France.
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
This Napa Valley wine brand gets its name from the man credited for discovering gold in California. But it has nothing to do with him. The brand name was an invention by Italian-American winemaking family, the Trinchero’s who bought the winery in 1948 and built it into one of the largest wine makingers in the US.
VIDEOS THIS WEEK
Moondog2A
Moondog Reviews
Moondog Go
FINAL CLUE
In 2004 this wine company produced over 12M bottles of wine. In 1972 it accidentally invented White Zinfandel which became it’s most successful wine variety and for a time became the most popular type of wine sold in the US.
DISCOUNTS AND OFFERS
OSight Prime Day October 6, 12:00 AM – October 7, 11:59 PM PDT 15% OFF many Osight products on Amazon
Arken 20% OFF Sitewide with code MOONDOG 25% OFF for Verified Veterans
To be honest, I’d never heard of the Vistaget brand before they approached me to test their thermal hunting scope. The Tarantula is a thermal scope with a heavy-duty body and recoil abosorbing integrated picatinny base. It provides day/night performance with an OLED display and a built-in laser rangefinder.
Build in rangefinders are the new must-have when hunting with night vision as determining the range to a target is critical when adjusting for ballistic drop. The Tarantula can also store up to 10 different ballistic profiles and adjust the reticle for point of impact. Unfortunately the laser ranging button is also the MENU activation and selection button which caused numerous mistaken function when I tested it.
Its controls and adjustments aren’t intuitive. The optical focus knob is at top of the scope insead of a side focus more commonly found in optical scopes. Instead the side knob is the digital zoom which would be better placed near the eye piece. Ergonomics overall are an area for improvement with this scope.
Despite its ergonomics, its thermal performance and resolution and were excelent under 50 yards and good enough to spot racoon at over 100 yards; you would be hard pressed to differentiate a dog from a coyote at that distance. It had a good variety of false color options. You can record video and photo still in its internal 32GB memory accessable via USB-C and wifi connectivity to phones.
Best of all, it has a dual-power system allowing it better than average endurance. Night vision and thermal optics are notrious for their short battery life. But the Tarantual has a built-in battery allowing its primary CR123A cells to be hot-swapped.
While not perfect, the Tarantala is a solid thermal optics for hunting and game observation.
SHOP
Coupon Code 8% Off: VGSCOPE8 (valid until Jan 31, 2027)
OSight makes some of the smallest enclosed-emitter red dots and now they’ve made their largest. The mode R is a rifle-sized, enclosed-emitter, multi-reticle reflex sight. It comes with an Aimpoint T1/T2 compatible AR co-witness height mount. At launch, OSight offers a promo package that includes a high 1.93″ mount. It’s fair to say it’s a knock off Holosun AEMS but it’s about hundred clams less.
OLight designed the R with a 7075 body, able to hold zero over 10k rounds and survive a 1-mile height drop (or so they’ve tested, I have not). It has clever, see-through hinged lens covers, which can be swapped out for the included hex kill flash.
The unit has a motion-activated reticle with a 2MOA dot or 65MOA circle options. It uses a standard CR2032 coin battery with an 85,000hr rated run-time. I didn’t notice it at the range, but my sample did have edge distortion along the top edge of my window. In my live-fire testing, the unit provided an excellent sight picture to my target at 50 yards, and I was able to quickly and repeatedly get the dot on target.
In 2025, BART introduced the Let’s Glow! BART Anime Festival and attracted more than triple the expected 1000 attendees. This year, the free anime festival expanded to accommodate even more anime fans. I traveled to the Warm Springs/South Fremont Station to check it out.
This year, the fest doubled in size. Booths and exhibits took up both sides of the BART station. The Itasha car expo in the Southern Pick-Up lot, the Artist Alley in the North side lot. In between, there was a stage for performers and cosplay contests, and a Food Truck row.
Itasha cars are vehicles themed and often wrapped with graphics depicting characters from popular anime and manga, and now VTubers. The Artist Alley was double the size and packed with shoppers picking up fan-made anime art, plushies, and merch. The longest line was for the Railgoods booth selling official BART merch featuring its Anime mascots: Baylee, Nimbus, Jasmine, and Mira
BART has anime mascots? Along with the Vatican (yes, the Vatican) the San Francisco BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT system wanted to reach out “the youth.” Appealing to Asian-weeb subculture of Anime by bolting on a BART logo onto it. Did it work? Overall BART ridership is down 56% since 2016 but the Lets Glow! Festival has doubled in attendance since last year. So yay, I guess?
In this episode, I’ll be interviewing Bill Paulley from Arken Optics. This Livestream is sponsored by Aura.com. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed.
This episode is sponsored by MattHat jerky. Use code: MOONDOG to get 15% Order a free sample using my link https://matthatjerky.com/products/sample-pack?ref=moondog
EARLYBIRD Visual Clue:
VIDEOS THIS WEEK
Moondog2A
Moondog Reviews
Moondog Go
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
This gun-maker was founded in 1949 by Alexander McCormick Sturm and William B. Ruger. Its first firearm was a .22LR semi-auto pistol heavily inspired by the Japanese Nambu and German Luger pistols.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
Arken is a Texas-based optics company that was founded by a former Navy SEAL. In the 2010s, it came out with the SH4 scope, which changed the optics landscape. For the first time, you could get a brand-new PRS-style long-range scope for under $400.
Last year they went through an ownership and management change. They’ve come out of it with a new headquarters in Houston, TX, upgrades to their long-range scopes, and a brand new hunting-scope line. Today, I interview Bill Pauley of Arken Optics.
FINAL CLUE
This gun maker produces the two most popular .22LR rifles in the world. September of 2020 it purchased Marlin firearms from Remington and now produces both the Marlin 60 and its own 10/22 rifle.
DISCOUNTS AND OFFERS
Arken Special scope ring and accessory bundles for Labor Day week. 20% OFF Sitewide with code MOONDOG 25% OFF for Verified Veterans
Vueroid S1 Dashcam September 5 to September 20, customers will save up to 35% off the regular price on Amazon. https://vector2007.com/X-NanoVEOT-RSS08 Discount code (12% off): MOONDOG
The PL X is an evolution in OLights’ pistol lights. They designed the PLX to be shorter and more compact than their previous PL models, to be more holster-compatible. The PLX has the ability to switch between a flood or spot beam. The new GL adds a green laser for aiming assistance in low light.
Physically, the GL is similar to the original PL X. The USB-C port at the bottom has been moved and replaced with a flat switch for white light, laser, or combined output. The flood/spot selector switch can still be found on the left side of the unit.
The PL X has contoured buttons that allow you to push forward or push downward to activate the beam. The PL X has OLight’s familiar controls able to switch between low- and high-brightness modes with a double-tap, and strobe by pressing both buttons simultaneously or triple-tapping.
Thankfully, this OLight now recharges with a universal standard USB-C port. Remarkably, the unit is IPX 7 rated and able to be submerged in water for up to 30 minutes. I don’t claim that any OLIGHT is as durable or as reliable as military-tested weaponlights, but OLIGHT offers a lifetime warranty with good customer service.
Max Lumens: 1200 (Flood mode) Max Run Time: 95 min Maximum Throw: 260 yards (Spot mode) Battery type: 620 mAh Charging type: USB-C Dimensions: 63 x 30 x 31.5 mm (2.48 in x 1.18 in x 1.24 in) Weight w/battery: 3.1 oz / 88 g Track compatibility: 1913, Glock IPX: 7 waterproof
