Monthly Archives: October 2022

Gadgets, Product Reviews

V3 Micro EDC Light

The current trend in EDC lights is creating ever smaller flashlights that are ever brighter. I was sent a BORUIT V3 EDC light to test and review. This micro-EDC light is the size of a Car alarm keychain dongle and its packaging promises to output up to 900 lumens.

The device has a smoke colored clear polymer body with two buttons and a covered SUB-C charging port. On one end is a twin-head LED emitters and the other end has a keychain loop and a rare-earth magnet end that allows the light to magnetically mounted and used hands-free.

One button activates the primary twin-lights. The device has high, medium, low, and endurance (candlelight) modes. Double-tap for continuous light, short tap for momentary, and long-press activates the devices Turbo mode which BORUIT claims is 900 lumens. It is very bright but in my testing, I suspect this number is inflated.

The other button double-taps to activate small set of LEDs. There is a high, low, red, blinking-red, and blinking-red/blue modes. This appears to be for specialized low-light work when tail-standing, magnetically mounted, or as an emergency signal.

I drop tested and water-jet tested the unit which passed without issue. The beams from the twin-headed unit cast a wide flood pattern that are still able to illuminate objects from over 100ft away. Unfortunately, in lumen testing the unit fell short.

I fully charged the unit overnight and let left it on high output for over 1-minute to stabilize the battery. The device specs claim the unit is 650 lumens on high mode. I measured 360 lumens. I also tested the unit in low which claims to be 150 lumens but I recorded only 50 lumens (less than half its stated output). Based on these numbers, I doubt it is capable of outputting 900 lumens in turbo.

Despite its over-inflated lumen numbers, the light is perfectly sized as an EDC or emergency light. For those that don’t want to carry in their pocket, it’s form factor makes it easy to clip-on to accessories or keys. And given it’s features is a reasonable purchase for less than $20 (some clones for even less than $15).

Available on Amazon through my Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/3yPHlOL

Gadgets, Shooting Sports

G35 Laser Designator

Raytice sent me their G35 Laser Designator to test and evaluate. In function this is similar to weaponlights with a scope ring style mounting system. Like a EDC weaponlight, the unit comes with a tail clicky button to activate the 5mw green laser

It comes with a Picatinny ring mount, 18650 Li-Ion battery, USB charger, and optional wired activation switch. Switch pad has an off/on button and momentary-on pressure pad and can be mounted via Pacatinny or M-Lok. The manufacturer claims the unit with a fully charged battery, can operate for up to 1000hrs.

Mounting is similar to a weaponlight. The unit has dials/turrets to adjust windage and elevation of the projected beam. The dot is visible in daylight at 50yrds and much further at night.

Shooting free-standing, I was able to shoot a 4″ group at 25yrds using the laser as my aiming device. Functionally it’s similar to aiming with a red-dot but with the added benefit of having your aim point visible to others. While this may be a liability to some, it would be useful to firearms instructors, as it easily reveals where their student was aiming when they took the shot.

Available on Amazon through our Affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3y08YUG

Gadgets, Product Reviews

Doogee D11 Smart Watch

A lot of people like Smart Watches. Who doesn’t like knowing how many steps they’ve taken, their heart rate, checking the weather. But the Apple Watch costs almost as much as a phone (an Android phone, not an iPhone) and the cheaper Samsung watches have to be charged daily.

Now for the price of a basic Fitbit, you can get much of the bells and whistles of a full-featured Smart watch, the D11. A sample was sent to me by Doogee to test out. I’ve worn it for almost a month now and its a definite step up from my old Fitbit Inspire.

The package was plain white with no logo or branding. Inside I found the watch, owners manual, a USB charging cable, and a replacement set of black wrist bands. The watch came default with a black and orange silicone rubber wristband that was nice but I found the color a bit too distracting for my YouTube videos so I switched it to the black bands.

The D11 was waterproff, surviving daily showers and hand washing. The manufacturer claims 15-days of standby power. In normal use, I averaged about 6 days before the watch shut down and I had to recharge it which took about 20-30 minutes. The charging cable is magnetic and proprietary.

The D11 requires the download of the Gloryfit app on your Android phone to customize and control many of the phones features. I discovered too late for the video review that the Gloryfit app does allow the download of +200 additional watch faces. This process takes about 2-3 minutes to complete and the phone appears only able to have 1 custom watch face memory slot; downloading additional watch faces on the App deletes the previous design from you watch.

The watch has about two dozen built-in Apps but a fair number of them are just settings such as brightness. The rest range from a stopwatch, weather, phone, music controls. There does not appear to be a means to add new Apps to this phone through the Glorfit App.

You can send and receive phone calls. The watch has a built in speaker and microphone and the audio quality was adequate for voice calls. While you can not watch videos or browse the web, you can use the watch as a bluetooth speaker for your phone, but the audio quality sounded tinny and left much to be desired for music.

The D11 also has a number of health monitors typical of fitness phones such as heart rate, blood oxygen levels, stress/mood, sleep patterns, and blood pressure. Though the accuracy of some of these monitors is suspect (blood pressure is notoriously unreliable using light measurements).

The watch face turns off to conserve power but is slow to wake. It has a look-to-wake feature (that supposedly activates when twist your wrist to look at the face), is unreliable. I almost always have to press the bezel to turn it on and even then there is a 1-1.5 second lag that is just annoyingly laggy. And the screen never seems to stay on long enough. Overall I like core features of the phone but not its functionality and user experience.

Still, I plan to wear this until I wear it out. Be prepared for an update whenever the latter occurs.

The D11 is available on Amazon through my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3Cf69AD

Shooting Sports

M40 Red Dot Magnifier

Feagle sent me their new M40 3x red dot magnifier to test out. I was a but hesitant because I’m not a big fan of red dot magnifiers. I don’t think they have enough magnification for the weight they add to a firearm and their eye-relief is less than I’d like for anything larger than a 5.56mm or other light-recoil rifle. That said, I was impressed with the build quality and features of this magnifier.

It came in totally plain brown cardboard box. Inside is an owners manual, Picatinny side-flip mount, 1/3 co-witness riser plate, and a bag of screws and an allen wrench. The tube/body design looks like an oversized red dot. Even including turret caps with adjustment tools in the cap, which function like flathead screwheads. This allows adjustment to recenter visual position of the red dot in the magnifier’s field of view.

The 3x magnified image seen through the M40 was good with no noticeable color shift, though the image was not sharp from center to edge. The extreme outer edge of the image was soft with slight distortion. While I would not consider this durable enough for LEO duty or combat use, for action shooting, this should be perfectly usable.

M40 3x magnifier: https://amzn.to/3fkMA1U

RDS-22 red dot: https://amzn.to/3rab296

UTG 1” riser: https://amzn.to/3BOipaR

M40 Specifications

  • Magnification: 3x
  • Objective Lens Diameter: 21mm
  • Field of view (FOV): 7°
  • Exit Pupil: 7 mm
  • Eye Relief: 62mm
  • Diopter Range: +/- 3
  • Weight: 10.5 oz
  • Length: 2.85 in / 72 mm
Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

Sunwayfoto SM-86 Tripod Saddle Mount

The SM-86 is Sunwayfoto’s top-of-the-line ARCA/Swiss compatible saddle mount. This rifle clamp features all metal construction and an eye catching mattalic green finish. An unusual feature is Picatinny accessory rail mounted to the clamp head opposite to the lever/knob. You can mount a simple red dot, flashlight or even a small scope to act as a spotter though I’ve not seen any shooter try this.

Its tri-lever lock knob allows for excellent leverage when clamping down heavy or high recoil rifles. The clamp’s interior sides are lined with rubber pads to provided extra grip while reducing marring on wooden or polymer stocked rifles. The saddle can open up as wide as 3.4″ allowing for clamping of extra-wide chassis or even spotting scope tubes.

I tested the SM-86 on a Sunwayfoto T3240CS tripod. The tripod comes with a replacement 23mm high-rise ARCA/Swiss base which is required to provide clearance for the T3240’s quick-release lever. In testing the setup with my polymer Savage Axis .308 hunting rifle. the SM-86 performed perfectly. After 15 rounds, the clamp kept the rifle firmly attached to the tripod. 

This saddle mount was sent to me by Sunwayfoto for testing. This is available on Sunwayfoto’s website. Use this link and get 5% off using code: MOONDOG https://sunwayfoto-store.com/?ref=pwwCNnfb

Availabe on Amazon through this affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3E5Xcw5

Product Reviews, Travel

Doogee 65W Wall Charger

I was looking for a compact travel USB charger that could not just charge my phone but also charge my kid’s Nintendo Switch and if needed also charge my wife’s Macbook Pro. 65W is plenty for most devices including the every model of iPad and Macbook Air but the challenge is that a 15″ 2019 Macbook Pro uses a 85W charger.

Fortunately Doogee sent me a 65W compact charger to try out. This charger features folding outlet prongs, 2 USB-C ports, and a USB-A port. And it does this in a relatively thin 1.25″ wide footprint to the socket, so it can be placed next to another plug on a typical powerstrip without blocking the neighboring sockets by its girth.

Testing on my devices, the charger easily charged my Samsung S21+ phone and Nintendo Switch. Plugging it into a 15″ Macbook Pro, it drew an 40-47W easily below the 65W max of the charger. While below the recommended Macbook power adapter performance specs, this should do in a pinch if we should run low on battery but need to send out that one last email or upload a needed project file.

This charger is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Rstl4A

Gadgets, Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

Sunwayfoto T3240CS Hunting Tripod

Sunwayfoto is known for making high quality photo and video tripods. Their feather light 1.6lb carbon fiber tripod is now my go-to tripod for vlogging. Recently, Sunwayfoto entering into the hunting/shooting market and sent me a sample of a heavy-duty carbon fiber tripod with a built-in ballhead that together weighs only about 3.5lbs.

The T32340CS’ carbon fiber legs are 32mm with twist-style leg locks that are environmentally sealed; you can hear the air whoosing out of the top of the tripod when you collapse the legs. The legs locked easily with beefy ruberized locking rings and wide rubber feet which can be replaced with spikes.

The ballhead is recessed in the leg base to “lower its center of gravy”, though how that helps a tripod that already has variable angle legs is questionable. This recessed height does limit the tilt angle of a mounted rifle to 35º; still quite usable for high angles of engagement. The ballhead is topped with an excellent quick-release Arca-Swiss compatible mount.

UPDATE: RRS DESIGN
US tripod maker RRS (Really Right Stuff) originated the unique design of the Picatinny/Arca-Swiss clamp. Chinese brands like Sunwayfoto copied it (shocking!). RRS holds the US patent https://rrssoar.com/patents, which is why the T3240CS that are sold in the US have tripod heads replaced by standard Arca-Swiss mounts.
Here are a few legit RRS products that utilize the dual clamp patent:

https://rrssoar.com/tfct-anvil-30-arc

https://rrssoar.com/anvil-30

https://rrssoar.com/bh-scr

https://rrssoar.com/sc-arc

https://rrssoar.com/ta-lbsc/

https://rrssoar.com/ta-2u-sc/

https://rrssoar.com/btc-pro

The box comes with the tripod, padded case, replaceable foot spikes, and Allen keys. The strapped padded case is almost too compact, lacking extra room for add on accessories like Sunwayfoto’s Saddle Clamp head. If this tripod was aiming for the hunting/shooting market, the kit lacks a built-in level, stone hammock, and hook; all of which much be purchased separately.

Firing a heavy DMR style 5.56mm AR style rifle, the tripod provided more than adequate stability for quick follow up shots. I managed a respectable 3.5″ 5-short group at 100yrds in rapid fire. But testing it with a .308 bolt-action hunting rifle, the tripod left a lot to be desired.

The tripod’s light weight of 3.6lbs is ideal if you’re trekking to an upland hunting site but it is also a weakness. Without added weight, its difficult to be repeatable with a .308 or harder recoiling calibers. Furthermore, the ball head also shifted necessitating readjustment after each shot.

To add weight and stability its almost mandatory to purchase an after-market stone hammock for this tripod. It’s inexplicable that Sunwayfoto did not include this inexpensive cloth accessory in their kit or even a simple metal weight hook. I believe they include a hammock with their Explorer series of hunting tripods.

If light weight is a paramount concern with your hunting tripod, this may be the best choice on the market. Just be prepared to purchase a few more upgrades and accessories.

ONLINE RETAILERS

Support this channel using these links

Amazon https://amzn.to/3QMMsZj

This is available on Sunwayfoto’s website. Use this link and get 5% off using code: MOONDOG https://sunwayfoto-store.com/?ref=pwwCNnfb


SPECS

Number of Leg Sections4
Max Tube Diameter 1.25″ (32mm)
Folded Height 21.7″ (55cm)
Max Height: 56.7″ (12-144cm)
Tilting Angle: 35º
Load Capacity: 55 lbs (25kg)
Leg angles: 23º, 55º, 85ª
Weight: 3.6 lbs (1.65kg)

Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

EZshot Scope Level

There are many reasons that your shots can go amiss. When you’ve zoned in, concentrating on your target, your horizon isn’t often visible in your scope. Or your paper target isn’t posted up perfectly square in the first place and you are subconsciously aligning your reticle to your target. It’s all too easy to “cant”, slightly turning your rifle so your scope above it is leaning slightly left or right to the center line of your bore: this is Scope Cant.

This is why almost all competitive long range shooters mount bubble levels on their scopes. This allows them to quickly and easily visually check when they’ve accidentally canted their rifles and correct for it. EZshot sent me a sample of their 30mm bubble level to test and evaluate. EZshot makes these levels in common 25mm (1″) and 30mm tube sizes, as well as larger 34mm, and 35mm.

Upon first inspection, I was bit surprised at how much larger this level was compared to the Arken levels on my EP5 and SH4. Despite its beefy size, the entire rig weighed 1.63oz (46.3g). The bubble tube is twice as large as typical bubble levels, which should make its measurements more physically accuracy, as well as making it easier to visibly read.

It mounts very much like a scope ring with two hex screws on opposite sides of the mounting ring. The kit comes with an Allen wrench. I chose to mount mine forward my turrets to allow me clear views of my scope controls and turret markings.

EZshot Scope Levels are available on Amazon through my Affiliate LInk: https://amzn.to/3xInW1s

Gadgets, Product Reviews

Kltcriter Bodycam and Flashlight

I was asked to review 1080p wearable flashlight and body camera, one of the first questions I asked was who made it. I was told the brand name was Kltcriter. I made sure it wasn’t a typo and yes, that’s the brand name. So I’m not going to attempt to pronounce it.

The bodycam is very compact, about the size of a Zippo lighter (I wonder if Gen Z and Millennials even know that as a reference point?) or a typical USB phone wall charger. It has a “U” shape design allowing the unit itself to clip over fabric or straps less then 5mm wide and secure itself. The unit can not bend much beyond that gap but it is secure enough to clip securely on a t-shirt collar, pocket, or backpack strap.

The unit has all of its functioning parts facing forward including 4 LED emitters, camera lens, and buttons. A 1/2″ long silicone rubber strip on the side of the unit protects the USB and Micro-SD card ports from the elements. The manufacturer states that the unit is IP65 rated (waterproof to rain and light water jets)

Testing the LED flashlight, I measured 176 lumens which is pretty close to the 200 lumens claimed by Kltcriter. Tapping the flashlight button switches the flashlight from high, medium, low, and off/on. Keeping the flashlight button pressed activates the red battery charge indicator and a blue flashing light under the white unit face. This “warning” mode is intended to function as a signal though it is not very bright and is dimmer than the main flashlight LEDs on low.

Fully charged, the specs state that the flashlight will run for approximately 3hrs with the LEDs on high, 2hrs with both the flashlight and the camera on, and 5.5hrs with only the camera. The unit starts recording with a tap of the camera button which also activates the blue “warning” light, which flashes while the camera is recording. A tap on the camera button will pause the unit with a steady blue indication light. A long press turns off the camera.

The camera does output 1080p AVI files but the footage looks like 480p spy cameras I’ve tested. The footage is grainy and low resolution and performs poorly at night or low light. The footage is timestamped. To set the time and other settings, the user to manually edit a Configuration TXT file loaded into the SD card upon automatic format by the camera. This control scheme is common with spy cameras and body cameras without a display screen.

At the time of this writing the Kltcriter bodycam is not yet being sold on Amazon or other US online retailers. This unit is a pre-production sample and I hope somebody in their marketing department informs them of the awkward pronunciation in English.

POSTSCRIPT
It appears they changed the brand name to KSADBOSSBO after I gave them so much crap about Kltcriter. Though their new brand name just looks like somebody in the office mashed their keyboard randomly. Purchase this on Amazon through this Affiliate link https://amzn.to/3Tei34H

Shooting Sports

Athlon Midas Tac HD 6-24×50 FFP

Athlon is known for making excellent quality scopes nearly on par with big brands such as Vortex and Burris but at a more reasonable price. Case in point, the Midas Tac has a winning combination of sharp and bright optics, a solid build, and quality turrets, and a transferable life-time warranty.

The “Tac” in Midas Tac is its ‘tactical-style’ exposed elevation turret for quick dope adjustments (with zero stop). And unusually, it has a different ‘hunting-style’ capped windage turret. This is to address a complaint among hunters and some competition shooters, that an exposed (non-locking) windage turret can be too easily, accidentally adjusted when grasping a rifle by the scope or simply resting your palm on the scope while manipulating the elevation turret.

The turrets were clear and simple to read. They had nicely loud clicks and were tactile positive. Both could be zero-reset by lifting the turret using a coin screw

The elevation turret has Athlon’s brass zero-stop which forms a ring around the inner turret pillar. The ring can be rotated into position and is locked with 3 worm/set screws after the user has set their zero. This engages with a fixed gear tooth at the base of the turret providing a solid and reliable stop. A small Allen key is included in the box.

I should also mention, not much is included in the box aside from the turret lock set screws kit, user manual, and scope. This is in line with many “high-end” scope models which eschew accessories like lens caps, sunshades, and throw levers; but a simple rubber lens bra would have been nice.

Concerning throw levers, the magnification dial has a small thumb fin but no screw hole for an optional lever. Nor does Athlon sell a slip-on throw lever as an accessory. Athlon should consider this feature as throw levers have become nearly standard for many competition shooters; if this model is to appeal to that market.

Optically, the Midas punches above its weight. While it did exhibit some slight chromatic aberration, it is bright, with good contrast and excellent resolution. I was able to make out Element 5 in Group -1 on my 8.5″x11″ USAF-51 optical resolution chart at 100yrds. This puts it on par with the more expensive Leupold Mk3 or Vortex Viper FFP.

What the scope lacks is an illuminated reticle, which may be one of the reasons it is hundreds less than Athlon’s Ares. Lacking one may be a deal-breaker for hunters in dusk/dawn situations. This omission is odd if this scope was intended for the hunting market (remember that capped turret). For the range shooter who doesn’t need or use reticle illumination, this scope is a step up in image quality from budget scopes in the $500-$600 price tier.

This Midas Tac HD 6-24×50 FFP was sent to me by Athlon for testing. It is available on Amazon through my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3dYNfG6

RESOLUTION

Element: 5
Group: -1

MANUFACTURER SPECS

GLASS TYPE: HD
OBJ. LENS: 50 mm
TUBE DIAMETER: 30 mm
GAS PURGED: Argon
EYE RELIEF: 3.7″
FOV @ 100 YDS: 17.8 – 4.6 ft
PARALLAX: 10 YDS – ∞
CLICK VALUE: 0.1 MIL
ADJ/ROTATION: 10 MIL
TOTAL ELEV ADJ: 25 MIL
TOTAL WIND ADJ: 25 MIL
LENGTH: 14.6″
WEIGHT: 26.3 oz