At first blush, the reflex sight MidTen sent me looked like every other knock off of the Ultraflex PanAV. But taking a closer look, it lacks a rotary illumination and battery turret. Because this reflex sight is USB-C rechargeable. The reflex design traces its roots to competition optics from the late 1980’s. It’s not a combat optic, lacking ruggedness, lens protection, or weather proofing. The MidTen’s build quality looks budget and a bit outdated but it has modern updates that set it apart even from more recent designs.
This MidTen has a 4 reticle dial at the rear of the unit: dot, circle-dot, cross-dot, (no size for the dot is listed by the maker but my eye estimate looks like a fat 6 MOA). Arrow buttons on the left side control 5-levels of illumination. The center button manually turns the unit on and off; keeping it pressed cycles between red and green color. The unit automatically goes into sleep mode after 4 minutes of inactivity. Motion reactivates the unit which remembers its last brightness setting and color selected.
Testing the unit on my Ruger 10/22 TD, I went through a 250 round bulk box of 22LR and the unit held zero. While the MidTen build quality is unrefined but solid. The MidTen has shake-awake, a rechargeable power supply, and a price point lower than any other motion activated reflex.
The Arkflex adds a new angle to the innovative wedge style EDC. The Arkflex rounds out the harder squared edges of the Arkfeld design. It is a little smaller and lighter than the Arkfeld and lacks the rotary control, UV light, and laser. Arkflex adds a new feature: a hinged top which can tilt the dual LED emitter to 90º angle. With the tilting emitter, the Arkflex can transform from a standard wand style flashlight, into a clip-on hands free work light.
In testing, the Arflex meets or exceeds all of its printed specs. The Arkflex outputs a little over a maximum of 1000 lumens in Turbo mode. It has a runtime of 120 minutes in Turbo and can be fully immersed in water.
But nothing is perfect. After my testing, my sample unit wouldn’t turn off until the battery died and wouldn’t recharge. It was defective. But rather than this review ending in a negative conclusion, it became a test of the company’s warranty and customer service.
I went to the Warranty and Repairs page of Olight’s website and entered in a return request. After uploading photos of the unit and describing the issue, they emailed me a PDF return label. I received a replacement unit a few days later. Unfortunately Olight was out of the Halloween limited edition lights, so they sent me a plain orange one. Far from disappointed, I was impressed with how easy Olight’s warranty return process was.
When you hear the words ‘plasma lighter’ the lightsaber or something out of the Aliens universe comes to mind. But they are real and they are sci-fi (at least to old guys like me). Plasma lighters are battery powered devices that generate a high voltage electrical arc which can ignite kindling. They work in the same way as your car’s spark plug or a mini taser.
Blackbeard Fire sent me a Pirates Plunder survival pack which includes their Plasma Lighter along with Firestarter sticks and a Ferro Rod. The device is about the size of an executive Zippo lighter and is incased in a black silicone skin. The top is latched down to keep it water proof. The device is recharged via USB-C and has LED charge indicator lights.
Pressing on the a button next to the igniter, immediately creates a purple spark of plasma. Unlike a plasma lighter that I already owned, Blackbeard’s uses not just a single pair of electrical contacts but four to create an ‘X’ like electrical arc between them.
Like a mini arc welder, the electricity heats the air into a plasma at hot as the surface of the sun. The Plasma Lighter easily ignited the Fire Plugs and FIrestarter fibers that I had soaked in water for an hour. The only thing a Plasma Lighter doesn’t do better than a traditional lighter is provide illumination but I’m sure somebody makes a version with a built-in CREE light so check-mate Bic.
5.11 worked with law enforcement SWAT teams to design the X.VI tactical pants. These pants were only available to Law Enforcement and Military until this year when 5.11 made them available to civilians on their website. I had my first look at them at SHOT Show in January, where I learned that X.VI was Roman numerals for 5.11.
These pants are robustly made with gusseted stitching to reinforce stress points, especially around the waist. The pants are loaded with well thought out performance features. All the pockets are oversized and the cargo pockets contain internal mag holders, zippered venting slits, and patented straps to adjust the height and position of the knee pads. The legs have built in knee pads with removable polymer knee covers and padding. The pant legs have boot hooks that anchor the pant ends to the top laces of your boots and keep them from riding up and exposing the top of your boots to debris.
In my week long testing of the pants, I found them comfortable but a bit heavy. The only disappointing feature were the knee pads. Though well built with a variety of adjustment, they never stayed where I wanted them when sitting the car. I found myself constantly repositioning them by hand. Fortunately, the pads can be removed to allow me to use them with my Hatch knee pads.
The other aspect that would make me balk, is their price of over $200. While these pants are now available for civilians, but those civilians probably drive Rivians and not Kia’s.
This prize supplied by CVLife and is awarded at their sole discretion and direction.
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CVLife is known for making very budget gear. Not crappy junk, but very basic budget gear. The kind of quality you expect from Bass Pro branded accessories. So usable enough for range use, weekend airsoft, or the occasional hunt. I’m not too proud to run a CVlife reflex sight on my 10/22 and a bidpod on my Savage Axis, but it’s not a brand you flex.
This new LPVO surprised me because it’s feature set is actually as good or better than the entry level LPVO’s of other brands. Certainly it’s not as sharp and clear as a Leupold or Vortex LPVO with ED glass. But the image was far more distortion free at 1x than some more premium LPVO’s I’ve tested.
The reticle design reminded me of Trijiicon or the Primary Arms ACSS. The EagleTalon has a SFP Horseshoe of Death and a small chevron (the latter was a wee bit too small IMHO). The reticle was daylight bright, though barely; but still more visible than than many LPVOs I’ve tested.
The turrets are exposed and user resettable. The clicks were a bit mushy feeling but tracked accurately. The magnification was a wee bit stiff even with the included screw-in throw lever. Most notably, the unit came pre-installed with a decent cantilever offset mount (not premo but decent enough that I wouldn’t replace it).
With this optic, CVLife has shown a step up in their quality and features. It’s good enough that I plan to run this at my next falling plates rifle match. Time will tell if CVLife can climb out of their bargain-basement perception. This LPVO with the mount is a good value, and is a good step in that direction.
The CS.2A 26-66×85 is the most powerful optic in Maven’s C-line of spotting scopes and binoculars. It features Chinese ED glass and construction. But before you turn up your nose, know that there is a wide range of quality between various factories and cities in China. This scope looks every bit as well made as Maven’s Japanese built scopes, so much so that I honestly couldn’t tell the difference were it not for the MADE IN CHINA printing at the bottom of the tripod adapter foot.
The main difference between this scope and their more expensive Japanese spotters is that the C-line has ridges on its focus and power wheel, whilst the Japanese S-series spotters have a fine checkering. Otherwise, the C-line has the hallmarks of Maven’s scopes: Dark grey polymer armor on the body and smooth turning focus and power rings.
Optically the scope is sharp, bright, and with good color rendering. At maximum magnification, the image was slightly darkened but exhibited little if no chromatic aberration at long distance.
