Palmetto State Armory are the Mad Scientists of gun makers, coming out with new AR and AK designs and recreations of guns. This year they brought out over a dozen prototypes including their first 12ga. pump shotgun. Much of this gun shares design features with the venerable Remmington 870. This will part of their new Build Your Own series of kit guns designed to be easily built and assembled at home without specialized gun smithing tools.
Notable in its design is the position of the bolt catch release which is in the form of a slide-switch above the trigger; similar in position to an AR. The receiver is cut and designed to attach RMR footprint red dots. The front sight post is compatible with GLOCK front sights.
PSA has too many ideas and but too little engineering time so they’re asking fans to vote for their favorite prototype guns that PSA should focus on. This means the 3 guns with the highest votes will be most likely to see testing and production later this year. Cast your vote at https://palmettostatearmory.com/
The Monstrum Panzer, is named after the famous German WW2 tanks (“panzer” is the German word for “armor”). The Panzer sports tank tread inspired design to its turret caps and magnification ring that provides a useful grippy surface beyond its unique aesthetic. Monstrum showed me the prototype of the Panzer 1-6x at SHOT Show 2024.
The Panzer is Monstrum’s first focal plane (FFP) line of LPVO. Externally it is nearly identical to the Panzer 1-10x that I reviewed previously save for a 1″ shorter tube making it a few oz lighter. The trade off to the top end of magnification is that the 1-6x has a slightly more forgiving eyebox but the differences is subtle. One could argue that the difference in practical clarity between a 6x and 10x to the typical shooters ability to hit targets is similarly subtle. The biggest object difference is the $30 lower price of the 1-6x.
The Panzers come with a user replaceable fin on the magnification ring which can be swapped out for the included throw lever. In addition, the package includes a quality, high-recoil, cantilever mount and basic flip up caps. The turrets are capped and resettable with a hex key.
The Panzer now offers two choices in FFP reticle. The Panzer 1-6x I tested has their new CM3 reticle which has a tactical style BDC reticle with a tree style set of windage holdovers below a circle dot. I previously tested the CM2 reticle which is an MOA range finding reticle. Both reticles are illuminate only the center circle dot with a selection of 5 intensities in both red or green. The illumination is low light / CQB bright but not true daylight bright like Monstrum’s BDC-C1 Banshee.
Recoil testing, conducted at a rifle range, courtesy of GD Boomer. Ammo sponsored by Monstrum Tactical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwZssTN1oGs&t=1s
Athlon scopes are some of the best values in sporting optics. But they make more than optics. Athlon make some of the most robust carbon fiber shooting tripods. But it wasn’t until this year that they’ve made their first heavy duty shooting saddle mount.
This mount is made of a solid block of aluminum for strength but with numerous lightening cuts to reduce its weight whilst retaining clamping strength. The clamp has a built in ARCA/SWISS compatible base, with both 1/4″ and 3/8″ screw mounts for direct attachments to photo tripods.
The walls of the clamp are slightly canted inwards to better seat traditional hunting rifle handguards. The walls of the clamp are covered in textured rubber padding to provide grip and protect wood from marring even under heavy recoil.
At SHOT Show I was given a sneak peek at Leupold’s newly redesigned BX4 Pro HD Gen2. The BX4 line is Leupold’s most popular line of binoculars offering world class optical performance. The Gen 2 model features a split bridge design which allows the user to completely wrap your hand around the tube for a firmer, natural hold.
In testing, the optic lived up to its reputation for clarity, color rendition, and brightness. In bright morning light, the image through the scope was almost too bright, blowing out some details in my camera. In dusk or low light this optic should prove to be a strong performer.
If it’s optical performance weren’t enough reason to be satisfied with these binoculars, Leupold didn’t skimp on the accessories. They include two additional rubber eyecups, including a spare set of rear lens covers designed to fit the larger wrap-round eyecups. In addition, the padded case is stylish and well designed.
Nick Johnson started his TikTok and YouTube channel “Pewview” practically on accident. He was friends with popular Guntuber “Honest Outlaw” and would sometimes shoot with him at Outlaw’s backyard range. Outlaw would film Nick him during speed shooting practice (3gun and 2gun). Oh a whim, Nick posted a few videos on his TikTok and within days they gained millions of views.
Now nick has almost a million subscribers on Pewview with less than 200 videos. How did this guy get so big so fast? Looking at his videos, its easy to see why. He’s a competent and fast marksman and presents gun reviews and shooting tips that are practical, authentic, and without ego.
He’s been a long time owner of Arken scopes and recently started a partnership with Arken. I caught up with him at the Arken booth at SHOT Show 2024 and had an opportunity to sit down for an interview with him.
I got a first look at the upcoming Panzer 1-6x LPVO. This is a lower power version of the 1-10x which I previously reviewed back in 2023. That LPVO impressed me with how well it compared to the Razor 1-10x at a 1/10th of the price.
All things being equal, a 1-6x power should offer the same sharpness as a 1-10x with a slightly smaller length (and weight). In some cases some 1-6x even offers slightly better eyeboxes. But it’s actual performance remains to be seen. I just received an early release sample and will be testing it soon. Be sure to Subscribe and press the Notification “bell” icon on my YouTube channel to be updated when it posts.
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At this year’s SHOT Show I spoke with one of Element’s owner’s, Shane Keller. This Utah based company with design offices in Sweeden and South Africa. While a relatively new company in sporting optics, this company was founded by professional shooters and optics designers with decades of experience. Their Nexus and Helix scopes quickly gained a following among competition PRS shooters for their quality design, features, and optics which rivaled established premium brands.
At this year’s booth they showcased their new Tier 1 PRS scope, the Theos. This scope effers not just superb optical performance but innovative and practical features such as tool-less turret and zero-stop reset, and a pop-out turret rotation indicator. Their Theos, Helix, and Nexus, feature a stylish gunmetal grey finish and are built in Japan.
In addition to their new rifle scopes, they also offer a 10x binocular and I was surprised to also find out they offered a variety of range finding accessories. Their handheld laser rangefinder that connects via Bluetooth to their ballistic App. What really intrigued me was an unusual small laser rangefinder unit that is designed to piggyback on your existing scope. About the size of a AA EDC light, this unit has an LCD ballistic display on its tail to offer the shooter immediate data to take their shot.
I hope to get my hands on Elements products soon to test them out and learn for myself what all the buzz is about.
When I compared the new Monstrum Banshee 1-10x to the SIG Saur Tango the Banshee outshone the Tango in most aspects, save for one: its reticle. The Tango’s MSR reticle is a bullet drop compensating (BDC) reticle similar to the Primary Arms ACSS. But within weeks of completing my video, Monstrum released a new Banshee with their own BDC reticle: the BDC-B1.
The Banshee’s image quality is bright and clear with very no chromatic aberration (the 1-8x and 1-10x models have ED glass). The image is flat and with very little edge distortion. The eyebox and eye-relief are decent for an LPVO, especially for a 1-10x which are notorious for their unforgiving eyeboxes.
I’ve been using this Banshee for a few months now on my H&K G36/22 and it’s held zero and been an exemplary optic for action shooting matches. I sent a Banshee to my friend Mark on the GD Boomer channel. He mounted it on his Barrett .50cal rifle and confirmed that it would hold zero even under 50 BMG recoil.
The Banshee BDC-B1 is physically identical to the original version that I reviewed, save for the MX-1 reticle. The turrets are clearly audible and tactile positive. The BDC-B1 has a circular Donut of Death graphic with windage holdovers and a BDC vertical crosshair bar. It is significantly more tactical and faster to aim than the MX-1 but it is not perfect. That said, the Banshee is probably my favorite Monstrum LPVO and this BDC-B1 version is the best variant.
I do have a few suggestions for Montrum. Make the illumination brighter and truly daylight bright. The aiming donut should be both smaller and thicker, while the central aiming dot should be a smaller 0.5 MOA dot. In short, do a better job copying the Primary Arms ACSS like SIG did.
OLight turned heads when they released the Arkfeld EDC light a few years ago. The Arkfeld’s innovative flattened box design was an inspired departure from the barrel tube body of flashlights since the 19th century. This newest version, the Arkfeld PRO, adds both a UV inspection light and a green laser pointer to a high lumen output multi mode white LED.
The primary controls are an ergonomic dial and a single, if not completely intuitive, activation button on the side of the unit. The dial switches between white light, laser, and UV light. Its internal battery has charge indicator lights below the mode dial. It is recharged via OLight proprietary magnetic charging adapter calbe which is USB-A compatible. The magnetic charging port at the tail of the unit has the secondary function of allowing the flashlight to be attached to metal surfaces, like a car hood.
The Arkfeld features a deep cary clip which can be removed. The clip is 2-directional allowing it to be clipped into the brim of a cap to function as a headlamp. The body is a solid feeling box of aluminum that comes in a variety of colors and some special edition graphic paint jobs.
In my testing I was able to get more than it’s 1300 lumen advertised maximum brightness. It met my drop test and water proof testing. Fully recharged I got a runtime of about 140 minutes starting in Turbo mode which aligns with OLight’s specs.
I’ve been used to wearing a smaller and lighter EDC but despite the Arkfeld’s larger size and weight, its flattened design allows it to fit into most pants pockets with minimal printing or encumbrance. My only peevs with this otherwise near perfect EDC is that the simple one-click activation can lead to accidental activation in pocks and that a double-click could lead to accidental strobe activation.
EOTech is best known for creating the modern holographic battle sight. But recently they’ve gotten into the magnified optics world with some of the most compact and rugged rifle scopes. But like their military grade optics, their scopes have generally been priced for those blessed with a DoD procurement budget.
At SHOT Show 2024 EOTech debuted their new Vudu X line targeted to the “recreational” rather than the “professional” shooter. These scopes will be more reasonably priced. There will naturally be some compromises with the quality of the glass and ruggedness of the components. But if you’re looking for a scope with EOTech’s name on it and you’re not an “Operator” or a LAPer then the new Vudu X looks promising.
