Hi-Lux is best known for making replica antique optics for 19th century and early 20th century firearms. After visiting their booth at SHOT Show this year, they showed me their newest optic that is decidedly 21st century: their new CMR (Close to Medium Range) 1-8×24 LPVO.
The CMR has capped 1/2MOA turrets and a removable throw lever. It has a 30mm tube and an overall typical design for an LPVO. The package contains the scope and lens covers but like most non-budget scopes, ships without mounts.
Hi-Lux sent me a CMRB which has a SFP ‘B’ullet Drop reticle that utilizes fiber optic illumination. This provides a true Daylight Bright dot in the center of the reticle. In my testing the dot remained bright and visible even looking into the sky in bright noonday sun.
Optically the image is bright and sharp at 100yrds with a bit of chromatic aberration. But at 1x the scope exhibits edge distortion and parallax shift. This is disappointingly not uncommon even with premium scopes costing twice or even three times as much as the CMR.
The Hi-Lux is a mid-tier optic at just under $400 retail. With a lifetime warranty from a US company, this scope is a good contender against similar scopes like the Vortex Venom. Its the scope for those that don’t want to put out a grand or more for a daylight bright LPVO but want a boojier brand than an Athlon or Primary Arms.
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Win a CVLife Bearpower 6-24×50 FFP scope. The contest Prize will be chosen from all entries submitted. Entries must be received no later than 12pm EST on May 18, 2024
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One of the first scopes I ever bought was a CVLife 6-24×50 AOR and it held zero over years of range use. Whileit was by no means a great optic, it was possibly the best scope under $50. When CVLife asked me to test out their new 6-24×50 FFP scope, I was a bit dubious as to its quality. Some may derisively call them “airsoft grade” but CVLife makes cheap firearms products that have been surprisingly good for their price.
The scope came in a featureless white box. This may be because the scope had just been released and CVLife hadn’t yet shipped branded packaging or even a branded decal label? In addition to lens caps you also get a set of budget scope mounts whose milling appeared lacking in quality control but were usable.
Unlike the AOR which looks and functions like a 1980’s vintage hunting scope, the Bearpower 6-24×50 is a modern PRS-style FFP optic. It has a combination illumination knob and parallax knob, which offers a minimum distance of 10 yrds. Like better tactical optics, the illumination has an OFF between intensity settings.
The turret clicks are loud and tactical positive and offers a solid zero-stop on the elevation turret. The turrets are resettable but annoyingly require the loosening of 3 hex screws. While this was annoying, slow, and tedious, the upside is that this free turning turret avoids the number non-alignment issue common with budget scopes.
The reticle is a modern Christmas Tree similar to Vortex reticle layouts. The center cross is illuminated with a faint illumination on the tree but both are only overcast/twilight bright. The Bearpower is available in both MOA and MIL versions (I received the MOA version).
In my field and range testing, I found the image quality to be good to fair with noticeable chromatic aberration even at low magnification. At high magnification there was a loss in brightness and detail in the image. Despite this, it met my minimum requirements for 100yrd range use, being able to identify .22 cal holes on white paper.
In my testing, the turrets tracked accurately returning to zero after a box test and torture test. The scope and its iffy mounts held zero after running a number of mags through my 5.56 AR. In most respects the scope performed though I did find its eyebox to be tight.
The Bearpower 6-24×50 FFP is a big step up in performance from CVLife’s 6-24×50 AOR, but so is its launch price of around $300. While a budget price tier for a FFP 24x PRS scope, the Bearpower is competing against the Athlon Argos, Arken SH4J, and the Vortex Strike Eagle, all of which outperform the Bearpower optically. Given that stiff competition, this scope does the job but can’t be considered a value.
I posted a review of the Athlon Argos, where I complained about lens covers being too easily lost when they are not attached to the scope. After seeing it, the owner of OSS (Outdoor Sporting Solutions) contacted me. He invented and produced heavy duty retained lens covers for his Argos and he wanted to get my input on them.
Is lens caps are high quality 3D printed and available in two colors: ranger green and black. The cap is connected by stretch cord to a retaining ring that fits next to the lens shade tube on the scope. The caps were designed for most 85mm scopes like the Argos. But I found that when I tested it on my 80mm Talos, the inner rim of the caps were just a tad too wide to lock into sunshade.
I mentioned this to the founder of OSS and he said he would design future caps to be 1 or 2mm smaller so that they would fit both 80mm and 85mm spotting scopes. That kind of problem solving really puts the “solution” in Outdoor Sporting Solutions.
Last year, I had the opportunity to try out Aero Precision’s first bolt action rifle; an impressive modernized Remington 700 clone. This year Areo released a Long-Action version of the SOLUS action rifle platform, for longer magnum caliber cartridges. This version will come out later this year and promises to be a hit for ELR competitors and big game hunters.
One of the new products that Athlon had at their SHOT Show booth this year was their new generation of Pro UHD binoculars. They had upgraded the body design and features of the 8x, 10x, and 12x hunting binoculars and I was excited when they offered to send me a pair to test out.
I got the 12×50 Midas G2 Pro UHDs with the new TBR reticle. The PRO model has an etched MIL reticle in a rotating bezel in the right tube. It provides a clean and unobtrusive reticle, ideal for long range shooting corrections and ranging. The Gen 2 update features black rubberized armor over a light-weight magnesium body and most importantly, with ED glass.
ED glass reduces chromatic aberration. In field testing, I could not see any purple fringe even when looking at wires or flag poles at the outer edge of the optics field of view. The image overall was bright, balanced, sharp and clear. They produced some of the clearest images I’ve tested from a 12x binocular under $500.
Nightforce is one of the most highly regarded combat optics used by Special Forces and Law Enforcement officers. Their ATACR and NX8 are 1-8x LPVOs with truly daylight bright illumination. Moreover, the NX8 is one of the shortest FFP 1-8x you can buy. And while they’re over a thousand dollars, professionals say they’re worth every penny.
The MP5 is one of the most reliable and legendary SMGs in the world. But its design is nearly 70 years old and lack the modular features of modern PDWs to allow easy mounting of tactical accessories and optics. Thanks to the industrial designers at UTG Leapers, MP5 owners can add compatibility for 1913 Picatinny or MLok by easily adding this modern aluminum handguard.
Best of all all UTG Leapers products are made in Taiwan (the good China) and their UTG Pro line is made in the good ol’ USA. So you don’t have to feel un-patriotic when you’re looking for a good value.
Some scopes and binoculars advertise the fact that they use: ED Glass. And no this is not short for ‘erectile disfunction’, ‘Dept. of Eduction’ or ‘Edward’. ED stands for Extra low Dispersion glass, a special type of glass that has been formulated with chemical compounds that are designed to reduce chromatic aberration.
Chromatic aberration is a prismatic effect caused by light passing through a highly curved lens or lenses; such as in scopes with a high magnification factor. With 1-10x LPVO’s chromatic aberration is all too common. The light is refracted and slightly separated into its component colors like in a prism. ED glass compensates for this refraction, producing a clearer image that is in register.
So why don’t all scopes use ED glass? There are some trade-offs. ED glass is more expensive, can be more brittle, and has a little less light transparency. The practical benefits of ED glass can outweigh these trade-offs in many use cases. For long range precision, having a scope that is slightly darker but clearer would arguably be better than a scope that’s better in low light but blurrier.
The scopes in this video are available on Amazon through these affiliate links which support my channel:
At SHOT Show 2024, Aero debuted their first rimfire suppressor, the Tephra-22. At about 7 ounces and 5 inches long, it is both light weight a small. Made of a light weight aluminum body with steel mount and baffles for durability even in full-auto. The Tephra-22 is expected to be available in Q2 of 2024.
