All posts by moondog

Tom "Moondog" DelMundo is a former NYC Creative Director.
Airsoft, Gadgets, Product Reviews

May 14 Contest: Monstrum Tracer

MAY 14 PRIZE: Monstrum Tracer EDC

The contest Prize will be chosen from all entries submitted from May 7, 2023 through May 13, 2023. Entries must be received no later than 12pm EST on May 13, 2023.

CONTEST INSTRUCTIONS

1. Subscribe to my YouTube channel or TikTok

2. Take a screen shot of the channel screen showing you have subscribed/followed and email it to me



3. Email me with the Subject: May 14 Contest
• Attach the JPG or PNG screen shot
• Include your full name and ship-to address in the email (so I can confirm you live in the US or Canada)

Use the button email below or email me directly at: contest@moondogindustries.com


4. BONUS: Share this with a friend and get them to enter the contest too. Ask them to reference your name and email address in the body of their message ie. “My buddy johndoe@gmail.com clued me into the contest”, and I’ll award you an extra-bonus entry to the contest. It’s important that they reference your email so I can easily look up your entry. Each friend that subscribes and refers to you in their email will earn you another bonus entry for a maximum of 10 entries (including yours).

EMAIL ME YOUR ENTRY

RULES

NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER. YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING DO NOT INCREASE WITH A PURCHASE. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

1. Eligibility

Void where prohibited by law. Must be legal resident within the USA or Canada. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, employees’ immediate family members, are ineligible 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.

2. Sponsors and Platforms

Moondog Industries (known as the SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promotor based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, and online video platforms (known as PLATFORMS) are not SPONSORS or in any way affiliated with the contest or content.

3. Agreement to Rules

By entering your contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retain 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.

4. Entry Period

Contest email entries must be received between:
12:00pm EST 30 April 2023
and
12:00pm EST 13 May 2023

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 indicator that your account is Following that page. Send a screen capture image file of any of those sites to contest@moondogindustries.com . One entry per person 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

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 Winners entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.

7. Odds

Odds of winning is dependent upon the number of eligible entries received.

8. Selection and Notification of the Winner

The winner will be chosen at random by the SPONSOR from among the entrants that demonstrated the skill to navigate the electronic entry and have met the minimum requirements. Winners will be contacted via the email used to enter the contest no later than December 31, 2023.

SPONSOR are not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided a 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 24hrs of sending a notification, 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 in the event that non-authorized 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 participants agreement to release and hold harmless the SPONSOR and PLATFORMS, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees, etc., against all claims liability, illness, injury, death, loss, etc., that occurs 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 State 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 the them. 

Gadgets, Product Reviews

Monstrum Tracer 1000LM EDC

At SHOT Show 2023 I visited the Monstrum Tactical booth where they introduced me to a green prototype of their new Tracer EDC EDC flashlight. Monstrum told that this new rechargeable flashlight and laster had a max output of 1000 lumens and included a green laser pointer. A few weeks later the Tracer was released and Monstrum sent me a sample to test and evaluate.

The Tracer is an all metal, flat rectangular box that weighs slightly less than 3oz and is 4.5″ long, 1″ wide, and a half-inch thick. The far end from the LED emitter (base) has embedded Neodymium magnets which allow the light to self-mount on metal surfaces. The unit includes a pre-installed clasping clip.

The controls are two flat rubber pads which control the flashlight and laser respectively. A small silicone rubber flap on the side of the unit protects a USB-C charging port. The Tracer is IPX6 rated and it survived a high-pressure water hose spray.

Testing the unit in my DIY Lumen Testing Rig, I recorded an approximate value of 1300 lumens at its highest output mode, higher than the 1000 lumen max number Monstrum advertises. In a battery Runtime tests, the unit lasted the 30 minutes (± 0.75 minutes) at maximum brightness; at which time the unit was uncomfortably too hot to hold.

In many ways the Tracer exceeded expectations. But where it falls short is in its lack of a brightness-output mode-memory. The Tracer always activates at max brightness (1000LM) which is potentially blinding if you turn it on while looking in a small dark space; such as under a car seat.

Furthermore, the green laser and the flashlight can not be activated at the same time; activating one turns off the other. While this is not an issue when using the Tracer as a business presentation pointer, but if you’re in a out in the woods walking a fence and want to use the laser to use the laser to identify one tree from among a forest, you’re out of luck.

One question comes to mind: is the Tracer a copy of the Arkfeld. My first impression of the Tracer was that it looked suspiciously like an OLight Arkfeld, which is also a 1000LM rechargeable light. Is this a copy of the OLight or an EOM factory custom variant? It doesn’t really matter, the Tracer feels and performs like a solid EDC light. The primary difference is that the controls of the Tracer are digital pressure pads and the USB-C charging port which I find more practical than the custom magnetic cables used by OLight.

The Monstrum Tracer EDC is available through these Affiliate links which support my channel:
Amazon https://amzn.to/49vpE7J
Monstrum.com https://alnk.to/8PBuQJC

Shooting Sports

Fenix GL19R Pistol Light

Fenix is best known for making affordable EDC tac-lights, used by LEOs and EMTs. At SHOT Show, I visited the Fenix booth and got a walk-through of their newest products. They sent me their new GL19R to test and evaluate. This is an update to their GL19 featuring a user-replaceable CR186350 lithium battery that can be recharged internally through a USB-C port in the side of the GL19R.

The unit itself has a matte black anodized finish and a solid all-metal body. The unit comes with a Glock-sized recoil lug pre-installed and an optional Picatinny 1913 recoil lug. The GL19 controls are ambidextrous pressure paddles/pads on either side of the rear of the unit.

The GL19 has a “Turbo” mode and a lower power “High” mode which is a bit of marketing spin since they are effectively identical to a “High” and “Normal” mode on any other light. Fenix’s stats claim the GL19R outputs 1200 lumens in Turbo; in my testing a recorded 1840 lumens. It’s rare to find a Chinese flashlight maker whose lumen numbers are overly inflated and even rarer to find one whose products actually perform better than their stated claims. This bodes positively to the performance of Fenix’s other products.

The GL19R is IPX 68 with the 8 in that rating denoting that the unit can survive immersion in up to 3m of water. I tested the unit’s run time while submerged in a pitcher of water. In Turbo mode the unit stayed on for approximately 35 minutes before shutting off. The unit survived the test without any observable moisture entering.

Overall I was pleased with the GL19 which performed as well as higher-end lights from Surefire and Streamlight and costs slightly less O-Light (the budget flashlight king). I would have preferred slightly more resistant controls requiring more pressure to activate. What may be a deal-breaker is that the GL19 has a strobe mode that can not be disabled. Fortunately, the strobe is not easily activated, requiring the user to first activate the unit, and is a ‘Momentary’ mode. I suggested to Fenix that they could fix this issue by incorporating a lock-out mode with some sort of ‘easter-egg’ style key combination (ie. holding down both activation buttons for 20 seconds).

BUY

Get 10% off using code AF-MOONDOG
on Fenix LIghting’s website https://www.fenixlighting.com


The GL19R is available through this link https://alnk.to/28P0Lf9

Airsoft, Travel

OP: Bad Blood Rules

Operation Bad Blood is a MilSim-Lite game with unique game rules designed to support an immersive experience. This video helps explain those rules to visual and auditory learners for whom a printed rule packet is TLDR. I strongly encourage all participants at this event to download the player packet from the Evike ticket page and follow along to this explainer video.

Key Rules Concepts

  • Body, clothing, gear, and gun hits count.
  • When hit, get out of the line of fire, then wave a red rag.
  • After calling your hit, go to your Triage to respawn.
  • The Triage/Respawn moves with your army so keep tabs its location.
  • The goal of your team is to safely get your Ebola sample collectors to each sample stamp.
  • The game is a 5-hour non-stop moving battle; prepare accordingly.
Shooting Sports

May 7 Contest: Swag Bag

MAY 7 PRIZE: Shot Show Swag Bag

The contest Prize will be chosen from all entries submitted from April 30, 2023 through may 6, 2023. Entries must be received no later than 12pm EST on May 6, 2023.

CONTEST INSTRUCTIONS

1. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: Moondog Go

2. Take a screen shot of the channel screen showing you have subscribed/followed and email it to me



3. Email me with the Subject: “May 7 Swag Bag”
• Attach the JPG or PNG screen shot
• Include your full name and ship-to address in the email (so I can confirm you live in the US or Canada)

Use the button email below or email me directly at: contest@moondogindustries.com


4. BONUS: Share this with a friend and get them to enter the contest too. Ask them to reference your name and email address in the body of their message ie. “My buddy johndoe@gmail.com clued me into the contest”, and I’ll award you an extra-bonus entry to the contest. It’s important that they reference your email so I can easily look up your entry. Each friend that subscribes and refers to you in their email will earn you another bonus entry for a maximum of 10 entries (including yours).

EMAIL ME YOUR ENTRY

RULES

NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER. YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING DO NOT INCREASE WITH A PURCHASE. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

1. Eligibility

Void where prohibited by law. Must be legal resident within the USA or Canada. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, employees’ immediate family members, are ineligible 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.

2. Sponsors and Platforms

Moondog Industries (known as the SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promotor based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, and online video platforms (known as PLATFORMS) are not SPONSORS or in any way affiliated with the contest or content.

3. Agreement to Rules

By entering your contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retain 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.

4. Entry Period

Contest email entries must be received between:
12:00pm EST 30 April 2023
and
12:00pm EST 6 May 2023

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 indicator that your account is Following that page. Send a screen capture image file of any of those sites to contest@moondogindustries.com . One entry per person 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

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 Winners entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.

7. Odds

Odds of winning is dependent upon the number of eligible entries received.

8. Selection and Notification of the Winner

The winner will be chosen at random by the SPONSOR from among the entrants that demonstrated the skill to navigate the electronic entry and have met the minimum requirements. Winners will be contacted via the email used to enter the contest no later than December 31, 2023.

SPONSOR are not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided a 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 24hrs of sending a notification, 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 in the event that non-authorized 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 participants agreement to release and hold harmless the SPONSOR and PLATFORMS, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees, etc., against all claims liability, illness, injury, death, loss, etc., that occurs 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 State 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 the them. 

Airsoft, Travel

Join OP:Bad Blood 2023

Operation: Bad Blood is an annual JDRF charity airsoft event that I created to raise money to help find a cure for diabetes. The game is produced at EMR Event Park in Pennsylvania and is also the official East Coast Customer Appreciation Event for Evike.com. The event attracts 1000 players from all over the country.

My dedicated staff of volunteers help me plan and execute the event every year. We’ll be starting weekly Sunday Q&A Livestreams to help players get the most out of the event. I posted this video to answer some basic questions about our gun and gear requirements for the event. The biggest change for this years game will be a switch from FPS chrono measurements to Joule based limits.

Be sure to subscribe Moondog Go my new travel channel on YouTube to get notified of our upcoming videos. https://www.youtube.com@moondoggo

TICKETS

https://www.evike.com/products/108249/

FACEBOOK

https://www.facebook.com/groups/343065087856288

EMR Camping Reservations

https://emreventpark.com/event/bad-blood-2023/

Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

Bausch and Lomb Discoverer 15-60×60

When I was a boy, my uncle let me borrow his B+L Discoverer. I used this scope to spot my hit on paper . It’s a straight tube refracting telescope of the kind that looks like a classic telescope. In fact I used to see the rings of Saturn for the first time.

Last year, I indulged in a little nostalgia when I purchased a 1980’s vintage B+L Discoverer spotting scope on Ebay. This 15-60×60 spotting scope was made by Bausch and Lomb, a brand best known today as a maker of contact lenses but back in the 1980’s, B+L was better known as a maker of military grade optics. B+L made binoculars and target scopes for US Army tanks and planes in the WWII, and invented RayBan sunglasses for bomber pilots.

The Discoverer dwarfs most modern 60mm spotting scopes. It is over 17″ long and weighs 3lbs due to its all metal tube construction and glass. Modern spotting scopes typically utilize a prism to bend the light and make the overall length, shorter. Most modern scopes are far lighter using more plastic parts. And most importantly, modern ED glass has higher light throughput, specialized coatings to reduce chromatic aberrations.

Most modern spotters over $250 in the 60x class will offer better image quality due to advancements in computerized glass fabrication and optical coatings. But compared to budget scopes, the Discoverer can still hold its own with superior sharpness and detail. If you’re lucky, you can still find this scope on Ebay, estate sales or garage sale for under a $100 (mint condition in box models go for much more). Just be sure you give the glass and the body a good inspection.

Shooting Sports

Blackfang bullets

While visiting the Pardini booth at SHOT Show 2023, I was introduced to their partner Vanguard Outfitters which had a display case of bullets with an almost sci-fi looking construction. Blackfang (aka Black Dragon Fang or Obsidian Dragon) ammo originally came out in 5.7x28mm, the PDW round developed for the FN P90. While the original 5.7×2 military specs had armor penetrating constructions, the round was neutered for the civilian market.

The Blackfang was developed as a workaround that met civilian ammo restrictions, while delivering higher tumble damage and the ability to defeat soft-armor and hard-armor at CQB distances. This round is made of solid copper with a black iron anodized coating. At SHOT this year, they showcased a 300 Blackout version of the round.

Since I don’t own any firearms in this caliber (nor have any plans to) I won’t be testing any of this ammo in the near future, but I appreciate the engineering and ingenuity that goes into making this ammo.

Find more about these bullets at Vanguard Outfitters https://www.vanguardoutfittersllc.com/57×28-custom-ammo/custom-ammo-1476/blackfang-obsidian-dragon-14761867

Shooting Sports

Discovery ED-PRS 5-25×56 FFP

I was contacted by Discovery Optics a few months ago to review their new ED-PRS scope. What I got was a scope in a large box filled with accessories. Usually when you get a ton of stuff with a scope this is a bad sign; they are cheap accessories designed to distract you from a mediocre scope. The Discovery ED-PRS on the other hand contained some high quality accessories that were a step above what you’d often get with some other scope brands.

Instead of a simple sheet of fabric cleaning cloth, the ED-PRS came with a soft chamois. In addition to the chamois, it also included a photography lens cleaning pen with an optical nano carbon cleaning tip. It included a set of high-profile scope rings with recoil lugs and printed torque markings.

In the box was an all metal scope level kit which helps you level and square your scope to your rail. I’ve only seen this tool is usually sold as an after-market accessory. And perhaps the most unusual items was a 3-piece sun shade tube which ads about another 10″ to the 13″ long scope.

The scope itself was sizable. It weighs 24oz but feels heavier. Its most notable feature are its oversized turrets. The ED-PRS’s turrets are even wider and taller than an Arken EP5. The turrets are non-locking, resettable and contain a cog wheel style zero-stop similar to Athlon’s Gen2 scopes. The turrets have brass cores and were loud and tactile with no slop.

The turrets, wheels, and nobs feature aggressive fine knurling, which along with being oversized make them generally easy to turn even when wearing gloves. All except for the magnification power ring which was exceedingly stiff and difficult to turn; even with the removable throw lever attached. I found myself really having to manhandle the lever to change magnification which severely impact performance for hunting or competition.

Not that I would take this scope hunting. I think it’s probably too bulky and heavy for most hunters (except those shooting from pimped out blinds or truck beds). The ED-PRS is probably best suited for precision bench-rest shooting with its easy to read markings and fine lined first focal plane reticle. While the scope features a ELR style Christmas tree reticle, serious long range shooters may be disappointed with the glass.

The ED-PRS has what they call a SFIR reticle, which looks a lot like the Arken VPR reticle but with more subtension markings. Like the Arken, the Discovery’s reticle only illuminates the very center cruciform of the reticle, creating something of a red-dot effect when used in low magnification. The illuminator has 6 brightness settings each separated by an OFF setting.

The first unit I received also had a very dim illuminator. Even with the scope cap on I could barely see the illuminated center cross at its highest illumination setting. Discovery sent me and a replacement scope and return label for the defective scope but the process took 3 weeks. They did warm me of the delay due to Lunar New Year which causes many delays in factory production in China. The new scope had a much brighter illumination but even this was not quite daylight bright.

Looking through the scope the image was surprisingly good for a budget scope. Bright with good center to edge sharpness. The other edge of the sight picture had only a hint of distortion even at 25x. The scope kept focus and point of aim throughout its magnification range. The eye box and eye relief were good for a budget scope.

The scope advertises ED glass but I noted some softness in detail at long range that I attribute to chromatic aberration. This was noticeable in mid day light with the target backlight. Overall resolution was better than average for the scopes price tier but not the best in its class. The ED-PRS was still sharp enough to allow me to pick out .22cal holes on paper at 100yrs.

The ED-PRS’ glass is not in the same league as a Leupold VX, Athlon Argos, Vortex Diamond Back Tactical, or even an Arken EP5. But when comparing what you get in the box for a street price of $399 (as of this writing) I would still consider the ED-PRS a good value. If you’re a beginning long-range shooter with a limited budget, this scope is something to consider.

This scope is available through my Affiliate links

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Ukni4t

RESOLUTION
Group: -1
Element: 3

OVERALL RATINGS (out 5)
Build: 4
Glass: 3.5
Reticle: 4.5
Holds Zero: 5
Box Test: 5
Turrets: 5
Eye Box: 4
Value: 5

ED-PRS SPECS
Magnification :5-25x
Objective Lens: 56mm
Reticle: SFIR FFP
Field of view:4.68°-0.93°
Exit pupil:11.16-2.24mm
Eye relief :87-85mm (3.5″)
Click Value :0.1MRAD
Elv adjust range: :15MRAD
Win adjust range: 8.7MRAD
Tube diameter :34mm
Length :13in
Weight :23.99oz

Gadgets, Shooting Sports

Athlon, what’s with the Greek names?

Athlon is the name of a Greek city which is one of the oldest cities in Europe. But no that’s not what the company was named for. So what’s the deal? I asked the staff at the Athlon booth this question and got their answer.

The answer was more straight forward and aspirational. The engineers who left Bushnell to found a new company named it after the Greek word for a “prize or sporting competition”; where we get the root of many Olympic sports like Decathlon and Biathlon. They wanted a name that sounded like they were a contender in a competitive market. And in the world of sporting optics they are.