Texas Precision Optics is now putting out their scopes under the brand name TPO, and dropping their old brand name Sniper. I welcome this change as I always found the name “Sniper” to be a bit cringy; like a knife company using the brand name “Ninja”.
I reviewed a few Sniper scopes a few years ago. They were budget-priced scopes that came with a wealth of accessories and a few compromises. They had sharp glass but with noticeable chromatic aberration. Their build quality and construction were a bit rough and unrefined. I had low expectations when they offered to send me a KT 5-40×56 to test.
The KT has TPO’s industrial aesthetic with turret’s and knobs that look like motor gears. The fit and finish was unrefined; its parallax and magnification knobs were exceptionally stiff. The turrets had quite a bit of slop between clicks and felt imprecise. Despite this, the turrets tracked and the scope held zero.
Its most positive feature was its glass, which had far less chromatic aberration than previous TPO scopes. But the scope had a very tight eyebox and was dim and low contrast at its higher magnification. The reticle is a traditional cross-hair with MIL stadia, but may be too thick for precision shooters.
The KT promises 5-40×56 performance but compromises its fit-and-finish and eyebox. But with a street price under $300, some budget-conscious shooters who need a 40x may be willing to overlook its shortcomings
Athlon Optics is known for making a wide range of high-quality scopes on par with other Leupold, Vortex, and Burris at a more reasonable price. At SHOT Show 2025 their most surprising new product wasn’t a scope or optic.
Athlon is releasing the Rangecraft Velocity Pro ballistic chronograph. Looking strikingly similar to the Garmin Xero, the differences lie in its user interface which is much easier to use and snappy. Like their scopes, the biggest advantage that Athlon delivers is price. The expected street price is about half that of the Garmin Xero.
UPDATE: Due to the Trump Administration’s Tarriffs, prices for electronics made in China went up and there were delays in shipment. The original launch date was intended for late April but the first shipments were delayed.
Athlon Optics released a slew of new products at SHOT Show 2025, but one of the most exciting is a budget-priced thermal scope, the Cronos ATS Pro 25p. This high-performance thermal scope will have a retail price of around $699 with a 1024×768 OLED HD display to provide a sharp, high contrast view with vivid color.
As Dustin said, Athlon has been offering shooters great value, and with these updates, even more so. I look forward to trying out all of these new products in the coming year.
At the Leupold booth in SHOT Show 2025 I was brought into their meeting room to see just one scope. But this scope was the Gen 2 update of their flagship VX hunting line. The VX HD Gen2 features ED glass and a newly redesigned tool-less resetable turrets. These turrets have a lever which sits flush into the circular turret, which swings out to release the turret top to reset the zero.
Staccato 2011’s are one of the hottest 1911-style pistols because they are double-stack 9mm bridging the gap between those who love the 1911 platform but want a pistol with the capacity of a modern 9mm duty pistol. At SHOT Show, they debuted their new HD P4, a compact design to be a CCW pistol.
There’s also a rumor that this new pistol would be certified to be available to civilians in California. I asked if that was true at their booth but unfortunately, it turns out to be just a rumor.
Too Much Information live chat show. In this episode, we’ll be meeting Will Rosado, who is the illustrator for GI Joe. This video is sponsored by Aura. Stop leaving yourself vulnerable to data breaches. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed. Read my notes https://moondogindustries.com/tmi-live-250326/
This toy brand started as the Hassenfeld Brothers company in Providence, Rhode Island, in late 1923. The company originally made textiles, then produced pencil cases and school supplies.
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Special Guest: https://www.williamrosado.com/ William Rosado is a comic book artist and illustrator. He began his career in 1993 working for Marvel Comics as a penciler on the title G.I. Joe. His first published work for DC Comics was over the New Titans title as a penciler. He worked on some of the Batman and Superman titles during the 90’s.
At the Burris / Steiner booth in SHOT Show 2025 they had a ton of new optics to show off. Their entire line of Fullfield scopes has been updated for their 50th Anniversary. These scopes feature stylish red turrets which are user changable to other turrets with zero stop and calibrations.
Burris has a new enclosed emitter Fastfire E. But by far, their biggest debut is their new XTR PS model of electronic augmented long-range scope with a in-tube heads-up-display. This optic syncs with their ballistic App for you phone that helps you calculate your adjustments as well as starts a shot timer when it senses recoil from your rifle.
Last month, I participated in the Budget Rifle and Ammo Challenge created by BoomStick @FukuYTmark6 and LongRilfe @MnShootingSports. This challenge target has six 3/4″ target rounds which are small but not unusual for a 50-yard rimfire challenge target. The real challenge is the limitations on the price of the gear and ammo you can shoot it with.
This challenge is limited to factory rifles (no upgraded trigger or barrel) and optic must have a retail price of less than $700 combined. Moreover, the rimfire ammo used must be bulk box 22LR and excludes more premium ammo types such as CCI Standard and Norma Tac22 (CCI standard is premium? love it!).
I accepted this challenge with a smile. My rifle is a factory Ruger Precision Rimfire which I bought on a Black Friday sale. I’m going to count the average sale price today which is about $400. That means the scope I choose has to cost less than $300. Fortunately for me, I recently reviewed the Discovery Optic LHD 8-32×56. A very high magnification scope for a very budget price of about $249 https://youtu.be/Jn7LcnJBsbg. For the challenge, I shot it with Federal AutoMatch a 40grn LRN round.
During the challenge run, my 3rd shot was a wildly off flyer. This inconsistency would plague the rest of my run. My best target was the 2nd with two shots going through the same hold. The rest were inconsistent. I ended up with a score of only 7 of a possible 18. Federal AutoMatch was even worse ammo in my rifle than Aguila, with which I scored 11.
This prize supplied by Discovery Optics and is awarded at their sole discretion and direction.
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This brand is a German footwear and apparel company. It is the second largest athletic and fitness brand in the world, behind Nike.
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Crunch Fitness is a worldwide fitness brand. Crunch was founded in NYC’s Greenwich Village in 1989 by Doug Levine, a former stockbroker. It’s tagline and philosophy “No Judgments” was ment to remove the intimidation factor from going to the gym.
I started working on Crunch Fitness advertising back in 1995. I designed an wrote headlines for a variety of print and billboard ads. Today I work on freelance creative projects for Crunch.
Special Guest: Tony Harl Author, serial entreperneur, Tony Hartl founded Planet Tan in Dallas in 1995 and built the company from the ground-up before selling it for millions. He has been a guest lecturer at The Caruth Institute of Entrepreneurship at SMU’s Cox Business School. He is a Partner and CEO of Crunch Fitness Texas.
CONTESTS March Multixel contest drawing
April 5 Contest
NAME THE BRAND CLUE:
This brand was named after it’s founder Adi Dassle. It first attained popular awareness in the early 1980’s among the hip-hop community. Rappers Run-DMC wrote a song estolling their name and footwear. Unfortunately they perpetuated America’s mispronouncication of the brand.
