Bear Creek Arsenal is known for its value-priced rifles, pistols, and components. At this year’s SHOT Show they showed off an unusual rifle, their bolt-action AR in 350 Legend and 450 Bushmaster.
This new rifle allows you to hunt using a large hunting caliber while being compatible with MilSpec AR lowers, triggers, and accessories. They first rolled this new rifle out in 350 Legend and 450 Bushmaster to make sure that the platform could handle those high-pressure rounds before they produced more popular hunting cartridges such as .308.
5.11 Tactical released a stylish men’s sports coat blazer loaded with tactical-ready pockets and straps. This jacket was teased at least year’s SHOT Show, but was called at the time, the “Bravo” jacket. This travel blazer is available on 5.11’s website and is the closest thing to wearing John Wick’s jacket without being bulletproof.
This company was originally part of Standard Oil before that company was broken up. It’s brand name was first established in 1931. And later merged with Exxon in 1999.
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Ghibili Which means “Desert Wind” in Libyan Arabic. It is also the name of a Japanese Anime production company Studio Ghibili founded in 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki
Studio Ghibli
24 movies or 23 if you count Nasucaä which was created before Studio Ghibili was founded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuOfgFw8eM0
My Ghibli Films
Kiki’s Delivery Service: I can put this film on permanent replay. Kiki is such as a strong a sweet character that it made me want to have a daughter.
My Neighbor Totoro: The most Ghibili of Studio Ghibli films. Totoro has become the mascot for the studio. I saw poster for this when I first visited Hong Kong in 1992 and was obsessed with learning more about this film until I saw it as a bootleg DVD in the early 2000s.
Spirited Away: The biggest-grossing Studio Ghibili film and their first to win an Oscar. A love story to traditional Japanese spiritualism and traditions.
Howls Moving Castle: A sweeping magical epic with great voice acting by Mini Driver and Christian Bale
Grave of Fireflies: The first animated film to make me cry. It is a heartbreaking film about childhood and the misery of war. Was released as a double-feature with My Neighbor Totoro.
Ponyo: One of my least favorite Ghibli films. It’s a bit too childish and the English Dub is distracting: Liam Neeson just sounds like Liam Neeson in this film.
Nausucaä and the Valley of the Winds: The first Ghibili film (it predates the studio founding). I saw a mediocre American adaptation on video in the 1980’s and was blown away by the animation. Super ambitious and lush world-building film that rivals Dune in the original manga.
Castle in the Sky: One of Studio Ghibli’s oldest films and carries themes about technology, greed, and warfare that are more approachable than Nasucaä. It influences many of Ghibili’s later works like Howls Moving Catle and Princes Mananoke.
Princes Mananoke: One of the films I took my wife to see when we were dating. Our mutual love of anime was a strong indication to me of how compatible we were. This is an amazingly animated action film, fantasy, and historical drama.
Porco Rosso: A film about an alternative 1930’s universe where airplane designers and pilots compete in races and smuggling and the main character was inexplicably been transformed into a man-pig.
Pom Poko: A fantastical film about magical Japanese badgers and their attempts to adapt to human developers building modern homes in their forest.
Romantic Ghibili Films to see with a date
Whispers of the Heart
From up on Poppy Hill
When Marnie was There
The Wind Rises
CONTESTS
NAME THE BRAND CLUE: This brand is also known for selling the first Synthetic motor oil in the US: Mobil 1.
Last October, I competed in an NRA Falling Plates match at the Coyote Point Rifle and Pistol Club. I had a really good run through the match until the last rounds when I missed a string of plates. For most of that match, I was able to use my new ED-AR LPVO at 1x due to its clarity. But in the last stage, I increased the magnification to 3x and wasn’t used to the reticle change on this first focal plane (FFP) optic and that made me panic a bit and rush through my round. I choked and ended up blowing my tie for the lead.
Three months later, I’ve had more experience with this scope. I took the same rifle and scope to the January 18, 2025 match to see if I could redeem myself. This time there were 20 contestants. This year, we added a 5th stage to the matches, ending at a distance of 50 yards, which makes a magnified optic almost necessary to aim at 6″ plates.
We start from a distance of 30 yards with a 10-second time limit to shoot down 6 steel plates, limited to 6 rounds of ammo. Each shooter gets 2 attempts per stage. After all competitors have shot, the stage position moves back 5 yards and the time limit is increased by 1 second.
I did well through the first 3 rounds only missing 1 plate out of 18. But moving out to 40 yards, the plates were harder for everybody to hit. I moved my magnification up from 1x to 2x and then to 3x. I still prefer a SFP for an LPVO in action shooting. But unlike my previous attempt, I had a few months of range practice getting used to this scope.
I honestly did not think I did that well. So I was frankly surprised that I came in 4th place but only 3 points behind the 1st place shooter. If I’d only slowed down on hit 3 or 4 more plates, I could have won it. Maybe next time.
Palmetto State Armory is among the most creative and bold firearms companies. They have created look-alike firearms that are half the cost of their original inspiration. At this year’s SHOT Show, PSA unveiled the Sabre11, which is essentially a clone of the Staccotto 2011 (though they can’t refer to it due to trademarks). Like the 2011, the Sabre11 is a double-stack 1911-style pistol chambered in Luger 9mm. It has a full-length lower accessory rail and an RMR cut slide.
This is a design prototype and PSA is gauging interest in this pistol by allowing fans to vote for their top 3 SHOT Show concept guns on their website. The top-voted guns will be developed into production guns, just like the original Jackl and the upcoming M5.7 pistol.
March Scopes makes some of Japan’s highest-performance competition rifle scopes and true World Beaters. At SHOT Show 2025 they showed off a refinement of their flagship PRS scope and a new concept prototype, the March Tracking Scope.
An example of Marche’s innovation is their prototype “Tracking Scope”. This straight-path scope has a reticle and is based on their 6-60x and 8-80x Majesta rifle scopes. What makes this scope a “Tracking” instead of a “Spotting” scope is its ball-jointed tripod mount, allowing the scope to pivot, pan, and tilt. This allows for easily tracking a moving target or shifting to various stationary targets much more quickly and preciously than a scope on a ball or panning head. This is a concept scope that March plans to produce next year if there is positive customer feedback.
This company was founded in Minnesota and was originally named Goodfellow Dry Goods in June 1902 before being renamed the Dayton’s Dry Goods Company in 1903 and later the Dayton Company in 1910 before its current name.
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Aespa. This K-Pop group consists of four members: Karina, Giselle, Winter, and Ningning
Samples Afrika Bombatta Sousonic Force “Planet Rock”
The origin of Tiffany. Theophania > Tiffany
CONTESTS
Next Livestream Wed Feb 5
NAME THE BRAND CLUE: This brand is second only to Walmart as the largest discount chain in the US and is also known by its somewhat ironic french-esque name “Tarjay”
Discovery Optics is known for making high-quality shooting optics for ridiculously affordable prices. I’ve reviewed a number of their scopes over the last two years. Discovery Optics attended SHOT show for the very first time this year. At their booth, they showed off a brand new version of their flagship ED-PRS scope.
The ED-PRS is a Chinese-made scope that uses Japanese ED glass and is designed for PRS shooters. Almost all of Discovery Optics’ tactical and competition scopes are built with MIL reticles and turrets. But many American hunters and long-range shooters, prefer MOA measurements for their finer level of adjustment. Discovery listened to user feedback have released the 5-25×56 ED-PRS in MOA.
At their booth, I got my first-hand look at the new ED-PRS MOA and met fellow YouTube reviewer GunTotinMN who was working for Discovery as their presenter for SHOT 2025.
Palmetto State Armory is among the most creative and shameless firearms companies. They have come out with look-alike firearms of popular or historic firearms at half the cost. For example, the PSA Sabre Lancet is a clone of the legendary Barrett XM109 50BMG anti-material rifle.
PSA wants to gauge public interest in producing this rifle for real. PSA is asking fans to vote for their top 3 SHOT Show concept guns on their website. The top-voted guns will be developed into production guns, just like the original Jackl and the upcoming M5.7 pistol.
Palmetto State Armory is among the most creative and shameless firearms companies. They have come out with look-alike firearms of popular or historic firearms at half the cost. For example, the PSA JAKL is essentially a clone of the failed Magpul MASADA assault rifle which became the failed Bushmaster ACR.
The JACKL is a cosmetic modification of an AR upper on MilSpec lower. Since the JAKL’s release, a number of YouTubers have criticized the JACKL’s reliability. PSA is not unaware of these videos and user feedback.
To address some of the reliability issues, PSA created a custom lower which better optimizes the design of the JACKL upper. At this year’s SHOT Show, they released the Jackl 2
This is a design prototype and PSA wants to gauge public interest. PSA is asking fans to vote for their top 3 SHOT Show concept guns on their website. The top-voted guns will be developed into production guns, just like the original Jackl and the upcoming M5.7 pistol.
