Category Archives: Shooting Sports

Firearms and shooting sports

Shooting Sports

Vortex Strike Eagle 5-25×56

https://youtu.be/QM3_zJPiCiE

The Vortex Strike Eagle 5-25×56 is one of the top-rated long-range scopes under $1000 (MSRP over $1250 but with a street price of around $700) when it first came out a few years ago. Vortex took many of the features found in their top-tier Razor HD and created a virtually identical-looking scope for a 1/3 of the price. But is it a “Budget Razor” or a “cheap knockoff”?

The Strike Eagle shares a nearly identical-looking external design to the Razor, save for the Razor’s MilSpec FDE/Burnt Bronze finish. But on closer inspection, there are some differences. The illumination knob does not lock and the elevation and windage turrets don’t feel as crisp or precise as the more expensive Razor. While the controls are lackluster, its glass is not.

Looking through the scope, I was treated to Vortex’s glass. The image was bright, sharp, color accurate and high contrast. At the range, I did notice some chromatic abortion at high magnification, but not as pronounced as seen in the video footage. The Strike Eagle is able to resolve fine details to a degree I usually see in much more expensive scopes.

The Strike Eagle is not cheap. With the arrival to the market of brands such as Arken and Discovery Optics, its performance has been matched or even exceeded to some degree by budget High-Performance scopes. The Strike Eagle is still Vortex’s best glass for long-range under $1000.

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Vortex Strike Eagle on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4gA4Ejq

RESOLUTION

Group -1 / Element 6

SPECS

Magnification 5-25x
Objective Lens: 56 mm
Tube Diameter: 34 mm
Focal Plane: First
Reticle: EBR-7C (MOA)
Illumination: red
Eye Relief: 3.7″
FOV @ 100 Yards: 24.0-5.2
Parallax: 15 yrds-Infinity
Elevation Adj: 110 MOA
Windage Adj: 78 MOA
Per Click: 1/4 MOA
Per Rotation: 25 MOA
Length: 14.6 in
Weight: 30.4 oz

Shooting Sports

TMI 250219

Aura https://aura.com/moondog

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NAME THE BRAND CLUE

This company was founded by an animator named Walt. Who’s first full-length movie was Snow White, earning the first Oscar fo an Animated Film.

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This animated film company created a world wide chain of amusement parks including the Magic Kingdom in Anaheim California, Epcon Center in Orlando FL, and eponymous parks in Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo Japan, and Shanghai China.

HASHTAG DRAWING #Disney

KY Flood GoFundMe
https://gofund.me/5d33bd14

I’m helping fundraising for these folks who lost their homes due to flooding in Eastern KY. https://youtu.be/b4rxTX82JSU?si=SIgFcgFdxdlq0KWc

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Shooting Sports

Discovery ED-PRS Gen2 5-25×56 MOA

It’s deja vua all over again. It felt like I had just reviewed the ED-PRS Gen2 5-25×56 about a year ago. This scope had some slight changes to the turret and improvements to the clarity and sharpness of the glass. Discovery asked me to review a new ED-PRS Gen2 5-25×56 in MOA, but this scope has even more changes than just the reticle.

The size and weight of this scope remain the same at about 4 lbs and over 16″ long; over 19″ with the sun shade attached. Discovery changed the turrets which no longer have silvered screw-in tops. The new version has black tops that have indents so that they can be unscrewed with your fingers allowing the turrets to be zero-set without tools. The previous Gen 2 had a shorter windage turret held in with 3 set screws. Discovery changed the windage turret which now has the same tool-less turret as the elevation.

Discovery also changed the design of the throw lever. Instead of a screw-in post, the new throw lever has a more robust flattened shape with a broader base that connects to the magnification ring. The lever is now held in place with two torx screws.

Discovery scopes come with a ludicrous amount of accessories. But with this and future ED-PRS scopes, they’ve removed the scope rings. Too many customers complained about the high-hight scope rings they included previously and asked for exchanges or returns, so Discovery chose to remove the free rings from the package. This is why we can’t have nice things.

The new Gen 2 retains and possibly improves the quality of the Japanese ED glass. This scope appears slightly sharper and clearer than my old Gen 2 MIL version. Unfortunately, it still has the same unforgiving eyebox. And another important feature that hasn’t changed: the price. This new scope is still about $350, which keeps the ED-PRS the best value in its class.

BUY

Get 10% Off with 525Moondog

Amazon https://amzn.to/42QjQop

Discovery Optics https://discoveryopt.com/ED-PRS-GEN2-5-25X56SFIR-FFP-Z-Optics-Scope.html

In Canada you can order one from https://www.CDNprecision.com

RESOLUTION

Group -1 / Element 6

SPECS

Magnification: 5-25X

Objective Lens: 56mm

Tube Diameter: 34mm

Reticle: First Focal Plane

Max Elev Adj: 122 MOA

Max Wind Adj: 60 MOA

FOV: 24.6 ft – 4.9 ft @ 100YDS

Exit Pupil: 11.2 – 2.2 mm

Eye Relief: 3.4 in -3.3 in

Click Value: 1/4 MOA

Length: 16.34in (415mm)

Weight: 44.3oz (1255g)

Shooting Sports

BCA BC-15 Bolt Action AR

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.

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Bear Creek Arsenal https://alnk.to/7fqHtyA

Shooting Sports

TMI Live 250212

Aura https://aura.com/moondog

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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.

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Shooting Sports

CPRPC Falling Plates 1.18.25

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.


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Amazon affiliate: https://amzn.to/4g3PMKg

Discovery Optics: https://discoveryopt.com/DISCOVERYOPT-ED-AR-1-8X24IR-FFP-Optics-Scopes.html

Shooting Sports

SHOT 2025 PSA Sabre11

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.

SHOT Show 2025 poll https://palmettostatearmory.com/shotshow2025

Shooting Sports

SHOT 2025 March Tracking Scope

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.

MARCH SCOPES

https://marchscopes.com

Shooting Sports, Social

TMI Live 250205

Aura https://aura.com/moondog

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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

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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”

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