Category Archives: Shooting Sports

Firearms and shooting sports

Shooting Sports

Primary Arms SLx 1-8×24

When Primary Arms (PA) introduced the ACSS about 10 years ago (an evolution of the Trijicon ACOG reticle), PA quickly became the must-try LPVO. When PA introduced the 1-8×24 they set a new bar for high-power, budget LPVOs. SupersetCA, Garandthumb, MrGunsnGear reviewed it and raved about it, and I bought into the hype and I bought one.

Because so many other big Guntubers had already covered this optic, I didn’t see a need to do a review of mine. But after I started posting reviews of LPVOs from SIGs, Vortex, even Monstrum, one of the more common comments I’ve gotten is some like “You should try a Primary Arms”. So here I am 5 years after I bought mine, with a review of the PA SLx 1-8×24.

This scope doesn’t come with a lot of accessories in the package. All the magic is in the scope. It has a decent eyebox, pretty clear glass (though not edge to edge clarity), bright illumination, and one of the best SFP combat reticles available, the ACSS.

4 years ago, I had taken 1-8x off my ready rifle to put it into rack storage to make room for optics I was testing for my channel. It was sitting in storage when I pulled it out to test on camera. I discovered that it had a parallax alignment flaw causing objects to shift in position when brought into the scope’s field of view at 1x. I suspect 99% of the buying public would never notice this flaw (I didn’t when I bought it nor in the time I used it).

I contacted Primary Arms about the issue and sent them photos and they were amazing. They called me immediately and sent me a return label and inspected my scope. And this was a 100% joe-blow customer interaction. I had never reviewed their products nor had a contact at PA; to them I was just any other customer. PA confirmed what I was seeing in the scope and sent me a brand new one to replace it. I was pleased to discover this SLx had slightly better glass and illumination than my original scope: Great job PA, twice!

The PA SLx 1-8x may not have the sharpest or flattest glass (fisheye) but I still love the ACSS reticle for its fast and intuitive design. The ACSS is not really great for precision shots over 500 yrds away but honestly, that’s not what I use a LPVO for. I’m looking to engage man-sized targets from CQB distance to an 8″ plate from 150yrds. Sadly the SLx also taught me that more is not better: the trade off in higher magnification with an LPVO is a tighter eyebox at 1x.

The SLx may not be the best. It may not be the cheapest. But the SLx remains my benchmark for a solid, practical, “budget” combat optic.

If you want a detailed explanation of how the ACSS reticle works, check out MrGunsnGear’s video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfVEQXVxi4A

SHOP

Primary Arms https://alnk.to/9xjE2Pt

SPECS

Objective Diameter: 24mm

Magnification: 1X – 8X

Click Value: 1/2 MOA

Illumination: red

Eye Relief: 3.50 in

Reticle: ACSS Second Focal Plane

Exit Pupil: 9.0mm at 1x, 3.0mm at 8x

Length: 10.0 in

Weight16.9 Oz

Battery: CR2032 

Shooting Sports

Discovery ED-PRS GenII 4-20×52

They say “Less is More” that could certainly be said of the ED-PRS GenII 4-20×52 scope. Earlier this year, I reviewed Discovery Optics new GenII revision of their ED-PRS 5-25×56 scope. The GenII EP-PRS boasted improved optical clarity by using Japanese ED glass. So, why would they make a 20x scope when they already offered a 25x? And why would you want to buy one?

The 20x version appears nearly identical to the 25x. In terms of performance, the 20x has a 4x magnification factor which means in theory it should provide slightly a sharper and brighter image when set to the same power numbers as the 25x. In my testing, the differences were too subtle for me to see. But what I could clearly see is that the 20x is slightly shorter, slightly lighter, and slightly cheaper than the 25x.

Moreover, most hunters and target shooters don’t typically shoot a 5-25x scope at its maximum 25x; preferring a setting of about 12x or 16x to improve clarity and brightness. A 20x scope is able to be used at 12-18x. Let me again remind you that the 20x is slightly shorter, slightly lighter, and slightly cheaper than the 25x. It all starts to make more practical sense.

BUY IT

Discovery website (get 10% off with CODE: moondog): https://discoveryopt.com/ED-PRS-4-20X52SFIR-FFP-Optics-Scope.html

or
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ZxHRP8

RESOLUION

Group: -1
Element: 5

SPECS

Objective Lens: 52 mm

Magnification: 4-20x

Tube Diameter: 34 mm

Max Elev Adj: 32 MRAD

Max Wind Adj: 17 MRAD

Adj/Click : 0.1MRAD

Exit Pupil: 2.6 – 13.3 mm

Field of View,: 6.1-30.6 ft @ 100 yds

Eye Relief: 3.3 in

Weight: 39.3 oz

Length: 14.8 in

Lens: Japanese ED Glass

Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

Athlon Cronus G2 20-60×86


Athlon makes a wide range of spotters but doesn’t have as storied name recognition as other bigger brands. The Cronus is Athlon’s top tier product line. Their Gen2 UHD 20-60x86mm spotting scope is not in the same class as a Kowa or Swarski, it still does not disappoint. This scope is a beast weighing in at nearly 5lbs, which isn’t surprising given it’s large 86mm objective. This large lens gathers in a lot of light providing a very bright picture especially during dusk.

The Cronus comes with a set of rubber lens caps. The front has a loop for a lanyard but no lanyard was included. The body is rubberized and armored for durability and grip. The body comes with an ARCA-Swiss compatible tripod ring which rotates 180º with indexing for an easy return to 0º. The eyepiece has a large diameter lens for a wide eyebox and a built in retracting eye cup.

The Cronus sports UHD glass which is Athlon’s term for their flavor of Extra Low Dispersion glass. While my testing camera does show some slight chromatic aberration at 60x, this is not noticeable with the naked eye. The image I was seeing was clean, accurate, and sharp from center to outer edge.

The only disappointing aspect of this scope isn’t the scope but its accessories. The padded sleeve style case is designed to allow you to keep the scope inside the soft case while mounting and using the scope on a tripod. While a laudable attempt, the materials and construction feel a bit cheap compared to the the scope. And the lens caps should have come with optional lanyards to keep them retained onto the scope. These issues are superficial and don’t detract from the actual performance of the Cronus.

Athlon sent me their new dual focus model with a fine focus knob sitting on top of the fast focus. This model is not yet released but their standard model with a large focus ring around the tube is widely available.

BUY IT

Ring focus Cronus G2 on Amazon https://amzn.to/3CIiwJh

SPECS

CRONUS G2

Magnification: 20-60x

Objective: 86mm

Eye Relief: .79 – .7”

Close Focus : 29.5 ft

FOV: 117 – 60 ft @ 1000 yrds

Coating: XPL

Glass: UHD

Prism: BaK-4

Waterproof: IPX 7 

Purge Gas: Argon

Weight: 73.5 oz

Dimensions: 15.2 “x 6.7”

Shooting Sports

TMI Live 241204

Aura https://aura.com/moondog

EARLBIRD #olight

THIS WEEK

Moondog2A https://youtu.be/bATNlNzYZCo

Moondog Reviews https://youtu.be/_VZy3HD0H4U

Moondog Go https://youtu.be/3RO4Yya0vg4

THUMBNAIL THIS

EARLYBIRD DRAWING i3E #olight

END DRAWING Olight Beanie #olight

WORD OF THE WEEK

Mandella Effect

Mandela effect, popularized phenomenon in which a group of people collectively misremember facts, events, or other details in a consistent manner. Paranormal researcher and author Fiona Broome conceptualized the effect after discovering that she and others possessed strong, yet false, memories about the death of South African anti-apartheid activist (and later president) Nelson Mandela while in prison during the 1980s. Research has found evidence for a specific Mandela effect concerning the misidentification of certain pop culture images; however, intense debate has occurred over potential causal mechanisms, many of which include pseudoscientific explanations.

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/mandela-effect

RABBIT HOLE

Mandella Effect WatchMojo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkO9zO62k-w

Dave Foley on Joe Rogan CERN and Mandella Effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z03gKig0SI

51 Songs you didn’t know were covers. Billy Dee Williams “A Taste of Honey” https://youtu.be/bHLU6JDgnmA?si=jcBagODS4n-eJR9J

CONTESTS

FEYACHI DRAWING

CVLife EagleTalon 1-6×24 https://moondogindustries.com/december-2024-contest-cvlife/

Olight Beanie HASHTAG DRAWING #olight

Shooting Sports

Riton 3Tactix 3x Magnifier

You will find very few reviews of magnifiers on my channel because I’m not a fan of them. I don’t like feel and balance when they are flipped the side and dislike how they block my field of view. But I totally understand why someone would choose to run them. Combined with a light weight red dot, they are slightly lighter than an LPVO without the LPVO’s limitations with daylight illumination. For fans of magnifier/red dot combos, will enjoy the new Riton 3x magnifier.

The Riton 3x is compact and relatively light for a 3x magnifier, including the weight of the QD side-flip mount. It has clear sharp image from edge to edge. You won’t see a big black donut around your scope like most magnifiers. It has a relatively large objective lens and a thin tube which creates a view that appears to be a nearly all image with no visible tube body.

The only disappointing aspects for me was it’s relatively shallow eye relief and side flip mechanism. It’s eye relief is under 3″ which forced me to choke up on my fixed stock. This would be even more problematical for shooters wearing body armor. The spring loaded side flip mount is well built with a locking QD lever system. But the side flip mechanism release button is positioned in the middle of the mount directly over the QD lever hinge. This may have been a deliberate choice to help protect the button from accidental release but it also made it difficult to press it because the QD lever blocked my thumb. With practice I’m sure I may learn to find it without looking but another solution would have been to reposition the release button.

Paired with the Riton 1Tacticx ARD red dot, it co-witnesses with most AR MilSpec sights and when mounted to my G36/22 was nearly centered out of the box. The adjustments turrets are protected by protective ramps and adjustable with a slotted tool like a screwdriver.

As I said, I’m not a fan of magnifiers but if I was forced to use a magnifier, I would use the new Riton 3x.

BUY IT

Amazon https://amzn.to/4eNSJN2

SPECS

Magnification:3X
Parallax Adjustment:Fixed at 100 yards
Objective Lens Diameter:22mm
Lens Coating:Fully Multi-Coated, Full Wide Band, Waterproof Coated, Low Light Enhancement
Field of View at 100 Yards:36.7 ft
Material:6061-T6
Eye Relief:2.75in/70mm
Exit Pupil:6mm
Mount:QD Mouth with Optional Spacer
Length:2.72in/69mm
Weight:7.9oz/224g
Shooting Sports

Aguila Super Extra vs. CCI Standard

I’ve been long planning a broad test of various budget 22LR ammo to see which groups best in my factory Ruger Precision Rimfire rifle. Aguila Super Extra is (as the latter’s name implies) the slower velocity brother of Super Extra High Velocity. So toois CCI Standard the slower brother of the more popular CCI Mini-Mags. Both of these rimfire ammo’s are 40grn lead round nose bullets with a wax coating.

In my 100 yard tests, I was surprised at how inconsistently Aguila grouped. A good 1/3 of the Aguila rounds were flyers from the main group. CCI, while not amazing, had far tighter groups and more holes touching or overlapping. CCI Standard set the standard. I look forward to testing other ammo brands to see if any group better.

Gadgets, Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

Athlon Argos G2 8×42 Binoculars

Athlon’s Argos line is their value tier product line, a step up from their budget/entry level Talos. But taking a look at the build quality and features of the Argos Gen2 8×42 binoculars, it looks more like a premium optic. The tubes are encased in rubberized armor coating with checkerboard textured panels to add further grip in wet conditions.

The Argos comes with soft plastic retained front lens caps which are one of the few disappointing features. The retaining strops too easily slip off the front of the tubes when flipping open the caps. The rear caps are spectacle style which can be retained to the optic, when used with a neck strap. The rear lenses have built-in retracting eye cups.

Indicative of budget level optics, there was some softness in focus and increased chromatic aberration along the other edge of the image. The Argos does not have ED glass like their more expensive Midas and Cronos optics but was nicely bright and clear. For an 8x scope, the field of view is nice and wide with good depth of field.

BUY IT

Amazon https://amzn.to/4eHNYou

Optics Planet https://shrsl.com/4rg9q

SPECS

ARGOS G2

Magnification: 8x

Objective: 42mm

Eye Relief: 17.3mm

Close Focus: 4m/13 ft

FOV: 371 ft. @ 1000 yrds

Coating: XPL / USP

Glass: UHD

Prism: BaK-4

Waterproof: IPX7

Argon Purged

Weight: 25.5 oz

Dimensions: 5.7″ x 5.3″

Shooting Sports

Arken EP-5 Gen2 7-35×56

Arken took their  EP-5 5-25×56 scope and bumped up the power for those that require the 35x to really reach out. This new scope shares the same Japanese ED glass, turret, zero-stop, and reticle of the previous EP-5 models. The only thing it doesn’t have more of is eye-box. Arkens are somewhat known for an unforgiving eye box and this scope is more so, even at its lowest magnification.

The scope has Arken’s VPR Christmas tree reticle which is quite information rich without being too cluttered. The scope offers 6 levels of illumination with an off in between each setting. Only the very center cross is fully illuminated so the overall look is somewhat muted and only twilight bright.

The turrets are high profile with large easy to read numbers. The turrets are non-locking but have a cog and tooth style zero-stop which is very solid and repeatable. Arken is known for their loud, precise, and tactile adjustment clicks. These turrets did not disappoint in that regard.

This scope seems to be a good value in its tier. While there is now more competition in the Arken price-range (eg. Discovery and DNT), but you’ll have to jump up quite a bit in price to get similar offerings from Athlon, Vortex, Leupold, etc. If you’re an Arken fanboy this scope has everything you love in the EP-5, just more of it. If you think Arkens are overrated, this new scope won’t change your mind.

BUY IT

Arken: https://www.arkenopticsusa.com/ep-5-7-35×56-gen-2-ffp-illuminated-vpr-zero-stop-34mm-tube/EP-5-5-25X56-FFP-Illuminated-VPR-Zero-Stop-34mm-Tube-p559097166

RESOLUTION

Element 1 / Group 0

SPECS

Magnification: 7-35x
Objective Diameter: 56mm
Eye Relief: 3.5 inches
Field of View: 16.66-3.34 ft @100 Yards
Tube Size: 34 mm
Turret Adjustment: 0.1 MRAD | 0.25 MOA
Reticle Position: First Focal Plane
Reticle Details: VPR MIL | VPR MOA
Elevation Adj.: 32 MRAD | 110 MOA
Windage Adj.: 16 MRAD | 55 MOA
Per Revolution: 10 MRAD | 25 MOA
Per Revolution: 10 MRAD | 25 MOA
Parallax: 25Yds – Infinity
Length: 16 inches
Color: Matte Black
Weight: 42 oz
Battery: CR2032

Shooting Sports

MidTen Rechargeable Reflex

At first blush, the reflex sight MidTen sent me looked like every other knock off of the Ultraflex PanAV. But taking a closer look, it lacks a rotary illumination and battery turret. Because this reflex sight is USB-C rechargeable. The reflex design traces its roots to competition optics from the late 1980’s. It’s not a combat optic, lacking ruggedness, lens protection, or weather proofing. The MidTen’s build quality looks budget and a bit outdated but it has modern updates that set it apart even from more recent designs.

This MidTen has a 4 reticle dial at the rear of the unit: dot, circle-dot, cross-dot, (no size for the dot is listed by the maker but my eye estimate looks like a fat 6 MOA). Arrow buttons on the left side control 5-levels of illumination. The center button manually turns the unit on and off; keeping it pressed cycles between red and green color. The unit automatically goes into sleep mode after 4 minutes of inactivity. Motion reactivates the unit which remembers its last brightness setting and color selected.

Testing the unit on my Ruger 10/22 TD, I went through a 250 round bulk box of 22LR and the unit held zero. While the MidTen build quality is unrefined but solid. The MidTen has shake-awake, a rechargeable power supply, and a price point lower than any other motion activated reflex.

BUY IT

Amazon: https://bit.ly/3O0tiNB

10% discount code:  9R25FSQD

Gadgets, Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

5.11 X.VI Pants

5.11 worked with law enforcement SWAT teams to design the X.VI tactical pants. These pants were only available to Law Enforcement and Military until this year when 5.11 made them available to civilians on their website. I had my first look at them at SHOT Show in January, where I learned that X.VI was Roman numerals for 5.11.

These pants are robustly made with gusseted stitching to reinforce stress points, especially around the waist. The pants are loaded with well thought out performance features. All the pockets are oversized and the cargo pockets contain internal mag holders, zippered venting slits, and patented straps to adjust the height and position of the knee pads. The legs have built in knee pads with removable polymer knee covers and padding. The pant legs have boot hooks that anchor the pant ends to the top laces of your boots and keep them from riding up and exposing the top of your boots to debris.

In my week long testing of the pants, I found them comfortable but a bit heavy. The only disappointing feature were the knee pads. Though well built with a variety of adjustment, they never stayed where I wanted them when sitting the car. I found myself constantly repositioning them by hand. Fortunately, the pads can be removed to allow me to use them with my Hatch knee pads.

The other aspect that would make me balk, is their price of over $200. While these pants are now available for civilians, but those civilians probably drive Rivians and not Kia’s.

BUY IT

L.A. Police Gear https://la-police-gear.pxf.io/OeB3nz