At SHOT Show, Monstrum showed off a concept optic named the Archangel. This LPVO has the internals of their upcoming 1-6x Panzer FFP LPVO but with a radically different body. It has a very angular futuristic body design that reminds me of video games like Halo or Mass Effect. Their Marketing Director told me they took inspiration from Vortex’s Next Generation Squad Weapon system optic being developed for the US Army and Marine Corp.
This is still a concept design. I am puzzled by the utility of a piggy back red dot on an LPVO? This would be more practical on an MPVO. Post a comment in the YouTube video if you would like Monstrum to move forward with producing this eye catching optic.
5.11 got its start making rock climbing pants and is known as an outdoor and tactical outfitter. So its a natural evolution that they would develop knives and tools. Their offerings include folding knives, sheathed knives, and hatchets. At SHOT Show they literally opened up their drawer and let me see their product line.
I’ll be posting a review of their new Braddock DP EDC knife soon. The striking orange knife you see in this video is the Fero knife and is available on Amazon https://amzn.to/49trjul
At last year’s Industry Range Day, I had the opportunity to test fire UTG prototype AR receivers. This year I had a chance to see the production model of UTG’s true ambi upper and lower receiver. It has a number of thoughtful design features, as lightening cuts that also improve ergonomics. Its aesthetics are not quite my cup of tea but its stylish and well thought out.
Best of all all UTG Leapers products are made in Taiwan (the good China) and their UTG Pro line is made in the good ol’ USA. So you don’t have to feel un-patriotic when you’re looking for a good value.
The Razor HD is Vortex Optics top tier LPVO. With its destinctive trademark burnt-bronze color, the Razor certainly stands out. And up close it has the looks of a premium optic.
The HD Gen iii has a very precise low-profile capped turrets, with a fine 1/4 MOA per click adjustment. It has a lockable illuminator knob and offers 11 levels of brightness that at its highest settings is truly daylight bright; almost too bright for indoor use.
The Razor’s 34mm sized tube body allows it 120 MOA of internal adjustment. This is useful for extreme long distance shots made possible with it’s 10x maximum magnification and a fine, detailed, Christmas Tree reticle. In many ways this is an LPVO optimized for 10x rather than 1x. Because that FFP reticle become a small, simple floating ‘T’ at 1x which can be somewhat hard to acquire under rapid fire. Thankfully its crazy bright reticle illumination solves that problem, making this LPVO as quick to aim as a red dot at 1x.
The image through the scope at all magnifications is satisfyingly bright and sharp. Unfortunately it has “Fish Eye” at 1x and quite noticeable chromatic aberration at 10x. These issues shouldn’t be found Vortex’s top scopes, yet here it is. The Razor is a premium LPVO that sells for $2499 on Amazon. The Razor is clearly a higher quality scope. But for a weekend shooter like me, I was able to shoot just as accurately with either scope.
These optics are available on Amazon through these affiliate links which support my channel:
OLIGHT debuted their newest models of their Arkfeld flat EDC flashlight and Baton. The Arkfeld now offers a UV mode in addition to being a flashlight and laser pointer. Their popular Baton compact EDC now comes with a powered charging case that features a USB-C port and a 5000mAh internal battery. It will recharge the Baton up to 5 times or can be used as a portable power bank.
ZKT is a custom retail display company near New York City. They design gun cases for gun stores that can be easily secured against robbery with a built in rolling door. The gun wall display transforms into a gun safe, that’s biometricand code locked. It’s the kind of bad ass gun safe you’d expect to see in a John Wick film or Fast & Furious.
At the ZKT booth at SHOT Show 2024, they showed off this flagship display safe in addition to their biometric pistol cases. Perhaps the most unexpected product they showed me was the prototype of an electronic earmuff they were developing; keeping your hearing safe as well as your guns.
Given the rising crime rate you may be seeing ZKT products soon at your local CVS.
Red dot magnifiers have been around for over almost two decades. These specialized scopes allow users to add magnification to their red dots. But for prism scopes, magnification has been fixed due to their limited eye relief. Monstrum did something innovative.
The Ghost magnifier is the first of its kind that I’m aware of that fits forward of the aiming optic instead of behind it. This allows the GHOST to work with both red dots and prism scopes; converting a 4x prism scope to an 8x. It comes with a side-flip mount.
Nightforce is well known as the optic of choice for the military, law enforcement, and wealthy LARPers. Their optics are legendary for their ruggedness, reliability, brightness, and clarity. What is less well known is that they also make spotting scopes and at SHOT Show 2024, they showed off their new compact profile tactical spotter.
This 6-36×50 spotting scope looks like a modified rifle scope with a similar size profile to a 6-24x rifle scope save for the unusual double adjustment ring. The focus ring sits in front of the magnification ring. Both a rubberized for increased grip.
Unlike a rifle scope, this spotting scope has an ARCA Swiss compatible mounting foot moulded and integrated into the scope tube. Nightforce also sells an optional cage which clamps onto the foot providing the user with M-Lok compatible mounting points for Picatinny rails and accessories such as thermal sights, lasers, and range finders.
Stag Arms was founded as a premium AR maker but this year they introduced a number of guns to expand their offerings: an entry-level AR and a modernized lever action rifle modeled after the Marlin 1985. Last year they merged with Aero Precision and their designers have collaborated to create their own version of the design. Stag chose a more traditional design with some modern improvements such as a full length 1913 Picatinny rail, whilst Aero went for a more space-age tactical reinterpretation of a lever gun.
Since the departure of Nikon from sporting optics, March Scopes has stepped up to become Japan’s maker of premium rifle scopes. They are known among competition Precision Rifle Series (PRS) shooters for their high power scopes. At SHOT Show I was introduced to their new 80x Majesta scope, the highest power rifle scope I’ve ever seen. And the Genesis, a 4x-40x scope that puts the Extreme in Extreme Long Range (ELR) shooting with 400 MOA (116 MIL) of adjustment.
