Tract is an optics company that was started by the two guys who headed Nikon’s rifle scope division, rising from ashes of Nikon’s exit from the 2A market. 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.
This episode is sponsored by Matt Hat beef jerky. Use code: MOONDOG to get 15% Order a free sample using my link https://matthatjerky.com/products/sample-pack?ref=moondog
EARLYBIRD Clue:
THIS WEEK
Moondog2A
Moondog Reviews
Moondog Go
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
This NY team is arguably the most successful in baseball, with the most World Series wins of any team.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
GUEST Jon LaCorte, co-founder of Tract Optics
CONTESTS
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
This NY team has the most rival teams in the Major Leagues, including the L.A. Dodgers, NY Mets, Boston Red Sox, and the S.F. Giants.
At SHOT 2026, Rise Armament showed off a new class of AR trigger. They’re calling it a Slide-and-Snap trigger because, unlike Drop-in triggers, this trigger can be slid into an AR lower without having to remove the safety/selector. In addition, the trigger face is magnetic, making this trigger the easiest to install and customize of any trigger I’ve ever seen.
At the Cottage of Sweets in Carmel, CA, I found hand-made fudge and old-school sweets. Given the various waves of anti-smoking in popular culture, I was surprised to find candy cigarettes.
When I first saw the Ounce ultri-compact, folding pistol I thought it was ‘the most innovative pistol of SHOT 2023’. Three years later, I returned to the 3rd Bay booth at SHOT Show to talk with the pistol’s inventor.
The video short I posted back in 2023 blew up on YouTube. Today, it is the most-watched video on my channel. Many of the posts I get on that video make similar comments. I thought I’d ask Bill, the inventor of the Ounce, to respond to the most common questions and comments, like why it costs $899?
At SHOT Show 2026 my friends at 5.11 Tactical showed off their newest backpack, the LVC12. LV stands for “Low Visibility,” and the 12 stands for 12-hour use. This backpack looks like a generic consumer backpack, hiding its tactical roots and features.
Today, I’m observing Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the Christian calendar. 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.
This episode is sponsored by Matt Hat beef jerky. Use code: MOONDOG to get 15% Order a free sample using my link https://matthatjerky.com/products/sample-pack?ref=moondog
This canned seafood brand, along with its competitors Bumble Bee, and Star Kist, is one of the best selling brands of canned tuna and seafood.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
LENT The 40 days of religious reflection and atonement before Easter in the Roman Catholic calendar, starting on Ash Wednesday and concluding on Easter Sunday. Practices include: Prayer (justice to God) Fasting (justice to self) Almsgiving (justice to neighbor)
Lent observances were officially codified as a 40-day observance during the Council of Nicea in 325. The duration, it’s start and end days vary by Christian denomination. The Eastern Orthodox church observes a different calendar.
Lent is an Old English word similar to lente in Old Dutch, or lenz in Old-German / now früling which means Springtime.
Lent was the most significant and holy days of the year in the Christian calendar. Easter not Christmas is the holiest day of the year, though modern secular traditions and a music would have you think otherwise. When was the last Easter Song you heard played on the radio?
During those 40 days early Christians would abstain from eating from sunrise to sunset. Since Vatican2 in the late 1960’s it’s just been relaxes to only abstaining from meat on Fridays during lent. To me that’s the beginning of coddling Woke-isms relaxing of self discpline. Before 1970, Catholics used to abstain from meat every Friday. That’s why McDonalds invented the Fillet-o-Fish
Why 40 days? 40 is a holy number in Biblical and cultural tradition of the middle-east. Noah was adrift for 40 days and 40 nights. Elijah and Jesus spent 40 days in the desert. In certain Jewish traditions, the 10 Plagues of Egypt lasted 40 days before Moses was allowed to leave Egypt. And the Tribes of Israel wandered the desert for 40 years before they found the Promised Land.
But why 40? 40 days is considered a long period of time in pre-history. It’s approximately 1 week past a full lunar cycle.
But I couldn’t find hard reason cited in my research into Sumerian traditions. Sumeria had a base 60/12 number system. That’s where we get 360 degrees in a circle, 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute. 12 hours in a day. They counted using 1 hand to the number 12.
40 is a common holy number in the Indo-European region. One country where 40 came up is Kyrgyzstan. Krygz is the origin of one of my most favorite villians in cinema, the Kurgan from Highlander.
Highlander came out in 1986 and they’re filming a remake staring Henry Cavill and Dave Bautista. The Kurgan was played by Clancy Brown who voices Mr. Crabs on Spongebob Squarepants
CONTESTS
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
This canned seafood brand was started in San Pedro, California by Van de Camps seafoods and was later sold to Ralston Purina. It gets its name from albacore tuna which as noted for its mild white texture, much like chicken. On her MTV reality show, 1990’s pop singer Jessica Simpson infamously admitted on camera that she thought this canned tuna was chicken.
This year, Palmetto State Armory debuted the newly rechristened Jakl 2.0 from last year, to become the soon-to-be-released AXR. Unlike the Jakl, this rifle utilizes a proprietary lower and an adjustable short-stroke action. But like the Jakl, the body design is inspired by the abandoned Magpull MASADA assault rifle. One hopes this rifle will be less prone to reliability issues than the JAKL.
I compete and pretty much fail at Nibbs and Hazzbro’s Elf on the Shelf BB-gun challenge target. I was shooting a 1980’s vintage Daisy Powerline 840 BB/pellet gun that I won in a contest sponsored by Nibb’s Walnut and Steel channel.
I only scored a mediocre 22 points out of a possible 75. My rifle suffered from some air leaks and random flyers which was frustrating.
At SHOT Show, I sat down with Jon LeCorte who walked me through their new binocular. This optic stood out by blending premium Schott glass with advanced integrated rangefinding and a ballistic display designed to help shooters estimate holdovers.
Tract is a direct-to-consumer optics brand known for value-packed rifle scopes and binoculars
Key features include:
Optical performance German Schott Glass with highly transmissive coatings and sharp resolution optimized for field use.
Premium Construction built and assembled in Japan
Built-in rangefinding and ballistic calculations — shooters and spotters can lock distance and solutions directly through the binocular, reducing the need to switch to a separate device.
Mobile app integration, enabling upload and management of up to five ballistic profiles via a paired smartphone for quick referencing and adjustments.
If you can afford it, this optic can improve anybody’s dope. I sit down with the co-founder of Tract Optics to talk about their Ballistic App-connected laser range-finding binoculars that could give any shooter accurate corrections for wind, distance, and air pressure.
