Category Archives: Shooting Sports

Firearms and shooting sports

TMI 260211 Uintah Precision

Today, we’re giving away an OSight C red dot. And we’re going to meet with Uintah Precision. Find out about my newest contests to win prizes. 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 brand produces the most popular bolt-action rifle in America, their model 700. In 2015 it was the largest rifle maker in the US and until its break-up was also one of the largest ammo makers.

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

Uintah Precision is a Utah-based firearms maker. They are not the first but perhaps the maker of the BEST made bolt-action ARs and uppers. https://uintahprecision.com/

CONTESTS

BRAND CONTEST CLUE

Founded in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington as E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York, it was one of the oldest gun makers in the United States and claimed to be the oldest factory in the country that still made its original product.

JAN CONTEST DRAWING


This month, there are two contests you can enter and win a prize. Enter both.

CONTEST 1


CONTEST 2


YARD SALE

Fundraiser for St. Anne Middle School 8th grade class trip to Washington D.C.
https://moondogindustries.com/yardsale/

This week, you can get a Monstrum 2000 lumen weaponlight for half off.

SHOT2026 Vector Owlset HEIM ES X-NANO

https://youtu.be/ptUbZL2eECk

At the Vector Optics booth at SHOT show, I got hands-on with an Owlset HEIM ES X-NANO mini thermal pistol sight. This claims to be the world’s smallest pistol-mountable thermal optic. Holosun has a similarly sized optic display but that actually comes in two parts, with a camera section mounted like a pistol light. This Owlset is a self-contained unit, with the lens in its front. It utilizes Vector Optics VOD footprint, which is a variant of the AimPoint ACRO. Vector Optics offers MOS, RMR, and Picatinny adapter plates.

The MSRP was tentatively targeted to be under $600, but with US tarrifs, that’s anybody’s guess at this point? But it’s already available in Asia and set to be released in Q1 here in the US.

Aquilifer HT 3-12×56

https://youtu.be/IEcaE8iezIg

Aquilifer’s HT line of scopes are hunting focused optics with paired down, traditional features such as capped turrets for protection against the environment, SFP duplex reticles, and illumination. The HT 3-12 offers a large 56mm objective lens for brighter images in low light.

The website product specs list the click adjustments in MOA but the turret markings are in MIL? But since hunting rifles are set it and forget it type of optics, this is embarrassing for Aquilifer, but it isn’t really a problem. As long as the reticle can be zero’d and the scope holds zero, the discrepancy is moot.

The view through the scope was bright and color-accurate but it wasn’t as sharp as I expected. On the plus side, It has a generous eye relief. Its reticle is a bold European-style T duplex that is easy to see in dark or complex backgrounds, but I would have preferred they end in spear points instead of squared off. The illumination was not quite daylight but brighter than many hunting scopes.

SHOP

HT 3-12×56 Amazon https://amzn.to/3Kyd8Nm

DiscoveryOpt 6061 scope rings (10% Discount Code: Moondog) https://discoveryopt.com/collections/scope-rings-durable-and-precision-machined-mounting-solutions/products/6061-series-aluminum-scope-rings-medium-profile-30mm-34mm-35mm-scope-mount-for-picatinny-rail

RESOLUTION

Group -2 / Element 5

SPECS


HT
Magnification: 3-12x
Objective: 56mm
Eye Relief: 3.78″-3.93″
Exit Pupil: 18.66-4.66mm
FOV@100y: 31.4-7.9ft
Total Elev: ±30 MRAD
Total Wind: ±32 MRAD
Click Value: 1/10 MRAD
Tube Size: 30mm
Length: 340mm (13.4 in)
Weight: 640g (22.6 oz)
Illumination: 11 levels red
Battery: CR2032


CVLife Rechargable Magnetic Laser Bore Sighter

Laser bore sighters are helpful tools to get your first shot on paper so you can more easily zero out an optic. The CVLife rechargeable magnetic bore sighter is tiny compared with the better-known Wheeler magnetic laser boresighter. Moreover, it recharges via a USB-C cable and can run for over an hour continuously between charges.

The CVLife bore sighter, snaps onto the end of your barrel using its magnetic base. Pressing on its pin turns the unit on, emitting a pinpoint laser out to 100ft or more. The accuracy of the device on your firearm is dependent on the squareness of the end of your barrel. Muzzle devices such as flash hiders and compensators can affect the trueness of the laser dot in relation to your bore.

The green laser version projected a point that was visible at 100 yards in daylight (projected onto a shaded target area) with my naked eye. A similar red laser was visible using a 6x magnified optic at that same distance, but not with my naked eye. While the green laser was the better of the two versions CVLife offers, the red laser is preferable when attempting a zero an optic with green illumination or a green reticle. So, I recommend getting both.

SHOP

Get 10% Off
Code: EKDS72HL

Green on Amazon https://amzn.to/481yxaC

Red on Amazon https://amzn.to/3K7Vujc

SPECS

RECHARGABLE LASER BORE SIGHTER

Laser: Class IIIa ≥5mW

Color: Red / Green

Eye Relief: 15.0mm

Battery: Internal

Connection: USB-C

Capacity: 1hr

Weight: 25.5g

Dimensions: D 25mm x H 34mm

Road Trip: San Francisco to Monterey Bay

A time-lapse road trip from downtown San Francisco at the start of rush-hour down the Pacific Coast Highway to dinner in Moss Landing along Monterey Bay. Just north of Santa Cruz, surf mist created a thick, salty, fog, obscuring the last part of the drive. I end the video just after sunset on the bayside deck of the Sea Harvest restaurant in Moss Landing.

Sea Harvest https://www.instagram.com/seaharvestmosslanding/?hl=en

CONTEST FEB: Vector X8 LPVO

Win a Vector Optics Continental X8 1-8x24i

Entries must be received no later than noon 12pm EST on February 28, 2026.


CONTEST INSTRUCTIONS

Prove you have the skills to fill out a form and upload screenshots.

1. Follow me on X / Twitter:  @moondogreviews

2. Upload a screenshot showing you are FOLLOWING me on X.com

3. Watch the Monterey Bay Road Trip video on my Travel Channel @MoondogGo. Hit the LIKE button and post a COMMENT saying “Winning and loving it” https://youtu.be/EkkRDRxxItk

4. Upload a screenshot showing your post.

SUBMIT ENTRY

SUBMIT ENTRY

This prize supplied by Vector Optics and is awarded at their sole discretion and direction.


RULES

NO PURCHASE OR DONATION IS NECESSARY TO ENTER. YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING DO NOT INCREASE WITH A PURCHASE. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

1. Eligibility

Void where prohibited by law. Must be a legal resident in the USA. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, and employees’ immediate family members are ineligible to participate in the contest/giveaway.

Entrants must be willing and able to appear on YouTube to discuss the contest and post images of the prize on their social feed should they win the contest.

2. Sponsors and Platforms

Vector Optics (known as the SPONSOR)and Moondog Industries (known as the CO-SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promoter based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, X and online video platforms (known as PLATFORMS) are not SPONSORS or in any way affiliated with the contest or content.

3. Agreement to Rules

By entering the contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retains the right to refuse, withdraw, or disqualify entries at their sole discretion. By submitting an entry, the participant agrees to accept the decision of the SPONSOR as final and binding.

4. Entry Period

Contest email entries must be received between:
12:00pm EST 31 Jan 2026
and
12:00pm EST 28 Feb 2026

5. How to Enter

This contest requires your skill in navigating your phone or computer controls to screen capture an image of the following YouTube channels/Social Media accounts. Subscribe or Follow and make a screen capture of those pages showing a greyed out Subscribe button or indicator that your account is Following that page. If the page is not functioning, please contact contest@moondogindustries.com . One entry per person or per Social Media account. Fraudulent methods of entry, photo retouched, or other methods of circumvention of the rules may result in the SPONSOR invalidating a participant’s entries.

6. Prizes

The winner must be able to receive the prize by e-mail or by physical mail. Prize may be substituted at the sole discretion of the SPONSOR. Acceptance of the prize grants SPONSOR permission to use the winner’s entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.

7. Odds

The odds of winning are dependent upon the number of eligible entries received.

8. Selection and Notification of the Winner

The winner will be chosen at random by the SPONSOR from among the entrants who demonstrated the skill to navigate the electronic entry and have met the minimum requirements. Winners will be contacted via the email used to enter the contest. Winner must have a legal address within the US to ship the prize.

SPONSOR is not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided the wrong email address or if their email security settings caused your prize notification to go into the spam or junk folder. If a winner does not respond within 24hrs of sending a notification, the SPONSOR will select an alternate winner. Receipt of the prize is upon the condition of compliance with federal, state, and local laws.

9. Rights Granted by the Entrant

The SPONSOR, upon submission of an entry into the giveaway or contest, has the right to use the participant’s submission, voice, likeness, image, statements about the contest, etc., for publicity, news, advertising, promotional purposes, trade, and so forth, without any further notice, review, consent, compensation, or remuneration.

Participants shall defend or settle against such claims at their sole expense, and shall indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the SPONSOR from any suit due to damage of or by the prize.

10. Terms & Conditions

The SPONSOR reserves the right to modify, suspend, cancel, or terminate if unauthorized human intervention, a bug or virus, fraud, or other causes beyond your control impact or corrupt the security, fairness, proper conduct, or administration of the contest/giveaway.

11. Limitation of Liability

Entry into this contest constitutes the participant’s agreement to release and hold harmless the SPONSOR and PLATFORMS, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees, etc., against all claims, liability, illness, injury, death, loss, etc., that occurs directly or indirectly from participation in the contest or use/misuse of the awarded prize.

12. Disputes

As a condition of participating in the promotion, the participant agrees to resolve all disputes with an arbitrator designated by the SPONSOR in the state of California, without resorting to any form of class action. Entrants waive all rights to punitive, incidental, or consequential damages, and waive all rights to have damages multiplied or increased.

13. Privacy Policy

Participants agree to abide by all privacy and NDA laws in the State of California and any federal laws of the United State of America.

14. Winners List

Participants may request a list of winners by submitting a request in writing to Moondog Industries for up to 30 days after the contest ends.

15. Social Media Platform Rules

Winners will agree to post a photo of the prize on their social media channels in such a way as does not violate any rules of that platform. The winners also agree to appear for an interview where they will discuss the prize and its performance. If there are functional problems with the prize, the winner agrees to make a good-faith effort to resolve all issues with the SPONSOR prior to posting reviews or opinions about the prize.

16. Affirmation of Acceptance of and Agreement to All of the Official Rules

By entering the contest, the entrant has affirmatively reviewed, accepted, and agreed to all of them. 

SHOT2026 Vector Optics Continental Gen2

Stopping at the Vector Optics booth at SHOT Show 2026. Among the promotional banners announcing their new Frenzy green dots, and micro thermal optic, they walked me through a rundown of improvements to their flagship line of Continental long-range scopes. These scopes utilize German-made Schott ED glass and highly refined construction and in Q2 they will release the Gen2 models.

The Gen2 updates include a 50% increase in range of turret adjustment, a shorter 10-yard minimum focus, and the most welcome feature to me: shake awake. Auto-sleep/Motion Activation has become a manditory in red dots. Finally, a scope maker has introduced similar technology to an illuminated reticle scope. As in red dots, this promises to radically improve a scope’s battery life. This feature has the potential to be a game-changer in the category.

SHOP

Continental scopes on Amazon https://amzn.to/4rcrXo9

SHOT2026 Discovery Optics

At SHOT Show 2026, Discovery Optics showed off the prototype of an innovative internal electronic angle level in their ED and XED scope line. This electronic feature displays a green dot on either the left or rght side of your view indicating if your scope is not level. Canting (tilting) a scope can cause your point of impact to shift due to the position of your scope above your barrel.

Long-range shooters have relied on externally mounted spirit bubble levels. This internal electronic level allows the shooter see when their scope has lost level without breaking their shooting position or cheek weld to look at an external level indicator.

This new internal level feature will come standard in all of their ED and XED scopes, which will dramatically differentiate their scopes from other long-range optics.

SHOP

https://discoveryopt.com
10% discount code MOONDOG2A 

OSight XR

The XR is the newest micro reflex red dot from OSight. It features an enclosed emitter body and significant performance upgrades. It adds two options for the size of its dot (2 MOA and 6 MOA) and adds additional charge capacity to its cover (5x instead of 4x), for a jaw-dropping +30 years of runtime.

This RMR footprint optic has a clear window at the rear to protect the rear of the lens from weather, moisture, and debris that could render traditional reflex sights useless. The unit has a relatively low deck, though not low enough for me to co-witness my Glock’s factory sights. The unit has a set of spring-loaded pop-up rear sights built into the rear deck, which can be utilized with some practice.

OLight flashlights surprised the firearms community when they launched the OSight two years ago. Their flagship product was the first magnetic recharging micro reflex sight red dot. This pistol red dot charges using a unique protective cover that also functions as a wired USB-C charger or detached as a mobile power bank for the OSight. The OSign XR has clever LED indicators to inform the user about the internal battery level and the battery level of the cover, so there should be no surprises at the range or on the job.

SHOP

Amazon https://amzn.to/3ZjYAo1

SPECS

OSIGHT XR
Reticle: 2/6 MOA Dot, 32 MOA circle
Reticle Color: Red
Magnification: 1x
Window: 23x18mm
Click: 1 MOA
Total Windage: ± 45 MOA
Battery Life: ~54,000 H (2 MOA Dot)
Battery Life Cover: 324,000 H
Brightness: 8 V + 3 NV
Housing: 7075 T6
Dimensions 1.91 x 1.18 x 1.16 in
Weight 1.69 oz / 48g

Sunwayfoto HT4030CMI Inverted Leg Tripod

The HT4030CMI is Sunwayfoto’s tallest heavy-duty, large-diameter inverted-leg tripod. Unlike most tripods, the locking rings of the legs are located at the top of the leg near the tripod hinges. This position allows the shooter to easily reach the locking rings from a shooting position without having to break position to reach half-way down the leg as in traditional designs, while retaining the same extended length. This tripod is not only extra strong due to its 40mm diameter legs but also tall at over 6ft from foot to the tripod’s baseplate.

SHOP

Sunwayfoto https://sunwayfoto.com/products/sunwayfoto-ht4030cmi-inverted-leg-carbon-fiber-69-tall-load-66lb-30kg?ref=lhtgjsbr

5% Off with code THOMASMOONDOGDE

SPECS

Main Material: Carbon fiber and Aluminum 
Leg Sections: 3
Leg Diameter: 40mm
Max Height: 68.5 in./ 174cm
Min Height: 3.9 in./ 9.8cm
Length with legs folded: 31 in./78.5cm
Net Weight: 4.9 lb./2.2kg
Load Capacity: 66.1 lb./30kg 
Screw Thread: 3/8″
Leg Angles: 20°、55°、85° 
Top Plate Diameter: 2.68 in./6.8cm