Category Archives: Shooting Sports

Firearms and shooting sports

Shooting Sports

QR Laser Weaponlight Contest

AUG 15 PRIZE: QR-Laser Weaponlights

The Grand Prize will be chosen from all contest entries submitted from August 7, 2022 through August 14, 2022. Entries must be received no later than 12pm EST on August 14, 2022.

CONTEST INSTRUCTIONS

1. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: Moondog R&D

2. Take a screen shot of the channel screen showing you have subscribed/followed and email it to me



3. Email me with the Subject: “AUG 15”
• Attach the JPG or PNG screen shot
• Include your full name and ship-to address in the email (so I can confirm you live in the US or Canada)

Use the button email below or email me directly at: contest@moondogindustries.com


4. BONUS: Share this with a friend and get them to enter the contest too. Ask them to reference your name and email address in the body of their message ie. “My buddy johndoe@gmail.com clued me into the contest”, and I’ll award you an extra-bonus entry to the contest. It’s important that they reference your email so I can easily look up your entry. Each friend that subscribes and refers to you in their email will earn you another bonus entry for a maximum of 10 entries (including yours).

EMAIL ME YOUR ENTRY

RULES

NO PURCHASE 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 legal resident within the USA or Canada. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, employees’ immediate family members, are ineligible 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

Moondog Industries (known as the SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promotor based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, 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 your contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retain 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 7 Aug 2022
and
12:00pm EST 14 Aug 2022

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. Send a screen capture image file of any of those sites to 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

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 Winners entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.

7. Odds

Odds of winning is 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 that 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 no later than December 31, 2022.

SPONSOR are not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided a 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 in the event that non-authorized 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 participants 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 the them. 

Airsoft, Shooting Sports

Matrix Limited Edition Alien Pulse Rifle

Evike.com sent me an a Matrix Alien Pulse Rifle to test an evaluate before its November 2022 release. It came in a styrofoam and plain cardboard brown box. It’s not clear if this is the standard packaging or if this was a pre-release generic box cover?

This is a fully-functioning airsoft rifle styled after the iconic Armat M41A Pulse Rifle from the 1986 Sci-Fi classic, “Aliens” by James Cameron. This is the fictional rifle and grenade launcher used by the doomed Colonial Marine platoon sent along with Ripply to fight off a hive of Aliens and their Queen. Like the original movie prop this airsoft replica is custom shell encasing to a Thompson submachine gun.

The rifle was nicely crafted but obviously plastic in construction. Evike sells 5 different color/finish options. I was sent the black and grey version. In the box was the fully assembled pulse rifle, a packet of 0.20g test BB’s, a clearing rod, and a 190 round short Thompson Hi-Cap magazine.

As with most airsoft guns, the user has to supply their own battery. The main battery compartment is located in the mock grenade launcher/shotgun hand guard. I had to drill out a plastic panel designed to hold a smaller 7.4v LiPo blocky stick to make room for 11.1v round stick LiPo. The Matrix uses a small Tamiya connector.

The Pulse Rifle’s mock magazine plate covers a magwell chamber into which houses the Thompson style magazine and a smaller side box to fit a 9v battery cell which powers the functional round counter LED display, which is arguably the coolest feature of the rifle. The LED counts down from 95 to 00 accurately (as far as I could tell), though once at 00 round the rifle can continue to fire due from its 190 round small Hi-Cap magazine. As far as I could tell, the only way to reset the counter is to remove the magwell cover and reset the on-off switch on the LED counter.

The rifle can use extended Thompson magazines, but the magwell cover would have to be left off and the 9v round-counter battery would have to be secured. Still, the Thompsons slot and rail style magazine design makes for slow reloads made even slower hidden within the enlarged shell of the Pulse Rifles magwell. High Speed/Low Drag, this rifle is not.

One other consideration keeping me from recommending this as a skirmish gun is its lack of real sights or a means to add on sighting optics. The top rail/handle has a wide sighting groove but no front sight post or any means to adjust. For those used to walking their shots instead of aiming this may not be an issue.

Overall this airsoft Pulse Rifle in certainly a talking piece if not quite practical as a skirmish gun. It would make a perfect base gun to craft a more realistic Cosplay level costume prop. Hopefully if this rifle proves to be a success, it could encourage airsoft makers to create more working Sci-Fi weapons. E-11 Imperial Blaster anyone?

Purchase this airsoft gun on Evike.com: http://www.evike.com/#a_aid=moondog&a_bid=b467b403

“Aliens” Pulse Rifle Contest *ENDED 9/4/22*

*CONTEST COMPLETED 9/4/22* Enter to win an airsoft “Aliens” Pulse Rifle (MSRP $389). Subscribe to Moondog R&D for a free entry. Donate $5 and get 5 bonus entries, 100% of the proceeds of this raffle will benefit the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, CA.

The winner will be chosen at the Evike Outpost at Gamepod Combat Zone at 3pm September 4, 2022. Winner will be contacted using the contact information they provide. Winner does not have to be present to win but must pay for shipping if not present.

UPDATE

Congratulations to Tom S. of Florida on winning this contest

CONTEST INSTRUCTIONS

1. BONUS ENTRY: Donate $5 or more to the Hiller Aviation Museum center using this link and providing your name and contact information.

2. FREE ENTRY : Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: Moondog R&D

3. Take a screen capture of the channel screen showing you have subscribed/followed and email it to me



4. Email me with the Subject: “Pulse Rifle Contest”
• Attach the JPG or PNG screen shot
• Include your full name and ship-to address in the email (so I can confirm you live in the US or Canada).

NOTE: If you win, pick up your prize at Gamepod Combat Zone at 3pm Sunday, September 4, 2022 and join me to create a play video in the arena. If you are not present, you can pay for shipping and I will mail you your prize.

Use the button email below or email me directly at: contest@moondogindustries.com

SUBMIT SCREEN CAP

RULES

NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. MUST BE 18+ or OVER OR SUPERVISED BY AN ADULT TO ENTER.

1. Eligibility

Void where prohibited by law. Must be legal resident within the USA or Canada. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, employees’ immediate family members, are ineligible 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

Moondog Industries is a video Edutainment producer and game promotor based in San Francisco, CA. Moondog Industries, Evike.com, and Gamepod (are collectively known as the SPONSOR). YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, 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 your contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retain 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 14 Aug 2022
and
12:00pm EST 3 Sep 2022

5. How to Enter

Receive 5 raffle entries by donating $5 to the Hiller Aviation Museum using the PayPal or Venmo Link. Each $5 donation entitles the user to 5 raffle entries.

To enter for free, Subscribe to Moondog R&D on YouTube and make a screen capture of those pages showing a greyed out Subscribe button or indicator that your account is Following that page. Send a screen capture image file of any of those sites to contest@moondogindustries.com . One free entry per person or per YouTube 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.

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.

6. Prizes

Winners must be able to pick up the prize at Gamepod Combat Zone, 1400 W 4th St #2, Antioch, CA 94509 in person on September 4, 2022 or have their prize shipped to them at their expense. Prizes may be substituted at the sole discretion of the SPONSOR. Acceptance of the prize grants SPONSOR permission to use the Winners entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.

7. Odds

Odds of winning is 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 that 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 no later than December 31, 2022.

SPONSOR are not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided a 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 in the event that non-authorized 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 participants 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 the them. 

Support STEM education by visiting the Hiller Aviation Museum

https://www.hiller.org/
Product Reviews, Shooting Sports, Travel

Battle Cruiser Rifle Case

The EMG Battle Cruiser 40″ Hard Rifle Case has all the feature you want in many rifle case plus one more. It’s got ample room in its 40.5″ long interior to accommodate two or more guns and their accessories. It has a hard polymer shell with four metal locking buckles and two lock holes to attach your own padlock. The rifle case is TSA compliant so it can be used to travel with firearms or airsoft replicas (just be sure to check with the airport and airline for their specific rules).

It has 5.5″ of foam including two pick-n-pluck foam panels that allow you to easily customize the lower half of the shell to custom fit your guns, mags, or accessories. Similar to perforated stamps, pick-n-pluck foam is pre laser cut into cube columns so you can easily tear out the sections you need to customize the foam to exactly fit your gear.

The customizable pick-n-pluck panels allow this case to be used as a gig travel case for musicians. You could easily fit in multiple MIDI pads or DJ mixer or an electric guitar and effects pedals in this case. I was able to fit a 61-key electronic keyboard, sustain pedal, and AC adapter in the case with half of the padding removed.

While you can buy many 40″ hard-shell rifle cases, this one stands out because you can literally make it stand out. The front shell exterior has four 2″ wide velcro strips. This allows you to attach those hook-and-loop moral patches you pick up at at Ops, events, and CONs. And of course plenty of space on the outside to put on brand and band stickers.

This case is available from Evike.com through my affiliate link: https://www.evike.com/products/24529/#a_aid=moondog&a_bid=b467b403

Shooting Sports

Adding iron sights to a Ruger Precision Rimfire

The .22LR Ruger Precision Rimfire (RPR) rifle was game changing when it was introduced. It was rimfire rifle that incorporated many custom precision features in a factory stock package, including a free-float, AR-style, M-Lok handguard, user adjustable trigger, user adjustable riser stock, and a 30-MOA Picatinny optics rail on the receiver.
What it does lack is a straightforward means to add traditional iron sights.

Iron/Open sights were probably nowhere in the minds of the RPR designers. Outside of Olympic rimfire rifles, modern precision rifles lack iron sights or any mounting points for them. But I wanted to teach my kids traditional shooting skills. I had to find a way to add iron sights to a rifle that was designed for magnified rifle scopes.

The pre-installed 30-MOA rail is much appreciated by Extreme Long Range rimfire shooters because this angled rail adds additional elevation to any rifle scope mounted on it. Unfortunately, this is problematic to adding an AR-style set of iron sights as the additional 30-MOA in elevation makes the rear sight too tall for 22LR shooting at ranges less than 100yrds. Most people shoot their .22LR rifles at 25-50yrds and certainly when using iron sights.

Fortunately the RPR’s M-Lok handguard provides ample slots to add Picatinny rail pieces and on these, I could mount generic AR-style flip up BUIS (Back Up Iron Sights). Mounting rear sights on the hardguard. well forward of the receiver may seem strange to many AR shooters accustomed to a position directly above the AR charging handles, but this position was actually the norm for most 20th century battle rifles like the Springfield, K98 Mauser, Mosin Nagant, and if you look closely the AK.

The far forward placement of the rear sight does make the aperture of the peep sight smaller. For my 50 year old eyes, I could not really use the small-aperture peep but the larger CQB-aperture worked just fine. The rear sight was easy to adjust for windage but the front sight post was a bit more work.

The front sight is an AR A4-style which requires a tool to depress a locking detent while rotating the sight post to lower or raise it. My sight tool didn’t quite fit the post properly but after some fiddling I used an Allen key to push down the detent while I turned the post with my fingers. I managed to lower the front sight post as well as I could to achieve a decent zero at 25yrds.

This unconventional handguard placement had the additional benefit of actually making them BUIS for this rifle. With a riser rail (or a high scope ring mount), my Arken SH4 with a 50mm bell was able to completely clear the stowed rear sight. For those who compete in rimfire competitions, this setup will also allow you to compete in open sight matches/stages with minimal reconfiguration; just pop off your scope and flip up your BUIS and you’re ready to go.

Depending on your budget and needs, you can buy Gucci accessories by big name brands. Or if you’re not in an NRL22 competition or mercenary combat scenario, you may be perfectly fine with generic low-cost accessories. Remember, this is a .22LR rifle with minimal recoil, so with I went cheap.

These BUIS and Picatinny Rail adapters are available on Amazon through my Affiliate Links
FANGOSS Mloc Picatinny Rails Set https://amzn.to/3MXOCAZ
Nelahol BUIS https://amzn.to/3z7swYH
15% discount code: IAPVCX7K 

Airsoft, Gadgets, Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

Teslong NTG500H Borescope

Teslong sent me their TS NTG500H rifle borescope kit to test and evaluate. The package comes in a long padded box containing the ≥26″ long wand/probe, a USB-C charging cable, a USB-C video cable, a USB-A/Mini video cable, a display monitor and video recorder (with a 32GB SD card), and a set of 4 right angle adapters for various rifle calibers:

(5mm) diameter for .22 caliber & larger
(6mm) diameter for 6.5 Creedmore & larger
(7mm) diameter for .30 caliber & larger
(8.5mm) diameter for .38 caliber & larger
(12mm) diameter for .50 caliber & larger

The display monitor also functions as a recording device able to take still photos and video in 720p. Using the USB-A/mini adapter cable, you can connect the wand directly to a tablet or PC. I attempted to test it on my Samsung S21+ phone but was greeted with an Android warning message saying USB video was disabled, which was more of an issue with the 3rd party endoscope App I had downloaded than this device.

The wand/probe has .20 cal diameter allowing it to be used with tight bore .22cal rimfire rifles. The wand has etched inch markings along its length and a white washer plug that help you mark the depth of the probe. This helps you more easily note and return to a specific area of interest in your barrels such as deposits, burrs, and cracks. The rigid wand does make controlling the direction of the probe much easier than non-rigid endoscopes I’ve used.

The video taken with the display was quite good, comparable to other borescope/endoscopes I’ve owned. Not having to download dodgy 3rd party App software on my phone is a plus. It has a built-in rechargeable battery and even a built-in flashlight should you need it.

The unit is a bit pricier than similar borescopes or Teslong’s non-rigid endoscopes. I would have liked a 1080p camera but this may be unnecessary since the tiny sensor at the end of the probe may not actually record details higher than 720p, a larger 1080p file may be over-sampling.

A common issue with new users are complaints of an out-of-focus image. This borescope (and many others this small) are not an auto-focus camera. The focus must be manually adjusted by the user by turning the right-angle mirror to the appropriate number of turns onto the wand. This will vary depending on the size of the barrel. The user must adjust the mirror and lock it in place with the tiny locking ring at the end of the wand. One revolution either way could mean the difference between a blurry mess and a tack sharp image.

Not only are they useful for cleaning and maintaining your new firearms but could be invaluable in evaluating a vintage or collectable C/R rifle. Seeing the condition of the inside of a barrel could mean the difference between paying for Field Grade and paying for Display Grade.

Support this website by purchasing this product through my Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3S2oYhm

Shooting Sports

AUG1 Contest: Ideagle Pellet Trap

The AUG1 Content winner will be chosen on August 1, 2022. Entries must be received no later than 11:59pm EST on July 31, 2022.

CONTEST INSTRUCTIONS

1. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: Moondog R&D

2. Take a screen shot of the channel screen showing you have subscribed/followed and email it to me



3. Email me with the Subject: “Aug1 Contest”
• Attach the JPG or PNG screen shot
• Include your full name and ship-to address in the email (so I can confirm you live in the US or Canada)

Use the button email below or email me directly at: contest@moondogindustries.com


4. BONUS: Share this with a friend and get them to enter the contest too. Ask them to reference your name and email address in the body of their message ie. “My buddy johndoe@gmail.com clued me into the contest”, and I’ll award you an extra-bonus entry to the contest. It’s important that they reference your email so I can easily look up your entry. Each friend that subscribes and refers to you in their email will earn you another bonus entry for a maximum of 10 entries (including yours).

EMAIL ENTRY

RULES

NO PURCHASE 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 legal resident within the USA or Canada. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, employees’ immediate family members, are ineligible 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

Moondog Industries (known as the SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promotor based in San Francisco, CA.

3. Agreement to Rules

By entering your contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retain 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 by between:
12:00pm EST 1 July 2022
and
11:59pm EST 31 July 2022

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. Send a screen capture image file of any of those sites to 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

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 Winners entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.

7. Odds

Odds of winning is 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 that 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 no later than December 31, 2022.

SPONSOR are not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided a 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 in the event that non-authorized 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 participants agreement to release and hold harmless the SPONSOR and its 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 the them. 

Shooting Sports

Ideagle Pellet Trap

The Shooting Product Club sent me an Ideagle Havy Duty Pellet Trap. Initially the product described this as a .22cal Bullet Trap for BB and airguns. I warned them that this could lead to dangerous results if a buyer mistakenly used a .22cal 22LR firearm. They thanked me for the warning, updated the product description on Amazon and sent me the trap to test and evaluate.

I was still a bit skeptical at first as most pellet traps I’ve seen are made for .177cal BB’s and pellets. When .22cal pellets are used, they will deform and damage the metal due to the greater mass and energy of the projectile. A typical .177 lead pellet will weight 7gr while a .22cal pellet weighs over 14gr; more than double the weight. Fired from the same airgun, due to air resistance and retained energy, a .22cal pellet will hit with nearly double the energy of a .177cal projectile.

The package arrived and tipped the scales at just over 11lbs. Opening the box, I found it stuffed with 20 white packs of “Sealant”. This was a foam insulation in all Chinese packaging similar to HVAC sealing putty used by airgunners as a bullet trap medium. Inside were 4 black metal panels and a ziplock bag filled with hex screws, an Allen wrench, and parts for a target clip.

The box did not come with printed instructions but wasn’t too hard to figure out. The trap box was about as easy to assemble as typical IKEA furniture; so easy but time consuming. I was sent a link to download an e-document describing assembly instructions, but left off applying the foam until later in the test to evaluate its effectiveness in reducing ricochets and impact noise.

The rear and bottom panels were about 4mm (3/16″) thick which was much thicker than most pellet traps I’ve used (a far cry from the plastic, fabric, and cardboard “Daisy BB Trap” I’d used as a kid). These thicker panels were made thicker to withstand the direct impact of the airgun projectiles and the rear panel sloped, to deflect the projectile debris downward into the bottom panel which was the effective catch tray for the spall and debris. The side panels were much thinner at about 1.5mm but still rigid enough that I didn’t fear denting or bending it when applying weight or manhandling it.

At my local gun range, set the Ideagle trap on the ground and clipped on a paper bullseye target. I tested it at the recommended 25yrds distance. I fired 10 shots of .22cal 14.3gr roundnose lead pellets from a Benjamin Trail XP Magnum NP rifle. I aimed for the center bullseye and all shots landed with a typical clanging think of lead on steel.

I inspected the trap and found no outward ricochet holes on paper. Some paint chips and small bits of lead spall had escaped under the paper target, likely having bounced outward hit the paper and fallen without sufficient velocity to break paper. Inside the trap, I discovered half of my shots hit the the raised back lip of the bottom panel and not the rear angled impact panel. This was because I fired from a sitting bench height downward onto the trap on the which was positioned on ground. Despite this, the trap showed no distress of damage beyond the surface chipping of the black paint.

I raised the pellet trap and placed it on a barrel the same height as my shooting bench for the rest of the testing. I moved my shooting position 10yrds from the pellet trap, which is typical airgun competition distance to the target. I fired 10 more rounds onto the center of a fresh paper target and inspected the trap.

All 10 shots landed squarely in the rear angled impact panel this time. There was a bit more paint and small debris under the target but there were no outward holes on the paper indicating that none of the spall had ricocheted with enough energy to break paper. On close inspection, the rear panel only sustained surface paint erosion but I could see or feel no deformation on the steel panel.

Next I tested applied the insulation foam to the back panel as described in the e-doc instructions. The foam was very soft and tacky, like melted caramel, and difficult to pull out of its plastic wrapper. The ambient temperature was about 70ºF so it wasn’t very warm.The instructions advised chilling the packets in a “freezer” to stiffen the foam. That should work but you may not have an ice box handy, so I recommend simply peeling off part of the plastic wrapper simply pressing the foam inside of its wrapper onto the panel to save time.

With 9 packets of foam applied to cover the inside of the rear panel. I went back to my 10yrd shooting bench and fired 10 more onto a fresh paper target. This time, I fired all around the target area following a clockwise pattern around the outer ring of the bullseye target so my shots would land on different parts of the panel instead of just the center. My initial reaction was of slight disappointment as the rapport of the impacts didn’t seem quieter. During editing I could see a shorter sound signature of the impact but subjectively there wasn’t much reduction in noise between the foam on the panel and without the foam.

I inspected the trap and found a reduction in debris in front of the trap under the target. Almost no paint chips and far fewer small spall pieces but oddly 2 large chucks of lead, though again none had penetrated the paper target. Inside, I could see holes where pellets had pierced the foam and packets but no sign of damage or deformation to the rear panel.

The foam insulation was somewhat unnecessary. It does reduce spall and could make lead clean up a little easier as it does capture a fair bit of of the projectile. But applying it along the rear bottom panel would capture more of the lead than spreading it all over the entire back panel. Airgunners use clay, HVAC putty, and simply old rags on the bottom of their pellet traps for this exact reason.

Overall the pellet trap worked perfectly as a backstop for .22cal airgun pellets. Surprisingly it did so without any sign of wear or damage. I feel confident in using this pellet trap for .22cal magnum airguns even at 10yrds.

This trap available on Amazon through my Affiliate link which supports this blog: https://amzn.to/3cweBSW

Airsoft, Shooting Sports

Winner Chat: July 17 Contest

I sat down (virtually) with Greg of Ames, Iowa who was one of four winners in my July 17 Moondog R&D Summer Contest. I gave away four $25 gift cards to Evike.com and an H&K promo baseball cap from Shot Show. Greg was the first winner to get back to me for a Zoom interview.

Greg is a semi-retired commercial real estate agent and FFL. He plans to use the card to buy some more pew pew gear. He stumbled on my YouTube channel Moondog Industries while searching for info on Hawke scopes.

Shooting Sports

Ideagle Shotgun Shell Holder

I was sent these prototype 12ga Shotgun Shell holders to evaluate without graphics on the package or instruction manual. They’re polymer and fit 12ga shell securely enough (I didn’t have any 20ga shells to test). They attach to the side of your shotgun receiver using 3M-style adhesive pads, though I’m not sure how well the pads will stay on long term if exposed to gun cleaning solvents.

I gave my contact at the Shooting Product Club some feedback. The product works but is probably better suited for airsoft than reel steel. I’m not sure who the market is for in real firearms? Sure, it’s a budget way to attach a quick load set shells to your shotgun but I personally don’t like the idea of exposed shells that could get snagged.

Trap and clay shooters have round restrictions when competing. Bird hunters are often restricted to 2 round in their gun so perhaps them? Or maybe 3-Gun users maybe who want just an extra backup holder? Looking at Amazon, I see they’re now on sale and quite affordable with 2 packs going for under $10. https://amzn.to/3ciJZEg