SVBony sent me a SV28 70mm scope after seeing my review of the 50mm SV28. The model they sent me wasn’t pre-inspected as it had some minor defects in the alignment and assembly of the sunshade and a bump in the action of the focus knob when focusing at 50mm objects at 45x.
Despite these defects, the overall resolution and sharpness were good for a budget spotting scope. There was good sharpness from edge to edge. It was able to resolve lines down to Element 6 in Group -1 at 100yrds using the USAF 1951 resolution chart.
A street price of about $60 makes this a good value. Be sure to keep your receipt.
I review the Missouri Tactical Recoil Pad for the KelTec KSG/KS7 shotguns, filmed at the Santa Clara Field Sports Park rifle range. Thanks for SoloFettR2 for letting me use his KS7 for this evaluation. He actually bought the MoTac pad on his own before I was contacted by MoTac and asked to review it.
You can bid on this brand new unopened Missouri Tactical Recoil Pad shown at the beginning of this video. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to middle-school students fundraising for their school trip to Washington D.C. in 2022.
I recently discovered that if you rub an aluminum gun cleaning rod with a cleaning patch, it leaves “faux” fouling marks on the patch. Why? I assume it’s the metal rubbing off on the cloth but far less staining when rubbing a brass cleaning rod.
It begs the question, have we mistakenly thought our guns were dirtier than they really were? I honestly don’t know. I’ve switched to all brass rods from now on.
I competed in my 2nd match with my new CZ457 VPC. A made a few minor changes to the setup. I returned my Athlon Argos to my AR and replaced it with a Vortex Diamondback Tactical 6-24×50; the finer reticle lines makes spotting .22cal holes easier. I lightened the factory-stock 3lb trigger pull to just under 2lbs.
Perhaps the biggest change in performance came from the ammo. Instead of running CCI Standard again, I stumbled upon the performance potential of Federal Champion when I used it to initially sight in the Vortex Diamondback (not wanting to waste my limited match-grade ammo). I noticed the surprisingly small group it was printing. I ran out of time before the match to properly test other ammo, so opted to take a risk. I ran with “Blue Box”.
I ended up winning the match, coming in 1st place to my utter surprise. It was a very close score. I scored only two points more than the next highest scoring competitors. I hope to fine tune my setup and find an even better ammo than “Blue Box” for the next match. But if it turns out this is the best ammo for this rifle, so much the better as far as my wallet is concerned.
Celestron is probably the biggest brand in consumer astronomy telescopes. They also make a varied line of terrestrial spotting scopes and binoculars. I wanted to see if Celestron’s Landscout 10-30×50 lived up to its brand reputation.
The most striking thing about the Landscout 50 is its compact size. It is the smallest 50mm spotting scope I’ve yet tested. My Bushnell Spacemaster is slightly shorter but only when compressed into its telescoping body. The Landscout 50 looks even smaller.
Notable among the competition is its ring mount which allows the eyepiece to be repositioned to allow use both on a tripod base, wall mount, or hanging from a roof mount.
Despite its small size optically, it performed big. Despite its BK7 prism, the view through the scope was bright. It produced no noticeable chromatic aberration at maximum magnification. Its resolution and sharpness were only middle-of-the-pack; not quite as sharp as an equivalent GoSky or SVBony 50mm.
It is sharp enough to use as a range spotter for 22LR at 100yrds. But it only offers 30x magnification, which is slightly less than competitive brands that offer 36x or 40x. That means your eyesight will be doing some of the heavy lifting to make out those .22 holes on paper.
At a $70-$80 price point, I consider this a good value. The compact size sold me. It’s small enough to fit inside an ammo can, field coat pocket, or even cram into a full range bag.
One significant footnote: the first time I ordered this scope from Amazon, I got a lemon that had problems with the inner lenses that were misaligned (it would not focus). I returned it and ordered a second one which is used in this review. While Celestron is a very well-known brand, it’s always important to inspect your purchases no matter who makes them.
Vortex describes the Diamondback Tactical 6-24x50mm riflescope as a “long-range wolf in sheep’s clothing” Instead of gee-whiz features such as zero-stop turrets, a removable throw lever, or illumination, it focuses on basics: bright XD glass and a first focal plane reticle.
On the glass part, I have to hand it to Vortex. The glass really is exceptionally bright even at its maximum magnification of 24x. There is a trade-off: while its eye-relief is very good at 3.9″, it has a rather narrow eye-box. I wouldn’t say it’s unforgiving as the edges gradually dims, giving you good visual cues that your eye position is moving out of the eye-box.
Its other strong features are its loud and tactile positive turret adjustments and its Christmas tree reticle. Even when zoomed in to 24x the reticle has fine lines; of course, this could be a negative for those preferring to shoot at 9x, the cross-hairs may be too fine and hard to see. That is a trade-off with FFP reticles.
This scope is a value in Vortex’s lineup but “value” is a relative term. I originally picked up this scope for about $400; which is still the typical street price. But today, I would also look into scopes by Athlon and Arken which both offer more features at a similar price. Again, these are entry-level optics for Long Range Precision optics and the sky’s the limit from this point; both figuratively and monetarily. While I do not regret owning this scope, if I had to buy it today, I would have a harder time choosing it.
With the success of the Ruger RPR and Savage Precision B-22, CZ has come out with their own factory built precision rifle based on their new 457 action. They paired an all aluminum chassis of their own design, with a LUTH-AR adjustable buttstock to create a competition ready rifle straight out of the box. I test out that claim by taking this new CZ 457 to a 100yrd competition practically right out of the box.
I had been eyeing a CZ 457 MTR but none could be had anywhere, so I ordered the VPC (Varmint Precision Chassis) from Coyote Point Armory and 3 weeks later picked up the rifle (after the idiotic mandatory 10-day CA waiting period but don’t get me started). It was the Wednesday before the Sunday Match, so I had time to film a short unboxing video. You can mount 11mm dovetail scope mounts on the rifle but I chose a Trigger-by-Scar 25MOA Picatinny adapter rail for more commonality with my scope mounts for future reviews.
I attached a spare pair of UTG M-Lok bipods and borrowed a 6-24×50 Athlon Argos from my AR. I took it to the range Friday night to zero out the scope but I didn’t do any prior seasoning, breaking-in or adjusting of the rifle. I kept the trigger set at it’s 3lb factory set pull. I didn’t even lube the shine action (which was very smooth out of the box).
I also didn’t an opportunity to test match-grade ammo. I have a few partial boxes of match-grade ammo from prior testing of Eley Edge, Eley Target, and Federal Gold Medal, but not enough to complete the match, which would require a minimum of 40rnds.
I opted to try out the best quality LRN 22LR I had supply of: Federal Auto Match and CCI Standard Velocity. While zero’ing the scope, I tested out 5rnds of each ammo type. CCI grouped the best (a sub 2″ group at 100yrds) so I chose to run with that for Sunday match. I noted that the CCI standards took a bit more effort to seat into battery. To keep to “out of the box” spirit, I didn’t clean the barrel out but bagged it up waited for Sunday morning.
The Sunday 100yrd match was non-sanctioned casual club event open to all members and guests of the Coyote Point Rifle and Pistol Club. All types of small-bore rimfire rifles were allowed. I had participated only once before with my Glenfield 60, which is a fine plinker but to be competitive I had to bring out the CZ.
The course of fire had 40 scoring shots with a total maximum score of 400: 4 targets 10 shots per target 10 minutes per target 3-minute free-shot period between targets Shooters were allowed to re-zero and test on a non-scoring target during the free-shot period.
The CZ performed flawlessly. The action was smooth and the only effort was the additional pressure required to seat the CCI standards. The factory set 3lb trigger had a clean, crisp, break with zero over travel. It was pleasantly lighter than any of my other rifles.
My only issue was the need to re-load half-way through each target because the CZ only came with a single 5-round magazine. For the price and for the US market, CZ should have included 2 magazines or better yet both a 5-round and a 10-round magazine.
At the end of the match, I came in 4th among the 22LR shooters and 6th overall. My smallest 10-shot group was 1.6″ at 100yrds with a total score of 347 out of 400 (though it would later turn out after reviewing video that one of my targets had holes mistakenly shot by my buddy in the next lane). While this is not sub-MOA performance, I still give this rifle very positive marks because I can easily improve its performance in two simple ways: find match-grade ammo it likes and lighten the trigger.
AFFILIATE LINK Order this rifle at Palmetto State Armory:
SPECIFICATIONS
Product Name CZ 457 Varmint Precision Chassis
SKU 02361
Firearm Type Rifle
Purpose Competition
MSRP $1,039.00
Chambering 22 LR (optional 17 HMR)
Twist Rate 1:16 in
Magazine Capacity 5
Magazine Type Detachable Box
Stock Aluminum Chassis
Sights None,. Integral 11mm Dovetail
Barrel Heavy Tapered Cold Hammer Forged
Barrel Length 16.5 in or 24 in
Weight 7.65 lbs
Trigger Mech Fully Adjustable
Safety Two-Position, Push-To-Fire
YOUTUBE REVIEWERS ARE USELESS YouTube continues to annoy and perplex me. This is the 2nd edit of this video. YouTube reviewers rejected the first longer edit which contained a full unboxing and additional commentary about the features of the rifle. Their reviewer comment was:
Use of guns outside a controlled environment; display of homemade, 3D-printed, or previously modified guns; use of airsoft or ball bullet (BB) guns against others without protective gear.
YouTube Manual Reviewer Team
This, despite the fact that the original video had both text and audio stating that the shooting portion of the video was filmed in at a gun range. In fact, the Sheriff’s training center! So, I edited out much of the unboxing footage and removed any mention of the bipod and scope (which some un-informed reviewer might have deemed as a “modification”?! ) This shortened video was approved.
This is not the first time their human reviewers have misclassified one of my videos and probably won’t be the last. Here below is the original edit (the title was amended by me after the Reviewer rejected it):
This review took me 4 year to write. That’s how long I’ve owned my Athlon Argos 6-24×50 FFP BTR. Recently, I mounted it on my CZ 457 for a 100yrd match which I came in 4th in 22LR. I found that it offers the ability to sight in quickly, consistently, and confidently at 16x all day long. And conveniently zoom into 24x to easily spot my holes on paper.
At 6x-16x the color, clarity, and contrast are excellent. It holds its own against my Vortex and Bushnell at this magnification range. Its BTR First Focal Plane (FFP) reticle offers clean and readable subtension marks. The MIL version of this scope (which I own) offers a Christmas Tree pattern of windage compensation reference points for long range shooting.
At 18-24x you do lose some brightness and sharpness in the image and the reticle lines seem a bit thick compared to Vortex and some Leopold scopes. But for quick self-spotting of holes, these higher power settings are very convenient. The eye relief of 3.3″ remains constant throughout its 6-24x range with only a slight tightening of an already forgiving eyebox.
Vortex, Bushnell, Burris, and Leupold scopes in the Argos’ price bracket have less magnification and do not offer an illuminated reticle. The Gen2 version of the Argos offers a Zero-Stop turret and retails for $350. While retailers like Amazon try to sell out of their remaining stock of the original Gen 1’s, they make an even better value at around $275. There are cheaper scopes but not better in terms of optic quality and warranty.
