Blavor 10k mAh Solar Bank
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If you were thinking of using one of these to recharge your devices while traveling off the grid, it takes longer than I expected. I’m going to continue testing this and post periodic videos until I find out.

I own a suite of backup power storage at home and emergency solar and gas powered generators, so that’s not what this is for. This more for EDC. I occasionally need to quickly recharge my phone when I forgot to charge it overnight or have a lot of app use for work, games, etc. These powerbanks are handy.

Some folks leave these solar powerbanks on their car dashboard to recharge (I don’t because I live in San Francisco where they’ll break into your car to steal sunglasses). I wanted to see just how long it takes to recharge one of these if left in a window?

I knew it would take more than a few days because the built in solar panel isn’t that large. But it took even longer than I expected (I wouldn’t have been surprised if I did some more math on the square inches of the panel and the capacity of the battery, whatever).

Despite this, I’m not going to nock this powerbank. It works as advertised, offers a pair of LED flashlight heads (“two is one” right?), has a good variety of charging ports, and offers wireless charging so you don’t even need to worry about a cable (provided your phone or device does wireless charging).

PRO
• +10,000mAh output fully charged
• USBA & USB-C input and output ports
• Wireless Qi charging
• 2 x LED lights (~200 lumen)
• Built in solar panel
• Water resistant
• Ruberized armored body
• Good value at $30 ( AMAZON: https://amzn.to/3jyTSyI )

CON
• Takes a long time to solar recharge


Feyachi WL25 Weapon Light
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The WL25 is Feyachi’s newest 1200 lumen weapon light. It has a premium pressure plate with momentary and constant-on buttons which comes with adapter plates that fix it to either Picatinny or M-Lok rail. Unfortunately, my model would not switch from Strobe/Alt to Low/Alt modes, despite my following the instructions. Despite this, I still found it to be Feyachi’s best-made tac light

As an aside, I had to upload this to YouTube 3 times. The first two times, YouTube’s staff flagged the video as being Advertiser Unfriendly. The first video, due to my showing how to install it on my rifle (which I showed was safely unloaded). The second video because I still showed the light mounted to my rifle. We are living in a nanny culture.

Gosky 13-40×50 Spotting Scope
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If you’re looking for a good cheap long-range spotter, don’t bother watching. This is a “dumpster diving” review of a budget spotter I’m only using for 50yrd pistol matches or 100yrd rifle matches. In this case, size and weight are key deciding factors.

The 13-40×50 GoSky is one of the best rated compact spotting scopes on Amazon (which doesn’t mean much since most of those reviews are fake or underinformed). It retails for about $99 but I purchased it on sale for $70 putting it closer in price to a SvBony SV28. Making this the best spotter I’ve tried that currently retails for under $100.

PRO

  • Well built eye-piece with an independent rotating zoom dial. 
  • Good to Great optical clarity for a sub $100 “budget” spotting scope
  • Nice geared tripod that works better than it looks

CON

  • Warm cast on image
  • Cheap looking tripod
  • Clunky company website with minimum info

PRODUCT LINK Amazon https://amzn.to/2VEKYH3

SvBony SV28 15-45×50
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SVbony is one of the bigger brands in budget-to-midrange astronomy optics, so I wanted to see if any of that telescope expertise made it down to their least expensive spotting scope, the SV28.

The optic clarity is…just so-so. But for a $60 scope, I suppose it’s actually pretty good (that isn’t saying much.) Personally, if your budget is $60, I’d recommend saving another $50 and buying a GoSky or Celestron.

Purchase from Amazon https://amzn.to/3fxAyQ3

Solar Back Up Camera
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The Solarst rear view back up video camera kit was sent to me by MyGekoGear for this review. This is a solar powered wi-fi camera that fits on your license plate frame and allows you to wireless add a rear-view video camera to any vehicle. 

It’s an easy way to install a back up camera to a car, truck, RV or trailer without complicated wiring and professional installation. The license plate has a built in solar panel to recharge the battery powered camera which connections via WiFi to a 4″ LCD monitor that you install on your dash or windshield.

PRODUCT LINK

https://shop.mygekogear.com/products/solarst

15% Off code: MOONDOG15

Spotty Scope: Barska Colorado 15-40×50
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The Barska Colorado is a spotty scope instead of a spotting scope (see what I did there). It boasts a nice list of specs and a rugged appearance for a low, low price of $35 but it is in a word: disappointing. Well, there are many other words you can use to describe it, many comprising of four letters.

Amazon reviewers gave it an average of 3.9 stars out of 5 with almost half of its reviewers giving it 5 stars?! These reviewers either have never looked through another spotting scope or are awaiting cataract surgery. There is one positive thing I have to say about this scope: I can return it.

PRODUCT LINKS

Barska Colorado https://amzn.to/3flcTlO

Celestron 20x binoculars: https://amzn.to/3rQWuuy

Vilux 12x binoculars: https://amzn.to/3A68Wcq

Riton X1 Primal 4-16×44
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Riton lent me one of their X1 Primal 4-16×44 rifle scopes to review. The X1 Primal is an intro level 1 scope in their product line. It is one of the least expensive 16x zooming premium scopes on the market; a good value in a hunting scope. Its unique RUT reticle features a semi-open central dot which I found well suited for long-range target shooting with a 22LR as it allows for clear visibility of small bullseyes.

If it does have a fault, it is the quality of the image at 16x magnification. The scope loses a lot of sharpness and contrast at full magnification. Worst yet, its eye box gets very small making it almost unusable for hunting at 16x, when targets of opportunity are mobile and require rapid change of aim. Still, it’s a quality scope at under $200, where its competition only boasts 9x or 12x power.

PRODUCT LINKS
Optics Planet https://shrsl.com/325oo
Amazon https://amzn.to/3iW4sQl

OVERALL RATINGS (3 Max)
Build: 3
Glass: 2
Reticle: 3
Holds Zero: 3
Box Test: 3
Turrets: 3
Eye Relief: 1.5
Value: 3

Aguila SXHV: Marlin 60 vs Ruger 10/22
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Common Knowledge was that the Marlin 60 was one of the best shooting, factory semi-auto 22LR ever made. I always thought it was my most accurate shooting rimfire. Now, I’m not so sure. I tested Aguila Super Extra HV in my Marlin 60 and Ruger 10/22 takedown to see which rifle this ammo groups better in. I couldn’t quite believe the results, so ran the test again the following week. So much for “common knowledge”.

PRODUCT LINKS
Aguila Super Extra: https://bit.ly/3uC6JlS
UTG Bugbuster scope: https://amzn.to/3yRGwmM
Bushnell Banner scope: https://amzn.to/3fZqLS3

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