While in Los Angeles, I stopped by the Evike.com superstore to try out their new interactive shooting experience: Level Up. It’s an airsoft shooting gallery game for up to 5 players. Game graphics are projected onto its walls, which contain impact sensors.
You choose from a selection of game modes, including a zombie attack. Your score is automatically recorded. You’re issued everything you need to play, including eye-protection, a full-auto airsoft rifle with a red dot optic, and glow-in-the-dark tracer BBs so you can see your shots.
Category Archives: Airsoft
Airsoft, Milsim, and Combat sports
OP: Bad Blood 2025
See the entire photo gallery by Primer Productions: https://gallery.tedcolegrove.com/badblood2025/
Over 400 players attended my annual charity airsoft event, Evike.com presents Operation: Bad Blood, was again held at EMR event park in New Millford, PA. Threats of thunderstorms caused many to cancel their tickets in the week leading up to the event, despite the advice of the EMR.
The weather turned out to be ideal for an airsoft event. Cool and cloudy in the morning and by 1:00 the sun broke through and swiftly dried up the mud for a bright and warm afternoon. There was thunder and a brief 10min rainstorm but that occured an hour after the game was over and 15 minutes after the end of the epic Evike raffle.
This year, I handed off Game Manager duties to my friend and long time co-producer Ian Conolly who will be producing the event moving forward. We raised over $7000 for Breakthrough T1D to help diabetes research. It’s a great way to end my era of airsoft games.
OPBB2025 Early Bird Contest
Win a $50 Evike gift card. Enter the contest by filling out the entry form https://forms.gle/cKsbtQMFzwrx4scj7
Contest ends 12:00pm EST, May 15, 2025
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 legal resident in the USA. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, 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
Moondog Industries (known as the SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promotor 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 24 April 2025
and
12:00pm EST 15 May 2025
5. How to Enter
This contest requires your skill in navigating your phone or computer controls to fill out the ENTER THE CONTEST form. Optional cost-free entry method: Subscribe to the NYC Airsoft YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@newyorkcityairsoft and take a screen capture of the page showing the Subscribed button. Upload that screen capture image to the ENTER THE CONTEST form. One entry per person. Fraudulent entry methods, 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. A contestant will be selected during a Bad Blood Livestream on May 15, 2025. Winners will be contacted via the email used to enter the contest. The 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 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 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.
Riton 5Tactix 1-10x
The 5Tactix is an LPVO that thinks it’s a 5 Conquer long range rifle scope. The 5Tactix is part of the trend trend of more magnification in LPVO’s. Not just 6x or 8x but an impressive 10x. This really blurs the lines given not-too-long-ago a 3-9x scope was the standard for “long range” rifle scopes.
Riton sent me a sample of the 5Tactix which I first saw earlier this year at SHOT Show 2023. This scope is part of Riton’s new product line redesign with their new signature Rifle Twist pattern on their control surfaces. It is a design inspired by the lands and grooves of a rifle barrel twist. This aggressive groove patten offers very good grip contact for wet or gloved hands as well as a very stylish look that I find aesthetically appealing.
This LPVO has a 34mm tube with capped turrets. The turrets are resettable and are tactile positive and very audible. The adjustments in my sample are 1/10 of a MRAD per click.
The magnification ring has Riton’s patented Throw Fin design which has two slots on the ring. You can reposition or remove the included throw-lever fin on either slot to best fit your handedness or ergonomics. The fin appears much more durable than a screw on lever and Riton offers options to purchase additional fins of different heigh profiles.
The reticle is First Focal Plane (FFP). At 1x this appears as a thin T-style reticle with arrowheads and a floating center dot. The cross hairs thin. They remind me of precession reticles on target rifle scopes. This is the problem, this isn’t a target rifle scope, it’s an LPVO.
Most people choose an LPVO because they own an AR. For most civilians that really means 10-100yrds at the range or 100-300yrds hunting. A hunting reticle needs to provide a visible aiming point in cluttered backgrounds and for action shooters that also means an aim point that can be visually re-acquired during quick follow up shots.
The 5Tactix’s thin 1x reticle is hard to find in cluttered backgrounds especially after recoil; unless you happen to be shooting on flat desert or snow terrain. Some LPVOs with thin reticles get around having thin cross hairs by offering thick aiming cues or compensating with bright center illumination. Unfortunately the 5Tactix does neither well.
The thin cross hairs have thicker arrow heads at the tip but they don’t become prominent until the scope is set at 5x or higher and the FFP reticle is scaled up. The 5Tactix offers 6 levels of illumination which light up the arrowheads and the center diamond and Christmas Tree. At max brightness the 5Tactix reticle is indoor bright but not daylight bright and far short of “red dot bright” found in Nightforce and other high end LPVOs.
At 5x and especially 10x the 5Tactix really starts to shine. The center dot enlarges to reveal a diamond aiming point with a Christmas Tree grid below providing hold overs out to 1100 yards. The 5Tactix has the glass clarity to back up 1000 yard use providing a clear bright image from 1x to 10x. Riton would have been better served making a 5Tactix SFP version with the 10x reticle as its fixed reticle available at 1x.
My sample optic appeared to be wider than 1x at its lowest end. Objects in the scope appeared slightly smaller. I had to dial up the magnification to ~1.1-1.2 to get a 1:1 match when sighting with both eyes open. But the view it did provide was as sharp and bright as higher end LPVOs on the market.
Perhaps Riton was focused a bit too much on being the best long range LPVO with the 5Tactix? Or perhaps the 5Tactix was designed for a very specific type of rifle user. Who that is, I’m not sure but its not me.
ONLINE RETAILERS
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Amazon: https://amzn.to/47Dbr7n
RESOLUTION (50 yrds)
GROUP: -1
ELEMENT: 2
SPECS
RITON 5 Tactix
Magnification: 1-10
Parallax: Fixed 100 yrds
Tube Diameter: 30mm
Objective Lens: 24mm
Reticle: 30T First Focal Plane
Lens Coating: Fully Multi-Coated, Low Light
Field of View: 105.8ft – 10.5ft @ 100 yrds
Eye Relief: 4 in/101mm
Exit Pupil: Low 7.2mm – High 2.4mm
Click Value: 1/10th MRAD
Adjustment Range: 40 MRAD
Length: 11.25in/285mm
Weight: 1.6lbs/26oz
Xaegistac budget shooting glasses
Xaegis Tactical sent me their newest set of shooting glasses to test and evaluate. They comes in 3 different lens tints: clear, yellow, and dark. Each comes in a hard nylon woven case with a cleaning cloth and a sparse instruction pamphlet.
These shooting glasses are generic Oakley and Bolle-style wraparound glasses. They are entirely polymer and silicone in construction. They claimed to be ANSI Z87.1 impact rated, UV-filtering, and anti-fog. I couldn’t test the first two claims but I aimed to test the last one.
I ran the Xaegis glasses over the mist of a room humidifier and they left no trace on the lenses. In comparison, the humidifier left a noticeable fog patch on my prescription eyeglasses. Next, I put on two layers of cloth face masks and put on the Xaegis glasses. I got only the barest hint of moisture on the lens after 60 seconds of talking and breathing.
These inexpensive $15 safety/shooting glasses lived up to their performance claims and will be going into my range bags as spares. If you’re interested in picking some up, they come in a variety of arm colors as well as lens tints.
Use the affiliate links below to support my channel.
ONLINE RETAILERS
Amazon https://amzn.to/3SJ3zwt
EZshoot 1-6×24 LPVO
I had to re-edit and re-upload this video because of goof on my part. I’ve been mispronouncing the name of the brand. It’s not EZshot, it’s EZshoot.
EZshot is a brand best known for budget firearms accessories like barrel snakes, red dots, and weapon lights and not always in a good way. It came as a bit of a surprise that they reached out to me with an 1-6x LPVO. I didn’t have high hopes as to optical qualities and build quality but I was delightfully surprised.
The scope came in completely blank black box which was not a good start. Like Feyachi and MidTen, most of EZshots product are generic and often lack any branding on the product itself. I assume they buy their products from the same factories and just market them under their brand name.
Inside, I found an LPVO that we pretty well put together. The elevation and windage turrets are capped. The turrets underneath, looked a bit cheap but had nice loud clicks. Overall the scope looked good; not $500 scope quality but more than its $109 price on Amazon.
At the range, I found the image at 6x to be decent. Not amazing but not bad. It had a fair bit of chromatic aberration, edge distortion, and lacked some resolution and brightness. But the image was sharp enough to confidently engage man sized targets from 50-100 yards.
It’s eye relief and exit pupil were average for a budget LPVO. There are better scopes but almost none it’s price tier. I had no trouble brining it up to my eye and quickly acquired my target. I found it’s reticle to be better than I expected, though its outer cross hairs should have been thinner.
Without a doubt, there are better and more durable LPVOs. But for the price, this is great optic for a range baby.
ONLINE RETAIL SOURCES
Amazon Affiliate: https://amzn.to/3DKqAq2
Manufacturer Specs
| ITEM WEIGHT | 15.2 Ounces |
|---|---|
| MATERIAL | Aluminum |
| MAGNIFICATION MAXIMUM | 6 x |
| MAGNIFICATION MINIMUM | 1 x |
| COMPATIBLE DEVICES | Rifle |
| MOUNTING TYPE | Cantilever Mount |
| NIGHT VISION | No |
| EYE RELIEF | 3.94 Inches |
| PRODUCT DIMENSIONS | 9.65″L x 2.76″W x 2″H |
Prime Day: Feyachi Deals
Amazon Prime Day runs from July 11-12 this year and Feyachi is offering discounts up to 30% off their normal prices for their entire product inventory. I’ve reviewed quite a few of their products which are already budget priced and with these Primer Day discounts, make them an even better deal.
I’m sharing these deals I got via email from Feyachi. Up to 30% on Feyachi’s Amazon store: https://amzn.to/3D081he
Monstrum Raider X1
At the Monstrum booth at Shot Show 2023 they introduced me to a prototype weapon light that they claim could output 2000 lumens. It was so new they didn’t have a name for it. Four months later Monstrum sent me their brand new weapon light called the Raider X1.
The Raider X1 comes in a compact box containing the light and a M-LOK/Picatinny rail. The weapon light is made of 6061 aircraft grade aluminum which feels quite durable and solid. It recharges via a covered USB-C port at the rear of the wedged shaped body.
The rear wedge functions as an angled fore grip. Not quite pistol grip (as that would violate many state’s gun laws), it provides an ergonomic hand position. The lens housing also functions as a hand stop, preventing your hand from moving forward which is useful as a safety feature in bullpups, short barreled rifles or pump shotguns like the KS7/KSG.
An single activation button is located on the left side of the body. A press turns the unit on in its high output mode. In my testing, I measured approximately 1850 lumens; which is still plenty bright. Pressing the button cycles the flashlight from high, to low, to off. Keeping the button pressed for 5-6 seconds activates the strobe mode.
The Raider lacks momentary on or mode memory; two features I consider to be vital for a modern weapon light. This control scheme was standard for weapon lights 15 years ago and for those that are used to this scheme may be a selling point but not for me.
What is a selling point is it’s performance and durability. Monstrum states that it has a 60 minute run time on high mode. Fully recharged, I tested its runtime and found it exceeded it’s claimed run time by over 17 minutes (crapping out at 78 minutes). It’s built so tough, I ran it over with my SUV twice, and despite some small nicks and scratches, it survived un-dented and functional.
The Raider X1 did fail one of my tests: I found the unit did not meet to IPX6 rating it claims. I hit it with a high pressure water hose at various angles for about 15-20 seconds. A few minutes later, I found that moisture beads appeared behind the lens and lifting the silicone charging port cover, I found water weeping out of the port.
After a number of minutes the went into strobe mode and the activation button became unresponsive. I left the unit outside in the sun for a few days to dry it out. After checking the charging port for moisture, I tried charging it up again and it appears to be working normally. While water getting into the unit is failure, it’s recovery from its wet condition may be a positive.
Available from Monstrum: https://monstrumtactical.com/raider-2000-lumen-x1-flashlight-foregrip/
OP: Bad Blood 2023
I produced another successful Operation: Bad Blood airsoft event at EMR Event Park in northeastern Pennsylvania. Over 600 players signed up for the event, fewer than last year due to inflation many opting out due to June thunderstorms. There was a down pour on Friday afternoon and rain through the night which made me fear a huge no-show for the following days game. As it turned out over 570 players showed up to play by the morning briefing; this despite a morning rain shower.
The rains were welcome as there were no serious heat related injuries this year. The game ran non-stop all day, with the players forming 4 different competing factions and non-aligned Tribal forces warring it over 200 acres of woods, multi-leveled forts, and simulated villages. The objective of the game for the factions was to collect up to eight different blood sample stamps hidden in the field and on the person of each faction commander.
A bonus mission this year was the capture and extraction of my niece who played a CDC Research Scientist who’s medical convoy was destroyed and needed to be evacuated to safety. A Marxist squad was the first to locate her in Fort Wor and ran off with her into the woods and back canyon. They weren’t seen again until nearly an hour later and were able to get her to her “chopper” and score a bonus which pushed their faction into a tie for second place by the end of the game.
The final score was Greens 1st (6 stamps); Deus-X and Marxists 2nd (5 stamps); Black Shirts 3rd (3 stamps)
After all the players exited the field and recovered, they gathered around the EMR stage for the legendary post-Bad Blood raffle. Each player received a complimentary raffle ticket and over the course of nearly an hour we raffled off over 20 AEGs, pistols, plate carriers, weapon lights, gift cards, and accessories supplied by Evike.com, Jackal Tactical, Amped Airsoft, O-Light, and EMR.
The next morning, I organized a bonus game of OP: Dead Blood, a zombie game. Over 200 die-hard players spread out around Tipmon Town and competed against each other to find bio-hazard declas. As players were killed they added to the ever-growing zombie hoard which swamped all the players after nearly an hour of intense play. The rest of the Sunday, EMR ran skirmish games for everyone.
Help find a cure for diabetes by supporting the JDRF: https://www2.jdrf.org/site/Donation
July 18 Contest
June 18 PRIZE: Monstrum Raider 2000LM weapon light
The contest Prize will be chosen from all entries submitted. Entries must be received no later than 12pm EST on June 17, 2023
CONTEST INSTRUCTIONS
1. Subscribe to my YouTube channel or TikTok
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moondogo
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@moondogreviews
2. Take a screen shot of the channel screen showing you have subscribed/followed.
3. Email the following using button below or directly at: contest@moondogindustries.com
- A. Subject must be: June 18 Contest
- B. Attach the JPG or PNG screen shot of my YouTube channel or TikTok profile.
- C. Include your full name and ship-to address in the email (so I can confirm you live in the US or Canada)
4. BONUS ENTRY: Post a comment on the Game Rules video and send me a screen shot of your comment.
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 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
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 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 11 JUNE 2023
and
12:00pm EST 17 June 2023
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
The 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, 2023.
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 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 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.