Shooting Sports

Discovery ED-PRS GenII 4-20×52

They say “Less is More” that could certainly be said of the ED-PRS GenII 4-20×52 scope. Earlier this year, I reviewed Discovery Optics new GenII revision of their ED-PRS 5-25×56 scope. The GenII EP-PRS boasted improved optical clarity by using Japanese ED glass. So, why would they make a 20x scope when they already offered a 25x? And why would you want to buy one?

The 20x version appears nearly identical to the 25x. In terms of performance, the 20x has a 4x magnification factor which means in theory it should provide slightly a sharper and brighter image when set to the same power numbers as the 25x. In my testing, the differences were too subtle for me to see. But what I could clearly see is that the 20x is slightly shorter, slightly lighter, and slightly cheaper than the 25x.

Moreover, most hunters and target shooters don’t typically shoot a 5-25x scope at its maximum 25x; preferring a setting of about 12x or 16x to improve clarity and brightness. A 20x scope is able to be used at 12-18x. Let me again remind you that the 20x is slightly shorter, slightly lighter, and slightly cheaper than the 25x. It all starts to make more practical sense.

BUY IT

Discovery website (get 10% off with CODE: moondog): https://discoveryopt.com/ED-PRS-4-20X52SFIR-FFP-Optics-Scope.html

or
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ZxHRP8

RESOLUION

Group: -1
Element: 5

SPECS

Objective Lens: 52 mm

Magnification: 4-20x

Tube Diameter: 34 mm

Max Elev Adj: 32 MRAD

Max Wind Adj: 17 MRAD

Adj/Click : 0.1MRAD

Exit Pupil: 2.6 – 13.3 mm

Field of View,: 6.1-30.6 ft @ 100 yds

Eye Relief: 3.3 in

Weight: 39.3 oz

Length: 14.8 in

Lens: Japanese ED Glass

Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

Athlon Cronus G2 20-60×86


Athlon makes a wide range of spotters but doesn’t have as storied name recognition as other bigger brands. The Cronus is Athlon’s top tier product line. Their Gen2 UHD 20-60x86mm spotting scope is not in the same class as a Kowa or Swarski, it still does not disappoint. This scope is a beast weighing in at nearly 5lbs, which isn’t surprising given it’s large 86mm objective. This large lens gathers in a lot of light providing a very bright picture especially during dusk.

The Cronus comes with a set of rubber lens caps. The front has a loop for a lanyard but no lanyard was included. The body is rubberized and armored for durability and grip. The body comes with an ARCA-Swiss compatible tripod ring which rotates 180º with indexing for an easy return to 0º. The eyepiece has a large diameter lens for a wide eyebox and a built in retracting eye cup.

The Cronus sports UHD glass which is Athlon’s term for their flavor of Extra Low Dispersion glass. While my testing camera does show some slight chromatic aberration at 60x, this is not noticeable with the naked eye. The image I was seeing was clean, accurate, and sharp from center to outer edge.

The only disappointing aspect of this scope isn’t the scope but its accessories. The padded sleeve style case is designed to allow you to keep the scope inside the soft case while mounting and using the scope on a tripod. While a laudable attempt, the materials and construction feel a bit cheap compared to the the scope. And the lens caps should have come with optional lanyards to keep them retained onto the scope. These issues are superficial and don’t detract from the actual performance of the Cronus.

Athlon sent me their new dual focus model with a fine focus knob sitting on top of the fast focus. This model is not yet released but their standard model with a large focus ring around the tube is widely available.

BUY IT

Ring focus Cronus G2 on Amazon https://amzn.to/3CIiwJh

SPECS

CRONUS G2

Magnification: 20-60x

Objective: 86mm

Eye Relief: .79 – .7”

Close Focus : 29.5 ft

FOV: 117 – 60 ft @ 1000 yrds

Coating: XPL

Glass: UHD

Prism: BaK-4

Waterproof: IPX 7 

Purge Gas: Argon

Weight: 73.5 oz

Dimensions: 15.2 “x 6.7”

Shooting Sports

TMI Live 241204

Aura https://aura.com/moondog

EARLBIRD #olight

THIS WEEK

Moondog2A https://youtu.be/bATNlNzYZCo

Moondog Reviews https://youtu.be/_VZy3HD0H4U

Moondog Go https://youtu.be/3RO4Yya0vg4

THUMBNAIL THIS

EARLYBIRD DRAWING i3E #olight

END DRAWING Olight Beanie #olight

WORD OF THE WEEK

Mandella Effect

Mandela effect, popularized phenomenon in which a group of people collectively misremember facts, events, or other details in a consistent manner. Paranormal researcher and author Fiona Broome conceptualized the effect after discovering that she and others possessed strong, yet false, memories about the death of South African anti-apartheid activist (and later president) Nelson Mandela while in prison during the 1980s. Research has found evidence for a specific Mandela effect concerning the misidentification of certain pop culture images; however, intense debate has occurred over potential causal mechanisms, many of which include pseudoscientific explanations.

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/mandela-effect

RABBIT HOLE

Mandella Effect WatchMojo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkO9zO62k-w

Dave Foley on Joe Rogan CERN and Mandella Effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z03gKig0SI

51 Songs you didn’t know were covers. Billy Dee Williams “A Taste of Honey” https://youtu.be/bHLU6JDgnmA?si=jcBagODS4n-eJR9J

CONTESTS

FEYACHI DRAWING

CVLife EagleTalon 1-6×24 https://moondogindustries.com/december-2024-contest-cvlife/

Olight Beanie HASHTAG DRAWING #olight

Shooting Sports

Riton 3Tactix 3x Magnifier

You will find very few reviews of magnifiers on my channel because I’m not a fan of them. I don’t like feel and balance when they are flipped the side and dislike how they block my field of view. But I totally understand why someone would choose to run them. Combined with a light weight red dot, they are slightly lighter than an LPVO without the LPVO’s limitations with daylight illumination. For fans of magnifier/red dot combos, will enjoy the new Riton 3x magnifier.

The Riton 3x is compact and relatively light for a 3x magnifier, including the weight of the QD side-flip mount. It has clear sharp image from edge to edge. You won’t see a big black donut around your scope like most magnifiers. It has a relatively large objective lens and a thin tube which creates a view that appears to be a nearly all image with no visible tube body.

The only disappointing aspects for me was it’s relatively shallow eye relief and side flip mechanism. It’s eye relief is under 3″ which forced me to choke up on my fixed stock. This would be even more problematical for shooters wearing body armor. The spring loaded side flip mount is well built with a locking QD lever system. But the side flip mechanism release button is positioned in the middle of the mount directly over the QD lever hinge. This may have been a deliberate choice to help protect the button from accidental release but it also made it difficult to press it because the QD lever blocked my thumb. With practice I’m sure I may learn to find it without looking but another solution would have been to reposition the release button.

Paired with the Riton 1Tacticx ARD red dot, it co-witnesses with most AR MilSpec sights and when mounted to my G36/22 was nearly centered out of the box. The adjustments turrets are protected by protective ramps and adjustable with a slotted tool like a screwdriver.

As I said, I’m not a fan of magnifiers but if I was forced to use a magnifier, I would use the new Riton 3x.

BUY IT

Amazon https://amzn.to/4eNSJN2

SPECS

Magnification:3X
Parallax Adjustment:Fixed at 100 yards
Objective Lens Diameter:22mm
Lens Coating:Fully Multi-Coated, Full Wide Band, Waterproof Coated, Low Light Enhancement
Field of View at 100 Yards:36.7 ft
Material:6061-T6
Eye Relief:2.75in/70mm
Exit Pupil:6mm
Mount:QD Mouth with Optional Spacer
Length:2.72in/69mm
Weight:7.9oz/224g
Shooting Sports

Aguila Super Extra vs. CCI Standard

I’ve been long planning a broad test of various budget 22LR ammo to see which groups best in my factory Ruger Precision Rimfire rifle. Aguila Super Extra is (as the latter’s name implies) the slower velocity brother of Super Extra High Velocity. So toois CCI Standard the slower brother of the more popular CCI Mini-Mags. Both of these rimfire ammo’s are 40grn lead round nose bullets with a wax coating.

In my 100 yard tests, I was surprised at how inconsistently Aguila grouped. A good 1/3 of the Aguila rounds were flyers from the main group. CCI, while not amazing, had far tighter groups and more holes touching or overlapping. CCI Standard set the standard. I look forward to testing other ammo brands to see if any group better.

Gadgets, Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

Athlon Argos G2 8×42 Binoculars

Athlon’s Argos line is their value tier product line, a step up from their budget/entry level Talos. But taking a look at the build quality and features of the Argos Gen2 8×42 binoculars, it looks more like a premium optic. The tubes are encased in rubberized armor coating with checkerboard textured panels to add further grip in wet conditions.

The Argos comes with soft plastic retained front lens caps which are one of the few disappointing features. The retaining strops too easily slip off the front of the tubes when flipping open the caps. The rear caps are spectacle style which can be retained to the optic, when used with a neck strap. The rear lenses have built-in retracting eye cups.

Indicative of budget level optics, there was some softness in focus and increased chromatic aberration along the other edge of the image. The Argos does not have ED glass like their more expensive Midas and Cronos optics but was nicely bright and clear. For an 8x scope, the field of view is nice and wide with good depth of field.

BUY IT

Amazon https://amzn.to/4eHNYou

Optics Planet https://shrsl.com/4rg9q

SPECS

ARGOS G2

Magnification: 8x

Objective: 42mm

Eye Relief: 17.3mm

Close Focus: 4m/13 ft

FOV: 371 ft. @ 1000 yrds

Coating: XPL / USP

Glass: UHD

Prism: BaK-4

Waterproof: IPX7

Argon Purged

Weight: 25.5 oz

Dimensions: 5.7″ x 5.3″

Social

TMI Live 241127

Aura https://aura.com/moondog

FRESH VIDS

MOONDOG 2A

Athlon EP-5 7-35x https://youtu.be/UU2mFiMzIOY

MOONDOG REVIEWS

Olight Arkflex https://youtu.be/7j-qtt2__cU

MOONDOG GO

Bay Bridge drive over https://youtu.be/WHz8EDKcWK4

THUMBNAIL THIS

Riton 3X magnifier

LIVE CONTEST

#evike

VOCAB

Tetrahedron

Also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertices. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the ordinary convex polyhedra.[1]

RABBIT HOLE

PG Tips https://amzn.to/4eNVWw8

New Ashey D campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNrmakIRtjw&t=2s

Sock puppet Chimp campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7AO6DHx27c

Original PG Tips Chimp campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6ywmvUS1N0

Who are the biggest tea drinkers in Europe? Tea in East Frisia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiCLHO-vbNE

Cornwall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornwall

Food Theory Milk / Cream should be last https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR-3BMignl4

America used to drink more Green Tea before WWII (and boycotts of Japan) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_tea_culture

Bobba Bubble Tea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_tea

3.2 Billion $ growth industry worldwide.

Origins of Bobba https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xinN-8XLUJI

PRE-BLACK FRIDAY

Discovery Optics use code BLACKFRIDAY 15% off: https://www.discoveryopt.com/

Arken Use code: CYCLPOPS https://www.arkenopticsusa.com/optics/

Olight up to 50% off https://www.olightstore.com/black-friday-color-megapack-2024

NOVEMBER CONTEST

Feyachi QD TM22 vest https://moondogindustries.com/november-2024-contest/
American Hillbilly https://www.youtube.com/@HillbillyUp
Gizzard Gary https://youtube.com/@gizzardgary
Hazzbro https://www.youtube.com/@Hazzbro1964
GarageGuy https://www.youtube.com/@garageguy879
JH586 https://www.youtube.com/@jh5869
Marc Thomas https://www.youtube.com/@marcthomas2482
Pat in the Bunker https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUlwVk5R4IL9Sgy0iZk3AaQ

December CVLife EagleTalon https://moondogindustries.com/december-2024-contest-cvlife/

LIVE CONTEST DRAWING

#holosun

Shooting Sports

Arken EP-5 Gen2 7-35×56

Arken took their  EP-5 5-25×56 scope and bumped up the power for those that require the 35x to really reach out. This new scope shares the same Japanese ED glass, turret, zero-stop, and reticle of the previous EP-5 models. The only thing it doesn’t have more of is eye-box. Arkens are somewhat known for an unforgiving eye box and this scope is more so, even at its lowest magnification.

The scope has Arken’s VPR Christmas tree reticle which is quite information rich without being too cluttered. The scope offers 6 levels of illumination with an off in between each setting. Only the very center cross is fully illuminated so the overall look is somewhat muted and only twilight bright.

The turrets are high profile with large easy to read numbers. The turrets are non-locking but have a cog and tooth style zero-stop which is very solid and repeatable. Arken is known for their loud, precise, and tactile adjustment clicks. These turrets did not disappoint in that regard.

This scope seems to be a good value in its tier. While there is now more competition in the Arken price-range (eg. Discovery and DNT), but you’ll have to jump up quite a bit in price to get similar offerings from Athlon, Vortex, Leupold, etc. If you’re an Arken fanboy this scope has everything you love in the EP-5, just more of it. If you think Arkens are overrated, this new scope won’t change your mind.

BUY IT

Arken: https://www.arkenopticsusa.com/ep-5-7-35×56-gen-2-ffp-illuminated-vpr-zero-stop-34mm-tube/EP-5-5-25X56-FFP-Illuminated-VPR-Zero-Stop-34mm-Tube-p559097166

RESOLUTION

Element 1 / Group 0

SPECS

Magnification: 7-35x
Objective Diameter: 56mm
Eye Relief: 3.5 inches
Field of View: 16.66-3.34 ft @100 Yards
Tube Size: 34 mm
Turret Adjustment: 0.1 MRAD | 0.25 MOA
Reticle Position: First Focal Plane
Reticle Details: VPR MIL | VPR MOA
Elevation Adj.: 32 MRAD | 110 MOA
Windage Adj.: 16 MRAD | 55 MOA
Per Revolution: 10 MRAD | 25 MOA
Per Revolution: 10 MRAD | 25 MOA
Parallax: 25Yds – Infinity
Length: 16 inches
Color: Matte Black
Weight: 42 oz
Battery: CR2032

Shooting Sports

MidTen Rechargeable Reflex

At first blush, the reflex sight MidTen sent me looked like every other knock off of the Ultraflex PanAV. But taking a closer look, it lacks a rotary illumination and battery turret. Because this reflex sight is USB-C rechargeable. The reflex design traces its roots to competition optics from the late 1980’s. It’s not a combat optic, lacking ruggedness, lens protection, or weather proofing. The MidTen’s build quality looks budget and a bit outdated but it has modern updates that set it apart even from more recent designs.

This MidTen has a 4 reticle dial at the rear of the unit: dot, circle-dot, cross-dot, (no size for the dot is listed by the maker but my eye estimate looks like a fat 6 MOA). Arrow buttons on the left side control 5-levels of illumination. The center button manually turns the unit on and off; keeping it pressed cycles between red and green color. The unit automatically goes into sleep mode after 4 minutes of inactivity. Motion reactivates the unit which remembers its last brightness setting and color selected.

Testing the unit on my Ruger 10/22 TD, I went through a 250 round bulk box of 22LR and the unit held zero. While the MidTen build quality is unrefined but solid. The MidTen has shake-awake, a rechargeable power supply, and a price point lower than any other motion activated reflex.

BUY IT

Amazon: https://bit.ly/3O0tiNB

10% discount code:  9R25FSQD

Gadgets, Product Reviews

OLight Arkflex

The Arkflex adds a new angle to the innovative wedge style EDC. The Arkflex rounds out the harder squared edges of the Arkfeld design. It is a little smaller and lighter than the Arkfeld and lacks the rotary control, UV light, and laser. Arkflex adds a new feature: a hinged top which can tilt the dual LED emitter to 90º angle. With the tilting emitter, the Arkflex can transform from a standard wand style flashlight, into a clip-on hands free work light.

In testing, the Arflex meets or exceeds all of its printed specs. The Arkflex outputs a little over a maximum of 1000 lumens in Turbo mode. It has a runtime of 120 minutes in Turbo and can be fully immersed in water.

But nothing is perfect. After my testing, my sample unit wouldn’t turn off until the battery died and wouldn’t recharge. It was defective. But rather than this review ending in a negative conclusion, it became a test of the company’s warranty and customer service.

I went to the Warranty and Repairs page of Olight’s website and entered in a return request. After uploading photos of the unit and describing the issue, they emailed me a PDF return label. I received a replacement unit a few days later. Unfortunately Olight was out of the Halloween limited edition lights, so they sent me a plain orange one. Far from disappointed, I was impressed with how easy Olight’s warranty return process was.

BUY IT

Amazon https://amzn.to/3CH0c3l

Gear Reviews, Education, and Adventure