OP:BB 2022 OLight Giveaway

OLIGHT Baldr Mini

Enter by Jun 15, 2022 to Win


Enter to Win an OLight weaponlight. Use your skill to SUBSCRIBE, JOIN or FOLLOW any or all of these Social Media Channels/Accounts. So there are multiple ways to enter.


1. Use the button below to email a screen capture of any of these pages to olight@moondogindustries.com


2. Include your full name and ship-to address (so I can confirm you live in the US or Canada)


3. Each subscription/follow is worth (1) entry per person. You may submit multiple screen caps in your email.
Entries must be received no later than 11:59pm PST on June 15.


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 18 years of older to enter and residing in the USA or Canada. Moondog Industries and OLight 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

Olight USA and Moondog Industries are collectively known as SPONSORS. OLight USA 7951 Angleton Ct. STE B, Lorton, VA, 22079 is supplying the prize(s) and shipping them directly to the winner. Moondog Industries is a game promotor based in San Francisco, CA is organizing the contest on behalf of OLIght to promote the OP: Bad Blood event for EMR Event Park and Evike.com

3. Agreement to Rules

By entering your contest, participants agree to abide by the Sponsors Official Rules and decisions. Moondog Industries and OLight 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 Sponsors as final and binding.

4. Entry Period

Baldr Mini entries must be received by between 12:00pm PST June 1 and 11:59pm PST June 15. Baldr Pro-R entries must be received between 12:00PST May 7, 2022 and 11:59pm May 31, 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 olight@moondogindustries.com . One entry per person or per YouTube channel/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

The winner will receive an OLight Baldr Pro R weapon light shipped to them from Olight. Winner must be able to receive the prize by mail. Prize may be substituted at the sole discretion of OLight. Acceptance of the prize grants Sponsors 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 Sponsors 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 during the week of June 6, 2022 and announced June 12, 2022.

Sponsors 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 Sponsors 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 Sponsors, upon submission of an entry into the giveaway or contest have 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

Sponsor reserve 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 Sponsors 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 Sponsors 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 contacting Moondog Industries for up to 1yr 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 Sponsors 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. 

Sniper VT 4-16×44 FFP


It’s become more common to find affordable first focal plane (FFP) variable optics scopes. But it’s rare to find one that’s 4-16x that’s less than 10.5″ long. The Texas Precision Optics Sniper VT 4-16×44 MFFP First Focal Plane (FFP) Scope is that unicorn.

Any scope with the brand name “Sniper” leaves many a tad dubious. But my review of Sniper ZT 5-25×50 left with with a positive impression, especially with the high quality accessories that came with the package. I opened the box more hopeful than skeptical.

Reflective of the lower price point, the VT comes with far fewer accessories than the ZT. The box like the scope was unexpectedly small containing the scope, flip-up lens covers, CR1620 button batteries, an Allen key, cleaning cloth, and a scope mount. The scope came pre-mounted on a skeletonized cantilever mount.

I’ve never seen a scope mount design quite as squared off as this one but it appeared well made and strong enough to handle full-sized rifle cartridge recoil; though the cross bolts were rounded and lacked any lugs or stop blocks.

One glaring issue with the mount is that the locking screws are the right-hand side (as installed). The mount designers made a confounding decision to place the screws where they did and I suspect were not avid shooters. This puts the screws in the way of many rifle bolt lever or charging handles.

More than once I banged a knuckle while working the action of my Ruger 10/22. I had to take off the scope and reverse the direction of the mount which worked on my 10/22 rail but may not work for other rifle setups. I would recommend Texas Precision Optics change the position of the screw bolts or request the factory to reverse the direction of the scope when installing it.

I found some minor issues with the scope and turrets. The etching of the numbers and lettering along with the metallic gold point used to highlight it, made it annoyingly hard to read some of the numbers on the turrets. The turrets had some slop and weren’t as tactical or audible as the ZT. In fact the first sample Texas Precision Optics sent me had some tracking issues but their customer service quickly sent me a replacement and return label without issue.

The optics quality were underwhelming; not very bright and with noticeable chromatic aberration at its highest power setting. About on par to a similarly sized UTG Bugbuster in terms of clarity though with higher magnification. Where it did exceed the Bugbuster was the VT’s more detailed first focal plane reticle, which has MIL hashmarks and a LPVO style central dot and horse shoe design.

Regarding the aforementioned UTG 3-9×32 scope, the VT is essentially a better Bugbuster. The VT is 1.5″ longer but still short enough to fit inside a Ruger 10/22 Takedown case. It has a better illuminated reticle and higher magnification power which makes it far more usable at ranges of 100 yards or more. And while I would like a scope with better optics than the VT, in the case of my 10/22 Takedown, size matters.

Purchase the Sniper VT on Amazon (Affiliate Link)
https://amzn.to/3l3AJ7V

RESOLUTION
Group: -2
Element: 6

SPECS
MAGNIFICATION: 4x-16x
RETICLE : Mil dot
WEIGHT/OZ : 20.2
LENGTH: 10.4
TUBE SIZE: 30
EYE RELIEF: 3.6~4.1
EXIT PUPIL/MM: 14.7~3.7
FIELD OF VIEW@100YARDS: 34.3~9.6
CLICK IN@100YARDS: 1/4”
ADJUSTMENT RANG: ±30
Fog Proof: YES
Shock Proof: YES
Water Proof: YES
Battery: CR1620

Child’s Finger vs. Gun Safe

Biometric gun safes have gotten cheaper but some of the cheapest are cheap for a reason. I’ve seen a video of the biometric sensor activating when another finger or even just the palm of the hand was pressed down upon it. One Amazon reviewer reported that their son was able to open his safe, presumably because of the similarities in fingerprint between father and son due to genetics.

So I wanted to make sure that in testing a RexMeo biometric gun safe, that it couldn’t be defeated by genetics. After keying in my fingerprint into the sensor and confirming that only my thumb would open the lock (and another finger). I asked my 9-year old son to try and open the lock using his thumb and other fingers on the sensor. I’m happy to report that he was unsuccessful.

As a parent, I’ve taught both of my children gun safety and have taken them shooting at the gun range. They know I keep guns in the house and not to touch our firearms without my direct supervision. But I know that I can’t watch them all the time or any child that may enter my home as a guest. That’s why I keep firearms hidden, in safes and in locked cases. While no solution is completely fool proof or child proof, it is a fool relies on technology to keep his family safe. The first and most important step you can take is education.

Available on Amazon through my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/37Yz1lC

Nelahol Flip-up Iron Sights

I received these back-up iron sights (BUIS) to test and review, which was quite timely because I was looking to add iron sights to my Ruger Precision Rimfire which I’ll cover in another article. These are pretty generic AR-style flip-up iron sights. You’ve seen these BUIS designs sold under a variety of US brands including Troy Industries, Midwest Industries, etc. I believe the design originated from Heckler & Koch, though I can’t be certain of this?

This design has been copied by Chinese EOMs and sold under countless brands like Feyachi, CVLife, Marmot, and many more brands you’ve never heard of, like Nelahol. Despite not knowing anything about this brand, I went under the assumption that they’re all made by the same handful of factories using the same copies of CNC milling specs. The only difference is the quality of the screws and aluminum stamped components. Plus, they were fairly inexpensive and covered the Amazon no-fault return so I figured I had nothing to lose trying it out.

The BUIS came in a thin black plastic case. Inside were the the front and rear sights and an allen wrench. No instructions and no branding.

On close inspection, they seemed well machined. No blems on the finish, pits or unfinished edges of the parts. The spring loaded flip-up sights deployed without issue. The front was an A1 AR-style post and the rear was a 2-position CQB and small aperture peep sight. The rear windage peep sights are finger adjustable with tactile positive indexed clicks.

Like most HK-style BUIS, the sights and spring loaded and lock in the elevated position, when flipped up. A small side pun near the hinge is pressed to unlock the sight. The sights may be pushed down flat against the hand guard/receiver providing a very low profile when not in use (hence the their use as ‘back-up’ sights to red dots and other optics).

The bases mount to Picatinny rails with enough clearance to rock them onto a slot. They required a bit of extra finger torque to clamp down solidly on my rail. I suspect the screws could use a bit of lock-tite to keep them from loosening.

I zero’d and tested them at 25yrds and found the sights were repeatable and didn’t lose zero in a limited sample of 50rnds. My only issue was that the front sight pin’s screw lacked sufficient clearance around it to use my AR sight tool to seat them below the base of the screw well. The need for that depression was specific to my Ruger RPR and may not effect most AR users.

I was fortunate that this brand put out very workable BUIS that do the job for an affordable price. Are they as durable or rugged as German-made HK sights or similar US made sights; probably not. But for your average home owner who wants a BUIS for their home-defense gun that will probably only see range use, this should work.


These sights are available on Amazon through my Affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3z7swYH

Nelahol Flip up sight 15% discount code: IAPVCX7K 

Norma Tac-22 vs. Fed Champion 22LR

I mounted my Vortex Diamondback Tactical 6-24×50 scope on my new CZ 457. Rather than waste my limited supply of CCI Standard which I was saving for the match, I opted to use some extra (“Blue Box”) I had, figuring I could waste it to get a rough zero on paper before fine tuning with the CCI Standard.

In the process, I noticed that the Federal Champion was printing surprisingly tight groups. As good as good as the CCI Standard I was planning on using at an upcoming 100yrd match. I was down to 40 rounds of CCI Standard (since the COVID pandemic 22LR has been in limited supply at any gun store near San Francisco). Rather than risk running out of CCI Standard during the match, I went out on a limb and used the Blue Box instead and son-of-a-gun, I took 1st place!

Match-grade 22LR has still hard to find and due to California’s inane laws, mail-order ammo is both a hassle to get and with extra State fees tacked on to boot! While not specifically marketed as “match-grade”, has recently become available at my local Big-5 Sports. This high-quality 22LR sold by the US subsidiary of the Swedish ammo maker, Norma.

But look closely and you’ll see that the Tac-22 cartridges have a RWS headstamp. It’s rumored to be rebranded RWS Target Rifle or RWS Rifle Match ammo; sharing their black oxide colored bullet and thick European wax coating. Like some strange Euro-Pop Band, it’s a German made product, sold by a Swedish company, packaged under a US brand.

RWS 40gr ammo was the type used by CZ to proof test my CZ rifle. If the rumors are true, Tac-22 should perform pretty close to that. As a benchmark I chose to compare Norma Tac-22 vs Federal Champion.

I put up a paper target at 100 yrds and fired 20 rounds in 4 groups of 5. I started with a clean barrel, fired a single fouling round before each test, and snaking the barrel before switching to the next ammo brand. Federal Champion shoot better, printing sub-MOA groups on average. Tac-22 printed an average group of 2MOA. The groups were getting progressively smaller by the time I shot the last 15-20 rounds on my 4th target. But that group was still 2x large as the smallest Champion group.

FEDERAL CHAMPION 800rnd BOX


NORMA TAC-22


VeGue VS-0606 Karaoke Machine

VeGue sent me their VS-0606 Bluetooth Party Speaker / Karaoke Machine to test and review. This is their least expensive Karaoke machine which they specifically market as a “Kids Karaoke Machine”. We’re going to see if this is just a kid’s toy or can you use this at your next party with “grown ups”?

In the box, it comes with a wireless microphone, remote control, 3.5mm audio cable, Micro-USB cable (for charging the unit), and instruction manual. The first thing that struck me was how cheap the microphone looked and felt. Like knock-off toy quality. The mic runs of 2x AA batteries and has a manual power switch but no controls for changing the operating channel. Despite its budget appearance, it sounded better than a toy microphone. Not professional quality by any means. Not the best but not the worst. It automatically connected to the speaker without issue.

The speaker itself felt and looked like a kids toy. The exterior reminded me of the plastic one finds on a camping/party cooler. The seams had irregular gaps and the front grill was painted to appear metallic but was plastic. The speaker wasn’t heavy which is convenient for portability but anybody who knows speakers, knows that light speakers seldom sound better than heavier ones. Worse, some part of internals rattled inside the case (I contacted VeGue and they informed me this was not normal and offered to send me a replacement for this defective speaker).

The unit would not turn on out of the box. It would power up when connected via Micro-USB to a .5V charger. For testing, I let it charge it overnight.

The speakers controls and connections were all located on a control panel above the speaker grill. It had an RCA type 1/4″ jack and a 3.5mm audio jack as your Line-In to device. In addition, you can insert a micro-SD card into a slot and play MP3 files directly into the speaker. It also featured a digital FM radio receiver and Bluetooth connectivity.

Comparing it to the JYX BT61 speaker, the audio quality was less true to the source with a tinny quality to the sound. The VS0606 was louder but neither speaker would be loud enough for a typical house party, pool side, or backyard party. This unit is best suited for small rooms like dorm rooms, class rooms, or small coffee shops. I can understand why they would market this as a “Kids Karaoke Machine” as it’s ideal for a Kid’s sized room.

Order this on Amazon through my Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/37QhDiS

Feyachi RDS-25 Red Dot

When Feyachi offered to send me a budget red dot to test and evaluate, I was a little puzzled when one arrived the next week. The box I received was a red dot but it did not have any Feyachi branding at all on the exterior graphics. Nor did the red dot inside. Fortunately the brand appeared in the user manual to let me know it was indeed from Feyachi.

The red dot itself looked fairly generic. This model looks identical to a Marmot red dot I reviewed over a year ago. But this box included a 1″ Picatinny riser. The red dot itself looked well made. The same could not be said for the riser, which had casting pits and a gauge when exposed the aluminum under the black oxidized finish. Whoever was making the riser mounts wasn’t as good at QC as the scope maker.

The red dot had 11 brightness settings. At its brightest setting the 4MOA red dot was visible in broad daylight. The dimmest setting was nearly invisible in all the but the darkest background. The red dot is powered by a CR2032 coin battery. The box came with two.

At the range, I was easily able to zero the scope and it retained zero throughout 20rnds of fire. To simulate years of use or heavy recoil, I banged the unit with my ammo can for about 30 seconds. I found that the red dot dit not lose zero despite the physical impact and abuse.

The poor QC and construction of the riser gave me serous doubts about its overall quality. The unit surprised me, passing my requirements for a basic red dot that could hold its zero. Time remains to be seen if it durable enough to survive long term use and abuse or just a heavy downpour.

Available on Amazon through my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/39SeGic

Rexmeo Biometric 2 Gun Safe

Biometric gun safes used to be the realm of spy-fiction and the well heeled. But now, they’re not only widely available, they’re also affordable. But a quick glance of some Amazon 1-star reviews of budget gun safes talk about their weak locks and unreliable biometric security.

A Chinese marketing company contacted me to ask if I would test and evaluate a Rexmeo biometric gun safe, a brand I’d never heard of. Upon initial inspection I was surprised at the weight topping 15lbs. This didn’t appear to be to be some cheap, thin-skinned lock box.

The unit comes with 2 sets of keys to open the box. Inside it has a enough space to contain 2 full sized pistols and a fair number of spare magazines and/or accessories (or a single pistol with a hard case holster depending on the model). The interior is padded with foam to protect its contents and has cut-outs to allow the safe to be securely screwed into a wall or furniture. The unit comes with a cable lanyard and pass-through hole to allow it to be secured to a post, pipe, or vehicle seat.

Activation was straight forward, you open the safe with the keys. Insert 4 x AA batteries (included) and following the instructions, you set up your finger to be read by the biometric sensor circle on the top of the unit. The unit requires multiple contacts with your finger to set up but once read, the unit would only open with my right thumb. I attempted other fingers and my left thumb but none of them would activate the lock.

Impressively the unit can store up to 50 different fingerprints! Not only could you use all 10 of your fingers but you could also allow access to other individuals through their fingerprints. I wonder if more fingerprints degrades the specificity of the biometrics (allowing for less precise biometric activation?)

Upon opening a digital voice informs you that the unit is unlocked. You can disable this voice but turning off the sound output. But this can lead to unintended issues as I’ll get into.

The unit also has a password entry through a 1-6 number keypad on the top of the unit. The unit allows for passwords between 6-8 numbers as well as adding non-opening scramble codes. When the correct passcode is entered the biometric sensor turns green and opens the safe. My initial unlocking occurred without issue but later in testing I ran into a troubling series of “wrong password”, the unit signaled a red light and would not open.

I discovered that this was because I was pressing the keypad buttons too quickly. The keypad required about a 1-second press per button to register correctly. When I had the Digital Voice/Sound on, I could get audible cues when a button was pressed correctly, when the Voice/Sound was turned off there was no positive feedback.

This degree of user-error in the interface could give some gun owners pause. But I consider biometric or electronic locks a secondary rather than a primary entry method. Think of it is a standard key-entry gun safe with biometric backups.

The makers did include some clever features to make the battery power less of an issue. The unit has a low-battery audible alert and if the batteries completely die, there is a USB-C port next to the key lock which allows you to power the biometrics or keypad through a powered USB cable. In addition, the unit claims to have a pick-lock alarm though I was not able to test the mechanism of how the unit knows the lock is being physically picked?

The safe could also be improved with some additional changes. I wish it had a way to turn off the annoying digital voice while retaining the keypad beeps at a lower volume. It could use an automatic red LED light to illuminate the interior contents when opened like with some other safes by Wincent and Vaultek. But for the price, the Rexmeo is a solid gun safe with generous interior space that most gun owners.

Available on Amazon through my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/37Yz1lC

Marmot .223 Cartridge Bore Sighter


Marmot sent me a tiny laser bore sighter the size of a .223/5.56mm cartidge. These shell type laser bore sighters are designed to fit inside your chamber just like a bullet and shine a laser down your bore to case a laser dot and provide a reference point for your gun’s sights or optics.

The laser bore sight kit comes in a plain black plastic case. Inside is the laser bore sight, 3 sets of 3x LR41 button batteries, and an instruction pamphlet which details how to insert the batteries which power the device. The instructions recommend removing the plastic sleeves around the the batteries but I’ve managed to fit them with sleeves, which helps keep the batteries in the correct orientation when inserting them into the cartridge.

At the range I manually inserted the cartridge into the chamber of my AR. The advantage of using these type of laser bore sighter instead of the muzzle inserted wand type, is that these caliber specific in-chamber bore sighters are more consistently aligned to your bore because they sit inside your chamber. The downside is that they only work in the gun they are chambered for and they generally have poorer battery life.

Because of their small size (literally the size of a spent cartridge shell), they are powered by small hearing-aid button batteries which don’t really have much energy capacity. Generally I’ve found these batteries to be only good for a 1-2 range visits and a few months later, I find them dead. So it’s a good idea to keep plenty of spares.

Testing it at the range, I could easily see the laser dot on my target at 25yrds. A green dot is much easier to visually see at long distance but it was a bit of a challenge to see this red laser at 50yrds. On a sunlit paper target it would be practically impossible. It is possible to see the dot from 100yrds through a magnified optic in well shaded conditions but this can prove quite frustrating in less than favorable conditions.

There is a significant safety advantage to using this type of laser bore sighter over a muzzle/wand type. The bore sighter must be ejected before loading a live bullet in the chamber. With muzzle types, there have been horror stories of some hapless users, forgetting to remove the wand bore sighter from their breach and firing a proofing round to catastrophic results.

In my testing, I was easily able to zero a new red dot using this bore sighter at 25yrds. Whilst sighting naked eye through the bore, I was nearly 8″ off from point of impact on target. Using this laser bore sight, I was slightly less than 2″ from the point of impact. So, I can say this tool was much more accurate than my eyes.

This kit has a street price under $15 at the time of this writing. Considering 5.56mm ammo costs over a $1.50 a round most places, this tool could quickly pay for itself when zeroing out your next rifle.

It is available through my Amazon Affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3lEEGAg
Use this Discount Code

Marmot 223 boresight 15% discount code: ZUC3SEQC

Athlon Midas CF32 Tripod

Athlon sent me their Midas CF32 Shooting Tripod. This is a telescoping carbon fiber leg tripod with a heavy duty ball head. The ball head features Friction Control, Fluid Pan Control, Ball Lock, and ARCA/Swiss compatibility (the popular photography mounting system).

The box includes the tripod, accessory hammock, shoulder pad, sling, padded case, and optional spiked feet. Overall weight was around 8lbs, while heavier than travel tripods, the extra weight comes from the heavy-duty vibration dampening legs and 32mm ball head which is able to withstand recoil from large caliber rifles and support over 175lbs. Fully extended the legs raise the ball-head to over 65″ tall.

At the range, I mounted my 20″ Aero Precision AR15 DMR to the tripod. The found the friction control knob allowed me to precisely adjust my rifle and cinch down the main locking knob confidently on target. There was just enough flex to make fine adjustments in aim. The tripod kept me pointing on target for quick and precise follow-up shots. This was such a pleasure to use compared to the BOG Great Divide tripod head I tested last year which could not keep my rifle level after the first shot.

Athlon makes this tripod with a 40mm, 36mm, and a 29mm ball head. The larger size ball heads can handle larger and heavier rifles. Overall, I found this tripod to be robust, rugged, and capable for back country hunting as well as competition target shooting.

Available at Optics Planet
https://shrsl.com/3im33

Gear Reviews, Education, and Adventure