Heckler & Koch or simply “H&K” is one of the worlds best known gun brands. Their iconic MP5 is almost synonymous with Police and Military Special Operations and Counter-Terrorism units. Known for very unique and futuristic polymer designs, precise engineering, and high-performance.
Their name, specifically the later half, can still cause some trouble for many gun enthusiasts. While the German name ‘Koch’ actually has a number of valid pronunciations, it interesting to note that the when I visited their booth at this year’s Shot Show 2022, their staff representative insisted the official pronunciation was decidedly more American sounding, than German.
A gun accessory company sent me a Pridefend bubble level kit to test and review. I had never heard of the “Pridefend” brand before this review. This odd sounding name hinted at bad Chinese to English Goggle translate or MadLibs. Their low $6 price on Amazon (at the time of this review) made me a bit trepidatious, since you often get what you pay for.
When they did arrive, I was pleasantly surprised they came packed in a nice metal tin. The kit included two types of bubble levels and a 1.5mm Allen wrench to adjust them. I checked them against a 3-position carpenter’s spirit level and found the larger of the two Pridefend was not true but I was easily able to re-true it using the Allen wrench. I thought the other bubble-level, with a ‘P’ decal, was also not level but this was due to the off-center magnet at its base. After attaching it to the metal case, I found that it was level.
Taking it to the range, I found the bubble levels to be useful in leveling my CZ rifle to correctly align my scope after changing its Picatinny rail adapter. Despite the need to initially adjust one of the level (so you do need a known and trusted spirit-level or reliable phone App), I was pleasantly surprised at the usefulness of this tool.
Needless to say, I’m pleased enough that I WONT be returning this. It’s going into my range bag where the magnet has been additionally useful in policing my odd collection of allen wrenches in my mini range toolkit.
Accu-Tac bipods have an iconic unique design to their legs, with teeth-like edges. I go to their booth at Shot Show and find out the secret behind their design. https://amzn.to/3uBoYeM
VeGue sent me their VM30 USB Condensor Microphone to test and evaluate. It is powered by a USB 3.0 cable which connects via USB-A or USB-C to your device or PC. Connecting via USB eliminates the need for a microphone mixer/pre-amp. While audio engineers and audiophiles will insist that a budget mic with a built-in, analog-to-digital audio converter will probably be sub-standard for master recordings, I doubt the average user or consumer will notice any difference or deficiency; I can not.
The shortcomings of this budget mic are a low sensitivity and dynamic range. One really needs to get very, very close to the microphone to achieve a warm resonance in tone. But the mic often clips when you get too loud but sounds very muted if you get more than a few inches away from it.
It has some nice features such as a 3.5mm headphone monitoring jack, a built-in gain dial, and a mute button (for Zoom meetings this is handy). Its shortcomings are its cheap plastic build, unforgiving dynamic range, and low audio sensitivity. This budget mic retails for about $30 and is a good starter microphone to give a boost in quality to any Zoom meeting or for recording Voice-Overs for Powerpoint Presentations or for beginning vloggers and podcasters.
I was asked to supply a CD of music for the school’s Talent Show. A CD? In 2022?! While I still buy my games on DVD and movies on Blue Ray, it’s been well over 10 years since I last owned a computer that had a DVD burner in it. So how the heck was I supposed to supply a CD?
So I went on Amazon and looked up their Editor’s Choice for an inexpensive USB CD/ROM drive. This USB 3.0 is a step up from an older USB 2.0 drive that has since broken on us years ago. This drive is powered directly from a single USB 3.0 cable integrated into the bottom of the drive making it super portable.
No drivers were required to install on my 2015 Macbook Pro (Big Sur v11.6). The drive showed up on my desktop and the 20 year old contents of the CD I tested showed up (albeit with a lag). The drive is made by Gotega, a brand I’d never heard of. It retailed for less than $25 and is available from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3KDyDaa
Nowadays everybody is customizing and modding out their PCCs, ARs and rifles with red dots, tac lights, thumb clamp rests, bipods, 45º BUIS, and every tactical accessory on God’s green Earth. But one of the most often overlooked rifle accessories is the humble sling. This is probably the most practical accessory for both accurate shooting and transport.
CVLife sent me some samples of their basic nylon slings, including their combo sling-and-swivel mount package. The combo package includes 2x M-Lok compatible QD sling mounts. These H&K-style slings have spring loaded hook ends allowing you to connect them to the QD sling mounts (somewhat redundant) or to traditional non-removable slings and weapons.
Having purchased similar slings in the past and narrow hook openings are a constant issue with these types of slings. These new hooks are an improved design with a cut-out that allows their mouths to open and hook onto larger diameter objects. In addition, these slings have cloth covered bungie ends which provide a little shock absorption.
SVBony is a Hong Kong maker of budget astronomy optics, microscopes, and spotting scopes. I’ve reviewed a number of their budget hunting spotting scopes but to be perfectly honest, I never knew they made rifle scopes or for the matter, scope rings. They sent me a set of their 1″ budget rings to test out.
They sent me four pairs of rings, a low and high set of 11mm dovetail rings and a low and high set of Picatinny rings. They all fit 1″ (25mm) tube scopes and SVBony also sent me their 3-12×44 AOE scope to test them on.
My first impression was that they looked like every other no-name Chinese budget scope ring with their lemon shaped design. These kinds of rings are often packed with cheap budget scopes for free. But on closer inspection I saw a key improvement, the clamp block in the base were machined from a thick block of aluminum rather than cheap stamped metal.
I borrowed a ring lapping kit to check the alignment of the rings and was surprised to find that they were pretty accurately aligned. This really shouldn’t surprise me because most modern scope factories use CNC milling machines which churn out high quality mass produced rings. This means that lapping is mostly unnecessary except for the competition precession obsessed.
SVBony only sell rings for 1″ tubes (probably because their only rifle scope has a 1″ tube). The rings don’t have flat recoil lugs or the wide surface area I would think required to handle higher recoil. Though rings of this size and type were used on hunting rifles back in the 70’s and 80’s so it’s possible. The rings are best suited for light recoiling rimfire (22LR, 17HMR) or airguns. They currently retail $8 price make them among the cheapest available on Amazon.
Mexico’s Aguila is the largest ammo maker in Latin America. Their ammo features in many of the .22LR ammo review videos on my YouTube channel, as have my various mispronunciations of their name. But I’m not alone, as evidenced in this video where I ask visitors and vendors at Shot Show 2022 how they pronounce, “Aguila.”
The Helos is step up from my Athlon Argos. This first focal plane scope has more refined and precisely designed turrets with a rock solid brass zero stop. The reticle is finer and less cluttered.
In other ways it is very similar despite being over $200 more. It shares similar optics performance. Both are argon purged (argon is a heavier gas than nitrogen and that helps purge the tube of lighter atmospheric gases and water vapor). Despite the Helos’ higher price it is still a good value when comparing performance and features to similarly priced scopes from Vortex.
I chose the 4-20×50 because it is slightly smaller and nearly a 1/2lb lighter than the more popular 6-25x scopes. I don’t feel I’m losing performance because at most matches I seldom dial my magnification higher than 12-16x. Lower power settings also afford you a wider field of view, that is sharper, brighter and more vibrant.
This scope has a street price under $600 and is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3L5cPnR
In 2020, Precision rimfire shooters were equal parts, intrigued and dubious of photos of circulating on the interwebs of 22LR bullets with fantastically elongated sharply pointed bullets, not unlike those on a 6.5 Creedmoor or similar speciality ELR ammunition. As it turned out, these bullets were real, solid-copper spitzer-style bullets created by custom bullet manufacturer, Cutting Edge of Idaho.
I saw photos of these pointy spitzer-style bullets last year and they looked pretty wicked, but I wondered if these were some gimmick or just experimental? Regardless, I’m sure many of us thought, I’d give it a try if could get my hands on some?
These bullet were first shown off at Shot Show 2020 but due to the pandemic shutting down the show in 2021, I hadn’t seen or heard about them until I saw Josh of Pursuit of Accuracy posted a video about them. His initial tests seemed positive but he wasn’t convinced that their performance were worth the cost.
I got a chance to visit the Cutting Edge booth and learn a bit more. They only bullets and not as boxed cartridge ammo so strictly for Loaders/Reloaders. And given the unusual nature and barrel requirements, probably strictly for competition .22LR loaders.
Still I’m curious if anybody has bought this kit or have had a chance to load and fire them? So far it’s been second-hand word-of-mouth about their performance. For those who are reloaders, these bullets are sold in kits which include the bullets and brass for about $80 for 200rnds.
