Shooting Sports

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

Airsoft, Shooting Sports

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

Gadgets, Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

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

Shooting Sports

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

Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

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

Gadgets, Product Reviews

Sony MDR ZX110 Headphones

Sony pretty much invented Portable Hi-Fidelity Audio with the WalkMan back in the 1980’s. While one can debate the validity of cassette tapes as an audiophile format, you can’t argue that Sony has a history of offering some of the best affordable, high quality headphones for both professionals and consumers. I still use the same pair of Sony MDR V-150 Studio Monitor Headsets I bought 20 years ago for my video editing today.

In my ongoing quest to find the best “cheap” headphone I tried out Sony’s ZX110 heaphones. They come in a range of colors, I picked up a white colored pair on Amazon which were on sale for under $10 (regular retail price $15). They come shipped in a cleanly designed cardboard box. This is a nice step up from the usual vacuform clamshell packages of their competitors like Panasonic and JVC.

The headphones retained my V-150s design cues on the ear cup , while improving on their compact stowability. Cord was an ample 4ft long with good solid feeling amount of wire insulation for durability. The audio jack had a clever dimple design on a right-angled 3.5mm jack.

Wearing them, I found them to be more comfortable than my old V-150’s, which have to fit tightly on the head to reduce sound-leak along the ear pads. The ZX110 head a looser more light feel along the ears while providing decent sound isolation. The earpads are replaceable.

Audio quality was balanced but underwhelming compared to my studio headphones. Performance was very similar to Pansonic HF100’s with slightly weaker bass response but clearer in the mid-range. The bass was its weak point, sounding more rattling than thumping on a House music track. Those used to bass-biased power speakers, like Beats will be disappointed. But the overall balance was good and likely to be straining on the user when listening to spoken word, Classical, Jazz, or Acoustic Pop.

Overall the headphones were among the performers in the Budget sub $20 price tier. These headphones are available on Amazon. Please use my Affiliate link to support my work: https://amzn.to/3764DoW

SPECS

CORD: 3.94 ft

IMPEDANCE (OHM): 24 ohm (1KHz)

PLUG: L-Shaped 3.5mm

FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 12–22,000Hz

DRIVER: 1.18 in dynamic – Dome type

SENSITIVITY: 98 dB/mW

Shooting Sports

Rim Sorting 22LR

After testing weight sorted cartridges of Federal Champion 22LR LRN and finding that they produced 60% smaller groups than non weight-sorted cartridges, I decided to test the other big old-school 22LR accuracy technique: sorting cartridges by rim thickness.

The thickness of the a 22LR rim can effect the amount of headspace of the bullet in the chamber. And presumably, the thickness could also effect the amount and burn rate of the primer inside it. Both of these factors could effect the velocity and stability of a .22 bullet.

For the test used a batch of weight sorted 22LR cartridges from which to draw my rim sorted samples from. All the cartridges I measured weighed between 51.3gr and 51.5gr. I put 50 aside as a control group and measured the rim thickness of the remaining cartridges and sorted them by rim thickness. A friend from my rifle club lent me his Neil Jones Rimfire Gauge tool which made the measurement process relatively quick.

For my testbed I used my same CZ 457 VPC that I used for the weight sort test. At the range, I set up 2 rows of 3″ paste up targets at 100yrds. I fired 5 rounds into each target for a total of 40 rounds of rim sorted and 40 rounds of my non-sorted ammo.

Upon inspection the target groups were each a bit different from each other but overall appeared relatively similar in size. Just how similar surprised me after I ran a photo through my phone’s Range Buddy App. On overage both the rim sorted and the randomized control group produced a 1.27 MOA average size. Identical.

RIM SORTED
1.03 1.28 1.61 1.16 MOA
Avg 1.27 MOA

RANDOM CONTROL
1.83 0.99 1.14 1.14 MOA
Avg 1.27 MOA

So it would appear that rim thickness plays an insignificant role in 22LR accuracy and performance. At least so far as Federal Champion LRN is concerned. My buddy who lent me his Rim Gauge told me as much when he tested his Match Grade 22LR for competitions. Were it not the case, I doubt he’d be lending me his gauge.

Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

SVBony SV46 20-60×80

SVBony, the Hong Kong based maker of budget astronomical telescopes, sent me a their mid-range SV46 spotting scope to test and evaluate. I reviewed the SVBony SV28 a few months ago and found it to be good value in the sub-$100 price tier. The SV46 is a big step in features and a moderate step up in price.

This is 80mm scope is heavier and has a more robust and detailed build. It is IPX waterproof rated and its front lens cap was so well fitted that I seriously had a hard time pulling it off. It has the stacked coarse and fine focus knobs found in pricier high end spotting scopes. Its eyepiece was large, removable, and featured an independently turning magnification ring.

But for a sub-$500 scope there has to be a trade-off and in the SV46’s case, its in the optics. Looking through the glass I found softness around the other edges. At x60 there was noticeable purple fringe. In the USAF-51 resolution test, I was able to resolve down to Element 4 in Group 0 which is quite good for a scope under $500 but this sharpness only applied to the center of the image as the focus got significantly softer about a 1/3 out from center.

The It’s optics, while underwhelming, are on-par with similar scopes in this price tier and magnification range. The Athlon Talos has better glass but has less features and looks and feels cheaper in comparison. The SV46 has a well built tube, adjustments, and controls normally found on spotters twice its price. As evidenced by very tight seal on the lens cover, is extremely water tight.

PRO

  • Built in Sun Shade
  • Water tight seals
  • Built in eye-cup
  • Fine and Course focus knobs
  • Indexed mounting ring

CON

  • Shallow eye-relief
  • Not sharp from edge-to-edge
  • Chromatic aberrations

USAF51 RESOLUTION
Group: 0 / Element: 4

Available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3wgo1bf

Shooting Sports

CVLife M-Lok Bipod

The CVLife M-Lok bipod is a Harris-style bipod that retails for about $30 on Amazon (a 1/4 of the cost of a Harris). Its light-weight, aluminum construction features a low-profile mounting head that directly attaches to most AR-style octagonal M-Lok handguards.

The leg design is a copy of a Harris bipod with spring-loaded telescoping legs that deploy by swinging them down from and depressing the locking tab on the legs. Once deployed, the lower leg’s length can be adjusted by locking them onto segmented notches. The feet are rubberized pads, which are held in with rolled pins. I was not able to test if they were replaceable with spikes.

Until recently Harris did no have an M-Lok model but at Shot Show 2022, I was shown a prototype M-Lok bipod which appears similar. But unlike this CVLife bipod, the Harris prototype allows for cant adjustments and play . At the time of this video recording, the Harris M-Lok bipod has not yet been released, nor is it shown in their website. https://www.harrisbipods.com/bipods/

While this CVLife bipod is not as ruggedly constructed as a combat proven Harris, it should prove to be rugged enough to typical range shooters. It is best suited to light recoiling rifles such as .22LR and .223/5.56mm.

Testing on my Ruger Precision Remfire rifle, I was able to keep good groups at 100yrds (well, good enough groups using cheap Federal Champion .22LR cartridges). The bipod proved to be steady and rigged enough provide repeatable performance. Its long term durability will have to be tested over time.

CVLife sent me this bipod to test and evaluate. When comparing performance and price, this bipod is still good value.

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
Use this affiliate link to support this channel: https://amzn.to/3MuJAvg

Shooting Sports

Weight Sorting 22LR

There’s some old-school lore among bolt-action rimfire shooters that weight sorting bulk 22LR ammo is almost as good as buying Match Grade ammo. I put that theory to the test, partially out of curiosity and partly out of necessity. Since the COVID pandemic, Match Grade rimfire ammo has been impossible for me to find locally and what few boxes I could find were outrageously priced.

Match Grade rimfire ammo differs to cheap bulk ammo primarily in the quality control testing of the product. Many manufacturers do not make “practice” or “plinking’ grade ammo. Instead really only make Match ammo but based on the quality control testing of the batches, they reclassify and repackage the rejects lower grade varieties (Club, Target, Rifle, etc.). This quality control includes visually inspecting the uniformity of the cartridge as well as weighing them. Consistency in ballistic performance comes from consistency of the bullet cartridge.

I took the more mediocre 22LR ammo I had in stock, which was a loose box of Federal Champion “Blue Box”. Using a digital scale, I measure the weight in grains of each 22LR cartridge I would pull out of the box. I sorted the measured cartridges into groups: 49.8gr-51.2gr and under, 51.3-51.5gr, and 51.6gr-5.19gr. Any cartridges outside of these 3 batches was thrown in the “junk” pile; about 1 in 30 fell.

I took 50 rounds of the middle-weight batch (~51.4gr) to the range along with the new box of Federal Champion. Using my CZ-457 as the test bed, I set up a target downrange at 100yrds. I pasted up eight, 5/8″ sticker dots as my targets. I would fire 20 shots, 5 at shots at each of the 4 targets in each group.

The first group would be my weight-sorted batch. On second row of dots would use random bullets pulled from the Federal blue box. I chose to shoot the random batch 2nd to afford it the best opportunity possible. Compared to the Weight Sorted batch, the barrel would be well seasoned and I would have been warmed up from shooting the 1st batch.

Inspecting the target afterwards, my first impression was that there wasn’t a huge difference between the two rows. But after taking a photo and crunching the numbers using my phone’s Range Buddy app, the number told a different story. The Weight Sorted batch scored an average of 1.25 MOA whilst the Random Batch scored an average of 1.83 MOA. That 0.58 MOA difference that’s an almost 60% improvement!

But in the real world 0.6 MOA, hardly seems worth the time and effort to measure each 22LR cartridge. Certainly when shooting at a competition, every little bit helps. In one of my recent matches the difference between my 1st place win and 2nd place was only 3 points.

You can try it yourself to see how much a difference weight sorting is to you. You’ll need a precision digital scale that can measure to the nearest 0.01g . I used this one: https://amzn.to/3s8NG4j

Gear Reviews, Education, and Adventure