Tag Archives: edc

Airsoft, Gadgets, Product Reviews

May 14 Contest: Monstrum Tracer

MAY 14 PRIZE: Monstrum Tracer EDC

The contest Prize will be chosen from all entries submitted from May 7, 2023 through May 13, 2023. Entries must be received no later than 12pm EST on May 13, 2023.

CONTEST INSTRUCTIONS

1. Subscribe to my YouTube channel or TikTok

2. Take a screen shot of the channel screen showing you have subscribed/followed and email it to me



3. Email me with the Subject: May 14 Contest
• Attach the JPG or PNG screen shot
• Include your full name and ship-to address in the email (so I can confirm you live in the US or Canada)

Use the button email below or email me directly at: contest@moondogindustries.com


4. BONUS: Share this with a friend and get them to enter the contest too. Ask them to reference your name and email address in the body of their message ie. “My buddy johndoe@gmail.com clued me into the contest”, and I’ll award you an extra-bonus entry to the contest. It’s important that they reference your email so I can easily look up your entry. Each friend that subscribes and refers to you in their email will earn you another bonus entry for a maximum of 10 entries (including yours).

EMAIL ME YOUR ENTRY

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 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 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 SPONSOR as final and binding.

4. Entry Period

Contest email entries must be received between:
12:00pm EST 30 April 2023
and
12:00pm EST 13 May 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

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 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 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 participants 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 the them. 

Gadgets, Shooting Sports

New NexTorch Products 2023

NexTorch is a flashlight and tactical accessory company that most consumers aren’t aware of. Primarily its because they primarily market to law enforcement, military, and first responders. And they’re German, preferring to promote themselves more by reputation than advertising.

NexTorch’s new TA30C is a tactical light outputs 1300 lumens with a rechargeable lithium battery. While these specs are pretty standard for flaghship tactical lights, what sets the TA30 apart from the category is its controls. Instead a memorizing a series of tailcap clicks or side button taps, the TA30 has a clear and intuitive control ring on the tail with power level symbols.

What isn’t as obvious from the photos but you can perceive when holding NexTorch flashlights, is the quality of their materials, construction, and thoughtful design. The TA30 can also sport a tactical carry ring that functions like an accessory handle and “brass knuckle” in melee. Unlike some gimmicky metal rings, their carry ring is made of polymer and can break away to reduce the risk of injury to the user if the flashlight is caught or trapped.

This practical design extends to their NEX security baton. This steel baton telescopes from a foot long steel rod and extends to 28″. It can accessorized with a 4 section cross-guard designed to defend the user from blade wielding assailants (England much?)

NexTorch is designed in Germany but produced in China to lower costs. Their products are priced at a premium compared with mass market Chinese brands like Olight and Fenix. But are still only half the price of comparable SureFires tactical lights.

Gadgets

New Streamlight Products for 2023

Streamlight is one of the oldest makers of EDC and weaponlights. This year marks their 50th Anniversary and at SHOT Show this year, I got a chance to see some of their new products. They’ve updated their ProTac flashlight line with version 2.0 models that all output 2000 lumens for over an hour. Unfortunately they accomplish this using a proprietary high capacity battery which may be a deal-breaker for some but most will still work with standard sized lipo batteries but with a lower light output.

One of the most interesting products I saw was their Pocketmate, a 300 lumen keychain mini-light which really was literally shaped like a key.

These flashlights are available through my Amazon Affiliate links

ProTac 2.0 flashlight https://amzn.to/3Zs8e62

Pocketmate keychain light https://amzn.to/3kB6hWo

Gadgets, Shooting Sports

New Monstrum Tactical Flashlights

Monstrum Tactical is mostly known for their budget oriented tactical optics, LPVOs, and exceptionally good value scope mounts. They have also carried a line of weapon lights that maxed out at 400 lumens, which by today’s standards is low power. At SHOT Show 2023 Monstrum introduced their new Tracer EDC laser and flashlight which has a max 1000 lumen output. And they showed me a prototype angled foregrip with an integrated laser and weaponlight that outputs 2000 lumen. At time of filming, it didn’t have a name but maybe they’ll call it the Moondog.

Monstrum tactical lights is available through this Affiliate link: https://alnk.to/8PBuQJC

Gadgets, Product Reviews

Boruit V1 Micro EDC

I recently reviewed the V3 light from Boruit which claimed to output 900 lumens but fell far short of those numbers in my estimation. So I was surprised when Boruit sent me their V1 to test. Unlike the V3, this box claims a more modest 400 lumens and I discovered it came far closer to keeping that promise.

The V1 has a USB thumb-drive form factor and this model has a glow-in-the dark translucent body. It comes in a similar box to the V3, with a USB-C charging cable, keychain ring, and instruction manual (though it was really more of a spec sheet). The flashlight is activated by 2 quick-presses and turned off with a long press. You can cycle between ECO-LOW-MED-HIGH brightness modes with a quick press and the unit also has a TURBO mode which is activated by a continuous press.

Like the V3, the unit also has side LEDs which can function as a signal light and table top lamp when head-standing it from it’s squared off metallic crown. Modes include: WHITE-BLINKING WHITE-UV-RED-BLINKING RED-RED/BLUE BLINK-WARM WHITE

After charging it over night, I conducted an endurance test at high brightness mode and it stayed on for about 82 minutes, slowly dimming as the battery ran down. Recharging it again I ran a lumen test. I was unable to confirm its 400 lumen TURBO mode due to my testing box must be completely sealed to get a more accurate reading.

Testing in HIGH mode, the unit briefly put out a maximum brightness of about 300 lumens after a 1-minute warm up. This was higher than the 220 lumen specs on the box. But the unit does not stay that brightness but instead drops steadily to about 80 lumens which is somewhere between HIGH and MEDIUM output as stated in the product specs.

Unfortunately inflated lumen numbers is par for the course in how budget EDC lights are marketed today. These brightness numbers are disappointing to anybody who bought this flashlight expecting 400 lumens but actually better than expected from a micro-EDC light no matter its price point.

The V1 easily passed my 6ft drop test and high-pressure water test. Its real world performance was good to above average, fully illuminating an interior hallway with a wide flood pattern. Outdoors this flood limited its throw to about 50ft-60ft. But for a thumb-sized flashlight that could do this for over an hour, this is pretty impressive. Even more so for a thumb-sized EDC that costs less than $17 as of this writing.

The Boruit V1 EDC is available on Amazon through this affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3BGIhX7

Gadgets, Product Reviews

V3 Micro EDC Light

The current trend in EDC lights is creating ever smaller flashlights that are ever brighter. I was sent a BORUIT V3 EDC light to test and review. This micro-EDC light is the size of a Car alarm keychain dongle and its packaging promises to output up to 900 lumens.

The device has a smoke colored clear polymer body with two buttons and a covered SUB-C charging port. On one end is a twin-head LED emitters and the other end has a keychain loop and a rare-earth magnet end that allows the light to magnetically mounted and used hands-free.

One button activates the primary twin-lights. The device has high, medium, low, and endurance (candlelight) modes. Double-tap for continuous light, short tap for momentary, and long-press activates the devices Turbo mode which BORUIT claims is 900 lumens. It is very bright but in my testing, I suspect this number is inflated.

The other button double-taps to activate small set of LEDs. There is a high, low, red, blinking-red, and blinking-red/blue modes. This appears to be for specialized low-light work when tail-standing, magnetically mounted, or as an emergency signal.

I drop tested and water-jet tested the unit which passed without issue. The beams from the twin-headed unit cast a wide flood pattern that are still able to illuminate objects from over 100ft away. Unfortunately, in lumen testing the unit fell short.

I fully charged the unit overnight and let left it on high output for over 1-minute to stabilize the battery. The device specs claim the unit is 650 lumens on high mode. I measured 360 lumens. I also tested the unit in low which claims to be 150 lumens but I recorded only 50 lumens (less than half its stated output). Based on these numbers, I doubt it is capable of outputting 900 lumens in turbo.

Despite its over-inflated lumen numbers, the light is perfectly sized as an EDC or emergency light. For those that don’t want to carry in their pocket, it’s form factor makes it easy to clip-on to accessories or keys. And given it’s features is a reasonable purchase for less than $20 (some clones for even less than $15).

Available on Amazon through my Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/3yPHlOL

Product Reviews

Klarus E2 Review: 7 Day Runtime?

https://rumble.com/vbtsuh-klarus-e2-review-can-it-run-for-7-days.html

The Klarus E2 is an aluminum-bodied EDC wilderness survival flashlight is scarcely bigger than the 18650 battery that powers it. With a max output of 1600 lumens and at low power, a max runtime of 168hrs (in my testing it fell short by 54hrs). Let’s take a look at what you get for a street price of about $70.

AMAZON LINK: https://amzn.to/36NhetZ

Gadgets, Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

Lumintop TOOL AA 2.0 Review

For the price and features, the Lumintop TOOL AA 2.0 is the best AA EDC flashlight currently available. I put it through some performance and abuse tests to see if it lives up to that opinion.

It has 4 modes: low, medium, high, strobe, and a 650 lumen turbo mode if equipped with a 14500 LiON battery. This can use a normal AA alkaline cell to provide an output of 400 lumens.

AMAZON AFFILIATE LINKS

White/Silver: https://amzn.to/3lLKBSN
Black: https://amzn.to/3pJK8mj
Black with Lithium Battery Package: https://amzn.to/38Zo5C4