At SHOT Show 2026 they showed me a prototype of a new 1-10×24 LPVO and production models of their 8-80×56 Tracking spotting scopes. March Scopes creates handmade optics in Japan that produce bleeding-edge results, and their prices are eye-wattering.
2. Upload a screenshot showing you are FOLLOWING me on X.com
3. Watch the Monterey Bay Road Trip video on my Travel Channel @MoondogGo. Hit the LIKE button and post a COMMENT saying “Winning and loving it” https://youtu.be/EkkRDRxxItk
This prize supplied by Vector Optics and is awarded at their sole discretion and direction.
RULES
NO PURCHASE OR DONATION 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 a legal resident in the USA. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, and employees’ immediate family members are ineligible to 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
Vector Optics (known as the SPONSOR)and Moondog Industries (known as the CO-SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promoter based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, X 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 the contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retains 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 31 Jan 2026 and 12:00pm EST 28 Feb 2026
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. If the page is not functioning, please contact 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
The 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 winner’s entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.
7. Odds
The odds of winning are 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 who 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. Winner must have a legal address within the US to ship the prize.
SPONSOR is not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided the 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 if unauthorized 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 participant’s 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 them.
This prize supplied by AcuVista Optics and is awarded at their sole discretion and direction.
RULES
NO PURCHASE OR DONATION 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 in the USA. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, employees’ immediate family members, are ineligible to 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
AcuVista Optics (known as the SPONSOR)and Moondog Industries (known as the CO-SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promoter based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, X 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 the contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retains 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 31 Dec 2025 and 12:00pm EST 31 Jan 2026
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. If the page is not functioning, please contact 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
The 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 winner’s entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.
7. Odds
The odds of winning are 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 who 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. Winner must have a legal address within the US to ship the prize.
SPONSOR is not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided the 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 if unauthorized 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 participant’s 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 them.
AcuVista is a new optics company that proposes to offer optics with high-quality glass at Direct-to-Consumer discount prices like Arken and Tract. Their Surge 1-10×24 is a First Focal Plane LPVO with HD glass and comes with an offset cantilever mount. Oddly, it also comes with a set of plastic shims whose purpose I can’t fathom, as the mount is 30mm, matching the scope’s tube diameter.
The turrets are exposed for tactical adjustment, with nice audible and tactile clicks and “lock” when pressed down. Or at least are supposed to lock, but the windage turret had noticeable play when locked down. I tested AcuVista’s Lifetime Warranty and customer service by contacting them through their website and sending them a short video of the issue. To their credit, AcuVista responded to my email and notified me that they would be sending me a replacement scope. I didn’t have to ship the old scope back.
A brand new replacement scope arrived 5 days later. Unfortunately, that scope also had a loose windage turret. Fortunately, while testing at the scope at the range, I discovered the locked turret was truly locked. Fiddling with the loose turret did not cause the reticle to shift. Moreover, the turrets tracked and survived my turret abuse “nipple twister” test.
The Surge’s optical performance was better than expected. While it had some chromatic aberration at high power, it had good color accuracy and resolution. Optically, it is nearly as good as more premium scopes, except that the Surge has a tight eyebox. Most 1-10x FFP LPVOs I have tested tend to have tight eyeboxes, and the Surge is a prime example.
The Surge is a mixed bag in terms of quality and performance. If this were priced more like a Monstrum Panzer or it would be an amazing value. But with a price point higher than an Arken EP-8 it comes up short.
I’ve reviewed a wide variety of LPVOs. And while many offer different features, reticles, and levels of glass clarity, one of the most common complaints people have with LPVOs is the distortion they see at low power. To add to the confusion, some LPVO makers intentionally design their scopes to show a larger field of view (FOV) through their scope, causing the perception that their scopes feel more “fish eye”. Moreover, some cheap LPVOs have uneven sharpness in their lens, creating additional distortions. At times, looking through an LPVO at 1x feels less like looking through a pane of glass and more like looking through a glass bottle.
Some of this distortion can be corrected by adjusting the diopter, but you can only adjust so much. I also noticed that with some LPVOs at 1x, objects look slightly offset from their position in the real world. It doesn’t matter if the scope costs over $2000 or less than $200, I will sometimes get a scope that doesn’t show an image aligned to its background.
But the odd thing is that when I rotate this “defective” mora than 90º in my hand, it seems to correct the effect. At SHOT Show, I stopped by the Trijicon booth (a company known for making combat-proven optics) and looked through their Credo LPVO, and it had that image shift issue I was describing. The effect was greatly reduced when looking through the Credo with the tube upside down! I asked a Trijicon technical staffer to explain this to me, but they shrugged and said they didn’t know what I was talking about.
I reached out to my friend, Dark Lord of Optics. There were too many confounding factors for him to diagnose the situation based on just my photos and videos. He suspects that I may not have adjusted the diopter properly for the camera (which I disagree). It could also be that the reticle and turrets were not optically centered or the elements were not assembled correctly.
I asked him if scope makers check for this issue at the factory. He said that scope factories center the turrets mechanically, but do not test for optical center. One thing that never occurred to me was that FFP (and some SFP) reticles are etched onto the lens and that the turrets move the reticle crosshairs by moving the entire lens. I tested one of the LPVOs that I thought had an image shift “out of the box”. I turned the turrets and discovered that it also shifted the overall image. This is only noticeable at 1x, which is why I only noticed this “defect” in LPVOs!
So the Trijicon Credo I looked at at SHOT Show probably wasn’t defective. There are hundreds of people touching and messing with the demo scopes at the expo. Somebody who was testing out the demo optic may have turned the turrets a rotation or even two. Even if they reset the turret number to “0” the image I was wasn’t optically, visually centered.
Now I know. And as G.I. said, knowing is half the battle.
If you want to get an affordable LPVO, check out the Discovery Optics ED-AR Official Website: https://discoveryopt.com/ (10% Discount Code: Moondog) Amazon: https://amzn.to/4ofFcnH (10% Discount Code: MOONDOG2A)
Continuing in CVLife’s lineup of mashing animal names and random words, they’ve come up with a new one: EagleVanta. “Vanta” means “boast” in Italian, and this scope boasts ultra-high definition glass. In my testing, I found the glass was color-accurate and bright. I like its BDC reticle, which is simple and easy to aim with a daylight bright horseshoe reticle.
While not quite as refined as a Vector Optics Continental, the EagleVanta boasts a build and appearance that puts it at the top of CVLife’s LPVO lineup. In addition, the EagleVanta comes with a good cantilever mount and a throw lever. Overall, I like the simplicity and practicality of this SFP LPVO. For the price, it checks all the boxes, including value.
This prize supplied by Aquilfer and is awarded at their sole discretion and direction.
RULES
NO PURCHASE OR DONATION 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 in the USA. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, employees’ immediate family members, are ineligible to 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
Aquilfer (known as the SPONSOR) and Moondog Industries (known as the CO-SPONSOR) is a video Edutainment producer and game promoter based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, X 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 the contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retains 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 1 Dec 2025 and 12:00pm EST 31 Dec 2025
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. If the page is not functioning, please contact 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
The 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 winner’s entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.
7. Odds
The odds of winning are 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 who 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. Winner must have a legal address within the US to ship the prize.
SPONSOR is not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided the 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 if unauthorized 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 participant’s 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 them.
Vector Optics’ Continental line is their top-of-the-line model. They feature higher-quality construction, design, and components, such as extra-low-dispersion Schott glass, typically found in more expensive European (hence “Continental”) models. This 1-8×24 LPVO delivers daylight-bright illumination via a fiber-optic thread inside the reticle crosshairs.
The fiber dot is as bright as a red dot and its illumination dial has an OFF setting between each numbered setting, but stops at 11 and does not continue back to 1. I believe this is to prevent the user from accidentally turning to the 1, which is quite dim. One additional oddity is the inclusion of a replacement turret top, which only has a 0 printed on it. This turret top does not have a zero stop, so I believe this aids in “returning” their original zero when momentarily adjusting for longer range shots?
Optically, the image was flat, bright, and color accurate owing to the quality of the Schott glass. A viewer posted a comment on my previous Continental LPVO video that I was wrong about the German origins of the Schott glass, intimating that Schott has glass factories in Asia.
I asked Vector Optics about this, and they informed me that they sourced their Continental glass from Germany, which is why it’s more expensive than their other scope lines. In my research, I found Schott does have factories in Asia, but those only produce glass for labs and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The precision optical Schott glass is made at their factory in Germany. If anyone can find evidence otherwise, let me know.
In other aspects, I found the Continental 1-8×24 to be a superb example of a high-quality fiber optic LPVO. At the time of posting this video, Vector Optics will be lowering its prices for Black Friday week promotions. The discount code they’ve given me will apply to those lower promotion prices, so you’ll get an even better deal. They’ve also offered to let me give away a Continental 1-8×24 Fiber LPVO at the start of 2026. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you can be updated when I post details about that free contest.
Aquilfer contacted me to review their TP 1-8×24 LPVO, and my first thought was, “What an Aquilfer?” I assumed Aquilfer was a random, nonsensical brand name like other Chinese companies such as UUQ, Pinty, Blavor, or Reechoo. But as it turns out, Aquilfer is a real word. It is the rank/position of the soldier in a Roman legion who earns the honor of carrying its eagle standard.
Despite the cool name origin, the name itself may not have much to offer a typical scope buyer. Similarly, the TP 1-8×24 is an LPVO that looks pretty generic and unremarkable. It does come with its own budget cantilever mounts, but on closer inspection, it has some sloppy milling and matching.
Optically, the glass was pretty mid-to-unremarkable, exhibiting a slightly distorted feel when scanning around at 1x. illuminated reticle. Its eyebox was a little tight, and brightness and color accuracy were slightly less than average. Despite noticeable chromatic aberration, the scope offered surprisingly sharp images for a budget LPVO and a daylight-bright reticle.
Full disclosure, the first TP 1-8×24 I received for testing had a black spot blemish in the lens. To their credit, Aquilfer responded to my email and website request for service and shipped me a new LPVO within 6 days. What the TP lacks in finish and QC, Aquilifer makes up for in customer service. The TP 1-8×24 may not be the best-built LPVO out there, but it does the job, holds zero, and saves you some cash by its low price.
The Viper PST Gen 2 is Vortex’s mid-tier LPVO (priced between the Venom and the Razor) and lowest-priced LPVO that offers true daylight bright illumination. You have a choice of an MOA or MILRAD crosshair reticle with calibrated hash marks for long-distance shots. The fiber optic embedded in the reticle provides a red dot bright dot at the center with 10 levels of intensity, powered by a CR2032 battery.
Design-wise, the Viper appears very similar to Vortex’s premium LPVO the Razor HD. Its illumination knob features 10 steps of brightness with an off in between. The indexing of the illumination knob felt a tad bit loose and sloppy. Optically it is a bright, clear, and relatively flat sight picture with only a little fish-eye effect.
The Viper’s only drawbacks are its illumination turret and weight (22.7oz). The Viper was one of the first LPVOs to utilize fiber optic in its reticle but is a bit more expensive than fiber optic offerings from Monstrum and Primary Arms. The Viper is still a strong performer and matched with the famous Vortex warranty, still a viable LPVO option today.
