Stopping at the Vector Optics booth at SHOT Show 2026. One of their biggest announcements was their new Frenzy green dots and micro thermal optics. Vector Optics is the OEM for a number of well known US brands so these reflex sights promise to be every bit as good but at a lower street price.
CVLife rolled out the Bear Swift multiple reticle solar red dot, a completely solar powered reflex sight that runs off of an internal solar charging battery. The Bear Swift features a selectable 2MOA dot and a 32 MOA circle/starburst reticle. It has a Glock MOS footprint which along with this low base, allows it to co-witness to factory iron sights.
Overall build quality is top-notch and a far cry from CVLife’s budget offerings from 10 years. The glass is flat, the reticle is crisp, and it has motion activation from sleep to concerve battery life. It has a rated 20,000 runtime at low brightness on the dot which is over 2 years.
The BearSwift is an alternative to the CVlife WildHawk X, which has a back-up solar panel but runs off a replaceable coin battery but that has a RMR footprint. https://youtu.be/emxu_VHTdes
The completely solar-powered unit is useful for shooters who regularly go to the range, which would allow regular racharging of the internal battery. But for occasional shooters, collectors, or as a bedside gun, the requirement for solar charge can pose an issue. It would have been nice if this optic had a USB-C or magnetic charging as a backup.
At SHOT Show 2026, Monstrum’s newest products weren’t new scopes but a whole new product line: red dots. Monstrum sold red dots a recently 5 years ago but quietly dropped those products due to issues with quality. They didn’t want poor products to taint their strategy of improving quality and performance in the budget optic brand space.
They released their Nitro line of traditional reflex sights in both RMR and RMCs models. At their SHOT both, they showed their newly released Bird of Prey (B.O.P.) shotgun dot. And they showed me a prototype of an upcoming enclosed emitter red dot, which didn’t have a name at the time.
Monstrum changed the budget optic landscape about 5 years ago with the introduction of good-quality LPVOs under $200. I was fortunate to be part of the awareness of this brand with my reviews of their Banshee and later a head-to-head comparison review of their Panzer vs a much more expensive one Vortex Razor HD Gen3. Spoiler alert, the Razor was the better optic but the Panzer was not bad in comparison.
Monstrums history of delivering better-than-good-enough quality for a shockingly low price bodes well for their new red dots. I look forward to testing them out this year.
At the Vector Optics booth at SHOT show, I got hands-on with an Owlset HEIM ES X-NANO mini thermal pistol sight. This claims to be the world’s smallest pistol-mountable thermal optic. Holosun has a similarly sized optic display but that actually comes in two parts, with a camera section mounted like a pistol light. This Owlset is a self-contained unit, with the lens in its front. It utilizes Vector Optics VOD footprint, which is a variant of the AimPoint ACRO. Vector Optics offers MOS, RMR, and Picatinny adapter plates.
The MSRP was tentatively targeted to be under $600, but with US tarrifs, that’s anybody’s guess at this point? But it’s already available in Asia and set to be released in Q1 here in the US.
The XR is the newest micro reflex red dot from OSight. It features an enclosed emitter body and significant performance upgrades. It adds two options for the size of its dot (2 MOA and 6 MOA) and adds additional charge capacity to its cover (5x instead of 4x), for a jaw-dropping +30 years of runtime.
This RMR footprint optic has a clear window at the rear to protect the rear of the lens from weather, moisture, and debris that could render traditional reflex sights useless. The unit has a relatively low deck, though not low enough for me to co-witness my Glock’s factory sights. The unit has a set of spring-loaded pop-up rear sights built into the rear deck, which can be utilized with some practice.
OLight flashlights surprised the firearms community when they launched the OSight two years ago. Their flagship product was the first magnetic recharging micro reflex sight red dot. This pistol red dot charges using a unique protective cover that also functions as a wired USB-C charger or detached as a mobile power bank for the OSight. The OSign XR has clever LED indicators to inform the user about the internal battery level and the battery level of the cover, so there should be no surprises at the range or on the job.
This prize supplied by OSight 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
OSight (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.
When the OSight first came out earlier this year, they launched a micro reflex sight (RMR) that was wireless rechargeable at a very reasonable price. But many shooters were hesitant to buy any RMR that they couldn’t easily replace the battery.
OSight listened. They released the C model which offers the same performance as their original OSight multi-reticle but powered by a user-replaceable 16332 coin battery. Moreover, it can run for a whoppping 100,000 hours from a fresh coin battery in 3MOA dot mode at its lowest visible brightness (Level 3).
If this wasn’t amazing enough, they launched the OSight C with a street price under $150. At this price, with these features, and OLights great customer service, there is no RMR that is a better value.
The most common hesitancy shooters have with switching to a red dot as their primary optic is the battery and reliability. There’s a fear that the battery will die at the worst possible moment. A few years ago, Holosun came up with a solution by adding a mini solar panel to their micro reflex sights. CVLife has introduced a budget version of this same concept in the Wildhawk X.
The Wildhawk X is a motion-activated, multi-reticle micro reflex with a 2 MOA dot and a 40 MOA circle or a combination of both. The green-dot version features a slightly smaller 32 MOA circle for some reason. Apart from a different colored tint to the lens, there is no functional difference between the two versions. Both feature a RMR footprint with a base almost (but not quite) low enough to use factory iron sights.
The WildHawk is powered by a 1632 coin battery but if the battery power dies, the unit can be powered directly through solar panels built in top of its frame. The unit has no internal battery so the solar panel directly powers the unit. What that effectively means is that the unit does require sunlight or a bright light to function in this mode; it will not work without battery power in the dark. In addition, the solar panel functions as a light sensor when auto-brightness mode is engaged.
The WildHawk runs about half the price of the Holosun HE507C but comes with a lot more accessories. The box includes a MOS to RMR adapter plate, a Pictatinny riser mount, and a whole bunch of screw sets to help you fit it the Wilhawk onto your RMR cut pistol slide.
Micro Reflex sights are becoming increasingly more and more reliable. But even a 50,000-hour run time is a theoretical maximum under ideal conditions. Adding a solar panel as a backup power source makes a lot of sense.
This prize supplied by Noblex 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
Noblex (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 Nov 2025 and 12:00pm EST 30 Nov 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 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 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.
Athlon means “Prize” or “Medal” and Midas was the legendary king who’s touch turned everything to gold. I was hoping adding a Midas red dot to my pistol could add a little gold medal performance to my accuracy. Athlon sent me a Midas Flash micro red dot to test. Midas has a LOT of Midas red dots in their product line, so I’m finding identifying them challenging (though nowhere near as confusing as Holosun or EOTech’s nomenclature). The Midas Flash, a low-profile 3MOA red dot with a RMR footprint.
The Flash has a underside battery compartment for its CR2032 battery requiring the Midas Flash to be removed from it’s base or slide to replace. While this could requires checking and perhaps adjusting your zero, in reality the unit as a 50,000 run time with a fresh battery, so battery replacement would be roughly every 5-6 years! The Flash has motion activation so when you draw it or move your pistol, it will automatically turn on and be ready for action. After a few minutes in storage the unit will automatically go into sleep mode conserving battery life.
Having an underside battery compartment allows the unit to be very low profile compared to other micro red dots (even others in the Midas product line). The low profile base allows the red dot window to sit low to the bore line of your pistol improving accuracy. Though not quite low enough to utilize my factory Glock 17 iron sights.
The Flash will fit a pistol with an RMR cut slide or mounting. It comes with a number of packets of screws labeled for various popular pistol models. My after market Glock slide best fit the packet marked Smith & Wessen 2.0. It comes with a gasket spacer to give the unit a weatherproof seal to your exposed battery compartment. Unlike some red dots which only offer a limited time warranty (because micro electronics are notoriously susceptible to damage from vibration), Athlon offers a Lifetime Warranty.
I ran through a box of ammo and found the 3MOA not too small to find and aim. I’m relatively new to using red dots on a pistol so it helped me to find the dot by increasing the dot brightness to the point of blooming for faster target acquisition. For more precision, I tone the brightness to get a finer point. Running through alternating target drills I was generally able to get most of my shots within an 8″ target in rapid fire. I don’t think this is gold medal performance but for me the Midas Flash aims like a winner.
