Archive for the 'Firearms' Category

Rex.

Competition is a good thing.  I like the recent flurry of red dot sight designs, prism sights, LPVO, etc.  If EOTech and Trijicon want to stay competitive, they’re going to have to come down a bit on prices.

But what do I know.

I love competition, and not the kind that awards every participant with a trophy.  Competition makes everyone better.  In the end, it’s up to the buyer.

First, Beretta 92X.  This is just an unboxing.

Next, CZ Shadow 2, which seems to be quite popular among competition shooters.

BLUF: This gun is heavy, but it’s a race car and wants to run fast and has a very high capacity magazine (19 rounds).

TTAG has what I consider a very good explanation on FFP versus SFP (although we’ve covered that before as well).  It’s worth lifting a bit out.

As you may have gathered, first focal plane scopes place the reticle in front of the magnification lens, resulting in a reticle that shrinks or grows as the magnification is adjusted. That means the reticle’s tic marks or gradations always cover the same minutes of angle or milliradians, regardless of the magnification level. The measurements of the reticle are accurate at any magnification.

So your holdovers are correct at any magnification.  That’s the upshot.

That can be really useful for rapid ranging or engagement at distances without dialing the magnification up or setting the turrets. While that might be of limited use in a more simplistic reticle, with a mil grid like the HorusVision Tremor or the Schmidt & Bender GR²ID reticles, there is little need to manipulate the turrets once the optic is zeroed.

The shooter can accomplish all adjustments using holds. But those holds would be dependent on magnification in a second focal plane scope. In contrast, the shooter can range, engage, and adjust at any magnification with a first focal plane. It makes engagement far quicker. That might be much more of a tactical consideration than for, say, competition or hunting. But it is still a valid consideration.

In many ways, this choice does depend on your budget and requirements. Many with a sniper background (including the author) still question the point of a second focal plane variable optic. Others argue that the reticle on a first focal plane optic gets too small at lower magnifications and too large at higher, obscuring the target.

So there are downsides too.

For those of you who are custom gun makers and/or reloaders.

At Outdoor Life.

They cover Magpul, Caldwell, Javelin, Warne and Harris.

I don’t like the Magpul, and frankly I’m not sure I really like any of them.

I do like the Accu-Tac bipod, but of course it’s more expensive.  There’s no accounting for taste, except that mine tend towards the more expensive for whatever reason.

Do readers have suggestions on bipods they like, and why?

I think Tim is underplaying the importance of functional reliability, and thus doesn’t appreciate the radial delayed system in CMMG.  It’s very hard to get reliable feeding, bolt cycle and operation with pistol rounds in a carbine and CMMG has done that.

But that’s just my opinion.

At Shooting Illustrated.

I’m not sure what makes these so great.

On another note, I was wondering if there’s something different for the same or less price as Pelican out there?  I recall I stumbled on a booth at a gun show a few years ago demonstrating their cases (both rifle and pistol), and I was very impressed.  I can’t recall their names.  If I can find a card from the show I’ll post it.

Related point, Condition 1 seems to have a loyal following and be pretty sturdy.

Any comments or input?