DarkLordOfOptics
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Guns, Optics, 2nd Amendment and resisting the Left in everything they touch.
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Back-up optics and Primary Arms

PA is sort of an interesting company and their ACSS reticle family has a really rabid following. I have to fully admit that I am not really onboard with some of those reticle designs, but they are always well thought out. I just do not always agree with how they frame the problem they are looking to solve.
That having been said, I have been looking at three of their prismatic scopes: SLx Micro 1x and 3x (3x is not officially out yet) and GLx 2x. All three are going onto my list of recommendations. I think PA did a very good job for the money with those. I have talked about the GLx 2x in the past. SLx Micro 1x video is in the works and will be out soon. Micro 3x review will be out a little later once they actually release the product.
Prismatic scopes are not the "be all do all" some people make them out to be, but they do work well and do a lot of things well while maintaining a compact overall package.
Another PA-ish product that I have not issued a full review on, but it is going onto my list of recommendations is the Holosun 507C with ACSS Vulcan reticle.
Why do I bring them up now? Well, I have been thinking about picking up a couple more of these for different guns, so they are among the products I monitor as we get to Black Friday. These are not so expensive that I have to think long and hard about buying one if I see a good deal pop-up.
More importantly, I have this paranoid streak in me that makes me have back up optics and spares. For many rifles that I have, I keep some pre-sighted in optics as a spare or backup and I want these to be robust, light weight and reasonably inexpensive. I am not going to have an extra $2k Razor Gen3 laying around as a spare. With conventional scopes, that always brings me back to the sub-10 ounce SWFA 2.5-10x32 Ultralight.
With fixed power designs for ARs and AKs, I am sorta converging on PA's micro prisms and Holosun's solar powered 507C with Vulcan reticle for the same purpose.
Here are the specific ones on my shopping list and if I run into any additional discounts on these, I'll edit this post.

SLx Micro 1x: https://bit.ly/3HR2YRM
GLx 2x w/300BO or 7.62x39 reticle: https://bit.ly/3kCiJR8
GLx 2x with 5.56 reticle: https://bit.ly/3FKijRV
Holosun 507C Vulcan: https://bit.ly/3cGA48A

To address the invariable question that comes up whenever I say something nice about a PA optics: "they are all amazing-est, best-est, most remarkable-est, etc. Why aren't you listing them all in every post?"

For several reasons. The most obvious one is that I have not tested them all and I absolutely refuse to recommend anything I have not tested. Another reason is that for many of their other products, there is a lot of competition and often times, in those categories, I prefer the competition.

A good example of that is the PLx 1-8x24 that gets brought up quite a bit. It is a really nice robust design and Griffin Mil reticle works really well in it. However, at 27 ounces, it is heavier than I want in an LPVO. This is the version I am referring to: https://bit.ly/3DMhyaC

There is nothing wrong with it overall, but given the balance of features, for the same money and application there are other designs I prefer.

Or, let's take the GLx 2.5-10x44 that I happen to really like (I have the Griffin Mil version: https://bit.ly/3xu8EMN and for $650 it really kicks ass, but the reticle is really designed for LPVOs, not scopes with excellent exposed turrets). That will likely end up on my list of recommendations, but someone mentioned that they have an updated version of Griffin Mil coming that will work better with this scope. I want to see what that looks like before endorsing it.

I really do consider the specifics very carefully before I recommend something.

That is one of the things that annoys me about many gun bloggers: they throw links around just to get you to buy something. Anything at all, so that they can make an affiliate commission. That is really not the way I approach this. I am sure optics manufacturers hate when I do that, but I am not really here for them.

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Vortex Defender XL Green

This is the second time Vortex' Defender XL crosses my path. I was very impressed with the original red dot version, so I was curious to see how the one with the green dot works for my eyes.
To get the details, see the attached video.
The cliff's notes version is that I am just as impressed with this one. In terms of collimation quality and parallax control, it is quite exceptional.
https://alnk.to/881BEV1

00:10:20
Primary Arms HTX-1 US Made red dot sight

I've had this RDS for a bit over two months now and I am beyond pleased with it.
Despite some spirited abuse, it keeps soldiering on.
https://alnk.to/1C9z5dw
It is a very nice RDS and being fully made in the US does not hurt either.

00:13:03
Delta Stryker 3.5-21x44 Wrap-up

This scope comes up a lot since I really like the configuration. It is time to do a final wrap-up of it.

It is one of my favourite scopes on the market today, especially for the money, since I naturally lean toward general purpose-ish designs. Still, while the 3.5-21x44 Stryker is relatively compact and light, it still clearly leans toward the precision side of things, which suites me very well.

https://annexdefense.com/optics-and-optic-accessories/delta-optics/

00:10:25
Labor Day is upon us...

As we head into Labor Day, we will all be bombarded with a huge number of emails indicating impending discounts of all sorts.
I am not even going to pretend that I have the bandwidth to go through it all, but if I see something worthwhile, I'll post it here. This will remained pinned to the top of the feed for a week or so.

The first nice deal that crossed my path here is steep discount on the original version of the FFP PLxC LPVO from Primary Arms. https://alnk.to/5Q7R6eK
Now that the new version with nuclear bright illumination came out, it looks they are closing out the original. It is a lot of LPVO for $1100 and the version with the Meters reticle is my favourite. You can easily make it work for imperial units.

Tract has the TORIC100 coupon code that gets you $100 off any Tract Toric optic. https://tractoptics.com/toric-uhd-30mm-2-5-15x44-ffp-illuminated-mrad-eagleman-long-range-hunting-rifle-scope?ref=ILYAKOSHKIN
The coupon codes are stackable, so if you also use my DLO discount code...

I was a bit confused at the beginning but this is a new Model looking at the turret compare to old LH2-10x40,
Any news on this ?
https://www.amazon.com/Vortex-Optics-Razor-Second-Riflescopes/dp/B0FBMNTW52?th=1

Updates, deals and new review items: PLxC RDB, Zeiss Tripod, etc

As the week is coming to an end, I find myself in an unusual place: home.

I plan to be home between now and September 1st when I have to go to Israel for ten days, returning on the 11th (dayjob stuff).

For the last couple of months, between family vacations, work and a couple of matches, it seems like I only spent enough time at home to check zero on my 6.5CM Fix and head out again (it has not shifted, thank you Area 419 mount).

I have a lot to do during the next two weeks, but I will try to take some pictures, film some footage and release it as I go along. I can edit videos on the plane or in Israel just about as well as I can at home.

While generally, I am very picky about what I accept for review (given my bandwidth limitations), I do have a few new things here worth talking about.

One is Primary Arms new PLxC RDB 1-8x24 LPVO. It is essentially a version of the original FFP PLxC LPVO except with different reticle illumination technology. The new model utilizes diffractive reticle illumination (same style ...

Well, that was a doozy...

My original plan was to try to set up a hunt where my daughter will have her first memorable hunting experience without working too hard.

The choice of the pronghorn hunt was largely based off of my experience in that same area last year.

The way it went last year was quite straightforward.  We drove around until we saw a large pronghorn buck.  It was a solitary animal that decided to lie down in an open area to relax.  We made a short stock, crawled the last hundred yards or so, found a good spot about 350 yards away from the pronghorn and made the shot.

https://darklordofoptics.locals.com/post/6034347/well-that-was-a-nice-morning

This year, when I decided to take my daugher on the same pronghorn hunt on the day of her 14th birthday, I figured it will be somewhere along those same lines.  It kinda was, but not quite.

Still, it worked out nicely.

In the pciture:

Q Mini-Fix with 6ARC 16" Proof Research carbon fiber barrel

Q Jumbo Shrimp supressor

Gunwerks Elevate 2.0 bipod

Telson Toxin 3-18x50 riflescope

Leica Geovid Pro AB+ LRF binoculars

Pint-sized sticky Gamechanger bag

Unnamed pronghorn buck.  It will likely get a name once it's skull is euro-ed and is hanging on the wall.

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Arming The Children
A couple of very specific children that is

In case you were wondering, no, I am not starting an underage militia.

I do have two kids though and I am teaching them to shoot.

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Steiner C35 Gen2 Mount
from Annex Defense

The production version of the Annex Defense's mount for the Steiner C35 Gen2 thermal Clip-on is finally here.  At $1600 (when this is published), the clip-on is an absolute steal.

I've had it for a few days, but, me being the good old paranoid me, I spent some time shooting with it before posting anything.  I had a couple of days with it prior to last weekend's match in Montana and a couple of days after.  Another to pop it on and off a few times and get a couple of hundred rounds of 6.5Grendel through the gun to see if anything shakes loose.  So far so good.

The C35 Gen2 clip-on is sitting on my 6.5Grendel AR as a part of a long running "Only One" project that I have.  It pairs perfectly with the Steiner H6Xi 2-12x42 scope.

Here is what comes in the box from Annex Defense:

The order in which the whole thing comes togethe is pretty stragihtforward:

-slide the thermal washer onto the threaded interface extending out of the back of the clip-on

-spin the mount itself onto the threaded interface (the mount is threaded on the inside) until it can go no further

-rotate the mount so that the clip-on is properly lined up to the picatinny clamp

-once you are happy with the alignment, use the three nylon tipped set screws (you'll need an allen wrench for that) to lock in the position of the clip-on in the mount.  You need very little torque on the set screws.  They are there for one reason and one reason only: to keep the mount from spinning when you tighten the timing nut in the next step

-spin the timing nut onto the threaded interface of the clip-on to lock the mount in place.  You should not need the timing nut wrench, but one is in there just in case.

Here are the pieces laid out in the order in which you will need them.

When you are done, it should look like this:

Note that the mount normaly comes with two T20 screws.  I am using two thumbscrews instead, since I am popping the mount on and off all the time.  It seems to be staying put with the thumbscrews just fine.  I am hoping Annex will offer the thumbscrews as an option.

It is not quite an equivalent of a QD mount, but we needed something with an extremely low profile clamp to fit under scopes with fairly large objectives.  As is, the mount works with most scope that have objective lens diameter of 50mm or less.

I am using with with Steiner H6Xi 2-12x42 and the two work together exceedingly well.

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