DarkLordOfOptics
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Guns, Optics, 2nd Amendment and resisting the Left in everything they touch.
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How much is $40 billion?

Further below is a nice summary from Eugene (the gentleman who has been on my show a couple of times to talk about Ukraine and we will do another episode on that on May 24th). He posted it on Facebook and I am copying the whole thing in a completely unadulterated form.

To clarify a couple of things first though:
1) use of a russian term "лох". It basically means "sucker" and not in a fun "Hollywood after party" kind of way.
2) I keep on seeing all this indignation on the right about "we are sending $40B to Ukraine while we are suffering here in the US from "fill in the blank" Donald Trump Jr is all over social media with this stuff as are a bunch of other people. It is basically the populist right learning how to do world class sloganeering from the communist left. The basic idea is that if you say something stupid yet catchy often enough, noone is going to look into the details. Well, some of the details are below and, generally, by the US government standards, $40B is pocket change (which is a separate problem in its own right). Also, before you rush to blame the military industrial complex, evil Jews, neocons or whatever else is the enemy du jour on the alt-right, take a long hard look at your elected political leaders. Think long and hard about how any semblance of a moral compass ended up disqualifying you from being elected into office.

Here is Eugene's summary of the military aid situation:

I think what we are witnessing with respect to the Western help to Ukraine, using a technical term, can be best described as "развод лохов". Лохи in this case are not the Ukrainians, but 65% of Americans who support more sanctions and/or military aid to Ukraine.
Let’s start with unprecedented economic sanctions. They exist, but with many critical caveats. As everyone knows, the Russian government makes money selling oil and gas. Gas specifically is still being purchased and at record prices, so that Russia is actually running an unprecedented currency surplus. Most European countries made promises to stop or curtail purchasing by the end of the year. Which does not impact the situation today, and gives ample time to see how war plays out.
Frozen $640bn Russian funds offshore were still, until recently, accessible for the purposes of paying Russian debt. Which was yet another loophole allowing Russia and the West to make some money while pretending to be very decisive. After that loophole closed, in the beginning of May Russia was allowed to make a payment using its currency reserves. Next payment is coming-up on May 25th and the US treasury did not say if they will allow the next payment to happen or force Russia to go into a default.
Though sanctions do bite, by no means are those the “nuclear bomb of economic sanctions” on the Russian government. With oil and gas being the main sources of revenue for the government, sanctions on everything else has more impact on the Russian citizens than of the Russian state.
But what about billions of dollars of military aid that we have sent to Ukraine? According to the White House website close to $3.5 billion dollars in aid were disbursed and another $40 billion is on the way! Yee-haw!
First of all, is “almost $3.5 billion dollars” a lot or a little? To put this in perspective, over 20 years of war in Afghanistan the US was spending $290 million per day. This was a highly uneven conflict in terms of intensity, ranging from 710 KIA in 2010 to 0 in the latter years. However it is safe to say that at its worst, the conflict in Afghanistan was an order of magnitude less intensive than that we are seeing in Ukraine. So 75 days in Ukraine cost as much as 12 days of “kinda war” in Afghanistan.
Now, it is not fair to have to compare expenses 1-1. While I do not believe soldier salaries are included in the $290 million estimate, the cost of maintenance and other expenses are. Clearly, Ukrainian mechanics charge less for their maintenance. But still, US funding towards the war in Ukraine is more in line with our recent funding towards the operation in the Philippines ($2.6bn), which most of you have never heard of.
But wait, didn’t we deliver 90 M777 howitzers and 200 M113 APCs? That is something, but out of all of those numbers, perhaps a handful of M777 are currently in the theater. 90 M777s seem to have been delivered but need to undergo maintenance first (more about it later) and M113s are still “in the mail”.
It so happened that yesterday I was hanging out at Stanford with a bunch of former and current military officers. We had a good representation from all of the branches, ranks and specialties, including senior artillery officers. Subject of M777s came up. Based on the accounts of those present, M777 we sent were not the top shelf items – I was told that specifically the shipment from the National Guard “were all brown” (rusty) and would take significant maintenance to get into a working order and not clear how long they would last after. I imagine this is the same story with M113s, since those were not even used by the US military for the past 15 years.
Canada even sent a few thousand GPS guided Excalibur rounds for M777. The problem is that M777 come in two modifications – M777A1 and M777A2. The A1s are most of the ones that went to Ukraine and they cannot fire Excalibur rounds. Good job Canada!
So far $40bn allocated have been used by DoD to send to Ukraine equipment that they were planning to get rid of, and now can sell for a premium price to US congress.
The situation is further corroborated by Ukrainian servicemen and people who visited them that I had a chance to speak to; it is also seconded by USMC Col. Andy Milburn, former special operations command, who is actively working in Ukraine – Ukrainian soldiers are short of everything, and aside from Javelines, no presence of the US equipment is felt in Ukraine.

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Blast From The Past: Millett ZoomDot RDS

I dug this thing up purely by accident. It has been a long time since I used it for anything, but I am thinking I should, especially as I work on a magnifier video.

MIllet's ZoomDot was a unique red dot sight that had auto brightness and variable dot size from 1MOA to 10MOA.

Early ones, like mine, were made in the US. Millett had some aspirations of selling these to the US military.

I do not think they got very far, then the company was bought by Bushnell and essentially shut down after a little bit. At some point, the manufacturing for the ZoomDot moved to China and it was not really the same.

00:05:44
Scout Scopes: Burris 2.75x20

Scout scopes are almost like a forgotten art form these days. There is an occasional discussion either on how they are the greatest thing since sliced bread because 1) THE colonel said so 2) if you do not think they are, refer to rule number 1.
Alternatively, the prevailing thought is that they are completely useless and if LPVOs existed in Jeff Cooper's time, there would never be such a thing as scout scopes.
The truth, as is usually the case, resides somewhere in the middle.
Scout scopes do have their place, but they are definitely a niche product. It is, however, an interesting niche.
Scout scope pickings are relatively slim in terms of what's on offer.
Leupold makes a 1.5-4x28 https://alnk.to/gKSibYj
Burris makes a 2-7x32 and 2.75x20
Vortex has a 2-7x32 in the Crossfire line
There are also a few out there from UTG, Aimsports, etc.

I strongly lean toward compact fixed power designs, so Burris 2.75x20 https://alnk.to/cSJCBQx is probably my favourite and is the subject of this ...

00:11:58
Integrix M1 MRAD Reticle in the 3-18x44

Wind was really making things difficult, but at least this gives you a look at the reticle.
It is a respectable design that is conceptually closer to SKMR reticles than to the ones I usually gravitate to. They also have an M2 that is, I think, a little better.
In the grand scheme of things, the M1 did not take me long to get used to and it is not giving me any real issues.
https://alnk.to/9TaI2kH

00:06:33
Integrix 3-18x44 Tracking Follow-up

I reached out to Leapers to relay the issues I found with reticle sizing and tracking in the 3-18x44 scope they sent me.

They confirmed that the scope I have here is an engineering model. They also talked to engineering and, apparently, they found the same issues I did with the mrad model and fixed them for the production run.

The MOA model (https://alnk.to/eZIJo9a) is, according to them, spot on. The issues were only present in pre-production mrad scopes.

Once they get production scopes going, I plan to re-visit them. I think the first one to become available will be the 4.5-27x model with the M2 Mrad reticle. I saw it during SHOT and I think it will be more up my alley than the M1, though the latter is still serviceable.

This is strange but once in my lifetime I felt fortunate to be not smart enogh to be in Harvard University...

Memorial Day Sales

I am beginning to see some early Memorial Day Sale emails in my inbox.
If I see anything interesting, I'll add it to this post which will be pinned to the top, rather than inundate you with incessant "it's a sale!" emails. Better keep it all in one spot.

The first one I see is from Opticsplanet. https://alnk.to/cwU58u8
They have all sorts of stuff rom Burris and Steiner discounted including the recently introduced Burris XTR PS 5.5-30x56 for $2199 https://alnk.to/d3Em4Su and the rather unusual Steiner T6Xi 3-18x56 https://alnk.to/ge7ZJBN
Eliminator 6 gets you $400 of bonus bucks to use on something else. https://alnk.to/flycPy8

Tract Optics will be running a 10% storewide sale starting Thursday with the discount code "REMEMBRANCE". While I generally like their products, the one that is really agreeing with me the most is the new 2.5-15x44 with MRAD Eagleman reticle. https://tractoptics.com/toric-uhd-30mm-2-5-15x44-ffp-illuminated-mrad-eagleman-long-range-hunting-rifle-scope/
I am sure ...

First PRS Match is behind me
High Noon at Del Norte

My first PRS match is officially behind me.  It was, I think an officially sanctioned regional PRS match at the shooting range called Del Norte about an hour from me (just east of Rio Rancho).
As I discussed previously, rather than using the rifle I originally prepared for it, I ended up having to change gears at the last moment and slapping a 5-25x56 Tangent on my daughter's 6ARC MiniFIx.  A lightweight 16" Proof barreled 6ARC is not an ideal set up for PRS competition, but, in the grand scheme of things, the rifle did hot hold me back at all.  I had a couple of weights that fit the Q-cert handguard, so I slapped them on there as well, which got the rifle to right around 12lbs.  The balance point was almost where I want it, but not quite.  In all other ways, this was a very handy rifle to shoot.  I am actually thinking of getting a couple more weights that I can stack on it (Sawtooth weights are stackable), so that I can shoot some future local matches with it.  It shoots Hornady's Black 105gr ammo very well (it also shoots 108gr ELD-M and 103gr ELD-X well, but I had a larger supply of Hornady Black ammo on hand).

It chrono'ed pretty consistently for factory ammo.  Here are the measurements for a 20 shot group.

If I were to take out the fastest shot, SD drops down to 8fps.  

In terms of wind performance, it is a 5mph rifle, so slightly better than the 308 ammo I was going to use originally, but not as good as the 6.5CM that was my intended match rifle for this year (we make plans, but then life happens).

I do have to admit that I really enjoyed shooting the match with the MiniFix.  So much so, that I am seriously thinking of building another one for myself, since this rifle is technically my daughter's.

The closest shot we had was a bit over a couple of hundred yards.  The furthest was around 1150.  That was a bit challenging for the 16" barreled 6ARC, especially since the terrain there is tricky and wind is doing strange things.  Morning was relatively quiet wind-wise, but then the wind becamse gusty with changing directions.

It was a one day match with about 30 shooters (six squads) and ten stages.  The 17 year old kid who won the match was in my squad with his dad.  Apparently he is on the US team, so it should not be surrpising that he won.  He was very good.

Overall level of the shooters in the match was quite good.  I really was not sure what to expect.  Somewhat paradoxically, the only matches that I have shot in so far are the much larger two day NRL Hunter matches.  In those, I am just out of the bottom third in terms of skill level.  In this match, it was pretty much in the same spot, I think.  

The terrain was a little bit like Cameo, I think (I have been there, but not shot there), with some angle changes and sufficient vegetation to make getting on target occasionally troublesome. 

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Getting back on the horse, little by little

My original plan was to do a livestream on Thursday of this week, but I think I'll push it out to next week.  A few days at home is doing wonders for my recovery, but my voice is still not quite there.  I do not think any of you are looking to listen to me cough for two hours straight.

Also, I am going to try to shoot that local PRS match this coming Saturday, so doign a livestream next week after the match is likely to be more productive.  It is my first one, so I fully expect that I will screw it all up.  It should be a good learning experience.  I do not have a dedicated PRS rifle and I am not looking to set one up jsut yet.  If I like it, I'll put something together, but as far as competition goes, my focus is really on UKD matches like NRL Hunter, Competition Dynamics, etc.  My 6.5CM is not back yet, so I'll just shoot it with my 308 FIx.  It is not ideal, but it will do just fine for my purposes.  I am in no danger of winning anything either way and this will stress my ability to read wind.  A secondary purpse here is that I am not 100% certain what rifle I will take on a mule deer hunt with later this year, but it will be either something new to test or this 308.  Now that I think about it, the 308 is going with me regardless either as a primary rifle or as backup.  The rifle shoots, so if I miss, I know it is on me.

For the match, I have Burris XTR PS 5.5-30x56 scope on the 308 Fix.  I think the way they did the heads up display in these is a meaningful improvement over conventional riflescopes.

https://alnk.to/d3EjPHC or https://alnk.to/8iVRlGN

Optically, I think XTR Pro is a little better, but the EO integration in the XTR PS is, I think, in advantage.

In parallel, I am looking at the replacement AAC ammo (they replaced the faulty ammo and I have chrono results on it) and testing the optics of the 40mm scopes in parallel.

 

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A first look at Steiner H6Xi 2-12x42
MPVOs are finally getting some attention

Here are some initial thoughts on the Steiner H6Xi 2-12x42.

I finally had a chance to shoot with it both supported and unsupported, which is an important part of figuring out how usable an optic is.

I found what looks to be more accurate specifications in the manual that came with the H6Xi, so the spec table is now updated:

To re-iterate from an earlier post, Eurooptic is selling the H6Xi 2-12x42 for $1350 and at that price, it is easily the best deal going in this category: https://alnk.to/90ALO3C

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