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DarkLordOfOptics
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Nice recap in WSJ. For all those who hated the bad orange man and voted the current merry band of totalitarian lunatics into power

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-election-reform-deception-11617229306?mod=e2fb&fbclid=IwAR2oWqSf8sL6Q-rueba6kMn-rngJjzrg-XU3sDU27lFK-u40b7JAor5UCD4

Here is the text:
In last week’s press conference, President Biden labeled Republican efforts to reform state election laws in Georgia and Iowa as “un-American” and “sick.” That charge is malarkey, to use one of the president’s favorite words.
Mr. Biden made three specific claims. First, that Republicans would “end voting at 5 o’clock when working people are just getting off work.” That isn’t true. No state closes its polls at 5 p.m. Iowa’s new law moved up closing time by an hour, but polls are still open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Georgia’s election reforms left the state’s 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. polling hours unchanged.
The president also charged “there will be no absentee ballots.” That’s also false. Iowa’s only absentee voting change was to say ballots must arrive by 8 p.m. on Election Day. Georgia made all of one significant change to absentee voting: replacing the requirement that counties verify the signatures of mail-in voters. Instead, voters will provide the number from their driver’s license or free state-provided ID or a photocopy of the IDs given to government employees, military members or tribal members—making it easier and quicker to verify and process mail-in ballots.
Finally, the president also criticized “some states” for saying “you cannot bring water to people standing in line waiting to vote.” Here’s the fuller picture: Georgia clarified its law prohibiting electioneering within 150 feet of a polling place or 25 feet of anyone waiting in line by saying politically involved groups wooing voters with free food and drinks couldn’t operate that close to the polls and lines. If you’re more than 150 feet from the building and 25 feet from voters waiting in line, knock yourself out. Inside those lines, the law allows only for election officials providing “self-service water from an unattended receptacle to an elector waiting in line to vote.”
Mr. Biden closed his remarks on the subject by calling Iowa and Georgia’s actions “despicable . . . the most pernicious thing” and declaring, “This makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.” This is some weird phrasing: A crow and an eagle are both birds, the eagle more fearsome than the crow. Get it? But Mr. Biden is using unnecessarily incendiary language.
Using the Biden Standard, let’s compare the supposedly un-American and racist practices of Iowa and Georgia with—to pick one state—Delaware. Iowa and Georgia both allow unlimited, no-excuse absentee voting by mail. Any registered voter can vote by mail rather than waiting for Election Day. Neither state’s new reforms restrict the practice.
Unlike Iowa and Georgia, Delaware forbids no-excuse mail-in absentee voting. Only voters who meet a specific criteria can vote by mail, such as government employees; students; those with work or religious prohibitions, an illness or a disability; or those vacationing or living outside the U.S. Some have critiqued Georgia for capping the number of additional dropboxes for absentee ballots beyond the one required for each county at one per 100,000 active voters (of which the state has nearly 7.4 million) or one for every early voting site, whichever is fewer. But Delaware has about half as many dropbox locations per capita—only four across the entire state.
Moreover, both Iowa (since 1990) and Georgia (since 2004) have long had no-excuse in-person early voting. It’s available in Iowa during an election’s last 29 days. This year’s Georgia reforms require 17 mandatory days and two optional Sundays of early voting, up four days from last fall.
By contrast, Delaware has never allowed no-excuse early voting. To date, only voters eligible to cast mail-in absentee votes were allowed to vote early in-person. That is set to change in 2022, but even then Delaware will allow no-excuse, in-person early voting for only 10 days.
How about the bugaboo about requiring voter ID at the polls? All three states require it and accept many of the same forms (driver’s license, passport, etc.), though Iowa and Georgia provide free identification cards upon request. If Delaware voters don’t have such ID, they can “sign an affidavit of affirmation that the voter is the person listed on the election district record,” opening them to fines and possibly jail time if they aren’t.
So what’s the effect of these differences among the three states? While 59% of Iowa’s and 80% of Georgia’s votes last fall were cast early by mail or in-person, in Delaware only 29% were. Bottom line: Iowa and Georgia make it easier to vote than Delaware did last fall.
Mr. Biden said last week he’d “spend my time . . . educating the American public” about election reform. If he really wants to keep voters informed about election reform, the president should get his facts straight and apply his standards equally. Mr. Biden can either stop slandering Iowa and Georgia with accusations of racism or apply the same obnoxious label to the election practices of his home state, which has voted for him for nearly half a century. And oh, Delaware’s polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., just like Iowa’s.

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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
May 28, 2025
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
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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
May 24, 2025
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
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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
May 19, 2025
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
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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
May 27, 2025
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.

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LinkLQChen@LinkLQChen
May 23, 2025

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

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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
May 20, 2025
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 ...

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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
May 18, 2025
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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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
May 14, 2025
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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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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
April 23, 2025
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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