DarkLordOfOptics
Politics • Science & Tech • Sports
Guns, Optics, 2nd Amendment and resisting the Left in everything they touch.
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It has begun: pre-Black Friday

The Black Friday season seems to be starting earlier and earlier every year. This time around, I got an email from Eurooptic with the first salvo.
There are quite a few Tikka rifles seemingly on closeout and a few other things here and there. I am sure there will be more.
The one that is really tempting me at the mount is this T3x in 22-250. This is the only production 22-250 I am aware of that comes with a faster twist 1-8" barrel. I have always been fascinated with putting together a 22-250 capable of running heavy 223 bullets.
https://alnk.to/bitC4G1
I played with that a little a long time ago, but then got distracted and the old Savage action I intended for it got a rebuilt as a nicely accurate 308 that was later gifted to someone for his birthday.
Back then, 22-250 had a reputation as a barrel burner, but that was before 22CM and a bunch of other cartridges.
What got me thinking about it again is the pronghorn hunt I was on last summer. A hunt like that would be awesome for getting my kids into hunting, so I am thinking of that for next summer. I shot my pronghorn with a 6.5PRC and it worked beautifully, but that's more gun than is really needed and more gun than they can easily carry.
In theory, a 223 boltgun with the right bullet will do the job on pronghorn just fine, but that would be too simple and make too much sense. I am not know for going with the path of least resistance, hence the fast twist 22-250 idea.
https://alnk.to/2FCu0U1
It is a 6lbs rifle. With Vortex 3-15x42 https://alnk.to/c08E0bk or something along those lines on it, it becomes a 7.5lbs rifle with the optic. With a compact suppressor, it will clock in at just over 8lbs.
With 22-250, it will still have very mild recoil, so it will beasy to both shoot and carry for a small statured shooter like my daughter (or my wife in the unlikely event that I ever manage to talk her into hunting).

I know I talk a lot about my Q rifles and I am quite fond of them, but they are not cheap. In principle, I could just pick up a MiniFix in 223 and with 70gr TSX ammo it would easily do the trick. However, this time I want to see what I can do with something a lot more accessible people who are not as fully immersed into the gun world as I am.

Sometimes I just have to step back a little and try to look at this the way sane people do. For a profligate rifle looney like myself, a $4k rifle and $6k scope does not look out of place at all. To sane people, it does.

Last weekend, when talking to my nephews, I mentioned that I am setting up to shoot in a competition in January. They asked me what my competition rifle costs as configured. When I started adding up numbers, it quickly crossed well into five figure territory. Then they asked if I have a backup. I do (another Fix) and adding that up got me into five figured again. Quickly. A lot of that is simply due to how expensive Tangent riflescope are, but still.

One of them says he wants to go hunting with me some time and since there is a limit to even my snobbery, I started thinking about the right way to get a hunting rifle going that would be well put together yet not require selling a kidney, then I thought about pronghorn rifles... well, here we are.

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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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