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DarkLordOfOptics
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Guns, Optics, 2nd Amendment and resisting the Left in everything they touch.
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DNT "The One" 7-35x56. A careful first look

DNT's 7-35x56 has been here since February and I have managed to have some reasonably significant amount of time with it to date. This video is mostly in the nature of a "first look", although a bit more extensive than that. I will follow up with a careful examination of the reticle and low light performance.
https://amzn.to/4iGPl9w
So far, I am quite impressed with what the scope offers for the money.
Talking to one of the owners, he said he wants to be the undisputed bang for the buck champ under $1k. It is too early to be sure, but he might have a point there.
So far, I am quite impressed with the optic for what it costs and everything I have heard about customer support has been good.
The scope I have did have a minor glitch with the focus cell (I talk about that in the video), but it seems to have worked itself out. Perhaps there was some sort of a minor machining mark somewhere in there that got polished out.
Beyond that, it has been a good scope for me. I tried it on a couple of different guns. It started on my 22-250 fast twist project Tikka, but it is a little too big for what is set up as a hunting rifle with occasional long range pretenses. DNT does make hunting riflescopes, but the 7-35x56 is unabashedly aimed at the precision/competition world.
I do not know if I am going to take it to a match (once my 6.5CM is back, I plan to standardize on one configuration and keep using it), but I practice with the gun the DNT scope is on the same way I practice for matches.
For the time being, it found its home on a nicely accurate 243WIn gas gun. It is a heavy gun built around a Dracos barrel (now defunct company, so there goes that lifetime warranty). With the DNT 7-35x56 on it and a beefy GRS bipod, it is right around 15lbs, so the weight is close to my match gun. I make it a point to practice with both bolt guns and semiautos, so the 7-35x56 gets a lot of use with me.
I do not know if I will be able to do it this year, but I am very interesting in trying one of the Quantified Precision matches, hence the practice with a semi-auto.
Since this 7-35x56 scope is so clearly aimed at the precision world, that is what I focused on to date. Now, I am going to expand that a little bit, take the scope out of its comfort zone and see how it does.

00:11:27
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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
April 10, 2025
Zeiss SFL 12x50

Zeiss makes quite a few binoculars. Aside from an occasional misstep (Terra...), most of them are pretty good.
As with any product line, some models come together better than others.
Zeiss' SFL product line is something I looked at briefly, but never dwelled on it too much. They seemed like nice binoculars, but I never really looked at them carefully.
Imagine my surprise when the folks at Zeiss reached out and asked if I want to take a look at their new 12x50 version of the SFL.
They know I live out west, so they must have heard I have the space to really work out where the limits of a 12x50 binocular are.
Given that sending me a product to look at involves certain risks (until I am pretty much done with the review, I ignore marketing literature and any and all attempts from any company to tell me what to say), I figured that they either decided to live dangerously or that they are pretty damn confident of how good the product is.
I do not know for sure which one it is, but the ...

00:11:45
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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
March 23, 2025
Delta Javelin 4.5-30x56

Here is another scope that has been here entirely too long without a formal review.
Delta Javelin 4.5-30x56, along with Athlon Ares ETR 4.5-30x56, stands at the top of the ladder of Chinese-made precision scopes I have seen to date.
To be fair, there are some new ones that are popping up that I have not tested yet (like the Telson 5-25x56) and some excellent ones that are less expensive (like DNT 7-35x56). Still, of the ones I have had a chance to spend some serious time with, it is Javelin and Ares ETR. Athlon has a Gen2 of the ETR that was announced this year, that I am very curious to test against the Javelin. Compared to the Gen1 ETR, I thought they were extremely close optically, but I slightly preferred the turrets and the reticle in the Javelin. We'll see if Athlon's Gen2 will change that.
I talk about Delta a good bit, but the brand is still not very widespread in the US. Still, there are several people selling them including Don at @AnnexDefense . Since he is a member here, I...

00:14:44
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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
March 23, 2025
Leica Geovid Pro AB+ 10x42 Wrap-up

As I was getting this final video ready, I could not help but think that I have been talking about this LRF bino incessantly since December when I first got my hands on it.
https://alnk.to/eONAsar
I was very impressed with it when it arrived and I am very impressed with it now. I thought it was worthwhile to do a video wrap-up, see if any questions come up (i.e. something I forgot to address) and cover all the unintended omissions in an article.
Leica is, occasionally, a mystifying company in terms of their market strategy, but there is never any doubt about their technical capability. They can and do make absolutely exceptional optical instruments. There is new leadership in Leica's US office and I walked away from a meeting with them very encouraged. They seem to be listening to the market and have some good things in store.
In the meantime. as I said in the video, as far as LRF binoculars go, this is the best image quality I have seen to date combined with a very consistent LRF. ...

00:16:09
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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
14 hours ago
Home for a bit and thinking about the 40s

If all goes well, I will spend a whole 10 day stretch at home, which is sorely needed. Then off to New Jersey for a couple of days, then back home for another ten day stretch. That's kinda exciting.
One of the things I plan to make some progress with while I am home is the comparison of MPVO-ish riflescopes with 40-44mm objectives that I kicked off a month or so ago.
Since I first started talking about it, I added Steiner H6Xi 2-12x42 to the lineup and the updated spec table is attached. The numbers in it are from the published specs and I am not 100% certain Steiner FOV is accurate. I already found one typo in there, so I will measure the FOV. I think it is a little wider than the specs suggest.
Also, while pulling the information for the spec table together, I noticed that if you add the H6Xi 2-12x42 to the cart on Eurooptic, the price drops down to $1350. https://alnk.to/fwsNUQQ
I have not spent a ton of time with it yet, but so far I like the scope a good bit. The reticle does get ...

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Gilberto Padilla@GilX47Lapua
April 18, 2025

Just saying thanks for all your reviews. I just bought a Zeiss LRP S5 5-25x56 and I'm really impressed with it. I was debating between it and the March, but went with the Zeiss because you said it has a better eyebox and dof.

Im going to put it in a Badger C1 Max mount.

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Gilberto Padilla@GilX47Lapua
April 16, 2025

Is there a way to make a target card by using lrf binos that can communicate with a weather meter like a kestrel or Garmin, without touching the weather meter?

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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
1 hour ago
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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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
March 31, 2025
AAC Ammo: Trouble In Paradise
I think this is the almighty telling me to start reloading again

Well, since I was running a little low on AAC Precision 175gr 308 ammo, I ordered another batch.  This one came from a different lot than the batch I had before.

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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
March 18, 2025
Deep into the 40s
42-44mm Riflescopes

I have about 13 months left to be in my 40s, so I figured this is my last opportunity to get cheeky with this project title.

As I mentioned during last week's livestream, I am kicking off a large review encompassing seven different riflescopes that really share only one thing in common: their objectives are in the 42-44mm range.

Here is a comparison table of the specs for the scopes I have on hand.  Note that the Swampfox Warhawk 2-10x44 is not going to be in this comparison very much.  I'll do a separate video on it.  The biggest reason for that is simply that this spec table is becoming too long and comparing so many scopes all at the same time is exponentially more difficult.  I was going to take out either the Warhawk or the Blackhound since neither of them have a zero stop, so I flipped a coin and Blackhound got to stay.  I will go over it a little bit below the table.

I did not set out to have this particular line-up in mind, but I like this riflescope type, so I ended up with all of these on hand.  

Some of these scopes I have lready reviewed quite thoroughly, namely the Blackhound and Tract.

If you look at the specs carefully, you'll see that these range from true ultrashort designs (GPO and March), to "kinda short" designs (Leapers, Delta, Leupold and Blackhound) to a conventionally sized Tract Toric.  Some of these lean toward the MPVO category.  Some are unabashedly aimed at the Crossover market.  Tract stands alone as a relatively conventional hunting scope, except configured very nicely to do everything as necessary.  Another scope that would fit this category very well also that is no longer here is Vortex Strike Eagle 3-18x44.  I might reference it occasionally.

I have a good amount of mileage with all of these, although I have not yet released a final review on every design.  Still, I can offer some initial thoughts in order of ascending price.

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