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Getting back on the horse, little by little
ILya Koshkin
10 hours ago
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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
May 01, 2025
Burris XTR PS HUD

Here is a better look at the Heads Up Display (HUD) in Burris' XTR PS scopes. In this case, I am looking through a 3.3-18x50, but the HUD is the same in both models.
https://alnk.to/4qN7csi

AFF10 code gets you extra 10% off on just about anything on Opticsplanet website starting at midnight tonight.

The more time I spent with HUD equipped scopes, the more I think that this is a significant step forward.

If they ever get a WMLRF to connect to this thing, it will be amazing, but even as is, I think it is a meaningful advantage.

00:09:18
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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
April 27, 2025
Through the scope view at the STR-MIL reticle in Steiner H6Xi 2-12x42

Here is a quick look at the reticle through the scope. As I watch the video, it looks thinner in the picture than it does in real life. I have a suspicion that those relatively dense 0.2mrad hashmarks make the primary stadia stand out more than they would otherwise.

One one hand, I'd prefer for this reticle to be a little bolder or have some high visibility features.

On the other hand, it is pretty usable as is and the scope is quickly becoming one of my favourite MPVO designs currently on the market.

Next step will be to get it back on the gun, mount a piggy-backed RDS and do some shooting from 10 yards to 800 yards.
https://alnk.to/9bvy9a9

00:04:19
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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
May 11, 2025
Vortex Razor Gen3 6-36 Reticle Pictures

I was asked a question about what the EBR-7D reticle in the RG3 looks like. I am pretty sure I have posted these photos in the past, but rather than look for them, I figured I can just as easily repost them here. These are at 6x, 10x, 15, 20x, 25x , 30x and 36x.
This is clearly a precision oriented reticle and on lower powers I mis the thick outer bars.
Illumination does help a lot in low light.

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Gilberto Padilla@GilX47Lapua
May 11, 2025

Zeiss S5 prices have come down to 3k at eurooptic and $2700 at mile high.

Do you know if the S5 is about to be replaced by something new?

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ILya Koshkin@DarkLordOfOptics
May 10, 2025
PA's Spring Clearance

Apparently, I am not the only one who has an occasionally spring clearance (which reminds me that I need to do some inventory again since I have scopes stacked in multiple layers in my safe).

Primary Arms also has a spring clearance going on and it is a tiny little bit more extensive than mine.

https://alnk.to/5Q7eb2Y

There is a tone of stuff in there. The link above is to the riflescope section, but they seem to have a few thousand items earmarked. Most interestingly, they have a bunch of open box and cosmetic blem items. Those are usually a very good deal.
They also have a bunch of discount codes on Vortex scopes that seem to be mostly in the 20% off range.
I have a couple of items I need to so I'll be looking through it somewhat carefully. I'll add to this post if anything unusually interesting pops up.
https://alnk.to/5Q7eb2Y

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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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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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