OPMOD and Zeiss created a BEAST and I got to let it out of the cage!!!!

Aug 28 • News • 5241

I was at the OpticsPlanet main office this spring and found a nice little box on my desk. Inside contained model #1 of the OPMOD Zeiss Scope. The new 3-9×40 scope built with German glass and developed by the OPMOD team stands in a field of its own when regarding 3-9’s. Growing up shooting numerous 3-9 scopes to be honest I was not thrilled with the prospect of putting this scope through the paces. Once the scope was unboxed and I saw the modern modifications to a legendary manufactured scope by Zeiss, I was feeling a bit more optimistic and eager to send some lead down range. After getting the scope properly mounted on an old reliable Howa 30-06 that was needing a new scope- it was time to get to work and get to the range.

The compact light weight design of the scope makes it a great option for just about any platform but especially that of a traditional hunting rifle. The turrets are capped and solidly threaded for the abuse a hunting rifle takes while in the field or going through TSA. The responsive turrets make adjustments/zeroing a non-issue. There is a definitive feeling associated with each click applied to the turret- which lets the shooter know exactly what changes are being made without the need to look. This is essential for those immediate wind/elevation alterations made while in the field. The nice report and noticeably visible response from the turrets are really great with the use of gloves for those colder days.

After getting the scope and gun rigged up on the trusty Caldwell Lead Sled with two 50lb bags of shot and some good straps, myself and two others were able to put the scope dead on the screws in under a box of cartridges. After the preliminary required process of doping the scope and following the methodical process of sighting in a scope correctly- it was now time to have some fun.

First thing that was noticed by all parties involved and the additional self-voluntary NRA Instructor/RO on duty that day (whom apparently “needed” to shoot this new Zeiss/OPMOD model #1) was the clarity. The OPMOD team and legendary German Zeiss glass come together in one amazing package and the clarity provided by this scope is excellent to say the least.

At 100 yards holes in paper and the raising and rolling heat waves were clear as could be! Combined with an amazing field of view and eye relief, this scope made an impression quite quickly. Drilling tacks at 100 yards got old so we walked it out to 200 no problems there, and then before we knew it we had maxed out the range pretty quickly.

A few weeks after spending some time at the range I went south for some deer property land management. Upon arriving at a large field separated by a river we noticed some coyotes on the back of another far field. I just so happened to have the gun with me to hit the range later that day, and nice set of shooting sticks and a partner to range them for me. So the truck ripped thru the field fairly hidden and we hopped out and ready to go to work. I got 275 yards reported by my friend, via the range finder and had the turrets moving already. By the time the yotes were aware of what was happening I already had the largest one in my cross hairs and could see the different colors of his coat and the heat mirage rolling with the wind. As soon as I heard from my friend “send when ready” I squeezed the trigger and down went the coyote. The wide field of view on the OPMOD Zeiss scope allowed me to find them quickly as they blended in very well with the freshly tilled field that had been burnt a brown and tan color by several days of sun.

After several months of fun with this scope I can say without doubt that this is a great quality scope and one ready to hit the field or range. Durable as it is clear- there is no cartridge this beast cannot handle. The scope is so clear that it seems to have greater magnification than nine power making it truly in a class of its own. OPMOD Zeiss and OpticsPlanet went and did it again and I can’t imagine finding a better quality scope for the money.

 

What would you throw the OPMOD Zeiss Conquest riflescope on? Let us know in the comments below!

 

Alex P • No Comments on OPMOD and Zeiss created a BEAST and I got to let it out of the cage!!!!

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Guns After Dark: The 2014 Crimson Trace Midnight 3 Gun Invitational

Aug 21 • News • 8323

Lights, Cameras, Night Vision, Lasers, Suppressed Full-Autos, Grenade Launchers, Belt-Fed SAWs…

 

While this may sound like a summary of a behind-the-scenes tour of the latest Schwarzenegger movie set, in actuality, this is a short but accurate description of my time at the 2014 Crimson Trace Midnight 3 Gun Invitational. Located in the high-desert of Bend, Oregon, the 3rd annual Midnight 3 Gun Invitational (M3GI) took place over the course of four long days and nights, and brought in hundreds of shooters, manufacturers and media personnel from all over the country. And as a top-level sponsor of the event, OpticsPlanet and GearExpert had the pleasure of taking everything in firsthand.

 

After deplaning our pre-dawn flight in beautiful central Oregon, we were greeted with a very unseasonable downpour. While Dave and Chase, my partners from the team here at GearExpert (and M3GI rookies), expressed concern at spending the next week soaking wet, as a veteran of the event I was still brimming with excitement, because I knew we were in for loads of fun, rain or shine. Weather be dammed, we grabbed our gear and made our way to Sunriver Resort, which was going to be our home for the week.

 

After maxing out on sleep Tuesday night (again, as a M3GI vet I knew sleep would be hard to come by the next few nights), we awoke Wednesday ready for a full day at the range. We took a scenic 45 minute drive out of Bend, and arrived at the vast COSSA range, located in the Oregon desert. This range has it all: 1000 yard targets, countless bays, shoot houses, props and so much more. The team dropped our gear, and after a quick introduction from Kent Thomas, Marketing Director for Crimson Trace, and Top Shot alum Chris Cerino, the media group was off to learn 3 gun tactics and drills from the greats. First up was pistol training from Mr. Cerino and his son Colton. Armed with a Smith & Wesson 9mm M&P pistol, a Crimson Trace Rail Master Pro, and Blade-Tech belts, holster and mag pouches, I took the line for our first drill, which focused on drawing from the holster and finding your sight picture.

 

 

As soon as we were comfortable acquiring sight picture, Cerino explained that this was going to be of little use to us that evening, as traditional iron sights are all but impossible to find and use accurately when facing pitch-black conditions. This is where the Crimson Trace Rail Master Pros came into play. Even in bright daylight, the solid green beam was clearly visible on our 10 yard paper targets. Cerino and his son worked through the line, showing each shooter how their laser beam could be used as an visual enhancement of a proper sight picture, allowing the shooter to take those shots when the sun went down.

 

From pistol training, we walked over to Bay #3 for a lesson in shotgun reloading from the immensely talented Lena Miculek. Many of you may be thinking: “Why do you need a lesson in shotgun reloading? It’s so easy!”. While that may be true while at the range shooting clays or in the deer blind waiting for that buck, in 3-gun, shotgun reloading can cost you valuable seconds, and seconds can often mean the difference between the podium and the bottom of the score sheet.

 

 

A relatively recent introduction to the sport, quad-load shell caddies have become the go-to ammo pouch for nearly all major competitors. I’ve seen the speed at which these can be used to load shotguns by watching YouTube videos of OpticsPlanet Pro Shooter Jesse Tischauser, however seeing it in the flesh was an entirely different experience. The stance, the flip of the gun, the grip on the shells, the placement of your thumb – it’s all an intricate dance of speed and skill, and Lena was a perfect instructor. While the class certainly was not ready to quad-load by the end, nearly everyone felt comfortable with the use of the shell caddy and the grip of the shells. After taking a few practice shots for good measure, it was off to our final class of the day…

 

Enter Jerry. For those of you who don’t know, Jerry Miculek is the fastest gun in the West. And the East. And probably the North and South too…pretty much anywhere you go, online or in person, you’ll have someone telling you about Jerry’s trigger speed or shot placement. The man hit a balloon at 1000 yards with a 9mm! You heard me right – a 9mm! Don’t believe me? Take a look at the video yourself:

 

With such an amazing skill set and pedigree, our group was appropriately in awe when approaching Jerry and his rifle training course. But this was no time for autographs, as Jerry was ready to put us through the paces with our Smith & Wesson M&P rifles with modified triggers and Crimson Trace MVF515 vertical forgrip with integrated lights and lasers. “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades” – this was Jerry’s first lesson in 3-gun target neutralization. For those of you new to the sport, 3-gun uses a variety of target styles, with the most common being steel plates, clay pigeons, and paper silhouettes. To avoid penalties on any given stage, the shooter must neutralize the target in the form of knocking over the steel, shattering the clay and/or placing two shots on the paper (or one shot if it falls into the “A” zone of the target – AKA dead center).

 

 

Working in pairs, Jerry ran us through a drill designed to test the shooter’s ability to effectively move from different size and style targets at varying distances, while still effectively neutralizing them in the minimum shots required. It’s hard to fully explain what happened when it was my turn to shoot, but it a matter of moments Jerry completely changed the way I shot a rifle. “Move your hand here, your foot here, stand up a little taller, squeeze here” – his short and simple list of commands turned that 30 yard plate rack from foe to friend. Needless to say, Jerry is and always will be a legend for a reason.

 

With our 3-gun training officially in the books, it was time to grab a bite to eat and wait for the sun to go down so that we could get night one started. While I’m sure you’re all dying to know how I fared in the Media Match after all this great training, I’ll refrain from boring you to death, and instead get to the exciting part: the Pros!

 

Friday night kicked off the two nights of pro shooting, and boy was it something special to watch. All the contenders from 3 Gun Nation were there, including OpticsPlanet Pro Shooters Kalani Laker and Jesse Tischauser. This video we shot of them should provide you with just a little taste of how exciting M3GI can really be:

 

 

While Jesse and Kalani shot the match incredibly well, after 10 stages of lasers, lights, night vision, and a variety of incredible stage guns (including the off-road mounted beast below), top honors went to Daniel Horner of the Army Marksmanship Unit – his third straight M3GI win.

 

 

What’s truly special about the Crimson Trace Midnight 3 Gun Invitational is the spirit of the competitors. Though there’s no doubt everyone in the room at Sunday’s closing ceremony would have loved to take home that giant $10,000 check, all of Horner’s competitors were wearing a big (albeit tired) smile on their face. Because honestly, who wouldn’t be happy after spending several nights up until 4am throwing lead downrange? It’s an experience like none other, and OpticsPlanet and GearExpert were thrilled to play a part in this year’s event.

 

Have you ever shot at night? What tips would you have for those heading to next year’s M3GI (or any other night match)?

 

 

KellyB • No Comments on Guns After Dark: The 2014 Crimson Trace Midnight 3 Gun Invitational

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Going the Distance with Nikon

Aug 15 • News • 3993

You’ve been using the same scope for years and its been working flawlessly, that is until you dropped you rifle and put a sizable crack in the glass. Your rifle being down for the count is not an option, you need good glass back on your gun and you need it quick. If you’ve ever been in tis situation, then you know there’s probably a million different questions running through your head. What brand? Should I try a new magnification range? What’s the best reticle?

Although I can’t answer those last two questions, the brand you need to take a look at for a riflescope is Nikon. Since its creation in 1917, Nikon has continued to deliver quality, cutting edge optics for the real end user. Their riflescopes,. rangefinders and binoculars are no exception. They are all built to quality control standards that are hard to find in today’s day and age when many companies are looking at ways of cutting corners.

The folks at Nikon are pioneers in the sporting optics industry. If you are unfamiliar with their patented BDC reticle system, its time to get familiar with it. This break thru reticle stands for Bullet Drop Compensation. What that means for me or you as a shooter is the reticle will allow you to adjust for holdovers. Without getting super in-depth with it, you enter in your bullet information into the Nikon Spot-On technology page and  it will tell you the exact yardage that each one of the corresponding circles  it calibrated for.

Imagine this, you’ve spent all winter dialing down your perfect cartridge. We know when you put this kind of time and energy into reloading ammo for hunting, the last thing you want to do is to waste countless rounds by missing your mark. Simply pull out your Nikon rangefinder, laze your target or game. Lets say it gives you a reading of 253, well you know that’s to the BDC reticle that you need to holdover slightly higher than your 3rd circle. It’s literally that easy.

Not only are long range shots easy with Nikon riflescopes, rangefinders and binoculars but for a limited time you can save up to $200 off select Nikon optics just as easily.

KellyB • 1 Comment on Going the Distance with Nikon

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Cut To The Chase: A Gear Junkies Guide To Knives

Aug 14 • News • 8950

The dilemma of the century, you know without a doubt that you want to shell out some decent cash on a new knife but you haven’t the faintest clue what to look for in a knife. You’re not alone, we get hundreds upon thousands of people wondering the same thing. Should I get a fixed blade or a folder? What blade shape is the best for what I’m going to be doing? It’s not that we’re tired of the questions, we’re actually shocked no one has had the stones to make an easy to understand guide to knives. So….. being the absolute gear junkies that we are, we’ve crafted our own.

Although it doesn’t answer every single knife question known to man, it gives you the right amount of information to make the best decision possible on your next knife and we hope its an OPMOD blade. If you really want to learn every thing there is to know about knives as well as a little bit of everything in between, head over to our How-To-Guides.

Now that you have all of this information, what knife are you going to buy next?

Jeremy L • 4 Comments on Cut To The Chase: A Gear Junkies Guide To Knives

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5 Must-Read Shooting Tips from 3-Gun Professional Shooters

Aug 12 • News • 28583

Tired of your buddies shooting better than you at the range or during competitions? I got to sit down with professional 3-Gun competitors Jesse Tischauser and Kalani Laker to talk about how shooters of any  level can increase their shooting skills.

1.Know When To Call It Quits At The Range:

How many rounds should I shoot every time I go to the range to get better?

Jesse-Once you get past 500 rounds you’re probably just pulling triggers, unless you really got your own range with a serious setup and targets. I mean most guys cant even go and draw their pistol and its really difficult you know? For the average shooter I’d say more than 200 rounds you’re probably wasting time because a lot of guys are just trying to make one hole in the paper.

Kalani-Between 50 and 250 of each weapon. I’d say even more than 125 rounds of shotguns is a waste. Not to mention you’d be killing your shoulder.

Is it possible to shoot too much?

Jesse– At some point you’ll start to develop bad habits from shooting too much at the range at once. You’ll start  doing stuff like mag dumps and trying to shoot a smiley face. Like I said unless you’ve got a really good range that has the stuff you’re trying to compete in , bulls eye, IDPA, whatever it is, unless you’re practicing that then its counterproductive. I mean I’ll go out with 500 rounds and by the end I’m hip shooting stuff lol and just trying stupid stuff because you get bored.

2. You Don’t Always Need To Be At The Range To Practice.

If we can’t get to the range every week what else can you do to get better?

Jesse-For USPSA, there are guys that all they did was dry firing and within a year they’re grand masters, the highest rank you can get.

Kalani-When I do dry fire, I’ll use everything. You know so whether its airsoft guns, laser cartridges, Xbox, Wii.  Any kind of trigger pull is good but a perfect trigger pull is better. I mean you can go the arcade and play that Terminator game. It’s really going to give you that thousand trigger pulls. As long as your sight is correct, sight alignment is correct, and trigger pull is good, it doesn’t matter what you’re practicing on.

So Airsoft actually helps?

Jesse-You know Airsoft really works. I mean I have 3 airsoft guns and targets and all that stuff, its just more fun to shoot real rounds. I just don’t have the time to. One of the guys I shoot with in Oklahoma, he has like $2,000 in targets and $5,000 in airsoft guns. He shoots a lot of airsoft. He has a $600 airsoft JP rifle. I mean for the weapons manipulation that stuff is all the same. The weights are really close to your real gun and they’re blow back so you get a little bit of recoil. I mean its not the same recoil but the whole thing is just moving and shooting. You’re just trying to manipulate that trigger and line up the sights as fast as you possibly can.

Do I need to fire my gun a lot to get better?

Jesse-I mean a ton of people say nothing replaces live fire but man you can get pretty darn close. When I first started I dry fired every day for 30 minutes. With firearms, nobody shoots a lot of everything. If you’re a hunter, you shoot a few times a year. If you’re a tactical ninja in your garage you probably never shoot. Even law enforcement officers don’t use their firearms a lot.

3. Train For Stress

How to incorporate stress into your training?

Jesse-My buddy Chris and I have done some you know jumping jacks and pushups. Most of the action shooting stuff, you’re just running so you just run 20 yards over there and that’s going to get your heart rate up.

Kalani– In my opinion the best way to do that is to find as many people that shoot and get them to watch you shoot, its tough. For me, I stress about everything when I shoot. The level at which I want to perform is so high. What I do is I set a goal that is pretty much unobtainable. But for most people the best way is to have competition amongst friends. Because you want to show off and you really hope it works. Like “hey guys watch this” and then you mess up and everyones looking at you. Also do everything on a timer, that’s what I do even with the airsoft. So shoot with an audience, do the “I can do it this fast, can you beat me?” and always using a timer.

How do you get comfortable with the anticipation of the buzzer?

Jesse-Man you never really get used to that shot timer. Every match I get a little amped up before the first stage and tell myself “don’t f this up”. I haven’t found a way to mimic that feeling or way to train for it. Unless you’re at a match you cant mimic that feeling of anxiety or nervousness of not wanting to fail.

4. Learn To Shoot On The Move

Not a lot of people have the opportunity to actually shoot while moving, how can you train for it?

Jesse-Well p90x and all that stuff helps. Shooting on the move is all about staying low and shooting from a squatting position. Its like the same thing I said about being fast, those guys that are quick they’ll be shooting like they’re taking a dump. If you do that a lot , the stronger you’re going to get. To better answer your question, to practice shooting on the move you need to focus how to separate your guns and hands from the rest of your body so you’re almost moving on rails. This definitely comes into play when you’re using a long gun because you have the stock hitting you and your hands stretched out. Airsoft is a great tool for practicing this.

Kalani-Shooting on the move is the absolute pinnacle of practical shooting. It involves speed, accuracy, transition speed, weapon handling, weapon splits and it truly is what separates the great from greatness. Actually all last year, I dry fired while using an elliptical in my house. Because of the nature of an elliptical It was great at keeping your shoulders level and transitioned right over to the real thing.

Getting your eyes to move quicker.

Jesse-I’ve asked my eye doctor if there are eye drills, you know a lot of it is how fast your vision is at transitioning from target to target. There’s things you can do to make your eyes faster but there’s no one that’s professional enough to spend 15 minutes a day doing eye drills.

Kalani– I mean Xbox never hurt anybody, I always joke around about it but its true. Anything that you can do that’s a high rate of visual input and then you’re reacting to it is really good. One thing I do for eye movement speed is when im driving, I’ll look at the car in front of me and I’ll dart my eyes back and forth from one brake light to the other. It seems so mundane but its kind of fun and difficult.

5. Bust Out The DVD Player

Any training DVD’s you guys can suggest to get better?

Jesse– That Jerry Miculek DVD is really good as far as rifle stuff goes, Jerry Miculek practical rifle I think its called. When I first started shooting I got into the Matt Burkett movies too. Noveske shooting team has some really good videos like outlaw 3-gun. I mean you’re never going to learn everything from a DVD but you’ll get some really good things here and there. Jerry Barnhart, one of the old school Colt shooters back in the day, he’s got a video that’s kind of neat. It’s the same sort of thing, just teaching you the draw, fundamentals and that sort of thing.

Kalani-I’ve looked at them all and overall I’d say get as much information in as possible so you can learn  every point of view out there. For 3-gun obviously get the team Noveske stuff, Miculek stuff, some of the Magpul stuff is fun to watch. If you go out to the range without knowing what you’re doing you’ll end up forming bad habits. You take what you learn in these DVD’s out to the range to confirm or deny if it works.

 

Which tip is your favorite???? Let us know in the comments below!

 

 

 

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Jeremy L • 8 Comments on 5 Must-Read Shooting Tips from 3-Gun Professional Shooters

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