Trijicon VCOG, The Evolution of Greatness

Jun 11 • News • 13849

Many of you are extremely familiar with the Trijicon ACOG scope. First introduced in the early 90’s, this wonder weapon sight quickly became popular with soldiers downrange. With an uber robust housing and simple to use controls, its a no-brainer why the ACOG is so popular with the military, law enforcement and civilian shooters alike.  Is it possible that the folks at Trijicon could  come up with something even better than the ACOG?

Based on the feedback from soldiers, the scope was plenty tough but left something to be desired in the magnification department. However, Trijicon being the optical wizards that they are, knew that just slapping magnification on the ACOG wouldn’t help the guys who actually use this equipment. Starting from the ground up, the VCOG has been meticulously engineered and designed to do everything that the its predecessor was capable of but with supercharged capability.

The VCOG’s major selling point is the fact that its a variable power. Of course they didn’t select just any old magnification range for this scope, they’ve looked at countless data and worked off of the combat feedback from soldiers. What they came up with is an extremely useful power range of 1 to 6.  The fact of the matter is most combat, law enforcement, competition, and self defense situations will rarely require anything beyond those magnification ranges. Majority of the end users who use modern sporting rifles, the Nemo rifle excluded, will never need to shoot out past what you can see when this scope is maxed out at six power.

Although this optic was designed from scratch, it shares many of the excellent features found on its older brother ACOG. The built in scope base takes all of the guess work out of the proper height adjustment for standard bases. The integral base also provides for an amazingly solid unit that will easily survive a trip to hell and back.

I cannot begin to describe to you how crystal clear the sight picture is through the 24mm objective lens. You can choose from two different illuminated reticles based on your chosen guns caliber. Since I wanted to throw it on my latest 300 blackout concoction, I opted for the 300 BLK specific “segmented circle” reticle. If you’re aware of the Nikon BDC reticle then you should feel right at home using Trijicon’s version of it.. Because this is a first focal plane scope, the reticle also grows in relation to the magnification level. This also means that reticle bullet drops remain true no matter what power you’re set at.

I’m no Jesse Tischauser, but after zeroing the scope to 100 yards and a few magazines later, I definitely feel confident in running this scope in a 3-Gun competition. Among military and law enforcement uses,  the VCOG would serve as an outstanding choice for a 3-gun rifle setup. Just remember that no matter what optic you buy, it isn’t going to have you winning top podiums the next day but with the VCOG you have a tough as nails scope that gives you the utmost usable magnification range for quick close range shots and out to distance. Like what the Trijicon VCOG has to offer? What would you mount it on? Let me know in the comment section below!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KellyB • 3 Comments on Trijicon VCOG, The Evolution of Greatness

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OPMOD Last Minute Fathers Day Gear

Jun 10 • News • 6727

What do you get the dad that has everything? If you’re tired of the 10 piece barbeque kit or the “worlds greatest dad” t-shirt, then you may want to start leaving hints to kids for these gifts. Now a word of warning, these are products that you’ll actually use and want to show off to your buddies.

As a dad you’re constantly busy helping your kids with their tee ball games or tackling the onslaught of household chores. Wouldn’t it be nice to hide from it all but still be within shouting distance? This Ghillie suit might stick out like a sore thumb on your couch but I’ll tell you right now, find yourself a nice chair  in your backyard and your family will be none the wiser of you enjoying some much deserved free time.  It also serves as excellent camouflage when hunting or when you want to get up real close for wildlife photography.

If you stick to my plan and use the ghillie suit for hiding in your back yard, then you’ll definitely want to relax with a cold beer. In my opinion, nothing is cooler than enjoying your favorite frothy beverage in an OPMOD Battle Mug. With a myriad of options for mounting everything from laser sights to thermal imaging sights, the Battle Mug is the perfect companion for any barbeque, tailgating, or any game time hangout. This mighty mug is machined out a 13 pound solid block of billet aluminum and ready for whatever dastardly deeds you can throw at it.

Unfortunately the good ol’ days of twisting off majority of  your bottle caps are over. If you want to get the most out of every minute that you’re not stuck doing fatherly things, then you need a bottle opener that’ll give you quick access to your beer. The  OPMOD Tactical Bottle Opener screams masculinity and might be the most essential product we sell. It doesn’t get much more tactical than a bottle opener that is nearly identical to an AR-15 A2 flash hider. Made in the USA and sporting a nice paracord storage lanyard, there’s no reason this shouldn’t be part of your EDC (every day carry).

Now that I’ve given you every way to hideout in your backyard and enjoy some much deserved beers, you need a way to keep track of the time because sadly this fun can’t last all day. The OPMOD Tactical Everyday Watch has every feature you could ever want out of a timepiece. Not only is it comfortable but is also extremely stylish so it looks right at home no matter where your day takes you. “Happy wife, happy life” – so don’t upset your family by dozing off or losing track of time, simply set the digital alarm and you’re good to go.

Let the loved ones in your life know what you really want this year for Fathers Day. Make sure they don’t see this post or they’ll exactly where to find you when you go “missing” in the backyard. What are your plans for this upcoming Fathers Day?

KellyB • 1 Comment on OPMOD Last Minute Fathers Day Gear

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A Cut Above- DPx Gear HEST 4 Expedition Knife

Jun 3 • News • 12763

Stupefy, meaning to stun, as with a shock, or a strong emotion. Why the vocabulary lesson? The word stupefy is what happened to me when I crossed paths with the DPx booth at the NRA Annual Meeting and saw this knife.  I’ll be honest, my brain was on autopilot heading to the Magpul booth right next to these guys but man oh man am I glad that I caught this coyote concoction out of the corner of my eye. After getting my greasy paws on this blade in the booth, I had to get me one to test out and see what its made of. 

I can tell you guys firsthand, this knife is a looker and I’m all for collecting knives. However the looks of this knife are 100% functional. The crazy tang on the handle that does a 90 degree sweep to a point, believe it or not is meant to be used in a prying capacity. If you’ve read my other posts, then you know I’m a sucker for any gear wearing the coyote color and again the knife combines  features that have a use but look awesome too. Because of the high carbon 1095 blade steel’s tendency to rust up like no mans business, the whole knife is coated in what looks to be a texturized powder coating.

It may look as if something took little nibbles out of random areas on the knife but in all actuality they have numerous convenient uses. The chunk taken out on the spine is a bottle opener, the groove right before the serrations is a wire stripper, and the holes above and below the handle are perfectly sized so that you can lash this blade to a stick, making yourself an excellent spear. The attractive brown Micarta linen handles and brass screws can also be opened up to store away your fire rod or whatever essential items you can fit. What I failed to mention earlier is that when your inner Steven Seagal comes out, the pry bar at the end makes a perfect control point for using the knife in a defensive role.

A few trips out into the backcountry camping and hiking with this knife have left me quite impressed with the coyote colored catalyst from California (say that three times fast). It really does change the way I think of what a knife is capable of. Normally you have a stout knife that if improvised correctly can be used to do tasks like prying, stripping wire, cutting cordage,  and opening beers but this blade has designated tools for such outdoor chores. I don’t get blown away by gear too often but this knife was a cut above the rest and led me to dig deeper about this company I knew next to nothing about. It turns out these new kids on the block, DPx Gear and their fearless leader Robert Young Pelton, build all of their knives so that the end user can get themselves out of any number of bad situations. Mr. Pelton happens to know a thing or two about “dangerous places” since he’s worked in environments that would have most of us heading for the hills, like Somalia, Afghanistan and South Sudan. With these experiences built into the philosophy of every knife and stunning looks, DPx gear has captured my attention and I have a feeling now they’ve got yours.

 

Have any questions or comments about this blade? Feel free to leave them in the box below. As always guys, shoot em straight and be safe!

DPx Gear

DPx Gear HEST 4 Expedition Knife 

 

 

 

 

Jeremy L • No Comments on A Cut Above- DPx Gear HEST 4 Expedition Knife

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Big Water + Big Fish = Big Smile! Action is Picking Up in the Great Lakes

Jun 2 • News • 4900

Two weeks ago I was fortunate enough to take off for the long Memorial Day weekend.

The plan: race out of Chicago after work and to run and gun to Michigan for some fishing catch a few hours of zzzz’s and hit the boat by 4am (EST).

The location: west coast of Michigan

Targets: salmon and trout

The late spring and incredibly thick ice pack that covered the great Lake Michigan this winter is still keeping the air and water cool. Early season fishing in extremely cold water meant we certainly were going to have our work cut out for us. In such conditions predictions and reasoning can be thrown out the window when the weather and the calendar are not aligned, such as this spring.

Solution? Throw the kitchen sink at them!

So that’s what we did, as the boat left the harbor I started pulling gear and I mean ALL the gear! With 5 downriggers and dipsy-divers/planer-boards flat lines leadcore… we were going set to the legal limit. With an onslaught of Spoons in every shapes size and color, to countless flies and flashers, even the hard body baits for flat-lines out we were sure to figure out something!

Headed out of the harbor we were incased in a thick fog and I pulled out of my hunting gear the night before my Carson OPMOD digital Night Vision Monocular, and guess what I could see the break wall and even the harbor lights at the entrance Finding them and getting them to bite is the next challenge. The weather was about 48 degrees and the water was frigid. Using our Fish Hawk and Lowrance HD we were tracking water between 39 degrees 50ft down, and 49 degrees at the waters surface needless to say it was a bit COLD!

We had no issue finding the fish which is step #1 and sometimes the hardest step of all- After a hard look at weather maps and surface temps provided by SeaGrant we were able to make a few “guesstimates” as to where they might be hiding, and we were lucky enough to hit the nail on the head.

The weather was about 48 degrees and the water was frigid. Using our Fish Hawk and Lowrance HDS 10, we were tracking water between 39 degrees 50ft down, and 49 degrees at the waters surface needless to say it was a bit COLD.

After the typical morning bite seemed to elude us, we decided the fish were either just sleeping or not liking the menu we had provided. So we changed things up since our down riggers seemed to be inactive in an attempt to get some action. Going completely out of the norm I put a flasher with an orange fly down on our deepest rod. Suddenly the shallower and other down riggers were popping and we were in the fish!!

We knew as most do that fish these waters, that spring steelhead would be present on the surface hence the planer boards and the dipsy-divers which with some work we were right. They were nailing the spoons on the planer boards (particulary by bumping speeds and directions and letting the spoons flutter).

Ill be back up north for some more action in another week or two if you guys have any questions regarding gear, or techniques, drop me a line and I will answer any questions you might have. Till then,  good luck out there and go catch some fish!

 

Alex P • 1 Comment on Big Water + Big Fish = Big Smile! Action is Picking Up in the Great Lakes

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Top 4 Things to Look for In a Flashlight

May 30 • News • 12419

I have to say that out of all the gear that I am fascinated with, knives, guns, backpacks, optics and apparel, that flashlights have been advancing leaps and bounds over everything else. Thanks to the latest L.E.D. (light emitting diode) technology, manufacturers are able to squeeze massive amounts of light out of flashlights that are no bigger than the batteries that go in them. Unfortunately because of all these improvements in lights, its hard for us to know what to look for when purchasing one. To help you guys make sense of all the jargon and madness here are my top 4 specs to keep a lookout for when shelling out those hard earned green backs on a light.

1. Method of Activation and Modes:

This may be one of the most important features to look out for when buying a light. Because of all this new technology, flashlights are now sporting little microprocessors. These little computers that are getting stuffed in the housing of the light allow you to switch through a wide assortment of modes like high, low, beacon (my favorite), strobe and many more. All of these different modes allow you to do things with a flashlight that were never possible before.  To put all of this nonsense into perspective for you, with something like beacon mode, you can set up your light at your tent and it will shoot a flash of light at a timed interval until the battery runs out. This is a priceless tool when camping deep in the backcountry and you need to find your tent at night. Microprocessors in flashlights also allow the light to continue to shine at the same brightness until the battery is completely drained, unlike traditional lights where the light slowly ramps down the brightness until it dies.

The way you turn the light on is just as important as the modes it has. Two of the major ways to activate modern flashlights are with either a twist cap or tail cap switch. Something to keep in mind when shopping for a light is that if  its labeled as a “tactical” light, then it probably has a push button tail cap. What’s great about a push button/ tactical tail cap is that you know without a doubt that when you push the button on the back that it’s going to shine to the brightest mode. While that may great for some parts of daily life, this design hinders the amount of modes that can be cycled through as well as the inability to stand the light up on its base to light up your tent or an area you’re working in. Now their are some lights that feature a protected tail cap to prevent the push button going off in your pocket and can be stood on the tail in a pinch but in my testing are extremely wobbly. When setting your sights on a tactical/push button light, you also need to be aware that some lights are momentary activation only. In short this means that you must keep the button depressed for the light to stay on. I find that this is beneficial when mounting a light to a long gun like a rifle or shotgun. While supporting the gun with your hand you can quickly light up an area and let off the button to sneak back into the darkness without lighting yourself up like a Christmas tree.  The reason many people also prefer momentary lights over tradition activation is that under recoil the standard push button models have a slight tendency to change modes from the shock.

2. Runtime:

How long does the dang thing last on fully  charged batteries? Now be weary of the advertised run times on every light manufacturer and expect a time that is about 10% less than the time shown. The times presented on the packaging are achieved using optimum conditions and using the light outside of those parameters will ultimately reduce the runtime. Taking that into account, I suggest looking at a light that has a run time of at least 2 hours in its highest mode.  This is my own personal preference but you never know when you’ll be in a situation where you’ll need bright light for an extended period of time.

3.  IP Ratings:

If you don’t do so well with numbers than you may want to skip this because it may get a little confusing but let me clarify the mystery behind IP ratings. IP stands for ingress protection or how hard it is for water or dust to make its way into your fancy new light. Nearly every manufacturer of flashlights will have the IP rating in this specifications of the light. In short the X denotes the degree and the numbers that follow are a standard of how well it handles water. For example an IPX-0, means the device has no protection against water and I would avoid this rating like the plague. You don’t get any real protection until you hit the IPX-4 rating which states that it can withstand water being splashed from any angle. As a personal rule of thumb an EDC light should be at least IPX-7, where it has the ability to be submerged for at least 30 minutes at 1 meter and still work.

4. Lumens:

Horsepower sells cars and torque wins races and when it comes to flashlights, lumens sells lights and beam is what truly matters. That is not to say that lumens aren’t important, what I’m getting at is sure we’d all love to have the 800 horsepower car but majority of the time you’re not driving that car at its limits. The same holds true with lights and however awesome 1,000 lumens of blinding light may sound, most of the time too much of it can hurt. I’ll tell you guys a little secret, I own a 2,500 lumen Nitecore light and besides flagging down an airplane if I was on a deserted island, it is pretty much useless in any practical sense. Don’t get caught up in the lumens as much as the other 3 things I mentioned earlier. In all honesty you probably will never have the need for more than 300 lumens. If you think I’m wrong do me a favor and  try this little experiment. Wait till its nighttime, turn off all of the lights in your house, go to your fridge, close your eyes, count to 240, then open your eyes and look inside the fridge.  That rush of light is blinding and this is what you’ll be doing to your eyes if you go for the highest lumen light you can find.

These are only the top 4  specs that I pay attention to when I’m looking for my next flashlight. I’m by no means the end all be all expert of lights but I think now that you guys know a little more about what to look for, you’ll become as crazy about flashlights as me or what we like to call a “flashaholic.” Let me know whatever questions you have about lights or anything else in the box below.

 

Jeremy L • 8 Comments on Top 4 Things to Look for In a Flashlight

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