The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Matter of Facts: Decorating Your Rifle

Episode Date: December 25, 2023

http://www.mofpodcast.com/www.pbnfamily.comhttps://www.facebook.com/matteroffactspodcast/https://www.facebook.com/groups/mofpodcastgroup/https://rumble.com/user/Mofpodcastwww.youtube.com/user/philrabhttps://www.instagram.com/mofpodcasthttps://twitter.com/themofpodcastSupport the showMerch at: https://southerngalscrafts.myshopify.com/Shop at Amazon: http://amzn.to/2ora9riPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/mofpodcastPurchase American Insurgent by Phil Rabalais: https://amzn.to/2FvSLMLShop at MantisX: http://www.mantisx.com/ref?id=173*The views and opinions of guests do not reflect the opinions of Phil Rabalais, Andrew Bobo, or the Matter of Facts Podcast*Round 2 of Phil and Andrew's big AR part discussion. Time to talk about all the junk we decorate our rifles with.Matter of Facts is now live-streaming our podcast on YouTube channel, Facebook page, and Rumble. See the links above, join in the live chat, and see the faces behind the voices. Intro and Outro Music by Phil Rabalais All rights reserved, no commercial or non-commercial use without permission of creator prepper, prep, preparedness, prepared, emergency, survival, survive, self defense, 2nd amendment, 2a, gun rights, constitution, individual rights, train like you fight, firearms training, medical training, matter of facts podcast, mof podcast, reloading, handloading, ammo, ammunition, bullets, magazines, ar-15, ak-47, cz 75, cz, cz scorpion, bugout, bugout bag, get home bag, military, tactical

Welcome back to the Matterfacts Podcast on the Prepper Broadcasting Network. We talk prepping guns and politics every week on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Go check out our content at mwfpodcast.com on Facebook or Instagram. You can support us via Patreon or by checking out our affiliate partners. I'm your host, Phil Rabelais, and my co-host Andrew Bobo is on the other side of the mic, and here's your show. And welcome back to Matterfacts Podcast. I don't have the daggum background up. I don't have the overlay on.

I'm just, I bolo'd this whole host thing. Fire me. Nah. Cause then someone else would have to do it. Yeah, you. That's not gonna happen. Well, welcome back to part two of

Pieces and Part parts of ARs. I called this one time to decorate the rifle because that's kind of what I alluded to it being last time. We kind of left off having gone through the big major parts of ARs that Andrew and I tend to build with, things that we have personal experience with, things we recommend if it fits your use. But it was pointed out to us by a listener on that show we'd left off a bunch of stuff which quite frankly i had some of that in the cards we just we ran out of time so more junk for the trunk really and truly like this is like other than like a functional set of sites hey raggle fragg, this episode is your fault because you pointed out all this stuff that we missed on the first one.

Paul Peters. I don't know who you are, and I can't decide if I want to be friends or kick you in the face. Kind of depends on your inflection, I guess. But yeah, I mean, there's a lot of stuff we didn't get into on the last show. Most of that is because, quite frankly, we were running out of time. We would get up on an hour with easily a half hour more stuff to talk about, so we capped it off. But today we're going to try to go through scopes, red dots, lasers, lights, and then all the little miscellaneous stuff. And I'm hoping that is somewhat entertaining and stays to an hour.

Speaking of entertaining, I've decided that what I'm going to start to do, because our reach on Instagram has been horribly kicked out from underneath this, and if I do say so myself, I occasionally post some pretty hilarious memes, and since no one's going to see them on there, then y'all have to see it on here. So, when you find the MF responsible for spending all your bread on gads and nods, and for those of you listening to this, that's an eagle looking at his reflection saying, found you, USOB. So, if goofy memes and funny stuff is your thing, then you should probably check out our Instagram or our Facebook page, although we're not super active on Facebook anymore because it's a dumpster fire. I mean, I'm not mega active on Twitter either, just because...

I don't know. Twitter's Paul Peters. It depends on which horror movie and who dies first. I mean, I've got some standards. But, none of that being the case. So, Andrew, I guess let's jump right off into this. Oh, what order do I want to go in? Let's reverse this order.

Weapon mounted lights. I mean, mostly this is in the vein of ARs, but everybody knows the two big names in the game it's surefire streamlight but like what's your preference what do you have experience with what do you use what have you used why uh basically i mean there's only two two light brands that i use and it's streamlight or surefire. I've been leaning more towards Surefire lately just because of my night vision setup. Surefire does not have a good IR light on the market at all. And I think you have one that they do make, but to me it doesn't hold a cand, to me, it doesn't hold a

candlestick at all or anything to a surefire. Uh, so I've been replacing a lot of my streamlights with surefire. Um, but I mean, streamlight still holds a place on a couple of my guns. I mean, like my shotgun has a, uh, a streamlight on it. Um, so far it has not failed me. The other reason why I started going more towards Streamlight is the switches. They have better switches than Streamlight does. And I've been having some issues with the Streamlight switches, trying to get the Mod light switches and doing everything with it. So yeah, Streamlight and Surefire, but mostly Surefire.

Yeah, see, on rifles, I mean, I've got, not on this, not on the SPR, but on my carbine, I've got a Streamlight ProTac2, and I don't have an issue with the light itself. I do agree with what you're saying, though, that the problem is, what you're saying though, that like the part, the problem is

when you get into certain, there are very few things in the AR world that are like industry standard, like M-LOK. M-LOK is pretty much industry standard. Everybody makes stuff in M-LOK. Everybody makes stuff that, you know, fits that architecture, that's kind of become an industry standard. But within the light world, surefire really is kind of what everybody's gravitated towards. Like if you want to use switches, external switches, so you're not forced to hit the tail cap on the back of the light, you're kind of stuck in surefire's, you're kind of stuck in Surefire's ecosystem, you know what I'm saying? It really is hard to get out of that.

And while I will wholeheartedly agree that there is I mean, I know that off the top of my head, Arasaka makes a little adapter so that you can screw on to the back of a Streamlight and then you can use Surefire tail caps it's an extra failure point

and it's still the fact that like everything is really built around Surefire's architecture that being said I'm actually I've been back and forth on what to do about my car beam because right now I'm using that Streamlight ProTac 2 and the tape switch that comes with it, which is not great. And I have that butted up against the tape switch that comes with the Holosun 321, which is awful. I don't know if anybody has ever used the tape switch that comes with it, but it's very large.

It's bulky. It's built to a price point. Let's be kind. So I'm kind of thinking in order to correct a couple of problems all at once, what I'm probably going to wind up doing is go into like an Arisaka 600 series, which is compatible with all of Surefire's stuff. So I can use Surefire compatible heads, probably looking at like a Malkoff engineering one honestly just because i think their white light only lights are actually outperformed stream lights by a fair margin or sure fires by a fair margin and um i'm back and forth on that even that though because

the illuminator on the ls321 is not great as I'm sure, you know, you and I would agree on that. So it's one of those things where, like, yeah, I've used Streamlight. I don't have a problem with Streamlight. I think it works. But the fact that it's not compatible with Surefire's, you know, their UE and their DS tail caps, that by itself kind of puts them in the corner. Yeah. Which may or may not be fair, because performance-wise, I don't have an issue with Streamlight, but

it's one of those things that the minute you start trying to integrate a bunch of electronic stuff on the front of your gun, you wind up in this situation very, very quickly where the most efficient way to do that is with a purpose-built tape switch that can activate both devices, and that takes you out of streamline immediately yeah that's the thing about streamline is the the weapon or weapon uh the switch uh the switches out there i don't think are uh as good as uh surefire uh i have a few of their i don't know i have probably four or five of their uh hlxs i think they are um thousand woman weapon light and i their rifle lights and i mean i do like them like i said i have one on my uh my shotgun i ran one on my rifle for a long time until i started switching to a lot

of night vision stuff but uh if you and and it's they're not bad switches for the price or for the price the lights are not bad um i would definitely suggest if you're looking for something smaller like a smaller switch and stuff then definitely go like mod light or surefire they have some smaller switches i just personally i did not have good luck with the mod light uh the or the mod light switch because i bought basically i bought uh i had a surefire i bought the conversion kit that goes from the surefire or the streamlight i'm sorry i went i bought the conversion kit that goes from a streamlight to the surefire and then the surefire to the um the mod light button which it the mod light button automatically like it plugs into the surefire weapon light um and i did that and i was

at a class a night class and the switch completely gave up the ghost i don't know if i think i'm pretty sure i know where the the fault was uh i don't think it was the switch i'm pretty sure it was the connection between the uh the adapter uh the stream light to surefire adapter pretty positive that was it but i haven't decided to go back i just stuck a click click cap on and that was it so i refuse uh i refuse to go back i mean i have and then with my weapon lights my pistol lights i have a i i have one surefire x300 uh the rest are all the trl uh the trl ones i think that is um but i like those the pistol lights i love their pistol lights uh but again to me you know but it is what it is i mean and and they're and they're pretty they're pretty reasonably priced too. I mean, the X300 runs like $350 roughly. You can find them used sometimes for less,

but $350 for a weapon light that's freaking huge versus the Streamlight HLX or TRL1. That's what it is. I don't know why I kept saying HLX or TRL1. That's what it is. I don't know why I kept saying HL. But yeah, the TRL1, that is a pretty reasonably priced pistol light. You get pretty good lumens, good candela, brighten stuff up, last for a while. And yeah, I really like the TRL1s.

And some websites, if you really want to go to like ModLite or Cloud Defense, I believe Cloud, maybe ModLite, I don't remember. One of them, I think it's Cloud, but one of them you can actually like trade in any light and they'll take it. I think it's like $100 or something like that is what they'll give you off or something. But Cloud is extremely expensive. ModLite is extremely expensive. However, Modlite is bright as frick.

They have one of the brightest lights on the market that I know of, that I've personally seen. But it all depends on budget. Streamlight is a great budget light. And then the next up is uh i would say it was uh surefire uh surefire it's not necessarily budget like their their vampire ran ran me i think their vampire light ran me uh 450 i think it was uh and so you gotta definitely pick and choose what you want however the thing i like about the vampire lightire light from Surefire is I can switch the light to white light, and I can switch the light to IR, or I can just turn it off.

And I really like that ability on that. I know they do have a couple different heads that you can use that'll make it directly only IR, and it'll be a little bit brighter. But I like the switch, and when I took the night vision class I took, I used that all night long, and I had no issues with it. It was bright enough. There was a couple scenarios where I wish it was a little bit brighter because of the fact that when a light is kind of flashing, when a light is basically in your eyes, you want a brighter light to overpower that light that's flashing at you or is shining at you.

So in that instance, I wouldn't mind. It'd be kind of interesting to have something brighter but i i honestly my laser and we'll get into that in a little bit but like the laser i have i don't it doesn't have a ir illuminator on it so the next laser i buy is going to have a built-in iron illuminator and it's going to be bright because those usually are a lot brighter than uh. But, yeah, so I don't know. I mean, a lot of it's budget, but you can't go wrong with the Streamlayer Surefire. Yeah, so Joshua's bailing us out. The TLR-1HL is the upgraded TLR, and the TLR-1 was the older one.

Yeah. Raggle, fraggle, no love for Olight? No, not at all. I loathe Olight. I have no direct experience with them, but I haven't had any. Nothing has pushed me to try them. No, I've tried them. I have basically it's their TRL1 knockoff that I have,

and it's the Valkyrie I think it's called. I used it for a hot second. I honestly didn't care for it. I didn't care for the switches. Uh, I didn't care for the, the placement for some reason it didn't place directly right on my pistol or something. Uh, it, it just, I didn't really care for it. Uh, and Ola, I just, yeah, I just didn't really care. The, I think that for a budget, I, I don't know. I just, you got i i go with i go with what i've seen on some friends of mine that are firearms instructors with what they i've seen them run thousands upon thousands of rounds through uh and i i look and see what is used on

in the field uh and streamlight and surefire are two of the leading lights that I've seen military police and instructors use. There's a couple oddballs out there. I think it's called Nightstick, I want to say, is one that I've heard good things about. But, yeah, I mean, if you got the money for it, I would definitely just hands down Surefire. But budget-wise, i'd say streamline yeah like i said i i've used streamline and surefire products i don't really have a gripe with either one i mean they both have their pluses and minuses but like you kind of said you know the the minute you as with most things they are related the minute the minute you i feel like the minute you dip your toe into night vision, a lot of things start changing very rapidly. At least that was my reaction. administrative stuff it was sentry duty or it was truck driving things like that it wasn't direct action so i never had the opportunity to change anything on my rifle because i happen to have

night vision it just wasn't a thing what not in my not in my role at least so i've come, as I've recently made that jump into night vision, I'm seeing things on that primary rifle that, like, when it, before night vision, it worked fine. I had no issues. I hadn't changed anything on it in years. There was no reason to. It worked great. And then the minute I jumped into night vision, I was like, okay, so now there's a lot of these things that are going to start moving around. And it's been basically ripped apart and redone as a result of all that yeah and kind of going off of what uh nicholas has said uh two o lights that burn for no conceivable reason uh and that's another reason why i completely stopped uh

going with o light uh they they're for a hot second it seems like they've kind of chill out but they're for a hot second uh they were having i've been seeing i was seeing reports of the old lights either blowing up or just completely melting down and like just going crazy so i uh i refuse i see what you did there for a hot second huh yeah see what you did there yeah no it was terrible um jeff you said you got the streamlight vir2 on all your pistols uh i mean if that's what you want that's the thing is like if that's what you want and that's what my opinion on a lot is happy with it then by all means get it i just the like the vir2 i just i i was not happy with the output of it i mean i've got a vir2 on my scorpion and it's in the in the way that thing is set up, which is mostly like a short range, a shoot across the house type situation. And the VIR2 really is there to give me like emergency IR capabilities,

but primarily it's, it's used as a white light and that capacity works fine. Um, my, my, my major gripe with the Streamlight VIR2, again to me that's more of a pistol light which is why I wasn't going to put it in here but since Jeff Jagg brought it up but my major gripe with it is that I've seen based on what I've seen the Surefire Vampire has tremendous

bloody spill the VIR 2 might be worse it is like there is no there's no focus to that light. It is just blasting out IR in all directions. And, like, at short range, illuminating a room, that works. But if you're trying to punch that light over any distance, it's not going to happen. And admittedly, like, you know, it's a civilian-class laser, so that's not going to go that far to begin with.

I know Villain Weapons Systems recently, like within the last several months, they started making a refocusing lens for the VIR-2. And there are not a lot of them out yet because as soon as they dropped them, they sold out within three hours. So supposedly they're making a second badge. I kind of want one, honestly. From what I've seen, it really does tighten up that beam a fair bit to make it more on par with PEC-15 type of illumination.

You know what I'm saying? It's not going to turn into a laser beam, but it's going to definitely turn it into more of a spotlight, less of a floodlight. But there's no adjustment to it. I mean, it's a little cap that fits over the end of your vir2 and if you don't like it you take it off it's not a it's not adjustable but i can see that i can see that helping bridge the gap but at the end of the day i mean it's more of a pistol

illuminator not but i mean obviously i use it on a p, and I've seen people use it as a budget rifle IR illuminator, and it does work. But speaking of night vision and illuminators and infrared and all this crap. Laser. Lasers. Laser. So I wound up getting a Holosun LS321, not because it's the best laser illuminator out there, but because it is like the basic bitch of IR laser illuminators. Like it's weird to call something that costs $750 cheap, but in the world of like IR illuminators lasers, that is actually pretty cheap. And I would say I expect about as much resilience and durability out of it as I would anything Holosun, which you take that as you will.

I mean, I've seen Holosun stuff take some pretty heavy abuse, and I've also seen people shoot the glass out of, you know, 407s. So it's one of those things. you know 407 so it's one of those things um you gotta look at the performance of that illuminator laser when we were at a prepper camp i mean i didn't get to see yours so you're the only one of the two of us that has seen both your laser and illuminator setup in mind what was your impression i mean obviously the illuminator is nothing right home about um yeah the illuminator was uh it was pretty low uh i think if i remember i you had your illuminator on and i turned my vampire light on and it was my vampire light was a little bit brighter if i remember right uh but the nice thing is is the your illuminator it's all it's all on one unit so that's the nice thing about a ir

uh uh the laser and stuff like that uh your laser i mean it was a green laser i mean it was uh it aimed you know i mean that's the thing is that it was fine uh i i don't remember if you had on yours if you have different settings or not or high or low or anything like that um yeah when i handed it to you i had it set to um i had set to ir lum ir luminaire ir laser okay which when you engage both of them it's high yeah yeah so i mean that's the thing and it wasn't bad i mean that's a that that's the thing is like for a budget um i can't complain for being budget uh i mean yeah 750 bucks you're you got to know like you're getting a house on you're getting what you're paid for you're getting you're getting a house on that you paid for uh my i have i have a d ball a2 which is i have no illuminator i have a

visible green laser and an ir laser and um yeah it i it's bright i have two settings a high and low and um yeah it's the thing i don't like about it yet. It doesn't have an illuminator, but I think it was 850 bucks for, uh, for that at the time. Uh, now with an illuminator, I think they're like, you think they're 14 or 1500 bucks with the illuminator. Oh, it's just crazy. Uh, I cannot think of the name for the life of me. There's one company that I came across at Phantom Hill. Is it Phantom Hill? Yep.

Phantom Hill CTF2. You and I talked about these guys. And that one, I'm actually, they actually were getting ready to release a new, new version. Actually, I'm going to look them up right now.

They still haven't released the CTF3 as of the last time I checked on them. Yeah. They, which, yeah, it's a, I will say that like phantom hill so far does not seem like a company that makes vaporware but they are a very small

company and they make stuff at a small company pace well so i mean that's the thing is like they work out they're at they're out of like a small shop like a super small shop uh and it's pretty crazy the but the one when i was at the night vision class there was a guy that uh he had one uh and he ran it and it i that is going to be hands down that's gonna be the next laser i buy uh the how powerful it was the illuminator itself like he was blasting through any any light that was like a problem that was shining back. He could really just kill it with his illuminator. We were at a lake and we actually were taking the illuminator and shining it across the lake,

which was, I don't know, maybe a good couple, maybe 400 yards or so across, if not longer. And I mean, it illuminated like it was nothing and it was a hot and you could dial out dial the hot spot and like if you put that hot spot on something it was you could see all kinds of crap it was it was insane and that's it's going to be that's the one that i'm going to be saving up for uh when they do the when they come out with the new the new one which illuminator did he have on it a A Kijing or something else? So they actually, well, for the listeners that aren't aware, the cool thing about Phantom Hill's design, their CTF-1, if I recall correctly, it had its illuminators built into it.

But with the CTF-2, it uses Surefire compatible heads. Well, but they had the Myers-, the head from the mall line. Yeah, that's the B. Myers Keechie. So that was insane. Like that, it was, yeah. I would definitely, if you don't know who they are, look up Phantom Hill. Save their website. Continue to look back.

And I would pick one of those up before anything else. Yeah. Now, before we move on, Raggle Fraggle asked about Somo Gear. Have you heard of these guys? Never heard of them. Okay. Let me get this next comment out, and then I'll explain. Has Somo Gear fixed their alignment issues?

Jeff Jag asked that. So here's the thing. Somo Gear is a very small company that makes stuff for airsoft guns. I repeat, for airsoft guns, not for real guns. gear has managed to get into this company this country is legit full power no bullcrap unregulated lasers because they are not meant for firearm use it says so on the packaging i'm being emphatic about this for reasons so there's a portion of the night vision community that let's say has much more enthusiasm than money most of us fit into that category for that matter and they have latched on to somo gear's pec 15 clone because it is dimensionally if not in materials a pretty good reproduction of a pec 15

the problem is is that when they started coming into this country, it became very apparent their quality control is iffy, and I'm being polite. There were durability issues. Even though they swear up and down they're potted, I've seen pictures of one that was ripped apart, and if that's their idea of potting, you can keep it. I think it's something made for airsoft. It's not made to deal with putting it on a rifle and running it for thousands of rounds. I understand people have done it. I understand people. There were people out there that claimed theirs was held zero for a thousand rounds,

and they bashed it off of a rock, and they hit it with a hammer, and it's been great. And I happily acknowledge that real deal, honest to God, surplus PEC-15s that came from the sandbox are also not exactly the most durable things on Earth, and soldiers have broken plenty of them. And if you question that for a moment, understand that giving anything to a group of privates is a de facto durability test, because we will find ways to break shit, especially when we're bored. So that's kind of the whole thing about Somo gear. I say if somebody wants to get one for training purposes, because they have a PEC-15 sitting in the safe, go bananas. But even though they're only like $250, and I want to say their Engal clone just came out recently that has a metal housing. It seems more durable on the face of it. But I've even heard about people having issues with those, with battery connections and everything coming loose and everything else flickering under recoil and everything, all kinds of issues.

And again, some where the visible laser and the IR laser are so far out of alignment that the visible laser is functionally useless. So that's kind of the thing. I could have spent money on one. I ponied up three times the money for an LS321 because I feel like I can trust it a little more. It's not going to have the highest performing laser illuminator. It's not the best thing since sliced bread. But if it's as reliable as anything else made by HoloSun, I feel like it'll survive my use.

And Somo Gear just doesn't have that track record based on what I've seen. So if anybody knows different, I'd be curious to know. But... curious to know. But, raggle fraggle, if you can't break it, lose it, or get it pregnant, it passes the private's durability test. Yeah, that's that is amazingly accurate,

as a matter of fact. So, red dots. Remember that conversation we had about before night vision, I was pretty happy with all my stuff, and now I'm looking at a whole bunch of stuff that has to be changed and upgraded? This is where some of that starts. I mean, it all depends on the use of your gun.

It really does. I mean, I've been running a Holosun Red Dot for five years, six years, something like six years do you remember which one uh shoot i start talking i'll look it up on a rifle or a pistol it's a rifle okay not that that matters that not that that narrows down their product catalog that much well i mean red dot wise i'm not ashamed to admit because i was my money was much much tighter than it is now and it's still not like super loose back then but i actually have a bushnell trs 25 on my ak that i kind of want to change out for something that might be slightly more durable even though that bushnell trs 25 has survived quite a lot of abuse. I'm pretty impressed by it, but I don't recommend it because it's like the cheapest red dot that might survive a thousand rounds.

On my carbine, I have a Vortex Strikefire II, which is not... It's by no means a great red dot it's not a bad one i mean it has vortexes it has vortexes warranty behind it which is a good thing but it's it is incompatible enough with night vision that it's not going to stay on the rifle forever it's just one of those things of like uh yes raggle fraggle has beamed into the punch trich tech versus eo trich con versus eo tech trichicon but you know throw aim point throw aim point into this discussion too because all three of them make really really really good optics in that class yeah um i believe the the one i run is the hollow sun 503r so that's the one that i run on my ar and that's the one that i use for my night vision setup i run it on top of a scalar works uh leap mount uh so it it puts it up to a decent height uh which a 1.93 uh inch

riser uh that i and i i love it i've been running it for like i said i think like going on like six years i want to say uh give or take and i've got i don't know how many thousand rounds through it that thing has never failed. I dropped it, bumped it. I mean, besides getting in a pregnant, I guess it's private proof. Uh, but, uh, yeah, I, I love it, uh, for the price of what it is and for being budget I've, and I bought it when I was more budget conscious. Uh, now that like, I'm, I mean, I still am, but I've been looking at wanting to wanting to upgrade it but it's been so good to me i don't i don't want to touch it i don't i don't

want to upgrade it because i was looking at maybe like a trigicon mro uh upgrading it to that and but this let this or this red dot has been so good that i i really i just don't want to i don't want to touch it uh i'd hate to replace it and stuff, but, um, but yeah, I, my shotgun, I have a Benelli or not, sorry, not a Benelli, a Beretta 1301, uh, shotgun with a, I have a Trijicon RMR, uh, on top of that, which if you have never ran a red dot or a reflex site on top of a shotgun i highly suggest that you go out and just build one or put one on top it's freaking cheating it's crazy how uh how crazy it's insane how fast you can acquire the target and stuff uh the other trigicon so on my carry pistol i have a trigicon sro which i love and I think that's all.

I'm trying to think. I have on my 2245 pistol, I have a, just, I just bought a, I think it's the aluminum body 507, I think it is, the closed emitter from Holosun. My next purchase is probably going to be the rcr i think it's the rcr from trigicon their newer their new closed emitter optic i'm probably gonna end up picking that up and i i also i also have a steiner uh their steiner closed emitter as well uh the steiner mps i believe it is and i i love that i love that

one too um i don't have a pistol to put it on right now i believe it's it was actually on my scorpion um but uh but yeah i i love i'm a fan of the closed emitter optics i think that's where the industry is going uh i think you're the open emitter is very popular it's it's it's well it's very popular just because it's been around for so long uh but i really i i see the the industry is really going towards closed emitter uh and and for rightful reasons there's a lot of pros and cons with both uh but the pros with the closed emitter in my opinion they outweigh the uh the open emitter so but uh yeah yeah the mro raggle uh i've got a couple friends that have mros and they are they are great sites and like i said i'll probably end up getting one and replacing it and putting it on top of my current ar setup uh i scopes wise

like i on my 308 my uh my 308 my 6.5 um i have an ar that actually i'm working on building up uh it's a so it's the vortex strike eagle 126 uh and i really like that variable optic uh and honestly like if i were to build one like a variable optic my my goal my my goal is for this role this one is to put a variable optic on it like basically put that on there and then i'll probably have like a uh 45 degree offset uh red dot uh or a reflex site either hollow Holosun or Trijicon. The problem with Holosun is, man, it's one of those love-hate relationships because they're freaking China. And I love supporting Trijicon because it's a Michigan company, which is awesome. But Holosun has been making some pretty big waves with their product

because they're cheap, which is a good thing when you're budget conscious and when you're trying to build something that just goes bang and you can rely on a little bit. And their stuff is cheap, but unlike being cheap, it's lasting a lot longer than normal other stuff. normal other stuff. I've seen a lot of hollow sun, red dots, and reflex sites outlast, like, the Delta Point, the Leopold Delta Point, the Bushnell, like what you have. I've seen those breaking constantly. So it's crazy to see what's coming out of hollow sun.

I guess maybe whatever they're doing right as far as, like, maybe the R&D or their quality control, whatever they're doing right is on point. But if I have the money to do it, I'll hands down support Trijicon over any other company. I mean, I love Aimpoint, but just Red Dot, I mean, for what it is, it's like, holy crap. But the T2s, you can't go wrong. So I think the problem, and not the problem with the Holosun, but the problem I run into, and it sounds like the same one you run into, is that when you have two products side by side, and let's say they were functionally identical, I, and I suspect you, would pay a bit more for the U.S.-made product. That's just kind of the way we're wired. That's certainly the way I'm wired.

I like supporting my local economy. I especially love supporting local businesses. I don't like sending money overseas. That's a... I don't know. That has nothing to do with the topic of this episode, but called it like... I don't even want to call it a moral quandary with me.

It's just the way I'm wired. I'd rather spend my money so it stays here. However, I am unhappy with paying more money for less performance. And it's not that Trjicon's less performance, because I believe at the end of the day, you could probably put a whooping on a Trijicon that would shatter a Holosun.

Like, across the firearms industry, that seems to be the general consensus that Trijicons are ultimately more durable. Is it durability you're ever going to need? Maybe, maybe not, but they seem to be more durable. But the problem is, when I look at what Holosun brings to the table, some of the features they offer, compare that to Trijicon. Like compare like I'm in the market now to look at red dots for my CZP09 and get it milled.

And what do you think my go-to options were? RMR or a 407 or a 507? Like those are just kind of the two things I've settled on, one or the other. I'm really looking at the 507 though. Because the price is a little bit more competitive. You get shake-awake. You get pretty good battery life. And frankly, I like the reticle better.

The fact that you get that very fine aiming point. And then you get like, what is it, the 300 MOA circle, so that when you come up on target, if you can't find your dot, you at least have a reference point to know which direction to go to find the dot. That's the kind of forward thinking I don't see in Trijicon RMRs.

Like, Trijicon RMRs haven't had to change because it started out as such a good product. It owned the market for so long. But now they have Holosun nipping at their heels offering innovation at a lower price. That's where I get bound up because I don't want to send my money overseas, but I like the features I'm seeing in a Holosun 507 and convince me that the durability of the TrichCon is so much better. It's worth the extra money and sacrifice some of the durability of the TrichCon is so much better,

it's worth the extra money, and sacrifice some of the features that I want. That's kind of where I get bound up. So that's a decision I'm going to have to make in the near future. Ultimately, I think the StrikeFire 2 on my carbine is going to go away in favor of an Aimpoint T2 because I'm done. I'm done buying. I've reached a point with my firearms collection where I am done buying cheap optics. I'm just done with it. Like if I'm going to buy, if I'm, I don't want to expand the gun collection much more at this point, anytime in the future, in the near future, I really just want to pour some,

spend some money upgrading what's there to make it better. spend some money upgrading what's there to make it better. And I think T2 is going to wind up on the car beam because that or Neotech XPS3 seem to be like your two best options for night vision, the red dots. I mean, well, Neotech's a holographic site. Yeah. So the thing is, though, is, I mean, So the thing is, though, is, I mean, the way you just explained it, I mean, you can't, if you want to do, you know, you said you don't want to go cheap, but you're talking about going Holosun. I don't know.

I mean, if I have the money, I'll hands down do Trijicon uh all day every day uh and aimpoint uh i the only thing that's always kept me away from eotech is the battery life you're looking at like a thousand hours on eotech and versus uh i think like 50 000 hours for hollow sun like something like that with the aimpoints and honestly like i don't know what the i don't know what the trigicon the rmr or the sro what the battery life is on it but i know it's substantial well i just changed out my sro battery and i think it's been like four years because i forgot i just kind of neglected it and i was like you know what i'm gonna see how long it goes until it dies and i was at the range one day and it died mid like i shot and it died i was like all right well that's a thing and uh luckily i have my i have suppressor sight heights uh so yeah suppressor suppressor height height sites yes and uh that i mean i shot just fine after that but uh but yeah um the downside about

the rmr is honestly like if you were the downside the and this changed with going them going back to now to the rmr pro uh the one that or the rmr hd rather the one they just came out with the downside about the rmr was it's it's the battery is bottom fed that was the downside however talking to some uh people that i know from trigger con the rmr was never meant to go on a pistol it was never meant to go on a pistol ever and i can't remember who the guy i can't remember who the guy was that they were the guy was talking about but he said basically like this this big well-known guy in the firearms industry was like what if i take this here this and put it here and the gun industry went freaking nuts and that's where the rmr craze like took off was with this guy and um yeah and

then and trichicons like when people start complaining about the battery being on the bottom they're like it's it it's not supposed to go on a pistol like what the heck so that's where they came out with the sro uh which is top load and they say they strictly say not for duty use because it's like it's yes it is bigger window uh but it doesn't have the durability as the rmr when you drop it and stuff like that but they came out out the new RMR top load battery and it looks freaking awesome. I've heard, I've heard nothing but good things about it. Um, I really wish I could get my hands on one now because I want to test it out, but I can't. So, uh, I got go with, with friends that they have it and I don't, so I'm jealous, but, uh, yeah, I don't know.

I mean, like kind of going on a rant here, tirade or whatever you want to call it. But yeah, I mean, again, this comes down to what can you afford? And if you're happy with it and you're pushing rounds down range and it's doing what you want to do and you're not afraid of it failing on you, then by all means, get it. I don't, honestly, I really don't care.

You could run a Vortex Viper for all I care. I would never put one on one of my carry guns but man they are back behind vortex's uh lifetime warranty guarantee and uh they are a good red dot as far as if you are okay with turning it on every single time i put it on a shotgun and it's fine like it's like it was on a shotgun that i used for fun and it wasn't meant for self-defense or anything like that and it was it worked out great something that i'm trusting my life to i'll it's i mean it's something that i know that can last and that's why like i said my hollow sun on my my rifle i've put the rounds through i beat the crap out of it

i know it lasts and i you know and then that's the thing is with the trigicon is i know they last so scopes so that whole discussion about how i'm tired of buying cheap optics i wouldn't call them i would call them cheap actually like i've got a primary arms one six on this and i really don't have bad things to say about it it's actually like a pretty pretty for what it is which is like a 300 scope it's actually pretty reasonable like i don't have any complaints out of it um not that i think it matters i've got it sitting in an aero precision they're a ultralight uh mount which i like the design of that. It's actually, so you know how most scope mounts, you've got like separate rings

and you've got four screws that attach them together. Well, the Arrow Precision Ultralight Mount, there's actually, the two rings are hinged together at the top and there's only one clamping point. So like I don't, I didn't know how I was going to feel about that until I tried it. It actually works out really well. I just encourage you to please, for the love of God, get a torque wrench or a torque screwdriver and know how to use it properly.

Because it does not take a lot of monkeying around to screw up a scope. And also, for the love of God, please pay attention. Make sure that the thing is as level to the top of the firearm as possible. Otherwise, when you start going to the range trying to zero it and you mess with that elevation knob, weird things are going to start to happen if those crosshairs are canted off to one side or the other, from personal

experience. And I've also got a Vortex Diamond Back 3-12 on my.308 Winchester, my bolt gun. I have, like I understand Vortex has a reputation in the gun community because they don't make, like, the highest quality stuff, and it really is kind of... Oh, they do.

They've gotten to. Like, when they first came out, like, I mean, that's the thing, is when Vortex first came out, their stuff was... Well, it was pretty... I don't try to think of the word it when it when vortex first came out they were kind of like they're making some waves doing some really good stuff and it was pretty reasonable price now i mean now they're some of their stuff is they're really vortex the thing i like about them is they've really taken that leap into going above and beyond.

So, like, they have scopes that if you want to spend a freaking couple thousand dollars on one. Like the Razors? Yeah. I mean, you're good to go. I mean, I have on my 6.5 Creedmoor, I have a Viper HST, a 6-24. And, I mean, on their website, it's $950. I did not pay anywhere near that. I don't remember how much I paid, but, uh, and then I have on my

308 as an H I think it's their HSLR. I want to say, uh, their Viper, um, their Viper lines are great for like, uh, for, um, for really, if you're looking for something that's reasonably priced. And I say that, you know, yes, I say reasonably priced at around 800 but if you spend 800 on a right on a good rifle or more i mean you and you you want a decent scope i mean yeah go ahead and get uh i mean if you can if you can really afford the you know the really high price scopes that are a couple thousand dollars and by all means do it but viper are hopes that i've ever used and they're only getting better contract with the the sig i believe is like one of their scope is like 12 grand for that uh their optic on it rather so it's not a scope it's a computer with a with a lens it's that's a whole

another discussion to have is that crazy thing but no i guess what i was i guess what i was referring to was like yes vortex does have like the viper and the razor and the higher end lines but on the more affordable end you're talking about chinese glass you're talking about mass production like their cheaper scopes are i think competitive in their class but they're not super high quality but that being said like the diamond back that i have i don't have any complaints out of it spin the friggin spin the the adjuster all the way to friggin 12x and i have no problem identifying and shooting at like little two inch bullseyes at 100 yards no they're diamond they're diamond back series and their crossfire series like for an entry level scope are great i

mean they're uh they're not anything to shake a stick at really like i mean you can find just as good on the market but for the company for their no bs warranty like they're they're no like their warranty hands down has gotten me like that's gotten my business because i know people i've watched reviews on when i first when they first came out i started watched reviews on them where people they beat the crap like they took the scope off beat it against a rock ran over it threw it in the freezer dunked it in water like froze it in a block of ice like blew it up everything they tell you not to do to it yeah yeah they blew like they shot it, all kinds of crap.

And then they were like, here's a box of parts. I think this is the ring. I don't know because it's in scrap. And Vortex is like, here's a brand new scope. Like, it's crazy. And not many companies will do that. Well, and here's the thing of it. Like, there are multiple theories where this kind of, like, because this kind of a warranty policy, this is a business decision. I'm a business guy.

So there are multiple theories behind warranties, and one of them is what Vortex has chosen, which is it is not worth fighting over. Just replace the stupid thing because that reputation of the warranty is here, it doesn't matter, is worth more than denying a claim because somebody obviously just bashed the scope up against a rock. It's the same kind of thing those in the reloading community see a lot. If you have RCBS, Dylan, Lee, anybody's equipment, and you call that company and you say, hey, this thing broke, or I need a part, or I need this, or I need that, most of those companies won't even charge you for it. They'll just send it to you because they understand and have understood for a long time that because

reloading is such a niche activity within the gun community itself, that the reputation of so-and-so company took care of me is worth a couple of bucks in parts and postage. You know what I'm saying? And it's the same kind of consideration here. Vortex has to be looking at the situation as, for every one knucklehead that just wants to test our Jesus and smash a scope up against a rock to prove they can, to prove they can. For every one of those, we're going to get 10,000 people whose stuff did break legitimately through no fault of their own, and it's not worth pissing off the 10,001 by rejecting the one claim that somebody obviously damaged. Just replace them all, be done with it,

stop making a fight out of it, and earn that reputation. And I feel like that's the decision they've made. But it's been very compelling. I mean, I don't have an issue with their scopes. I think some of their cheaper red dots are cheaper red dots. But I don't have an issue with their scopes. I mean, the cheaper stuff

is cheap. The more expensive stuff is goo gobs expensive. But I feel like if you get like i feel like the relationship vortex has most of our competitors is if you got an 800 scope from vortex and an 800 scope from like loophole or one of the big boys you're going to wind up with more money with more value for your dollar with the vortex does that sound like a fair comparison to make in generalities yeah i think so i mean i got i have some leopolds and when you compare apples to apples really like the the

leopold i some of the leopolds i have for the price i i feel like i didn't get my money's worth i guess you can say uh they're great glass i I mean, I would never say don't get a Leopold if that's what you're going to get. I freaking love Leopolds. But, yeah, best bang for your buck, I would say Vortex. It's just they're great. I've never had an issue with any of my Vortex scopes. And I've never really had an issue with any of my leopolds either but it's just i'm a vortex guy like i love their product yeah so let me throw this in here we're like five minutes short of an

hour and i don't even know if there's anything left in this list or anything else you can think of that like really merits a discussion you know know what I'm saying? There's 10,000 companies out there making slings, hand stops, foregribs, bipods, because I have to say this out loud for the audio listeners, and many, many other little bitty assorted AR doodads. I'm just trying to think if there's anything else out there that either one of us have used that we would say say this is a thing you should really think about and the rest of this stuff is just kind of like whatever like i'm not going to recommend a specific sling there's 10 000 of them out there find the one

that has the cool thing on it you like well as far as slings go i mean i pulled up a few i've i've used a ton of different slings uh i've used, I mean, I have a blue force gear. I've used magpul slings. The centrifuge training is on my shotgun. And I've used, I don't even know how many I have. I think I got two or three slings, like still in a package that like I've just picked up because honestly, I've got rifles that I've swapped slings back and forth because I was like, nah, I need a new one, but I don't feel like buying one yet. So I'll just swap my shotgun onto this one or whatever. I've got a ton of slings. I, my biggest thing, my biggest complaint. And if you can find, if you find one that you like and you find one that's comfortable, stick with it, get one that's

comfortable, especially if depending, depending on what you're building, the, what you're using or putting it on. If you're putting it on a rifle that you intend that if something were ever to freaking go south and you had to wear this around your back or around your neck for hours and hours and hours you're gonna definitely uh change the way you're not you're not gonna get a piece of rope and just sling it from end to end uh you're gonna want to get something that's pretty comfortable for you so uh, uh, and that's the thing is honestly, like, I mean, I've never, I haven't worn my, my sling for days on days,

days upon days at a time, like some military, uh, vets have and current military and stuff, or even maybe law enforcement. But I have worn slings for the duration of a class for eight hours. And you feel it the next, you definitely,

you can definitely feel that strain so i definitely and that's what's and i've changed slings before because of that i bought different slings because of that strain so slings to me are really important with uh with your rifle or shotgun whatever you're building out whatever you're going to carry the only thing i want to add about slings is i don't care what brand you buy but just understand that the way I feel about it is if I got a hundred gun guys in this room right now, there's only about five of you who can make an argument to me about a single point sling that I will bite on. The other 95, you all need to get two point slings and just learn to work with them. That's all I'm going

to say about it. Like speaking from the experience of someone who has used 1, 2, and 3-point slings, and if anybody's never heard of a 3-point sling, Google that fucking horrible thing. Those came into Operation Iraqi Freedom, and a lot of us promptly threw them in the trash can because they were just freaking horrible to use. But one and two point slings. There's about five of y'all out there who can make a really good argument for them, and the rest of y'all just need to use two point slings. That's been my experience. Single point slings are really good at smacking you in the gentleman sausage with a friggin muzzle end of a rifle and that's they're not good for much else they will keep the rifle attached to you but they don't control it and i don't like that

yeah i mean the rest of the stuff bipads bipods foregrips hand stop stuff like that um i mean it all depends on what you're doing what you're building your purpose what what what is the purpose of your rifle for uh foreg for grips and hand stops? They, they make a great purpose, especially if you have a, uh, like an SBR or something with like, uh, something with a, not as long, like a 16 inch or full, full, uh, rifle or anything like that. Something smaller, a hand stop is great because yeah, you don't want to put your hand, uh other side of the grip or the rail, rather, and touch that suppressor or touch that barrel when it's hot. So the hand stops are great.

Fore grips are great. I've used, I remember I had a hand stop on my gun one time when I was in Kansas hunting coyote. And I would use the hand stop. It was just a pin from Arasaka. It's just a post so it's only like like an inch or so the finger stop yeah the finger stop yeah i like i've had that on my gun for a while and i mean i threw that like i pushed against a tree and i used it as a it was i use it as a stop like and that's the thing is uh foregrips and everything like that

yeah you can use them they they definitely have a good place on a gun if you um utilize it right and uh for recoil reduction stuff like that bipods the same thing i i have a set i have a pair of bipods from primo i think it is and they're amazing i use them as walking sticks and then i have them to where i can quick deploy and get a shot off if i need to but yeah i mean just with everything it's it's whatever you can, it's, if you want it, get it, train with it or test it out, hunt with it, do whatever you need to do and, and use it. And if it doesn't work, sell it or give it away or scrap it, do whatever you got to do, figure out something that works.

The biggest thing is if it works for you, it might not work for somebody else. So if me and Phil are sitting here saying, well, don't get a hand stop because they suck butt. Well, who cares? Honestly, I could care less if you think, if you're like, I got a hand stop and I love it. Honestly, get it, train with it, and call it good. That's the one thing I hate about the gun community is, I mean, I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to a lot of it. But you have some people that are like, this has to be, this is God and this is what you have to have and this, this, and this. And they will not.

And if you disagree, you are the devil. You might as well be a freaking liberal if you disagree with them. And that's, I hate that about our community. It's if you have it and you train with it and you're good with it, I could care less on what you have, really. I think what's most important anytime we start talking about all the junk you're going to decorate your firearm with, the question to ask yourself and the question to ask anybody else if you see something on their rifle and you're curious about it, or if someone tries to sell you something, is ask them why. Because the why will drive those decisions. Like the air socket finger stop you had on your rifle is the same one that I have on my carbine. It's the same one I had on my AR pistol for different reasons. And that's the thing I would tell somebody if they say, why do you have that there? Because on the pistol, it was because, you know, the handguard, I had a 12-inch handguard on this thing,

and I had a 10.5-inch barrel and then a 3.5-inch cat can, so you start doing the math on this AR, and I had about that much muzzle poking out of the front of this handguard. Now, if my hand goes in front of the hand guard and in front of that much muzzle, I have problems to deal with now. So that finger, the finger stop was there because the way I use it is I always locate it between my ring finger and my middle finger. And as long as that finger stop is between those two fingers, it goes into the same place on the rifle every single time. And it's safe from going to the muzzle. Now that I've rebuilt that AR into a carbine, it is there because as long as I put the finger stop in that exact same spot that I've trained

for all these years, that means my thumb is directly on top of the pressure pads for the light and the laser. I don't have to look at it in the dark, especially with night vision, you can't freaking see anything within 10 feet of you. All I have to look at it in the dark especially with night vision you can't freaking see anything within 10 feet of you all i have to do is put the finger stop where it belongs my thumb goes right onto the pressure pads and i'm ready to rock and roll so the finger stop is more of a hand locator in my use most people use a hand stop that's what it's really there for is to put your hand in the right spot so you can find all the other stuff on the front end of your rifle. I mean, this always comes back to a discussion for me about what's your use case?

Why are you going to put that thing on there? And if the answer is just to look cooler, because my favorite influencer has one on his rifle, like, cool beans, but I don't give a rat's butt what my rifles look like. I don't care. My purpose is for them to work. My purpose is for me to be able to use them in anger if necessary. So I'm always going to approach conversations like that. And I want people to ask, what is that for? Or how are you using it? And that might give you a clue that you might want to include it on your build. And you might also say, i have more than this much muzzle poking out of my hand guard i don't need a finger stop and that's cool decisions

yeah no i agree and yeah i guess uh just to kind of reiterate what raggle said and nick um yeah amidextrous uh i mean i build all of my guns pretty pretty much all my guns. I mean, pistols, some of them are already ambidextrous. But my rifle, every rifle I've built is ambidextrous. I can shoot it left or right-handed. I personally believe that's how they all should be set up, but that's me. If you don't set it up that way, just make sure you're training. Just make sure you're able to flip that safety off and manipulate it left or right-handed. It's funny you said that, Ryza.

I started grinning because I was about to say exactly zero of my firearms are ambidextrous. But that's also because the way I learned to use an AR-15 is like an old-school M16A2. They're not ambidextrous. You had to learn how to friggin' maneuver. If you were going to switch from right shoulder to left shoulder in a tactical situation you had to just know how to run the rifle wrong-handed so not saying that's like the best way or the right way but it's the reason why i haven't invested any effort in making any of my rifles ambidextrous and i'm not going to

because at this point like i've already trained down a certain lane, and I know how to do it, and I don't want to deviate. You know what I'm saying? I would have to unlearn 20-year-old habits to even think about manipulating a safety on the right side of one of my ARs. My brain doesn't even register that that's a thing. Right, and that's why I said if you run it the other way, then you're fine.

You don't have to defend yourself. You're getting all defensive about it. I feel personally attacked. I should. But anyway, I got food to cook. You have food to cook. I have stuff to do. But if this show is something that you enjoy,

then by all means, drop us a comment, come look us up, give us more suggestions for topics. If goofy memes and silly stuff is your thing, we're on Instagram. We are on Facebook. We are on Twitter.

And I would love to tell you when the next time we're going to stream live is, but we never know from one week to the next, especially right now with holiday season, it's kind of, it's going to stream live is, but we never know from one week to the next, especially right now with holiday season. It's going to kind of be like whenever we can cram one in. But all that being said, Matter of Facts Podcast heading out the door. Take care of yourselves. Good night, everybody. Bye. Thank you. I'll see you next time.