Welcome to OpticsThoughts!
The website you are looking at is sort of a “OpticsThoughts 2.0”, although as far as look at feel goes, it should not be a major difference from the original site. We did change the backend for the site and, hopefully, it will be a bit easier to maintain.
Most of the material here is on the subject of sporting optics: riflescopes, binoculars and spotters. I will occasionally add some general musing on the firearms, knives and whatever else occupies my mind at that particular time. Since my day job is in electro-optics and digital imaging, I will also add some camera gear recommendation here and there.
I started this site primarily to have a venue for my thoughts on sporting optics, but it has expanded some. Aside from writing about things that interest me, I also serve as an editor for others whose work occasionally appears here.
If you want to know more about how this site came to be and who are the people behind it, look into “About OpticsThoughts” on your right.
If all you are looking for is a quick product recommendation here is a shortcut to some of my favourites, by price: Riflescopes, Binoculars, Spotters.
Also, as I go along, I record my impressions on video and upload them to YouTube here. Alternatively, you can simply search for DLO Reviews.
If you would like to comment on any of the articles you need to create an account here. Contact me if you need help with that.
Lastly, I keep advertising very light and only insert a few Google or Amazon Ads here and there. I do not have any control of what is actually in the ad, as it reflects whoever is browsing. If you click on the ads every once in a while, maintaining this site will be easier for me. If you will be buying something from Amazon anyway, click on the Amazon banner on this website. It makes no practical difference to you, but every little bit adds up for me.
Where appropriate, I’ll add product links to retailers here and there. Where the links go will vary a fair bit. I have an affiliate contract with a few places (Amazon, Brownells, Adorama, etc).
If you would like to help me keep this site up, use the links, click on the ads or donate via Paypal at paypal.me/DarkLordOfOptics
With all that out of the way, I hope you find something useful here and if there is something you think I should add to the site, do not hesitate to let me know.
Thanks for visiting!
ILya Koshkin
Copyright Notice:
Unless otherwise noted, copyright on all information on this website is owned by ILya Koshkin.
Please do not copy it anywhere without my permission.
I am in the process of testing Steienr P4Xi 4-16×56 and I am finding myself really liking this scope. I’ll post more details later on, but here are some initial thoughts on this scope and how it stacks up.
Every year I tell myself that I will look at spotting scopes more since they are interesting and since it is easy for me to look at them: set up a few tripods on the deck and go for it. This year, I am actually going to do something about it. One thing that is […]
I am back home from SHOT 2019 and working on getting all my impressions and pictures processed. I recorded a few videos via Facebook Live already and uploaded them to Youtube already. They are linked on a dedicated SHOT 2019 page here. The page is accessible via menus up top and via this link: SHOT […]
As 2018 draws to a close, I am in Hawaii with my family wrapping up with a few days of much needed vacation. In the past, every time I went on vacation, I had a camera bag with me. I am not a good photographer by any stretch of imagination, but I am definitely a […]
If you have been following my random ramblings for any length of time, you will note that my preferred mode of operation is to pick a particular configuration and approximate price range and compare a good number of scopes that fit those two criteria side by side. This is not going to be one of […]
I wrote a little while back in my interest in Straight Jacket barrels made by Dracos. They are pretty expensive, which has kept me from trying them for some time. For this Black Friday, they are giving a crazy discount on their AR-10 barrels in 243Win, 260Rem and 7-08. $250 for a new barrel and […]
I am kicking off another comparison since it sorta got my interest. While I am not a target shooter, I have some peripheral interest in high magnification scopes and they are interesting from an optical standpoint. For a little while now, if you really wanted a high mag scope and you had some money to […]
This is the type of scope I have a lot of interest in. Thanks largely to Light Optics Works (LOW) being a pretty decent Japanese OEM, the quality of a long range scope you can get under $2k has really exploded in recent times. It seemed like nearly every brand was getting something made by […]
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271885/god-and-guns-synagogue-daniel-greenfield I am pretty open with the fact that I am Jewish and unlike majority of Jews in America, I have never voted for a left wing candidate and do not expect to any time soon. I grew in the Soviet Union, so I have a very dim view of the left wingers’ paradise. I […]
I have built a good number of AR15s over the years both for myself and for others, so I have developed a healthy set of preferences. Recently, someone asked me about the build for a very specific AR15 that I had in a picture, so I figured I should explain a little more why I […]