Welcome to OpticsThoughts!

This webpage is still under contruction and considering the nature of what I do here, it will likely remain in a state of flux for quite a while.

I will be continuously adding content as I go along.  Some of it will be new articles and some will be the stuff that I wrote a while back.

Most of the material here is on the subject of sporting optics: riflescopes, binoculars and spotters.  I will ocasionally add some general musing on the firearms, knives and whatever else occupies my mind at that particular time.

Feel free to browse around.  Start with the menu on the left and go on from there.

Now, a natural question is "Why should you listen to what I have to say?".

In principle, you should not.  When trying to select a rifle scope, for example, for your new varmint rifle, you should:

• carefully survey whatever is currently available on the market,
• acquire a sample of everything that looks like it might work,
• test every scope out with your own eyes and mounted on your rifle
• then, decide what you should be using

Understandably, that takes quite a bit of time and money and most are unwilling to go through such an exhaustive exercise.

If you happen to be unwilling to go through this whole ordeal, then it is worth your while to see what I have to say.

At a minimum, I will point you in the right direction.  If the stars align just right, I will have looked at the product that fits you best and my musings will help you make the right choice.

As you may imagine, all this testing takes time, effort and money.  I have no intention of setting this up as a pay site, I want everyone to have access to this information and I hope it helps you out in your choice.  Similarly, you will see some advertisement on this site, but not a whole lot.  I will try to keep it to a very reasonable level going forward.  Still, I need to pay for this somehow and if you would like to help me keep doing this, you can donate whatever you can afford via PayPal.  I am afraid I can not offer you much in return for your donation other than my gratitude.  However, if there is a specific scope or binocular you would like tested, please let me know and I will try to set it up.

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.