It’s a new world…

 2nd Amendment, Rifle Scopes, Uncategorized  Comments Off on It’s a new world…
Sep 282020
 

2020 has been an interesting year.

Between the sorry state of our politics, the Left finally admitting what they are and COVID-19, nearly everyone’s life has changed in some significant way.

I am no exception to that.  I have had to make some significant decisions regarding how I want to proceed with my online presence and one of the main realizations of that was that it is difficult to combine the long form written articles I have been publishing for all these year with the way content is distributed in the modern era.

Another thing that happened was my introduction to print media.  I have been writing for Guns and Ammo’s Special Interest Publications for a little while now and I have to grudgingly admit I enjoy that immensely.

There have also been other demands on my written musings.  As a result of that, my ability to put together long written reviews has been diminished.  Partly it is due to time constraints and partly due to me simply needing a change of pace once in a while.

“Change of pace” ended up taking the form of making more videos for my Youtube channel.

Another realization I had as I went along was that I am not a huge fan of the affiliate marketing model.  Affiliate marketing is where you click on one of the links I post and I get a small percentage of whatever you buy.  It turned out that in order to be successful with that I have to follow market trends and post links to stuff that people are already looking for.

Well, that sorta runs counter to what I do here: I look at products I find interesting, analyze them to considerable depth and share my impressions the best I can.  I really have no interest in trying to follow market trends and I am not nearly well known enough to set those trends myself.

Affiliate marketing business introduces a set of split loyalties that I am not hugely comfortable with.  I believe I should only be responsible to my audience and noone else.

From that standpoint, Youtube was interesting in a sense that I have no control over what type of advertising they add to my videos, so I can focus on content.  Also, Youtube opened my channel up to offer paid memberships which is an approach I prefer.  If I am directly supported by people I make this content for, there are no split loyalties.

The way it works, Youtube takes 30% of what people pay and I get 70%.   As a thanks to people who financially support my channel I have negotiated discounts with a few companies for my supporters.  There is no kickback to me.  I am just trying to get a you a better deal.  Another perk of being a paying member is access.  I am facing an increasing number of questions and channel members have dibs on my time.

However, Youtube is generally hostile to 2nd Amendment people, so eventually I see them pushing people like me out.

That is where my latest idea comes in.  I stumbled onto a website designed for creators.  It is the initiative started by Dave Rubin and it purports to be everything that Big Tech is not.  They also offer a “supporter” model, but I get to keep a lot more than I do with Youtube and they have a healthy respect for both 1st and 2nd amendment.  And on top of that, I can combine a blog with video stuff on a community page there.

They finally approved my community there and it resides at darklordofoptics.locals.com

www.darklordofoptics.com is pointed there as well.

Starting now, opticsthoughts.com remains here as a database of legacy material I have written, while darklordofoptics.com becomes my new start.

I hope to see you all there.

 Posted by at 9:28 pm

Welcome to the People’s Republic of Kalifornia (PRK)

 2nd Amendment, Rifles  Comments Off on Welcome to the People’s Republic of Kalifornia (PRK)
Jul 312017
 

As most of you are probably aware, I live in California.  California is special in many ways, some good and some not so good.  The state is beautiful and the weather is spectacular.  The people here do not have a particularly good reputation for friendliness, but I suspect it is the same thing as we have every place with large cities.  Living in a very densely populated area brings out the inner jerk in most of us, while the further away from a major city you get, the friendlier your neighbors are.

What is not so good about California is the politics.  It is a liberal progressive’s dream come alive and the results are finally coming in: California has the highest poverty rate in the nation if you adjust it by the cost of living.

Another thing that is not so great here is the spectacular stupidity that is our gun laws.  I am not going to bore you with all the details, but basically as of now, if you have a semi-auto centerfire rifle like an AR-15, you either have to register it with the state as an assault weapon (which means that you can not sell it within the state or if something happens to you, the state will confiscate it as it can not be inherited by your children) or you can go “featureless”.



Here is what “featureless” means: the cretins here in PRK who make these laws have decided that certain features in a rifle make it inherently dangerous and the public can not be trusted with them.  In a nutshell, you can not have a rifle with a detachable magazine and a pistol grip (or thumbhole stock).  Other things you can not have are collapsible stocks, flash hiders, bayonet mounts and forward pistol grip.  If you have two or more of these features, it is an assault weapon and, apparently, (sarcasm on) if you own a rifle so configured you are just bound to head out and mow down a bus full of nuns (sarcasm).  If you are trying to figure out how this makes sense, don’t.  It doesn’t.  Everyone knows it doesn’t.  The state of California wants the citizens fully disarmed.  They have, apparently decided that an outright ban is not going to work, so they are simply making owning guns in California sufficiently inconvenient to gradually chip away at it until noone here has them.

I think that their pipe dream is unlikely to come true.  There are approximately 18 million gun owners in California and every time our knuckle dragging, booger eating, mouth breathing elected officials in Sacramento come up with some new insane regulation, within days someone comes up with a workaround.

Basically, everyone is going featureless and to do that, the key thing is to do away with the pistol grip.  There are a few ways to do so and when you see an AR-15 in my pictures with a very funky looking stock, that is why: I had to go featureless.  I have decided to experiment with different featureless arrangements, and have tried most of them at this point.

The three most developed options are, I think, Thordsen FRS-15 stock, Hera Arms CQR stock and Juggernaut Tactical (JT) stock.

FRS-15 stock sorta mimicks the handling of a hunting rifle to a good degree:

Thordsen FRS-15 stock (tested with my 458 SOCOM)

Thordsen FRS-15 stock (tested with my 458 SOCOM)

It looks a little odd, but is reasonably comfortable and gives you a good degree of control.  Safety selector manipulation is a little tricky though.  The deal with wrapping your thumb around the grip is, best I can tell, is as follows:  if it is possible to wrap your thumb around the grip below the highest point of the trigger, you are basically a “mass murderer in waiting”.  On the other hand if the shape of the grip takes your thumb above the highest point of the trigger blade (or trigger pin, I am not sure), then you are no longer a menace to society.  Makes total sense, right?

Hera Arms CQR and Juggernaut Tactical (JT) stocks on the other hand retain the grip angle of the proper AR grip except without the ability to wrap your thumb around the grip:

Hera Rms CQR on the left; JT on the right

Hera Rms CQR on the left; JT on the right

Hera Arms stock is an integrated design that  incorporates the buttstock and grip into a single unit complete with several sling attachment points and potential changes in length of pull via buttpad spacers.  The small black cover on the bottom of the stock toward the back conceals a plastic Picatinny rail that can be used for alternative sling attachment points or a monopod.  The CQR stock in free states is sold as a thumbhole design, but for us in the PRK, it is sold with a black plastic plate that covers the thumbhole.  That plate can be removed in a non-destructive manner in a few minutes of removing screws.  For people like me who go to free states to take classes occasionally, this is a nice feature.  While shooting in California, you get to keep your thumb on the right side of the action, where it naturally rests on the safety selector switch (an ambidextrous safety is a necessity in this case and a short throw design makes for a more comfortable thumbrest).

JT stock quite simply retains the regular AR grip, so you can choose something that works for you.  The metal part right behind the grip is an integral part of the stock, so if you move to one of the three states, you can’t easily remove it.  One interesting feature of this stock is that it does away with the extension tube entirely and since it is made of rather thick aluminum, it makes for a rather smooth shooting experience without the annoying “twang” of the spring.  Another interesting feature of the JT stock is that it comes with a replacement rear takedown pin that incorporates a shelf of sorts for your thumb:

JT Thumbrest

JT Thumbrest

That helps shooting comfort a fair bit, but makes safety manipulation a little more difficult.

On balance all three options work.  I think overall I like the Hera Arms CQR the most so far on a low recoiling gun, but it will take a little more testing to be sure.

For kickers, like my 458 SOCOM, Thordsen FRS-15 has a lot to recommend itself.  Being able to actually have a proper grip really helps control the movement of the rifle (when you light off a 300gr pill heading out at 1900+ fps out of an AR-15, there is a lot more movement to the rifle then you get with 5.56).

The other option that I have not discussed is simply setting up a fixed length stock (remember, in California speak, “collapsible stock”=”mass murderer”) and a separate grip that does not allow you to wrap your thumb around.  The original such grip was the MonsterGrip and there are quite a few newer and cheaper versions that seemingly take a standard grip and add a fin on the back.  If you like your particular grip, you can also wrap it in kydex and create a fin on the back that prevents the wraparound grip.  The advantage of newer such grips and of the wrap around method is that the grip angle is the same as on normal ARs.  The original MonsterGrip slants back more.  I will revisit these in a little bit and post some pictures.

I am sorta attracted to the idea having a kydex wrap for one of my grips.  That way, if you head out to one of the free states to go hunting or for a training class, you can remove the kydex wrap for a few days.

 Posted by at 8:27 am

NFL bans Daniel Defense’s SuperBowl ad

 2nd Amendment  Comments Off on NFL bans Daniel Defense’s SuperBowl ad
Dec 032013
 

Daniel Defense tried to place a SuperBowl ad.  NFL denied it claiming that it does not fit their (self-imposed) advertising guidelines.

Here is the video:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQLQxnOZmvc

I am not a football fan, so my opinion really does not matter.
However, for those of you who are, what say you?
As far as I am concerned NFL is a private organization and they have the right to accept or refuse advertising from anyone they want.
However, we are all private citizens here and we are free to support or not support organizations based on the decisions they make with advertisers.
NFL will not get a dime of my money until they make amends.  I will carefully look at who NFL advertisers are and avoid them to the best of my ability.
I will also make it known the best I can why I avoid them.
ILya
 Posted by at 10:09 am