Posts
Accessories Dead Air Wolverine mount. HK M15x1RH
- By 317millhand
- Buy - Sell - Trade
- 1 Replies
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Accessories MSR XGK EX military stove and GSI camp sets
- By 317millhand
- Buy - Sell - Trade
- 2 Replies
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Accessories Leather Bandoleer holster for large scoped revolver
- By 317millhand
- Buy - Sell - Trade
- 1 Replies
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2025 BigJimFish Review / Article blog: More 350L, Garmin and Athlon Chronos, Leopold Mark 4HD, BurstFire, Field Optics Research, videos and visits
- By BigJimFish
- The Armory
- 5 Replies
As with the previous 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018 threads, the purpose of this thread is to provide a catalog of this years reviews and articles, give you a behind the scenes look at what I'm working on as I'm working on it, provide a place for input and comments, and, of course, give you something to bookmark that will ping you when a new article is done.
Video Reviews and Company Visits
The biggest change this year is that I will be doing video versions of my reviews along with the written versions. I just finished up the first one and it came out a good deal better than I expected. I even did some shiny video editing on it. To be frank, I still don’t love video as a format. It is very inefficient in data density as well as time consuming to produce and consume for that matter. That being said, lots of people seem to like them for some reason and they clearly monitize better. My intention is to make the videos shorter and lighter weight versions of my articles as I gather shorter videos are a great deal more successful and the constraints of video format are far less friendly to the consumer of informationally dense content than is a well organized article. My current plan is to do short video recaps of each review as I do the review and sprinkle in video recaps of my more recent past reviews as I go along. These will be sit at a table podcast type videos and not the high production value live action stuff Frank often does. I will also be doing some videos of site visits to some of the Ohio precision rifle related companies near me. I have spoken with a number of them about this including Kelbly’s, Short Action Customs, and XTSP. My original plan was to make these live but given YouTubes constraints on live videos I am reconsidering. If you have some questions, or comments you want me to take along with me to these companies, feel free to drop them here. If all goes well and I don’t totally suck at making videos I have a few other folks in the back of my mind for future visits. Probably just who your thinking.
The Precison Straight-Walled Cartridge Rifle:
As with last year, the biggest focus this year will be on the PurePrecison / Proof Straight wall 350L project. I knew going into it that it might be challenging to get good performance from the 350L straight wall cartridge rifle and that I would most likely never get it to group like my 6.5CM. The cartridge has that reputation. I want to be able to offer some well researched advice for getting good performance from this type of cartridge though as the relatively new straight wall deer hunting regulations have given many Midwesterners the ability to hunt at distances that were just not possible before with the inaccuracy of slug guns. I want to be able to deliver some well-researched advice in how to get the best performance out of these cartridges. I was certainly unprepared for the level of difficultly in achieving this though. I will continue to examine this subject this year, as I believe I have come a long way and have some viable theories that will help shooters of this and other similar cartridges to get better and more reliable performance. Expect articles this year on the general performance of straight walled cartridges and a little about their history, loading the 350L, and some sort of ammo guide. There may also be a terminal performance examination but I wouldn’t bet on that coming yet.
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Thanks to PurePrecision, Proof, Hornady, Barnes, and Nosler for contributing both product and technical expertise to this project.
Nosler’s just introduced Whitetail Country 180gr 350 legend ammunition
Garmin Xero C1 Chronograph Article
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I have now used the Garmin Xero C1 Chronograph for an entire year and well over 1000 rounds from a wide variety of firearms and in a wide variety of situations. I guess I should probably write about it already. It is certainly a game changing piece of equipment and realistically I would not have been able to figure out some of the things I did without it as there was no way to use the old Oehler 35p on all the range trips I did for the 350L this year.
Athlon Velocity Pro Radar Chronograph
Login to view embedded media First impressions of the Athlon Pro Radar Chronograph after a range session side by side with the Garmin
It is cheaper than the Garmin, and uses an always-on measurement technology like Garmin does. Can it hang? I have certainly seen some excellent things from Athlon in the past. The scopes they submitted to the Sub $1k long range optics series of reviews I did a few years back were, and are, some of my favorites in the category.
Leopold Mark 4HD
It is probably long past time that I looked at the new Leupold Mark 4HD line. The Mark 5HD 5-25x56 I reviewed a few years a go is a winner and that scope line is my favorite in the high end precision rifle / hunting scope crossover category. I am eager to see how the lower cost Mark 4HD line stacks up optically and mechanically, as it’s weight and features certainly indicate it will have similar crossover appeal.
BurstFire annealer
For some time I have been thinking I need to try stepping up my reloading game by adding annealing. Frankly, there was no way I was going to spend thousands of dollars on it though. After some research, I came to the Burstfire annealer. I liked the look of the design and the very clever torch adjustment system. It also features built in rotary tool attachments, and an affordable price, so I bought one. I’ll tell you what I think about it and also their military crimp cutting head. It won’t be 10 pages, I promise.
The first batch of 350L brass I annealed on the Burstfire annealer
Field Optics Research Tripods
This was another shooting accessory that I had been meaning to pick up for a while. I spend a good bit of time a few years ago at ShotShow looking at different makers products and decided that I thought the design of the DomeTOP Field Optics Research models was pretty clever. I picked one of those up as well as a bowl top. I also very much liked the design of their FlexLite GunPOD rifle vice and will be looking at their gun vices as well. I am no guru of competitive rifle shooting off of a tripod, but I’ll give you my opinion and not pretend it’s worth more than it is on the subject.
Field optics research Hunter 32DTC3 tripod holding a Kelbly’s .308 and Pro39TC3-MIL ASFPL with FM570B gunvice holding the 6.5CM PurePrecision Crux.
Video Reviews and Company Visits
The biggest change this year is that I will be doing video versions of my reviews along with the written versions. I just finished up the first one and it came out a good deal better than I expected. I even did some shiny video editing on it. To be frank, I still don’t love video as a format. It is very inefficient in data density as well as time consuming to produce and consume for that matter. That being said, lots of people seem to like them for some reason and they clearly monitize better. My intention is to make the videos shorter and lighter weight versions of my articles as I gather shorter videos are a great deal more successful and the constraints of video format are far less friendly to the consumer of informationally dense content than is a well organized article. My current plan is to do short video recaps of each review as I do the review and sprinkle in video recaps of my more recent past reviews as I go along. These will be sit at a table podcast type videos and not the high production value live action stuff Frank often does. I will also be doing some videos of site visits to some of the Ohio precision rifle related companies near me. I have spoken with a number of them about this including Kelbly’s, Short Action Customs, and XTSP. My original plan was to make these live but given YouTubes constraints on live videos I am reconsidering. If you have some questions, or comments you want me to take along with me to these companies, feel free to drop them here. If all goes well and I don’t totally suck at making videos I have a few other folks in the back of my mind for future visits. Probably just who your thinking.
The Precison Straight-Walled Cartridge Rifle:
As with last year, the biggest focus this year will be on the PurePrecison / Proof Straight wall 350L project. I knew going into it that it might be challenging to get good performance from the 350L straight wall cartridge rifle and that I would most likely never get it to group like my 6.5CM. The cartridge has that reputation. I want to be able to offer some well researched advice for getting good performance from this type of cartridge though as the relatively new straight wall deer hunting regulations have given many Midwesterners the ability to hunt at distances that were just not possible before with the inaccuracy of slug guns. I want to be able to deliver some well-researched advice in how to get the best performance out of these cartridges. I was certainly unprepared for the level of difficultly in achieving this though. I will continue to examine this subject this year, as I believe I have come a long way and have some viable theories that will help shooters of this and other similar cartridges to get better and more reliable performance. Expect articles this year on the general performance of straight walled cartridges and a little about their history, loading the 350L, and some sort of ammo guide. There may also be a terminal performance examination but I wouldn’t bet on that coming yet.
Login to view embedded media
Thanks to PurePrecision, Proof, Hornady, Barnes, and Nosler for contributing both product and technical expertise to this project.
Nosler’s just introduced Whitetail Country 180gr 350 legend ammunition
Garmin Xero C1 Chronograph Article
Login to view embedded media
I have now used the Garmin Xero C1 Chronograph for an entire year and well over 1000 rounds from a wide variety of firearms and in a wide variety of situations. I guess I should probably write about it already. It is certainly a game changing piece of equipment and realistically I would not have been able to figure out some of the things I did without it as there was no way to use the old Oehler 35p on all the range trips I did for the 350L this year.
Athlon Velocity Pro Radar Chronograph
Login to view embedded media First impressions of the Athlon Pro Radar Chronograph after a range session side by side with the Garmin
It is cheaper than the Garmin, and uses an always-on measurement technology like Garmin does. Can it hang? I have certainly seen some excellent things from Athlon in the past. The scopes they submitted to the Sub $1k long range optics series of reviews I did a few years back were, and are, some of my favorites in the category.
Leopold Mark 4HD
It is probably long past time that I looked at the new Leupold Mark 4HD line. The Mark 5HD 5-25x56 I reviewed a few years a go is a winner and that scope line is my favorite in the high end precision rifle / hunting scope crossover category. I am eager to see how the lower cost Mark 4HD line stacks up optically and mechanically, as it’s weight and features certainly indicate it will have similar crossover appeal.
BurstFire annealer
For some time I have been thinking I need to try stepping up my reloading game by adding annealing. Frankly, there was no way I was going to spend thousands of dollars on it though. After some research, I came to the Burstfire annealer. I liked the look of the design and the very clever torch adjustment system. It also features built in rotary tool attachments, and an affordable price, so I bought one. I’ll tell you what I think about it and also their military crimp cutting head. It won’t be 10 pages, I promise.
The first batch of 350L brass I annealed on the Burstfire annealer
Field Optics Research Tripods
This was another shooting accessory that I had been meaning to pick up for a while. I spend a good bit of time a few years ago at ShotShow looking at different makers products and decided that I thought the design of the DomeTOP Field Optics Research models was pretty clever. I picked one of those up as well as a bowl top. I also very much liked the design of their FlexLite GunPOD rifle vice and will be looking at their gun vices as well. I am no guru of competitive rifle shooting off of a tripod, but I’ll give you my opinion and not pretend it’s worth more than it is on the subject.
Field optics research Hunter 32DTC3 tripod holding a Kelbly’s .308 and Pro39TC3-MIL ASFPL with FM570B gunvice holding the 6.5CM PurePrecision Crux.
Horse Power, Track Shit, Torque, Cubic Inches, Liters, Run What Ya Brung, Auto or Cycle
- The Bear Pit
- 1528 Replies
The green flag was....
There's no replacement for displacement is outdated.
I have a mild cam in an Olds 474 cubic inch motor. 495 ft lbs and 425 HP.
It sounds like a big block should. I am old school and just can't drag myself to put fuel injection on it. Would it help? Most definitely but I like carbs.
That said. I am not going to bash the young crowd with the turbos and the 4 or 6 mills. Hell, when the Grand National came out I wanted one. I had a 400 HP 355 in a Camaro at the time. It was getting smoked by a six banger and I wanted one.
There's no replacement for displacement is outdated.
I have a mild cam in an Olds 474 cubic inch motor. 495 ft lbs and 425 HP.
It sounds like a big block should. I am old school and just can't drag myself to put fuel injection on it. Would it help? Most definitely but I like carbs.
That said. I am not going to bash the young crowd with the turbos and the 4 or 6 mills. Hell, when the Grand National came out I wanted one. I had a 400 HP 355 in a Camaro at the time. It was getting smoked by a six banger and I wanted one.
SOLD WTS Aimpoint Comp M5 with Unity Aimpoint and Unity Magnifier mount **Price Drop**
- By gamewarden
- Buy - Sell - Trade
- 22 Replies
Selling my excellent condition Aimpoint Comp M5 with barnd new Unity Mount.
New, Unity quick release magnifier mount also available
Aimpoint with Mount=$850, $750 $650 OBO
with magnifier mount=$900 $750!
New, Unity quick release magnifier mount also available
Aimpoint with Mount=$
with magnifier mount=$
Accessories WTS New Safariland red dot Glock RDS holster with QLS **Price Lowered**
- By gamewarden
- Buy - Sell - Trade
- 14 Replies
New Safariland Glock red dot RH holster with QLS. Molle fork also included.
7365RDS-8325-831
$225 $200 shipped.
7365RDS-8325-831
$
Firearms Consolidation sale*UPDATED*
- By jwSubMOA
- Buy - Sell - Trade
- 17 Replies
Hello all. Going through the safe and moving a few I don't shoot often.
Sig SSG3000(later version with integrated rail) in Vision chassis. Factory 308 barrel plus a Benchmark 30-06 barrel as well. Purchased from member here. 600ish on 308 maybe 100 on 30-06. Meopta Optika6 3.5-27 mil/mil RDS reticle. Will include all Vision boxes, factory stock, hardcase, flash suppressor and tools. $3800 shipped
Ruger .357 Magnum New Model Blackhawk 4.75 barrel. Mechanically excellent with finish wear. Includes unknown western holster. $480 shipped
US Krag-Jorgeson custom rifle in 30-40 Krag. Gorgeous and professional rifle with Williams peep sight. Everything high polished blue. Includes 120 rounds reloads. $675 shipped
AR10 308. Ballistic Advantage lower with 45 degree ambi safety, excellent flat face trigger, Aero upper with unmarked Aero bcg, large lever ambi charging handle and 20 inch Ballistic Advantage barrel, ASR brake, Keymod rail, two Pmags included. Optic NOT included. Test fired only. $1200 shipped.
M28-76 7 62x54r. This is the last of these I have. I took it out of the crate with this matte blue finish. It has a factory threaded barrel with cap. Apparently several of these were test rifles for subsinic ammo and suppressors. Barrel is bright and shiny. I made a scope rail to fit the factory mount. Excellent shooter. Specific details on request. Optic not included, mount stays with the rifle. $1250 shipped. SALE PENDING
CPA Paul Shuttleworth custom Stevens 44 1/2 in 45-70. Absolutely beautiful rifle. Excellent wood, tiger stripe color case finish, 30 inch Badger barrel, Pope lever. Double set trigger, MVA Soule rear sight with Hadley Magnum eyecup, MVA front globe sight. In near new condition. I bought it unfired and have put 50 rounds of Trailboss loads through it. Can't see the sights anymore. Ships in hardcase with sight card, spare parts and tools. $3100 shipped.
Sig SSG3000(later version with integrated rail) in Vision chassis. Factory 308 barrel plus a Benchmark 30-06 barrel as well. Purchased from member here. 600ish on 308 maybe 100 on 30-06. Meopta Optika6 3.5-27 mil/mil RDS reticle. Will include all Vision boxes, factory stock, hardcase, flash suppressor and tools. $3800 shipped
Ruger .357 Magnum New Model Blackhawk 4.75 barrel. Mechanically excellent with finish wear. Includes unknown western holster. $480 shipped
US Krag-Jorgeson custom rifle in 30-40 Krag. Gorgeous and professional rifle with Williams peep sight. Everything high polished blue. Includes 120 rounds reloads. $675 shipped
AR10 308. Ballistic Advantage lower with 45 degree ambi safety, excellent flat face trigger, Aero upper with unmarked Aero bcg, large lever ambi charging handle and 20 inch Ballistic Advantage barrel, ASR brake, Keymod rail, two Pmags included. Optic NOT included. Test fired only. $1200 shipped.
M28-76 7 62x54r. This is the last of these I have. I took it out of the crate with this matte blue finish. It has a factory threaded barrel with cap. Apparently several of these were test rifles for subsinic ammo and suppressors. Barrel is bright and shiny. I made a scope rail to fit the factory mount. Excellent shooter. Specific details on request. Optic not included, mount stays with the rifle. $1250 shipped. SALE PENDING
CPA Paul Shuttleworth custom Stevens 44 1/2 in 45-70. Absolutely beautiful rifle. Excellent wood, tiger stripe color case finish, 30 inch Badger barrel, Pope lever. Double set trigger, MVA Soule rear sight with Hadley Magnum eyecup, MVA front globe sight. In near new condition. I bought it unfired and have put 50 rounds of Trailboss loads through it. Can't see the sights anymore. Ships in hardcase with sight card, spare parts and tools. $3100 shipped.
Attachments
Sig Kilo 10k Gen 2 Review
- By catorres1
- Observation & Sighting Devices
- 2 Replies
Introduction
A few years back, Sig got into the nascent bino-rangefinder market with their first release, the Sig 3k. The goal of that project was to put out a bino with mid-tier glass (sort of Viper HD level glass), coupled with a killer rangefinder for a price more people could afford. At that time, if I remember correctly, I am not sure there were any other options, other than Leica, Swarovski, and maybe some other high end choices, most of which were firmly out of most people’s financial grasp. The 3k was solid. The optics were as expected and the ranging performance was the best I had personally used. A couple years later and Sig had the followup coming to market, the Kilo 10k. Boasting the new super amoled display that was also utilized in the 8k, it promised another level of ranging performance. In this, it did not disappoint. The ranging was fantastic, and the information access and configurability that the new display provided were excellent. You can read more in-depth information about that display in my 8k review posted HERE. However, an additional aspect it shared with the 8k was the color cast that came with the optics. In the 8k, while not optimal, it was not a performance issue, as the 8k is not a search and observation device, but strictly a ranging device and the cast did not get in the way. But in a binocular, something which did double duty as the primary tool for finding game in low light, it was a problem. Unfortunately, it was not a simple fix, but it was one Sig realized they had to undertake to solve. Which really was a shame, considering the 10k gen 1’s are otherwise really a fantastic bino RF system. Fast forward to this last year, and Sig was finally able to roll out the successor to the gen 1 10k’s, the 10k gen 2. The gen 2’s are not an entirely new product, that is, the changes are relatively few, but they are all significant. Top of the list is the aforementioned optics issue, but they also added additional buttons for direct wind speed/direction input, as well as making changes to the overall body design. I have had the gen 1’s for a couple years and a set of the gen 2’s for a few months, most significantly through hunting season, and what follows is my impressions on the changes and the package overall after knocking them around in Texas and Colorado this year.Whats in the box
The 10k comes in a pretty nice bag with connections on the back to allow it to be attached to molle equipped packs. Other than that, it has a carry strap, some batteries, a lens pen and a some basic startup instructions. Not a lot of stuff, but nothing you don’t need. The notable exclusion, however, are lens caps for either the front or the back. Personally, I would probably give up everything else, including the bag, for a solid set of lens caps.
Ranging
Having had the original 10k, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from ranging on the gen 2 version, and I was not disappointed. In some regard, there is really not much to say here. Simply put, the 10k is easily the most powerful rangefinder I have personally tested, by a large margin. Of course, there are many I have not tried, but regardless, the results are impressive.
When testing, as usual, I ranged hillsides, animals (when available), trees and other landscape features. In other words, no street signs or other highly reflective targets ranged at night. I tested only during legal shooting hours, so 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. As usual, conditions had a significant effect on ranging capabilities, as did the nature of the targets. At the time of testing, I had a Sig 8k with me, as well as a Leica pro 8x42 in order to get some perspective on the 10k’s performance under the exact same conditions. In short, neither of them could keep up with the 10k. Under very bright conditions on trees, I could easily get beyond 3000 yards handheld. In many cases, braced, 4000 yards plus was possible. As the light went down, those numbers went up drastically, and the separation between the 10k and the other RF’s I had on hand got wider. Suffice it to say, when it comes to ranging, there are no questions about performance here. There is power, and power to spare.
Which does raise the question of what’s the point of all that power, does it really serve a purpose? The answer, at least for me, is yes, but not all of the utility is about shooting. Some certainly is. For example, as I mentioned, as the conditions or targets became less ideal (particularly when the light was extremely bright and hazy, or at angles which make things difficult for rangefinders), the 10k’s ceiling lowered, just as it did for my other rangefinders. Likewise, in snow and rain, the distance decreased markedly. However, when you have a ceiling as high as the 10k has, you are still able to range farther than some RF’s can in the best of conditions. So in poor conditions, you have a rangefinder that can still perform at an incredible level. Case in point, in testing in an absolute downpour, I was still able to range out to nearly a mile on trees. Basically, looking through the bino, if you could make out any texture at all on the tree through the rain, it would range it, and do so without false returns. The 10k has a very powerful laser and highly developed algorithms such that it delivered an amazing level of performance, even in very difficult weather conditions.
But other benefits to the power can be realized as well. In one case, I was able to locate a herd of elk in a distant field using my spotter. I could tell they were several miles off, but as I was in a new area, I was not able to tell where they actually were relative to our hunting area. I also couldn’t accurately tell how far they were, I just knew they were far. But because I was able to range an incredible distance with the 10k’s and because I had the compass heading turned on in the display settings, I was able to figure out exactly where they were….which ended up being well into the next unit deeply into private land. Had I fired up OnX, I could have dropped a pin using the RF/mapping integration, but I didn’t need to once I looked at the heading in the display and the distance. I knew where that was enough to know not to bother. Neither my 8k nor the Pro I had with me could range that far, not even close. Of course I could not range the elk at that distance, but the available landscape features were enough for the 10k to bounce of off for me to see that they were several miles away. My other two RF’s were not even close under those conditions.
So as I discussed in a previous review, that extra power not only helps in ensuring you get your range in bad conditions but, along with the mapping integration that many new RF’s have, it starts to leverage your RF as a navigation tool. It becomes a tool to help you to find downed game, figure out where points of interest are for future exploration, find your way back to a distant place where you may have seen potential game, or to evaluate just exactly how far that buck is and whether it is doable before the end of shooting light.
Lastly, one performance area that should also be considered is speed. That is, how fast does it range, how fast does it return a value and how fast can you re-range in case you miss, hit the wrong target, or want to verify. On all counts, as they always have been for me, the Sig is noticeably faster than anything else I have tested. Ranging is immediate, your solution is right now, and you can hit that button again and re-range immediately. It may sound trivial, but when you are trying to hit a target under pressure and it’s very small and you have missed, and you need to try again and then verify, it’s significant. And here, as with all the Sigs I have tried, the gen 2 excelled.
The 10k gen 2 has an updated body style that is a bit better ergonomically, but the form factor is the same compact size that started with the 3k. It retains the standard stud mounting point for tripod attachment, but updates the battery compartment with a built in thumb-tab to make in field battery changes easier
In summary, in terms of ranging, both of the 10k’s I have had have been absolutely amazing. I have nothing but praise for them in this area of performance, and I can’t imagine anyone being disappointed in them in this regard.
