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Rifle Scopes Favorite YouTube Scope Reviewer

His mean YouTube comments commentary videos are entertaining. He did 3 of them.

Part 1
 
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I don’t know if you would call him a reviewer only because he has lots of video topics but Tyrannasourus Rex has taught me more about rifle scopes in his sniper series then I’ve learned everywhere else combined
 
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When I'm interested in a new scope I watch as many reviews as I can find and it becomes obvious real fast who knows what he is talking about.Ilya and Frank G from the hide are 2 very good places to start.
 
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Our very own Frank:

Or John
 
What makes you say that? His Sniper 101 series was awesome. Very informative, his biggest issue is that he is a bit too verbose imo.
Well for one he says IOR makes the best scopes on the planet, and Premier is second class optically.

Amongst other things he’s said, those two have me a clue. :)
 
What makes you say that? His Sniper 101 series was awesome. Very informative, his biggest issue is that he is a bit too verbose imo.

His series has had 736,000 views, that is a pretty incredible number.

Views has nothing to do with the quality of content. Hitting on specific key search words or phrases matter more for views than than anything else.

If you want to actually learn about scopes and get honest opinions videos from an optical engineer; Ilya is a much better source to start out your journey watching. If you just want to watch charismatic paid endorsements Rex is your man.

The oldest 101 series Rex videos started out with good intentions. Some of his information was already dated back then and some info is flat out wrong, but some of it wasn't half bad and at least he was trying to guide people in the right direction. Some where along the line even that focus changed to simply building the Rex brand and lining his pockets.
 
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Well for one he says IOR makes the best scopes on the planet, and Premier is second class optically.

Amongst other things he’s said, those two have me a clue. :)

I actually give him the benefit of the doubt on that one.

If I remember correctly Premier did have some initial inconsistency issues?

If he had seen a bad Premier and a good IOR... it isn't the most far fetched thing he's said... since he can't shoot well enough to know whether the scope is holding zero or not 🤭
 
His series has had 736,000 views, that is a pretty incredible number.
The cream does not always rise to the top on Youtube. The lowest common denominator often does. And that dude is a whack job.
Dancing with the stars is also considered a successful TV show. Doesn't mean I'm getting quality entertainment value by watching it.
 
Views has nothing to do with the quality of content. Hitting on specific key search words or phrases matter more for views than than anything else.

If you want to actually learn about scopes and get honest opinions videos from an optical engineer; Ilya is a much better source to start out your journey watching. If you just want to watch charismatic paid endorsements Rex is your man.

The oldest 101 series Rex videos started out with good intentions. Some of his information was already dated back then and some info is flat out wrong, but some of it wasn't half bad and at least he was trying to guide people in the right direction. Some where along the line even that focus changed to simply building the Rex brand and lining his pockets.
Views has nothing to do with the quality of content. Hitting on specific key search words or phrases matter more for views than than anything else.

If you want to actually learn about scopes and get honest opinions videos from an optical engineer; Ilya is a much better source to start out your journey watching. If you just want to watch charismatic paid endorsements Rex is your man.

The oldest 101 series Rex videos started out with good intentions. Some of his information was already dated back then and some info is flat out wrong, but some of it wasn't half bad and at least he was trying to guide people in the right direction. Some where along the line even that focus changed to simply building the Rex brand and lining his pockets.
I can’t comment on his opinion about which scope brand is best, because I can’t afford to go near either of those options, and I will say his content that has been produced lately is not very good when not relating to scopes. But I was talking specifically about his sniper 101 series and I also enjoy his reviews. I learned a lot about the way turrets work, the way scopes are assembled, what causes chromatic aberration, different types of erector assemblies, and a bunch of other stuff from him watching the Sniper 101 series and it was all free. He did what most do and sold out because he wanted YouTube monetization. I never heard of the Ilya guy but I am most certainly going to look up his videos with all the hype I’m actually excited to watch some. I love learning new optic stuff. And I never said that thought if something had a lot of views it had to be great, but certainly someone does. You couldn’t pay me to watch Dancing with the stars but I don’t judge the show or the people who watch it because just because I don’t like it obviously didn’t prevent the millions of others who did from doing so. So when something has that many views it’s got to be hitting it’s mark whether I like it or not. Quality, especially in entertainment is very subjective.
 
Tiwannabesaurusrex? Lmaoooooo.

ok. That was a good one! 🤣🤣🤣 his early videos started off with good intentions, but we know where that leads. He is a good place to start, but when you really want to learn and not listen to an hour of blathering monologue, Dark Lord and Lowlight are tops. It’s ok to have opinions, and it’s ok to be told your wrong.
 
Here is @koshkin explanation videos playlist. He knows what he is talking about because he is in the optics industry somehow.
 
Tiwannabesaurusrex? Lmaoooooo.

ok. That was a good one! 🤣🤣🤣 his early videos started off with good intentions, but we know where that leads. He is a good place to start, but when you really want to learn and not listen to an hour of blathering monologue, Dark Lord and Lowlight are tops. It’s ok to have opinions, and it’s ok to be told your wrong.

OK so I watched DLO, a couple reviews and a couple of informational videos and the guy is awesome no doubt. He just gained another subscriber he has a great way of breaking down technical subjects and explaining them to t\he masses. Initially I said I learned more about optics then anywhere else from T Rex, I’m not quite sure how anyone can conclude that I’m wrong about that but it’s not worth the typing time debating it would take. The sniper series has great charts, and some simple explanations for those of us who are less intelligent and reading the hundreds of comments left for him thanking him and extolling the virtues of the series definitely shows I’m not the only guy that thinks so. Does he blather, yes and it can be frustrating but he also has a lot of information that he imparts and has helped me and many others tremendously. There may be better out there and some people may hate the guy but I stand by my initial statement, which is just an opinion, that he has taught me a bunch. The IHG (Internet Hate Group) may dislike the guy, but they dislike stuff and attack it in every forum I participate in regardless of subject matter whether it be a corvette forum, Airgun forum, optics forum, or whatever they are always ready to pounce. I will say I’m surprised at how much dislike there is for T. rex though, even if his newer stuff is useless ranting.
 
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Listen to the Everyday Sniper Podcast. https://theeverydaysniper.podbean.com/

Subscribe to the online training here.

Read here on snipershide far and wide. Rex is an OK introduction. That's fine. We are trying to tell you there is better and easier to understand information to learn from.
Totally understand and appreciate it. I subscribed to DLO and watched 2 more today already. It's incredible how many parts actually make up these scopes and the tolerances they have to adhere to.
 
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Ilya is the best when it comes to reviews. If I’m considering a scope the first thing I do is go to his channel and see if he has reviewed it. If you want an in-depth honest review he is the guy you want to watch.
 
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Ilya is by far my new favorite YouTube scope guy. My objective of this thread has def been met now, he really knows his stuff. Thanks everyone!
 
Any reviewer that doesn't just spew out BS about what FFP vs SFP is and actually talks about the SCOPE and provides real evaluation information, not "their paid opinion". Cyclops is hilarious.
 
People watch people opening boxes with zero actual testing or an actual review. YouTube is chock full of utter crap. You have to swim through all that crap to find anything worthwhile.
You are in the place where the people who talk about shooting can actually shoot, and the place for people who are willing to prove it through competition. That isn’t to say everyone competes or that’s a requirement, but “IMPACT!!!” cuts through a lot of bullshit.
 
Any reviewer that doesn't just spew out BS about what FFP vs SFP is and actually talks about the SCOPE and provides real evaluation information, not "their paid opinion". Cyclops is hilarious.

Cyclops is one funny some bitch I agree. If you want to learn about the technical aspects of a scope he isn’t the guy for the job but I get a smile on my face every time I watch one of his videos. A lot of the comparisons he makes with the adjectives he uses are so funny. I especially like his “mean you tube comments” videos where he reads through his comments and finds people who are seemingly upset by his reviews and go off on him. If you haven’t seen them and want to laugh you should definitely take a look.
 
People watch people opening boxes with zero actual testing or an actual review. YouTube is chock full of utter crap. You have to swim through all that crap to find anything worthwhile.
You are in the place where the people who talk about shooting can actually shoot, and the place for people who are willing to prove it through competition. That isn’t to say everyone competes or that’s a requirement, but “IMPACT!!!” cuts through a lot of bullshit.

I know I love that about this site. It seems like all the heavy hitters do their Internet forum stuff here. Plus the classifieds are more active than anywhere else I’ve seen. I’m kind of new to this so I doubt I’ll be able to contribute too much but I do try to impart whatever knowledge I’ve gained if it can help someone. I learned about Ilya from this thread and he is amazing. He also lives right around the corner from my condo in LA coincidentally. Open box videos have their place but I personally don’t watch them.
 
The cream does not always rise to the top on Youtube. The lowest common denominator often does. And that dude is a whack job.
Dancing with the stars is also considered a successful TV show. Doesn't mean I'm getting quality entertainment value by watching it.
Can you explain why you think he is a whack job? I’m a noobie here so educate me a little.
 
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One mans opinion, and a little harsh in mine, but Frank actually attended one of his classes and reviewed it here (I think pretty objectively).
Rex just sort of glosses over the fundamentals and goes straight for the weeds. Not that he bills himself as a working sniper, but Some of his sources are quite dated .mil manuals. The merch he pushes isn’t really used by anyone I know except maybe by beginners who listen to him.
I don’t think he’s necessarily bad for the sport, but you will outgrow him quickly.
Just IMO.
 
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One mans opinion, and a little harsh in mine, but Frank actually attended one of his classes and reviewed it here (I think pretty objectively).
Rex just sort of glosses over the fundamentals and goes straight for the weeds. Not that he bills himself as a working sniper, but Some of his sources are quite dated .mil manuals. The merch he pushes isn’t really used by anyone I know except maybe by beginners who listen to him.
I don’t think he’s necessarily bad for the sport, but you will outgrow him quickly.
Just IMO.
Very well said. However for a beginner, which I am, his Sniper 101 series is very good and if someone is in the same boat as me I highly recommend it. They're has not been one thing I learned yet that was incorrect. Of course I'm not the brightest bulb in the drawer either. Hey BTW Fig what is the most dangerous city?
 
Can you explain why you think he is a whack job? I’m a noobie here so educate me a little.
Very well said. However for a beginner, which I am, his Sniper 101 series is very good and if someone is in the same boat as me I highly recommend it. They're has not been one thing I learned yet that was incorrect. Of course I'm not the brightest bulb in the drawer either. Hey BTW Fig what is the most dangerous city?
To explain some of the feelings and responses so far check out this thread. Start on post 93. Note the thread was originally started in 2013. In the 90's post count area it jumped from 2014 to 2017. Remember lots of posts are old. Don't Necro unnecessarily.

General consensus its a good place to start if you don't know better. Nothing wrong but I feel you will learn more in a shorter time listening to Lowlights Everyday Sniper Podcast.
 
To explain some of the feelings and responses so far check out this thread. Start on post 93. Note the thread was originally started in 2013. In the 90's post count area it jumped from 2014 to 2017. Remember lots of posts are old. Don't Necro unnecessarily.

General consensus its a good place to start if you don't know better. Nothing wrong but I feel you will learn more in a shorter time listening to Lowlights Everyday Sniper Podcast.

Holy shit, had I seen that article before I never would have posted that. All I was trying to do was let people know about a resource I found valuable. That turned into a bunch of hate some bordering on insulting with everything from sarcasm to misinformation about YouTube hit count. I challenge anyone to find me one video on YouTube regarding scopes that has half the hits that the video I pointed out from Rex has. One of my fields of expertise is Search Engine Optimization and although it is absolutely true that there are some tricks to raise a websites position in a queries result set, keywords alone have not and will never be responsible for a sight getting a half a million hits. Of course lowlight and others with their level of expertise are going to be better than Rex, but they are the top 1% in the entire world so what do you expect? I have listened and watch stuff from him and Ilya now and their level of expertise is quite frankly astonishing and had I known about them prior to watching Sniper 101 I probably wouldn’t have seen it. BUT I only found out about them because I started this thread so my objective was met, and it seems it allowed others to vent so it’s a win in my book :)
 
Holy shit, had I seen that article before I never would have posted that. All I was trying to do was let people know about a resource I found valuable. That turned into a bunch of hate some bordering on insulting with everything from sarcasm to misinformation about YouTube hit count. I challenge anyone to find me one video on YouTube regarding scopes that has half the hits that the video I pointed out from Rex has. One of my fields of expertise is Search Engine Optimization and although it is absolutely true that there are some tricks to raise a websites position in a queries result set, keywords alone have not and will never be responsible for a sight getting a half a million hits. Of course lowlight and others with their level of expertise are going to be better than Rex, but they are the top 1% in the entire world so what do you expect? I have listened and watch stuff from him and Ilya now and their level of expertise is quite frankly astonishing and had I known about them prior to watching Sniper 101 I probably wouldn’t have seen it. BUT I only found out about them because I started this thread so my objective was met, and it seems it allowed others to vent so it’s a win in my book :)
Nothing wrong with posting it at all. You posted with what you knew at the time. You listened to what people suggested here and LEARNED.

We have all had to learn at some point. I have a sfp 3-9 mil reticle scope with 1/2 moa (they might be smoa) turrets. I didn't know better at the time. Also at one point on the internet (under a different user name) I wanted a completely titanium ar in lefty just because I thought it was cool as a dream gun. Now it's a left handed Hoplite with a ZCO on top btw.
 
Aaaand ... if we want to get back to the original topic, while I'd second Frank and Ilya, for me personally, I'd like to see reviews that start with reliability and robustness tests.

Glass, reticle, how 'modern' the 'package' is and so on are all secondary for what I want to find out about.

Frank sometimes leans towards this approach, as does Sage Dynamics for AR options. And 9 Hole Reviews often has some good observations about practical pros and cons of reticles after application.

But tracking testing, drop testing, and high round count reliability are what I'd really like to see.