A Day At The Range/Gun of the day

[NPV]

Don't flinch, but the Chen magwell is the way to go. Minimal, and I do mean minute, filing to blend the leading edge with my Tisas Carry. The chute itself was a spot-on channel.

Not possible with my gun, I already had the frame machined for the Chen MSH (installed in picture) so I’d have to go full weld on.

I’m not a huge fan of extended mag wells on carry/hard use guns for a couple reasons. First they tend to print a bit more when trying to conceal. Second, in a potential force on force scenario (grappling) they can get bent. If that happens the mag will be trapped in the gun. Probably not a massively realistic scenario but neither is a mid gunfight reload in a civilian context.

 

[nortac]

RSO match today: close range carbine on the pistol range shooting IPSC style targets for the most part, but a little pistol against plates thrown in. Each stage consisted of 5 IPSC targets at various distances between 15 to 25 yds., with various amounts of targets exposed/concealed. On one stage (which we shot twice), after engaging IPSC targets with the rifle, the rifle is "safed" and place on a table, then you had to run about 15 yards to another shooting box to engage a steel plate rack with the pistol, which starts out unloaded and can only be loaded once the shooter was inside the shooting box. Great fun and I came in second place among our small group of RSO shooters.

 

[OkieStubble]

Second place! Great! Sure sounds like lots of fun.

 

[OkieStubble]

Not possible with my gun, I already had the frame machined for the Chen MSH (installed in picture) so I’d have to go full weld on.

I’m not a huge fan of extended mag wells on carry/hard use guns for a couple reasons. First they tend to print a bit more when trying to conceal. Second, in a potential force on force scenario (grappling) they can get bent. If that happens the mag will be trapped in the gun. Probably not a massively realistic scenario but neither is a mid gunfight reload in a civilian context.

Good post. Shadow Systems has their own aftermarket flared mag well I could cheaply purchase for my MR920, but I noticed they already had a while much smaller, but still, a pretty usable flared mag well already injected molded in the shape of the frames mag well?

While it’s small enough that the aftermarket doesn’t seem redundant to me, it’s large enough and usable enough that the aftermarket just seems ‘too much’ of a good thing?

 

[nortac]

There is a new indoor range under construction just a couple of miles down the road from me. Supposed to be a high end range with instruction and events? It will be interesting to see what their pricing structure is, what they have to offer in services and gear, if they will be sponsoring competitive events, etc. It would be hugely convenient if it's all that it's cracked up to be. If it's not ridiculously expensive and without stupid ammo restrictions, etc., it would be great not to have to drive 60 miles round trip to go shoot. It's scheduled to be open sometime this spring. Fingers crossed.

 

[ColtRevolver]

Last night was unlimited rimfire benchrest. The wind was pretty bad and unpredictable. We shot 7 matches. I got a cash payout on six of them.

 

[nikonNUT]

So I took the guide out and got it zeroed in a torrential downpour. I am thoroughly impressed!

And if anyone wants to see the short dissertation I wrote up on the thermal let me know.

 

[OkieStubble]

And if anyone wants to see the short dissertation I wrote up on the thermal let me know.

Yes please!

 

[nikonNUT]

Yes please!

Ask and you shall recieve, Rob!

"So not a critter in sight this evening. I may have to start grabbing a nap and heading out later at night. The deer didn't even make an appearance but it gave me time to fiddle with settings and the like. It was suprisingly sticky for April and I am dreading summer! Conditions were as follows...

So with nothing moving all I could do was snap a pic of the garden. This is at the 2.8x native magnification looking at my friends corn feeder behind his garden. Full disclosure... I snapped this on my phone via the app that lets you control the sight remotely and by control I mean you can adjust every setting you can access on the sight itself down to magnification and the location of the PIP. Feeder is at 60 yards and yes, my varminting is done up close and personal. Mostly raccoon and opossums but I have seen bobcats and foxes (but they are smart and wary so seeing is all I have had the chance to do)...

And same feeder on 10.2X. You can see the solar panel charge cord. Still at 60 yards. BTW, I zeroed during a thunder storm and had no issues getting it done!

Took my trusty iRay MH25 HMT (V1 with a PVS-14 eyepiece) for scanning and the TR650 whipped up on it pretty good! And the phone pic doesn't do it justice (SAYS everybody but really!) So pros and cons.
Cons...
1)The front lens cap is meh. Just a snap-in cover teatherd by a rubber band like strap. The cap is fine but the teather sucks! Easy fix is to cut it off and when you pull the cap off stick it in your pocket. The cool fix is to get a cover from one hundred concepts. BTW, @SkyScrapin told me about this so no suprise.
2) The rear accordion eye cup also gets in the way. One again I was warned and you can just fold it over on itself and be good to go!
3) This one is a pro and con so grain of salt. Battery life is an unknown. As you can see I used about half (18650) in 3 hours BUT I was running WiFi the whole time and that kills battery life regardless of the thermal so I think 8 hours is doable just being out and about. Need more? Carry an extra cell or do like my buddies do. Get the round Anker power bank. It will fit in a standard Amazon M-lok weapon light mount. Extra juice, simple mounting solution!
4) Focus requires a light touch as the sweet spot isn't as forgiving as, say, my RH25 but at almost 3 times the base magnification I don't think that should suprise anyone.
5) One small gripe that I will quickly learn to ignore... After you zero the scope the cross hairs mis-align with the cross hairs in the PIP at base magnification. Notice the location of the green dot in relation to the same dot in the PIP. Increase the magnification and and they line back up with each other (See the red crosshairs). Again, being extra critcal here and I will forget/ignore it quickly. Damn my OCD! :LOL:
That's all I've got for cons so onto the pros...
1) Not really about the performance but the TR650 is fairly compact and light especially for an alloy housing. Dedicated is waaayyyy mo' betta than clip on. Lighter and better balance for the win! Off-hand shooting with a clip-on is bordering on painful but my shoulders and back are kinda trashed from decades of slinging steel. A tripod destroys that argument but i do some spot and stalk so still kinda valid. This is on a Tippmann M4-22 Elite (AR22)...

2) I don't want to say the resoltion is better because 640 is 640 and 12um is 12um but perhaps the abilty to resolve (I think thats the term I am looking for) is great! That pine tree on the left? Solid white on the MH25 and not much better on the RH25 (and I have spent hours tweaking the RH25). The TR650 manages to pull some bark detail and that is impressive seeing as it glows like a nuclear fuel rod! Does iRays Martix III algorithm widen that gap? I can't say but who knows what the next TR650 firmware update will bring. When I updated mine it was a 500-ish MB down load! Lots going on there. BTW Guide, some release notes would be nice. What exactly am I updating?
3)Lots of features. 10 rifle profiles, 10 reticles with 5 color options and 10 brightness settigns, and indiviual zeros for 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 yards. Not sure why unless the optional BT LRF can tell the TR650 which zero to work off of? @SkyScrapin Thoughts? You can even select the postion of the PIP (Yes, it has it) at top left, top middle, or top right. And the hot spot tracking is neat-o! :LOL:
4) I think battery life will be great if you aren't blowing it out with the brightness setting or using WiFi non-stop! There is a selectable power saving option in the quick menu as well. Not sure what that throttles so extra battery for me or external power.
5) Not a ton of buttons. One for power (doubles as a NUC button and screen off), one for picture/video and one on the selector dial for menu inputs. Along those lines the dial for magnification is nice! Much smaller increments that the standard 1x, 2x, 4x, and 8x and no cycling through. Want more zoom? Turn the dial one way. Want less zoom? Turn the dial the other way! Easy.
6) Personal pro but I think this thing punches above its price! Very personal opinion but dang! $3200.00? I'm keeping it for sure.

As an aside... I'm not bashing iRay. Love both of mine and don't regret dropping $10K combined on them but not sure they will get it done at 200+ yards thumping 'yotes. And that is where the TR650 will live. On a 22ARC AR-15 I'm having built for the purpose. The RH25 will live on one of my 22s for smaller critters or as a hand held (PVS-14 on the helmet) or HMT scanner when calling. The MH25 will do the same when the RH25 is playing clip-on. All in all I am impressed and I've shown it to the fella with the garden and he runs an iRay RS75 (The iRay 1280 $18K beast) and other expensive thermals. Seriously, dude has (3) RH25s for loaners and I just helped him pick out a pair of L3 harris high spec PVS-14s just because he liked mine. High praise I think? I like the TR650 and I'm not regretting my purchase!"

</dissertaion> I will add my guy has these on sale right now so instead of $3199.00 they are $2949.00 with no taxes and free shipping. I got a pre-sale deal and still didn't get that price (Not mad. 50 bucks isn't the end of the world.) I almost want another one! If any one is curiuos just DM me and I'll get you in contact with SKyscrapin. And, no, I am not on the payroll, sponsored, etc. Also, @OkieStubble... I now have beaucoup thermals (well 3) so I can hook you up when it comes time for a killin' stuff after dark play date. Just sayin'. I just need the APF AR to show up!

 

[OkieStubble]

Great review and write up Chris! I think the clarity and detail looks actually, pretty amazing imo for a 3K plus thermal. I absolutely believe, one gets what they pay for when it comes to thermal, but dang, I think those pics are as clear as the 8k one I have been trying to save up for!

And you’re saying, $2,949.00 out the door for that? Definitely send me the link!



Edit: Us folks down in these parts spell it and pronounce it just like it sounds,” boo-coo” not beaucoup…. Just so ya know.

 

[nikonNUT]

P.M. Inbound!, Rob!

 

[nikonNUT]

BTW, I talked to Preston (Skyscrapin) about the multiple zero and was informed that if you know the range of the set you are shooting you can just call up the zero you need (and it takes about 7 seconds to do this). Alternatively, if you don't know the range AND you have the bluetooth LRF ($575.00 add on) you can range a landmark and then select a zero. I'm torn as the 22ARC (with a 200 yard zero) is 1.5" low at the muzzle to 1.2" high at 125 yards and back to 2.2" low at 250 yards so a 3.4" swing which is minute of coyote in my book and I would call flat for semantic purposes. Even at 325 yards I'd only see 7.8" of drop so on the shoulder for windage and top of the back for elevation should take care of business.

 

[OkieStubble]

BTW, I talked to Preston (Skyscrapin) about the multiple zero and was informed that if you know the range of the set you are shooting you can just call up the zero you need (and it takes about 7 seconds to do this). Alternatively, if you don't know the range AND you have the bluetooth LRF ($575.00 add on) you can range a landmark and then select a zero. I'm torn as the 22ARC (with a 200 yard zero) is 1.5" low at the muzzle to 1.2" high at 125 yards and back to 2.2" low at 250 yards so a 3.4" swing which is minute of coyote in my book and I would call flat for semantic purposes. Even at 325 yards I'd only see 7.8" of drop so on the shoulder for windage and top of the back for elevation should take care of business.

That'll work, cuz Ima set it & forget it kinda fella and just prefer a hold over.

 

[snowman]

I spent this morning at the hunting cabin firing a pair of Rugers. The LCR in .38 is my EDC. The PC9 9mm Luger is my standard tool for dealing with Skunks, Porcupines, Ground Hogs, Coyotes, feral dogs / cats. I load Hornady flex tip FTX bullets in the 9mm. Its a fast expanding round designed for short barreled CC pistols. The higher velocity coming out of the longer carbine barrel coupled with the fast expanding pistol rounds is quite efficient.

 

[ColtRevolver]

No shooting today, but I did stop by the range today and picked up about 9lbs of brass to recycle and some .30-30 that will be saved for reloading.....I see in my pic a couple of pieces of .308 that I need to pick out of the .30-30 tray.

 

[nortac]

Attention @OkieStubble , This is my first shots of the day, no warm up. Kahr PM 9, slow deliberate fire at 7 yds. Initially 6+1 shots with the flush magazine, which requires one to curl the pinky finger under the frame. Then 7+1 with the slightly extended magazine, for a total of 15 rounds. I was aiming at the center "X", so shots landed about 3-4 inches above POA, with the exception of the two I jerked low. No my best marksmanship. Shooting reloads that are a milder than +P defensive loads, 124 gr. projo's probably a bit over 900+ fps, from this gun, clocked about 1015 fps from my G19.

 

[nortac]

We had our weekly RSO match today, I shot my SIG P365X as usual, ran middle of the pack, score-wise. Combination of IPSC style paper targets and steel plates. One of the stages required shooting both hands, strong hand only and weak hand only, with required magazine changes between each transition. One stage was a single target speed shoot, 6 rounds at 7 yds. I got six shots on target, from the holster in 3.19 seconds, 5 "A-zone" hits and one "C". At least one shooter was under 3 seconds.