I'm testing a prototype that may become the next OPMOD riflescope. It's airgun rated, and this rating generally means it is virtually indestructible for all field use. It has a 6x magnification range, and is a 2.5-15×50 with a 30mm tube and a side focus with parallax corrections from 10 meters to infinity. I've been trying to break it for almost two weeks now, and it stubbornly refuses to be anything but perfect. It will be a welcome addition alongside our new 3-9×40 OPMOD Zeiss Conquest. Zeiss Sport Optics has never paired with another company before, and to have that feather in our OPMOD cap makes me quite proud.
I've been testing another riflescope lately, the Armasight Drone Pro. It's a digital riflescope that portends the future of night vision. I'm told it's all my fault. I've been pushing digital for years, and finally some folks took notice. The pixel display is 752×582, and if you understand those numbers, you'll realize that that's as good as it can get at this time. Simply amazing. It has better resolution that even my OPMOD gen 3 and gen 4 ATN NVM 14s, and it can be used in the daytime. The reticle type is changed with the push of a button, and you can change the brightness and color of the reticle just as easily. It is a 5x scope, and comes with a doubler to make it 10x. Adjustments are made in increments of 2.5cm at 100 yards at 5x, or 1.4 cm at 10x. From my testing, this worked perfectly. I shot a bunch of cheap .308 out of my Remington R-25 and got great groups just where they should've been. Every time. I love this product, and the future is here now. It's a fraction of the cost of traditional gen 3 image intensified night vision or thermal. BEST BUY HERE, FOLKS! I love it.
I also used the superb new indoor rifle ranges at G.A.T. Guns to zero the iron sights on my Colt Comp II H-Bar for an upcoming CMP match.
I've also been playing with a new crossbow, and on it, the superb EOTech 512 XBow sight. It is specifically made for crossbows, and the reticle is as easy to use for ranging as any I have ever seen. 1000 hours of power from two AA lithium batteries, not affected by temperature. Cheek weld height is perfect, and intensity levels are adjustable to your liking and lighting conditions. Waterproof to 10 feet. Superb.
My Shirley expressed interest in learning to ride a bike, so we borrowed a 1985 Honda Elite 250cc scooter from a friend. So easy to ride it's silly, or so I thought. I've been riding for almost 50 years, and I guess I assumed too much. On this scooter, you don't have to worry about shifting gears or using a clutch. Shirley did pretty well right away. She got her permit, and I followed her around the neighborhood quite a few times, with corrections and suggestions after every outing. Last week we rode to the DMV so she could get her license. Didn't happen. The course was WAY harder than we thought it would be. There are four parts, and she dropped the bike while starting the first portion. VERY hard to do on anything but a small bike. I was shocked. I barely did it on her scooter after the instructor left, and hardly did it at all on my big KLR. Very tight, with hairpin turns around cones. Wow. So she took it stoically, and now we knew what to practice for the next try.
We took our bikes to church the last two Sunday mornings, over 20 miles round trip each. We stopped at home last Sunday for a pit stop, and decided to take them to a local store for needed ingredients to prepare our day's meal. She took off in front of me like always, with me following her for safety. If I saw anything unsafe, I could always shoot in front of her and take actions of some type. I was following her and noticed…HER KICKSTAND WAS DOWN!!!!!!! I had to stop her. On modern bikes you can't even get going with the kickstand down, the engine shuts off. This old machine had her merrily driving away, unaware of imminent danger. I squirted in front of her and vehemently gesticulated for her take a right into the next driveway. I would rather have her fall at 5 MPH than 35 MPH! She had plenty of room to slow down and turn, but I guess she got nervous. She didn't brake hard enough while preparing to turn right. I knew she was going to crash. It was one of the scariest sights I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. She dropped the bike a few feet before she hit the front left wheel of a car turning left in front of her. The bike skidded for a bit, wheels first, then smashed into the vehicle. She stopped like a bullet into steel. I dropped my bike and ran over to her as fast as I could to get her out of the way of traffic, but she was already up. She looked ok and wasn't in shock. The driver of the car was ok, and I picked up what was left of our borrowed scooter and wheeled it over the closest curb and laid it down. I then picked up my bike and got it off the road, too. The scooter was totaled. My beloved Shirley was amazingly not hurt, just a few scrapes and bruises. It was truly, once again, God protecting her. If you slide your bike into the wheel of a car, expect to get hurt. She wasn't. The left handlebar was bent badly, and if any body portion was there instead, it would've been smashed like the console on the bike. Thank you, Lord, once again, for taking care of My Shirley.
Our great friend Barbara Jean, from whom we borrowed the scooter was just glad that Shirley wasn't hurt. We paid her a fair sum for the bike, and it's driveable for a monkey like me, but really quite a circus to ride. I can make it work again, but it's totaled. We own it now, and am not sure what will happen with it.
And here's a picture of another upside down Crash (Crash Almighty), just for laughs!
Be well, be good to each other, and be careful.
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