Firearms

The SPOT Scope CPR – Reliable, Affordable, and Versatile

Reliable red dots are rarely cheap red dots, but there has been a shift in the market recently. Instead of choosing between a massive piece of crap optic and an 800 dollar Aimpoint, a middle ground has come to exist. In this middle ground Red dots like the SPOT scope CPR exist. This is a Korean made red dot optic that is built to be an affordable and reliable scope for those of us more likely to shoot at the range than take Fallujah.

This Compact Red Dot sight is a 30mm tube that is only 3.74 inches long. It comes with a mount that allows for an absolute co-witness with AR height sights. The scope has 11 brightness settings, and a 2 MOA Red dot reticle. The optic weighs 5.11 ounces with mount and is waterproof and fog-resistant. It can be submerged up to three feet in the water and still run. It’s a surprisingly affordable, and well-made optic that just so happens to work quite well.

Behind the SPOT

The best thing about red dot sights is the fact they can be used on a wide variety of weapons. While this optic worked wonders on my 80 percent lower AR pistol, it works equally well on my Micro Roni with Glock 17. It took very little time to swap the zero between weapons and get to running them. The mount is low enough to easily swap between a multitude of weapons including AKs, ARs, PCCs of all types, and even shotguns.

Getting behind the optic is a pleasant experience. The glass is crazy clear and has a slightly bluish tint. It gives a sharp HD image and a nice and sharp 2 MOA red dot. A lot of optics at this price point has some washout of the dot, however even when cranked to 11 the SPOT scope’s dot is still very sharp. Impressively so.

It made engaging at different distances much easier with the Micro Roni. The main advantage to the Roni is the ability to add a red dot and this is an awesome dot for this kit. Getting on target and transitioning between targets is much quicker than with irons or even smaller red dots. It’s very easy to find the dot due to the height of the optic and how naturally your eye drifts to it.

How it Handles

The ring that alternates between the different brightness settings is somewhat stiff, which is good because it will never accidentally rotate, but it makes getting the right setting a little tough especially if you prefer a 5 or 6 setting.

Zeroing is very easy and you’ll need a flat head tool to get things going. The 1/4 MOA clicks were just right to quickly move the dot and get your zero on. It took two series of adjustments to change the zero from my AR to my RONI kit.

One of the best reasons to invest in this red dot scope is to teach new shooters. Everyone harps on irons, but red dots are much easier to introduce a new shooter to. The SPOT Scope is perfect because it’s not only affordable but easy to use. Let’s not forget it’s also reliable, and holds zero, unlike cheaper optics.

It’s an all-around rock-solid red dot optic. It’s perfect for hobbyist guns, and even home defense. You can check them here. Spot Scopes are made by Mounting Solutions Plus so give them a look.

Watch: Griffon Industries (and some models) give you a refresher in firearm safety

Here at The Loadout Room, we’ve presented the rules of firearm safety in a number of different ways: from think pieces to analysis, from training tips to horror stories, but throughout all of our efforts to help keep our fellow firearm enthusiasts honest and responsible, there’s one thing we never thought of trying: lingerie.

Fortunately for all of us, Griffon Industries got to it before we could.

In this video, released on Griffon’s Facebook profile, you can see the same old firearm safety rules we’ve all grown so accustomed to, but accompanied by underwear clad models holding assorted AR platforms and shotguns, instead of the traditionally grizzled firearms instructor we all remember being yelled at by. We would, of course, be remiss if we pretended we watched this video because we felt the burning need for a refresher on the fundamentals, but in a way, that’s part of the (potentially unintentional) genius of this marketing campaign.

In the United States, many people spend a lot of time championing the right to carry, without placing much focus on the responsibility we bear when carrying our favorite firearms.

When you spend a lot of time around firearms, it’s easy to grow complacent about the basics. We’ve all heard stories about people shooting themselves in the leg when exercising poor trigger discipline on the draw, or killing themselves when cleaning their firearms (despite unloading the weapon literally being the very first step in the cleaning process)… and as easy as it can be to dismiss these stories as nothing more than idiots being, well, idiots, the fact remains that all of us are capable of making mistakes when we start to give ourselves allowances in terms of things like safety.

You know you should wear your seat belt when you drive to work, but it’s easy to get away with forgoing that simple step on drive after drive, until the safety rule itself begins to feel like it wasn’t really meant for you in the first place. After all, you know how to drive, you have never been in a crash, you aren’t the guy or girl in those stories, right?

Until one day, you are, and just like that, you’re the subject of a safety brief, rather than the exception to the rule.

Firearm safety is the sort of thing we all can use frequent reminders about, but there are only so many different ways to dress up the same old information before the voice attached to the lesson starts to sound like the adults in Charlie Brown. If throwing some under-dressed models in the mix is enough to get you to re-certify your non-existent annual training requirements in firearm safety, it seems worth the production budget Griffon spent on this video.

Or maybe that’s just a whole bunch of justification to hit play one more time. We’ll leave that up to you.

Watch Griffon Industries new firearm safety video below:

Image courtesy of Griffon Industries/YouTube

High speed video of rare firearms malfunctioning will make (or ruin) your day

A firearm malfunction has never made anyone’s day better. At the range, it’s cause for a frustrated immediate action drill or worse and in combat it could cost you your life. Serious malfunctions also have a habit of causing lasting damage to your firearm (and potentially to you), making them the sort of thing you don’t even wish on the annoying guy at the range that always wants to shout conversations about Game of Thrones at his buddies like he’s spending the afternoon at a Starbucks.

It goes without saying that if a malfunction in your trusty AR is a bummer, then malfunctions in rare and exotic firearms can be downright tragic — but they are, nonetheless, bound to happen. If someone’s going to be out there firing rare guns, then rare guns are bound to fail from time to time. Fortunately for us, the guys over at Forgotten Weapons maintain a library of high speed footage of these failures — because if you’re going to destroy something beautiful, you might as well get it on camera. They also offer some awesome explanations to accompany the failures so you can understand exactly what you’re looking at.

If you’re having too good a day, check out the video below and try your best not to cringe.

Don’t try this at home? Guy builds homemade “fire vortex cannon” and lights up his backyard with it

It may come as a surprise to most folks, but here in the United States, owning a flamethrower actually isn’t banned by federal law — that means you can technically own your own in the 48 states that haven’t passed their own restrictions on these sorts of weapons. As for “electric ducted fan jet powered fire vortex cannons,” however… you may want to check your local ordinances to be sure.

What exactly is an “electric ducted fan jet powered fire vortex cannon?” We’ll let Youtuber Jairus break that down for you, seeing as he’s built his own. Suffice to say, the final product is pretty badass.

The tunable flame tornado produced by this flame cannon wouldn’t have the same destructive effect in combat as a traditional flamethrower, but it would certainly make you the coolest guy at your town’s barbecue competition.

Feature image courtesy of included YouTube video

US Special Operations Command’s quest for new armor-piercing sniper round

Eager to satisfy the Special Operations Command’s (SOCOM) appetite for technological innovation and improved efficiency, researchers are developing a new armor-piercing sniper round.

During the National Defense Industries Association Armaments Symposium (NDIAAS), researchers with the Crane Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NAVSEA) had the opportunity to present their ideas and show the progress they’ve made on the development of these armor-piercing sniper rounds.

Their primary concerns have to do with the projectile’s cost, effect on rifle barrels, and uniformity. What they have come up with is the Aeroshell projectile. The Aeroshell uses a tungsten penetrator—similar to those used by armor-piercing projectiles like anti-tank missiles—jacketed in a polymer shell casing as opposed to the more traditional copper jacket.

NAVSEA researchers are planning to manufacture approximately 150 Aeroshell armor-piercing rounds in the following three calibers: .338 Norma Magnum, .300 Norma Magnum, and 6.5 Creedmoor. To gauge effectiveness, they will test the rounds against personal body armor at different ranges (100, 400, 800, and 1,000 meters).

The purpose of the round, according to one of the presentation slides used during the briefing, is to “provide snipers and advanced marksmen with the capability of shooting low-cost armor-piercing projectiles that will safely pass through suppressors, muzzle-brakes, and flash-hiders. [It will] greatly reduce sniper-barrel wear [and] provide all war-fighters with new ammunition that will extend barrel life and be environmentally friendly.”

Although the last point must have certainly raised some eyebrows—combat operations are probably one of the more harmful things to the environment—the statement of purpose anticipates the improved personal protection capabilities that troops of potential adversaries, such as China and Russia, may have. Hitherto, snipers have resorted to using the Barrett M107 .50 BMG sniper rifle to ensure armor-piercing results. But the M107 is an anti-material rifle and its use against anti-personnel targets is somewhat overkill.

Recently, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing won a five-year contract to produce the Advanced Sniper Rifle (ASR) for SOCOM. The award is worth approximately $50 million and is expected to be fulfilled by March 2023.

The ASR is a modular, bolt-action sniper rifle that can be outfitted with a number of different barrels, thereby adjusting its caliber according to the situation. It has an effective range of at least 1,500 meters and can be chambered in 7.62x51mm NATO, .300 Norma Magnum, or .338 Norma Magnum calibers.

NAVSEA Crane is one of the 10 command locations of the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC). Alongside its sister locations, NAVSEA Crane is responsible for assessing capability gaps in the U.S. military and coming up with technological solutions.

This article was written by Stavros Atlamazoglou at NEWSREP

Feature image: (U.S. Army photo by Visual Information Specialist Jason Johnston/Released)

Get a crash course in clearing rooms from CQB Expert Eli Feildboy

Editor’s Note: Immediate Threat CQB – ITCQB is a hybrid system, developed through time by Eli Feildboy, the founder of Project Gecko.

Before we start with team tactics we are going to present one-man room clearing tactics, which fit the concept of team tactics in the ITCQB system. In this video we focus on geometry when entering a room and break down the angles into 5 key sections – narrow, 45, 90,150 and 180 degrees. Learn more on how that can help you when slicing the pie in a pressure situation.