I did some filming last week for our site as well as YouTube. New Nikon products represented were the Riflehunter 550 (one of the very best new laser rangefinders on the market), the Nikon Monarch binocular, and the most technologically advanced binocular available, the Nikon EDG (pronounced EDGE). Nikon's introduction of the EDG is going to reset the optical standard of high-end glasses, and the Europeans had better be well aware of the capabilities of this new offering. I have never tested optics that rated as high on a resolution chart. My normal go-to binocular is a Monarch, and has performance far outweighing its selling price.

Yesterday started the first two Riflescope 101 classes. Almost 40 attended alltogether. Lots of scoped guns and targets for visual aids, and instructor Steve bouncing around like a monkey. Classes were great and enjoyable and not boring in the least. A big load off my mind completing this section, it was lots of work and very important. After class yesterday I shot a pistol match. It was a no light match, so I chose to use a Glock 19 with a Streamlight TLR-1. This is the first time I used a weapon light in a match and it certainly contributed to me winning. After that, I won a couple dart games and made a nice dinner for my Shirley. Certainly was a full day.

A customer asked the other day for recoil ratings on a few different scopes. For the most part, there aren't any. Some manufacturers will say that they take "1000 thumpings with a .375 H&H", or rated to .454 Casull, but this is largely marketing hype. What is the weight of the gun? Who determines what recoil factor this is? Manufacturers also do not test for recoil the same way. The best way to determine recoil resistance of a scope without bells and whistles is price and reputation. Why do most rifles in gun magazines wear a few certain brands of riflescope? This is not hype. Some people use a variety of different products all the time and know what breaks. This is how a reputation is formed. Don't put tons of faith in recoil ratings if you can find them.