The Firearm Blog is on a mission to review as many of the Schmidt & Bender PM II Riflescopes as we can. In case you didn’t know PM is short for Police & Military. Previously we had a look at the classic S&B 5-25×56 PM II with the LRR-Mil reticle, with a 5 power magnification range. An “oldtimer” still in young shape.

Tucson-based Riton Optics have announced the introduction of thier new pistol red dot optic, the X3 Tactix MPRD. It has an aluminium body, HD glass, a 3 MOA reticle and a 50,000 hour battery life.

Minnesota-based Styrka have launched a range of open and tube red dot sights for pistols and carbines. The new Styrka S3 Open Style Red Dot or the Styrka S3 Tube Style Red Dot are available now with MSRPs of $289.95 and $329.95.

Vortex Optics has just announced that they will be extending a special offer throughout this troubling time. Between now and 26th June, vortex optics is extending 40% off their products to medical staff such as doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals.

Browe Inc. has announced the release of a new red dot sight called Browe Micro Reflex (BMR). The company describes its new product as a simple, intuitive and effective solution for use with pistols, rifles, carbines and shotguns. Let’s take a closer look.

Leupold & Stevens has just announced that its award-winning Freedom Red Dot Sight will now be available in a Black Ring model. The Freedom RDS originally featured the company’s trademark gold ring encircling the objective lens bell. The Freedom RDS is designed for close-range, rapid target engagement.

Good morning firearms fans and welcome back to another episode of the TFB Behind The Gun podcast. Today’s guest is Aaron Hampton from EOTECH. I really enjoyed this interview because besides having an incredible level of knowledge and experience, Aaron was easygoing and personable, which can be sometimes hard to find in our industry today. We discussed optics basics, product development and dove into the issue of thermal drift. Personally, I was impressed with the openness by a company that received such harsh criticism in the past, but you can have a listen and let me know your thoughts.

American Holoptics, an affiliate of  Koucar Management, have bought EOTech from L3Harris. The purchase price is undisclosed. At the end of 2005 L3Harris acquired EOTech, a story that now comes to an end.

We should be thankful for the companies that support our interest in shooting and competition, and today TFB can reveal a new partnership that has been formed on a Global basis between IPSC ( International Practical Shooting Confederation) and the Austrian company Kahles Optics.

Just before last SHOT Show, fellow TFB writer Austin mentioned that he was going to bring a post sample M16 for us to play with. Check out Luke’s article about that. Well, I talked to Austin and he agreed to make a second post sample lower so we could use it with the Franklin Armory CSW Kit. Cool, a spade grip machine gun. But what optic do we put on such a weapon? A machine gun optic of course! So I bought a DCL110AD-3X just to put on that weapon. But the machine gun optic is not just for machine guns, you can use it on other guns as well.

SIG Sauer Electro-Optics have launched their new ECHO3, a direct view thermal reflex sight. The ECHO3 will be available in either 1-6x or 2-12x magnification and has SIG Sauer’s Ballistic Data Xchange 2.0 integrated to allow the optic to interface with smartphones to allow reticles and settings to be tweaked. The new thermal sight will begin shipping this spring.

In today’s photo, we’re combining great photos with some education about how to use EOTech’s 68 MOA ring EXPS 2-2 reticle.

OuterImpact is adding a new product to its already extensive line of Modular Red Dot Adapters or M.R.A products. The OuterImpact P365XL M.R.A. line of adapter plates gives shooters an easy to install option for mounting mini red dot sights onto their SIG Sauer Carry pistol.

A recent RFI (Request for Information) has been put out by the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The request is seeking out information from the firearms industry for a “Service handgun Electronic Aiming Device.” Recently The DHS CBP has put into service two new handguns able to host an RDS, the Glock G47 and G19, both with the MOS (Modular Optic System) cut.

Boss Components from Adelaide, Australia, have a new red dot mount for the CZ Shadow 2.

Sightmark is coming out with solar-powered red dot optics, the Element and the Volta. We asked Sightmark how the sights would work in the dark or while in the gun safe, then taken out and the answer is a backup battery that will power the optic while in the dark.

I swung by Holosun’s Industry Range Day and SHOT Show Floor booths to take a look at and try out their newest products. Much of their pistol red dot optic line has undergone small revamps and the flagship products are their new HE509 and HE508 V2. Most of their revamped models now have a convenient side accessible battery tray.

American Defense Manufacturing were showing off their new range of magnifiers and some new titanium mounts and AR parts at SHOT Show. First up lets take a look at their new magnifiers that first appears earlier last year.

Last year,  Strike Industries released over 50 new products – that’s one new product per week on average. And looks like in 2020 the mad scientists at the SI R&D department are going to keep that insane rate. Let’s take a look at each of the new and upcoming products that the company brought to SHOT Show 2020.

SIG SAUER showcased a massive new lineup at SHOT Show 2020.  On display were both military and civilian variants of SIG’s ever-growing lineup of firearms and accessories.  Of all the firearms on display, here’s what’s new to the SIG lineup.

Brannon LeBouef, of NOLATAC, takes a minute to speak with Aimpoint about their new COMP M5B. The Bravo means that it now has adjustable turrets that allow for bullet drop compensation instead of holdovers for their very popular line of COMP red dots. The COMP series takes a AA battery and has an estimated 50,000 hour battery life. Now the Bravo version will allow for dialing up and down windage and elevation at various distances with the BDC being caliber specific. Also, the turrets are user swappable, so if you buy a COMP M5B with the 5.56mm turrets and then want to put it on a 300BLK gun, you can just purchase replacement turrets instead of a whole new optic. This will come in handy for hunters especially who use red dots for large game. Expected out for sale in the Spring of this year, the Aimpoint COMP M5B seems like a great upgrade for hunting, defensive, and competition shooters alike.

Leapers UTG came to SHOT Show 2020 in full force with a whole host of new products for pistols, shotguns and rifles alike. I was able to walk through their booth and snap a couple of photos and pricing on some new products that should be hitting stores soon. Let us know down in the comments which of these items you’re most excited about!

Matthew Moss of TFB Reports:

I stopped by Sun Optics’ SHOT Show booth to find they are now known as SOUSA (Sun Optics USA – see what they did there?) With the new name comes a series of new ranges of optics including red dots and scopes. For now the company’s popular mounts will stay under the Sun Optics banner.

Meprolight describe their new Foresight optic as a Innovative Augmented Sight. But what does that mean? Externally, it doesn’t look much different from Meprolight’s other red dot sights like the M5 Pro, but internally the hard and software is very different. The Mepro Foresight boasts the a number of features that stand out in the red dot market. It offers an almost computer game-like heads up display.

Would you believe I wrote 1/17/19, corrected it to 1/1/7/20, and only after typing up most of this article I realized it was wrong? Well, it doesn’t really matter. Here’s some deals to drain your wallet.

Lucid Optics announced a revised version of their M7 Micro Red Dot sight, which will replace its predecessor on Lucid’s red dot lineup.  They’ve made a few major changes to the M7 Micro Red Dot sight, to include a modular mounting system and a different battery to power the M7.  The previous version had been powered by a single AAA battery, while the newer version utilizes a CR2032 battery.  Something completely missing from the new version of the M7 is an automatic brightness setting for the reticle.  Lucid Optics’ full press release can be seen below:

Kahles has been expanding their line of optics and recently came out with a red dot optic. Kahles is known to make extremely high-quality variable power optics and tends to be the competition and tactical division of Swarovski Optics. With Kahles being known for really well built long-range optics, it was a bit of a surprise at SHOT Show 2019 when they announced they would be making a red dot called the Helia for the commercial market. After four months of spending time with a couple of these optics, let’s jump into what my experience has been.

OuterImpact is proud to announce the newest additions to the Modular Red Dot Adapter (M.R.A.) line of products. The OuterImpact M.R.A. line of adapter plates gives shooters an easy to install option for mounting mini red dot sights onto their Ruger American pistols and Steyr A1 (S-A1, C-A1, M-A1, L-A1, M9-A1) pistols without the need for milling or drilling the slide.

At the European Handgun Championships (EHC2019) in Serbia a few months ago Shield Sights (U.K.) stole the show with some clever marketing.