Burris is a household name in optics when it comes to hunting equipment, magnified optics, electro-optics, spotting scopes, and even thermal optics. During TFB Gun Fest 2021 we had the opportunity to talk with Phil Harding with Burris optics about all the new and exciting optics that Burris has now brought to the market including the FastFire 4, Oracle X Crossbow Scope, Oracle 2 Rangefinding Bow Sight, as well as their new lineup of thermal optics including a Thermal Clip-On and Thermal Riflescope.

My New Year’s resolution for 2021 was to take stock of what I have, use what I’ve got, and stop compulsively internet shopping for more shit. With that in mind, I did an ammunition inventory and discovered that while my stock of 9mm practice ammo will hopefully carry me through another couple of years, I also have (if I don’t get too trigger happy) a lifetime supply of .22 Long Rifle ammo. My primary handgun for training and home defense is a Dan Wesson TCP 1911 in 9mm, so my goal was to find a reliable, accurate, .22LR 1911 conversion kit as a training aid that didn’t burn my dwindling supply of 9mm. For the tl;dr people, I’ll say right now that the Nelson Custom conversion kit I got is working out very well in its intended role. For those who want details, here you go.

There are a lot of optical sight options for your firearm. Today we take a look at an interesting optic that has a lot of potential and features you do not normally see in a reflex sight. The Mepro Foresight is an advanced augmented red dot sight that has a wide variety of reticles and options. It can also be paired with a smartphone for more features.

There is a common misconception perpetuated with shotguns. “You don’t have to aim, just point and shoot”. Sadly, our current president made a very bad statement several years ago that has not helped the fallacy that shotguns do not need to be aimed. If you have ever shot a shotgun competitively, they most certainly need to be aimed. Otherwise trap and skeet would be easy. While shotguns do have a form of a sight, typically a bead sight, they are not great. It is 2021, let’s put red dots on our shotguns. Jawbone Tactical makes a red dot mount for the Mossberg 500/590 shotgun.

Aimpoint started the week by having a Press Conference with the launch of the next generation of their Acro Red Dot sights. The models are called Acro C2 and Acro P2 and the biggest news is that they are now using a CR2032 battery providing 50,000 hours (that’s 5 years) of running time while keeping the same overall physical size as before. Another interesting piece of news is a flip-up lens cover which is available as an accessory in various configurations.

Swampfox Optics is a young company, having been founded less than three years ago on July 4th, 2018. In that short time, they have come to market with a wide variety of optics types. They offer several scope options, two prism models, pistol MRDS options, and some rifle-mounted red dots like the first-gen Liberator. They also sell some non-optic products, including branded pistol mag extensions and their Wolverine Glock slides. TFB has done several articles on Swampfox offerings, including:

The Austrian optics company Kahles has released several interesting products lately. TFB reviewed the Kahles K18i Riflescope with IPSC Reticle last year and it’s still one of the best Low Power Variable Optic on the market. TFB just got the brand new K525i Dynamic Long Range riflescope to review as well. When I got the new K525i DLR and looked into it I said wow, and we’ll see in the upcoming review if the sensation persists.

Thanks to my friend Jason for clueing me into Zaffiri Precision. They have been making their own custom slides and barrels for Glocks and last year branched out to SIG slides. Well, I got their ZPS.2-G43 slide and barrel to upgrade my Glock 43. I also got their SRC micro red dot which the slide was cut for.

In this episode of TFBTV, Hop tests the new $100 Bushnell RXS-100 on a Taurus G3 TORO to find out if it can compete with pistol red dots costing up to five times as much. The RXS-100 and RXS-250 are two new pistol red dots from Bushnell that use the common Delta Point Pro mounting pattern. The RXS-250 has a surprising amount of features for the price, but the RXS-100 strips away the high-end features in order to be the cheapest pistol red dot on the market. But how cheap is too cheap?

I recently came across a neat youtube video showcasing what looks to be a red dot sight right out of a futuristic video game. The sight apparently doesn’t have any glass lenses for the dot to project off of and the frames on either side of it are more or less there for show. So what exactly is going on here and is this design a harbinger for more glass-less dot sights?

Another win for SIG Sauer and their P320 pistol with a Romeo1PRO red dot sight on the slide as the Delaware State Police with over 700 troopers adopts the system. Half a decade ago this kind of solution was almost unheard of, apart from some competition shooters using it. Now an entire Police force can adopt the electro-optic solution together with a striker-fired handgun. It makes me wonder what will the next generation of handguns and optics look like?

Parker Mountain Machine is a custom firearm manufacturer and producer of aftermarket firearms parts for all sorts of guns including the SIG P320, Beretta M9A3, B&T APC9, and other firearms. They’ve just announced the release of a novel new item for the Trijicon SRO that I think improves upon the design of the already great optic. Introducing the Parker Mountain Machine Integrated Rear Sight (IDRS) available now for the Trijicon RMR, RMRCC, and SRO.

If you’ve gotten tired of all the domestic releases of red dots and are looking for something new or foreign to try out then German Precision Optics has decided that now is the time to jump into the red dot scope game. The new SPECTRA Dot red dot scope is a CR2032 powered 22mm red dot scope ready to mount to any rifle or pistol with a Picatinny rail or Weaver rail. The SPECTRA Dot is priced at $399.99 MSRP.

SIG Sauer have announced a new addition to their P365 family of pistols, the P365X ROMEOZero. The new pistol has a 3.1-inch barrel, a longer P365XL grip module and its slide has a factory installed SIG Sauer ROMEOZero red dot. Retaining the small profile of the P365 while providing the capacity of the XL and adding the improved X series trigger and a red dot.

Ruger have introduced a new micro-compact carry pistol – the Ruger MAX-9. with a 3.2in barrel, a weight of 18.4 ounces and a standard capacity of the 12+1 it is firmly aimed at the EDC market to compete with pistols like SIG Sauer’s P365 series and Springfield Armory’s Hellcat.

Last year Taurus released their freshly updated G3C compact 9mm pistol. Being the successor of the G2C, the G3C (and by extension the G3) received some upgraded features and a new look. I reviewed the G3C upon release last year and if you want my review of the full pistol without the optics cut then you can read that here. Today we’ll be discussing the Taurus G3C TORO (Taurus Optics Ready Option) pistols that have just been made available.

The original G3 and G3C are already two of the best handguns for the money, so putting a red dot on top lets them punch way above their weight class. In this episode of TFBTV, Hop shoots the new optics-ready Taurus G3 TORO with NODs.

Over the years I have used several different brands and models of red dots. They all have their place and uses and so far I have not found the perfect red dot sight. The Trijicon MRO is my first reflex sight from them and the first Trijicon product I have ever owned. The reason why I bought it was to see if my competition shooting results could improve in PCC (Pistol Caliber Carbine) overall and Steel Challenge (PCC) specifically. Not that I have a huge amount of experience with PCC and Steel Challenge yet, but shooting is shooting.

Meprolight is one of the OG’s of red dot optics and also happens to be one of the most common names when it comes to durable, action-ready red dots. The company has just released their newest red dot – the MEPRO O2. This sight is intended to be an all-weather, all-light capable red dot with many features suitable for military and law enforcement use.

Springfield Armory have announced the launch of a new line of red dot optics for pistols and rifles. The new HEX line launches with two new sights: the WASP, a micro red dot reflex sight designed for concealed carry pistols, and the DRAGONFLY, a standard size red dot which can be mounted on rifles and pistol caliber carbines.

Rapid Defense Package – That’s the Springfield Armory Hellcat‘s name in its latest edition. Paired with the brand new HEX Micro Red Dot, a Gen 2 trigger, a threaded barrel with a self-indexing compensator to tame the muzzle rise, the package looks quite interesting. There is also a version with an ambidextrous manual safety for those who like that.

Two years ago at SHOT Show 2019, we saw the Steiner CQT for the first time. At GunFest 2021, the Steiner Rep brought out the Steiner CQT. We were all excited to check it out and the Steiner Rep let me borrow it for a more in-depth review. So let’s dive in and take close look at the CQT.

The new Taurus TX22 Competition is an optics ready version of the original TX22. The TX22 Competition is built on the same lower as the original, but with an extended barrel and slide, along with an optics base. In this episode of TFBTV, Hop reviews the TX22 Competition and tests the new Bushnell RXS-100 pistol red dot at the same time.

Topless – that’s what Grace Optics calls the design of their M1 red dot sight because as you can see in the pictures, it lacks a top strap of the housing over the window. The advantage of this design is that it provides a less obstructed field of view which should result in faster target acquisition. Grace Optics claims that despite this open-top design, the M1 sight is still very robust because “the glass is very strong and the side bars make it just as strong as any other sight on the market“.

Leupold & Stevens, Inc. has announced a new addition to the DeltaPoint Pro line which features a 6-MOA dot. I’ve been using various red dots on handguns for over 10 years, and the first one was actually the original Leupold DeltaPoint on the slide of my Glock 34 Open gun. This was before anyone invented Carry Optics and IPSC Production Optics, a market that now has exploded. I’ve also used twin, in-line, DeltaPoints on my Molot Vepr 12 Shotgun, one zeroed for birdshot and one zeroed for long-range slugs.

US Optics is best known for their expensive, high magnification rifle scopes, but they’ve recently expanded into red dots as well. The new offerings are the TSR-1X, a 20mm micro red dot for carbines, and the DRS series of pistol red dots. In this episode of TFBTV, Hop reviews the US Optics TSR-1X to see if it can carve out a place in the market alongside Holosun, Vortex, and the once and future budget champ: the SIG Romeo 5.

I don’t have a lever action, but I wish I did and perhaps one day my wish comes true. Now, if I had one I would certainly be very interested in getting the new Henry Red Dot Mount from Phoenix Weaponry. I’d put a red dot on it and imagine I was a modern cowboy for a while.

Primary Arms is a prolific optics manufacturer. Their house-brand optics product lines span dozens of models of riflescopes, LPVOs, prism scopes, red dots, and magnifiers – along with a cavalcade of various mounts and accessories to support them. With only a half-dozen of the current models requiring a cash outlay north of the $1000 mark, and the overwhelming majority of their options sitting at less than $500 MSRP, Primary Arms tends to weight affordability, and they strive for value on a budget with the bulk of their glass. When they came to TFB and TFBTV’s recent GunFest, they brought three such optics along with them, some of their newest models. None of these were entirely new, never-before-seen announcements, as each has been discussed in some form here on TFB before, but they are examples of the Houston-based company’s latest offerings.

In this episode of TFBTV, James is with Primary Arms to discuss new optics offerings from them. From economically priced to higher-end, from red dots to magnified optics, pistols to rifles, Primary is releasing a diverse group of optics for 2021.

Colorado-based Burris Optics turns a whopping 50 years old this year, having been founded in 1971. For many old-school hunters, scopes like those of Burris’ venerable Fullfield series often get mentioned in the same breath as icons of yesteryear such as Weaver and Redfield. From their half-century history, Burris lays claim to some industry firsts, including the first US-made scopes with multi-coated lenses, the first Scout-style scope, and the first variable-power handgun scope. While they still offer current versions of some of those classic optics types, they also produce some more modern offerings as well. At TFB and TFBTV’s GunFest 2021, Burris came to discuss three such pieces.