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Doug from Camera Land's Day 2 SHOT Show Report

Not a crazy schedule today.

My first meeting was with GPO. Those of you who are not familiar with GPO it was started around a decade ago by the Ex-President of Zeiss USA and their head of R&D. Great pedigree in the optics world. GPO has been busy. They are showing their new line of Passion SD Binoculars, Rangeguide RF Binoculars in 8x40 & 10x40 and they've also got a new Centuri Riflescope Series that looks interesting with a couple only 9" long and light weight.

The Passion SD Binoculars are another in a long over populated offering of entry level, me too binoculars. Nothing exciting here. They seem nice, starting at $299.99, however, I think another me too optic priced in line with all the others is, well, whatever.

The Rangeguide RF Binoculars in 8x40 & 10x40 were a very nice addition for GPO. "Elevate your outdoor experience with GPO RANGEGUIDE 10×40 Rangefinding Binoculars. Unveil exceptional optical quality and advanced electronic rangefinding technology in THE SMALLEST, compact 40mm RF package." Available in early spring and priced at $1,299.99 these will be a big hit. To inspire you a bit all pre-orders taken now thru the end of February will be only $999.99. Call us to get this amazing deal.

The Centuri Riflescope Series shows that GPO has been paying attention and working hard to make some innovative optics. The 2 That stood out to me were:
CENTURI 3-12x44i Super Compact - "Crafted for high magnification and extreme compactness. At 9.9 inches, it boasts double HD glass, a G4i illuminated micro-dot reticle, and a fast-focus ocular, perfect for ultralight and compact MSR rifles." Priced at only $499.99
CENTURI 4-16x44i FFP Super Compact - "The CENTURI 4-16x44i Super-Compact FFP Riflescope. At 9.9 inches, it combines FFP precision, double HD glass, MIL-based reticle, and zero-stop locking turrets for short ultralight tactical rifles."

I loved the Tactical Mono 10x42ED Monocular, priced at only $299.99. This will be your pocket-sized tactical optic. With an offset MIL reticle, rubber armor, and a built-in belt clip, this monocular, weighing only 13.4 ounces, is your go-to tool for quick MIL readings in critical situations.

Lastly, and I'd like to think this is coming because I have been asking and asking for it, they will have a new 15x50 Passion HD binocular. Coming this Summer. Pricing is expected to be only $1,399.99. I want to sweeten this so call us, 516-217-1000, and pre-order with a small deposit at 20% off from now till they arrive. That's only $1,119.99.

This being far from my 1st SHOT Show I now make sure to plan meetings by booth location. I learned the hard way, years ago, that walking 10 miles back and forth by not paying attention to booth locations when setting up meetings is a major rookie mistake. I walked a few aisles over to meet with Steiner & then Burris as their booths are next to each other.

Steiner announced, and already started shipping, their great new Steiner H6Xi Series Riflescopes. "Proudly Made in the USA: Inspired by years of German heritage, but crafted on American soil, the H6Xi exemplifies the finest in precision optics. With uncompromising attention to detail and craftsmanship, this series guarantees top-tier performance that meets the high standards set by hunters and shooters alike." A MIL version will be released this Spring.

They showed me their new T1xi Illuminated dot sight that has 3 versions of the "dot" Either just a dot, or a circle, or both the dot surrounded by the circle.

They also entered the reticle spotting scope market with their TS740 MIL reticle spotter. March is the expected delivery date. 2 touch focus (eyepiece for the reticle, body for the optical focus).

Saving the best for last they showed me the new Predator 4S Riflescope, S standing for short. Just under 11" and when matched with their new clip on C35 Thermal only about 17" long. This will be a popular scope. Great stuff from Steiner for sure.

Burris released their new Burris FastFire C Red Dot Reflex Sight designed specifically for sub-compact and micro-compact pistols used in everyday and concealed carry.

Burris has expanded their line of Veracity Scopes to include:
2.5-12x42 FFP ILL
3-15x44 FFP ILL
4-20x50 FFP ILL
"Featuring the new Burris PĒK (Programmable Elevation Knob) System the Veracity PH takes speed and precision to the highest level." These are slightly smaller than the previous model, with a new optical system. You can illuminate the HUD only or both the HUD and Reticle at you choice. "In addition to the Veracity PH’s exceptional precision and ease of use, it also offers hunters an informative heads-up display. By pairing with the BurrisConnect app via Bluetooth®, the Veracity PH shows all the information hunters need in one clean sight picture. The display shows elevation turret position in yards, meters or MOA, as well as rifle cant, rifle angle, distance-accurate wind holdover and battery level."

Finally a new Eliminator 6 - Sleek design, "the Eliminator 6 empowers hunters to achieve unparalleled accuracy in the most challenging conditions. At the touch of a button, this redesigned marvel ranges and displays the target distance, swiftly calculates the exact aiming point and wind data, all within the scope for heightened situational awareness. By providing this information in one clear view, hunters don’t have to pull away from the scope to find the information they need. No more questioning if you have the right information — it’s all right there in one picture."

I also saw their new line of Thermal Riflescopes, Thermal Clip On and Handheld.So much new offered in Thermal that I am putting This Link Here to their site so at your leisure you can check it all out. You'll be happy you did.

Next I arrived at Tangent Theta. We had a great time catching up. These guys are awesome. We actually had a very productive meeting and you'll be seeing the addition of their......

ELCAN Specter Line, SAI Optics & Tenebraex Riflescope Accessories. Their Tangent Theta Riflescopes, as I trust you're aware, are the Rolls Royce of riflescopes and I apologize for not adding these other offerings sooner.

The SA1 1-6x24 "is perfect for the true competitive marksman. Loaded with features to assist in long range targeting, it is ideally suited for competitive and recreational shooters requiring precision, control and performance. The SAI™ series of optical sights provide a rugged and versatile solution for a variety of sighting requirements in variable magnification. With an LED-illuminated First Focal Plane reticle, ranging and ballistic hold-off is accurately achieved at any magnification. The proprietary Rapid Aiming Feature™ reticle and superior field of view enhance close-quarter effectiveness."

New for 2024 is the Elcan Specter DR 1-4 which comes equipped with integrated Picatinny rails, ambidextrous magnification throw levers, improved battery covers, and hard-wearing CERAKOTE® performance finishes in Black or Flat Dark Earth (FDE).
"The SpecterDR 1-4 Dual Role Optical Sight represents a revolution in optical sight design. The world’s first truly dual field of view combat optical sight, the SpecterDR switches instantly from a 4x magnified sight to a 1x CQB sight with the throw of a lever. Unlike zoom sights, the SpecterDR offers an optimized optical path and identical eye relief in both 4x and 1x modes".

My last scheduled meeting was with Meopta. Nothing new today but this Summer you'll be excited about their new MeoStar R Riflescopes. 1-6x24, 2.5-15x50 PA & 4-24x56 PA. These are scopes you'd expect to be priced around $2,000.00 and I think they'll step up and price them closer to $1,000.00.

On my way out I stopped again at Riton and chatted a while and looked at their scopes. Not sure yet, what do you think?

Remember all week we are running a SHOT Show Week Sale so if it's not marked down already call, 516-217-1000, and we will hook you up.

If there is anything you're looking for please give us a call at 516-217-1000. It is always our pleasure to speak with you. Always give a call to discuss options and what would be best for your needs.

I switched it up a bit today and went to Johnny Rockets and got a Cookies and Cream thick Shake with extra whipped cream. So over the top, lol

Thanks for taking the time to read this. More tomorrow, Day 3. Have a great day & please follow us on Instagram at gr8fuldoug_

Thank you for your continued support.
If there is anything else that we can assist you with please let us know.
Camera Land
720 Old Bethpage Road
Old Bethpage, NY 11804
516-217-1000
Please visit our web site @ www.cameralandny.com

You asked what I think about Riton. They won't offer anything that your current brands don't. Much of what they make is Chinese. I have one Riton scope. It's a Japanese model that they are no longer offering. Glass is good and it has adjusted as it should, but they were way off on their eye relief. It's far shorter than they advertised and the eye box is a little fussy as well. I also have a Riton Red Dot. The first one I got was faulty right out of the box. They took care of me on the return.

I'd rather see you bring Trijicon aboard. They are offering something that you don't currently offer.

I did a little digging around on the GPO Centuri series and found this:

This new line of American riflescopes will be available at retailers nationwide and online at www.gpo-usa.com this spring. The suggested retail prices for these new models are as follows: 3-12x44i, $539; 4-16x44i FFP MIL, $639; 4-16x44i MOA, $619; 2.5-15x44i $639; 2.5-15x50i, $639; and 3-18x44i, $639.

Are they made in America, or is that intended to mean that they are destined for the American market?

Thanks again for these reports. I look forward to them each day.

Doug,

I'm sure it's probably way too early in the game for this question but I'm going to ask anyway. Any idea how the GPO Rangeguide RF will compare to the Leica Geovid R??

And is the Meostar scopes R1 or R2?? Or a new model altogether?

Thanks.

Thanks for posting on your visits to the various optics companies at the SHOT Show. While I am at SHOT, you have much more expertise in this field than I do.

I was surprised that Vortex Optics was not at the SHOT Show this year. Do you have any idea about why they skipped it?

Vortex hasn't been here in a few years

IMO, Optically they are probably on par. Reliability I would say also on par, however, if you ever have an issue I'd much rather have GPO's Lifetime warranty.

It's a totally new Meostar

Curious what the mounting tube length is on the CENTURI 3-12x44i Super Compact? That combined with the range of eye relief.

Sure wish those veracity scopes weren't FFP.

Doug, this isn't a question to denigrate you personally, but you have repeatedly said GPO Rangeguide has a lifetime warranty. Unless it's changed recently, the electronics are not lifetime, but 5 years. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Regardless, the GPO Rangeguide is very impressive and I'd take it over anything Leica.

https://gpo-usa.com/spectacular-lifetime-warranty/

Yes 5 years on electronics, however, I have spoken with the powers that be and let's just say the electronics have a "lifetime Doug warranty" As long as I'm around you're covered

Good post, Paul, and I'd second your conclusions.

As it pertains to the GPO 40mm RF binos....did you notice any 'disappearing' read-out based on eye position? This is an issue I found when handling the 10x50s; not so with the 10x32s..

Which is why YOU DA MAN….Now bring on Trijicon!😀

They are destined for the American market

No, not something I noticed

Mounting measurement is 2.6". The eye relief is 3.75"

That gpo 4-16x44 ffp looks like it got the feature mix right for what I Iike in a hunting scope. Only other thing I might want on it is a short capped windage knob. I like the magnification range, 4-16 is about ideal for me in a hunting scope. Four for up close or running and 16 is plenty for longer range. Any more and your fighting mirage issues in the heat or not enough exit pupil without a huge objective for lower light.

I also like first focal plane scopes that aren't more than 4x mag range. It's too hard to get a good ffp reticle that works at a low power and at a high power if your trying to go say 7x like 3-21. Plus it's my understanding that scopes with 7 or 8 or more times magnification range are much more complicated with more lenses and more things to go wrong. Four times range or even 3 times is enough for me.

I also like the 44 mil objective because I can still mount it pretty low. I like that type of reticle that has hash marks for holding off my windage calls and even usable ones for elevation so I can hold over on quicker shots if I don't want dial. It's not too cluttered and is a clear little plex at the center that's not all obscured at the aiming point with too much going on.

I was goimg through stuff in my basement this weekend getting rid of old text books etc. I found notes from my trip to shotshow in 2004 when Evan Marshall got myself and his son, my MBA classmate, passes to the big show.

I was writing a business plan for a class and i did it about starting my own hunting optics company. I met with a well known oem from Japan and Vector/ Sun optics from china. I was a broke MBA marketing student but told them i wanted to start my own optics company.

I couldn't get even simple ideas though to the Japanese guys like using mil clicks on mil reticles and moa reticle with moa clicks. I told them I didn't want huge tall knobs with random numbers like 5.5 mils per revolution. I asked for capped smaller windage. I drew them some nice reticle ideas similar to the one this gpo 4-16 has. I told them I wanted precision machined stainless internals and even wanted them cryogenic treated for consistency and hd glass. No plastic dial internals like leupold was using. And I wanted 30 mil tubes for adjustment range.

They were busy showing me their new stuff they were doing for weaver back then with 1 inch tubes, big pop up dials with mushy clicks, limited adjustment range and mil reticles with moa dials. It was like a 3-15x50 they kept saying state of the art all the best features, future of tactical scopes. I doubted if any of them had ever shot a rifle but the dressed nice.

The Japanese guys weren't interested in any of those ideas at the time but the Chinese guys from vector/ sun were furiously taking notes. They took copies of my reticle ideas and everything. The Japanese guys had pretty big prototype fees and like a 500 item per sku minimum starting order. Having a mil model and a moa model was 2 skus so that's 1000 on a first order.

The Chinese guys were eager to get me prototypes on their dime. They had just hooked up with schott and had access to good HD lenses because schott had just build a glass factory in china. They claimed the chinese schott glass was better than the European stuff becauseit was all new fabs and they could still use lead in china. They liked the precision stainless adjustments ideas and wanted to build a tough, repeatable reliable scope.

Unfortunately the Chinese guys did do some prototypes for me and then gave them to an acquaintance of mine from Provo who now owns some different tacticool companies with not great reputations one being Davidson defence.

The first prototype they did based off my suggestions was a ffp 4-16x44 mil/mil. Unfortunately this acquaintance Garth had the money at the time and I couldn't work with him because I didn't trust him or like the way he did business. He ran with my ideas and sold quite a few of those at gunshows etc but had them cheapen them up in every way he could so they never made a prototype to my spec. They just took my dimensions, and features and reticle and skipped the precision internals and Schott glass.

It was fun reading through my old notes and plan though. And it's nice that 20 years later several companies are offering the features I wanted back then. I had spec'd my first line I called Tactical Hunter to have a 2-8x32, a 3-12x42, a 4-16x44, and a 5-20x50. All first focal plane, mil/mil 30 mil tubed with 10 mils per revolution elevation with lower profile turrets and capped windage.

My second line was going to be a lighter weight sfp set and forget traditional capped knob longer 1 inch tube for easier low mounting options. I named it the curmudgeon line in honor of the grumpy old campfire guys at the time. The Japanese guys said weaver was dropping their classic v series scopes about then so I basically wanted to rebrand and improve the classic v1-3, 2-7, 3-9,4-16,and fixed 6x42. Something to compete with vx2s but with better adjustments and reliability.

I also wanted an 8 power fixed 44 mil objective with a short capped windage knob mil/mil. I had 1 tasco super sniper fixed 10 back then I liked but back then it had a moa dial and mil reticle so I was trying to get them to make a version of it without huge tall knobs and in 8 power thinking it'd be better all around for hunting. I used a lot of 6x42 leupolds back then and often wanted just a bit more power. I still ask companies to make me an 8 x fixed like that but no ones done it yet.

The Chinese were really willing to listen to my ideas but they were also very willing to build them and give them to anyone else like Garth. If I would have had any money or time back then I would have liked to make a go of it but I was getting good jobs offers at graduation and took the safe route.

It would have been a good time for someone who actually shot to start an optics company. At least now we got guys like athonlon and arken getting the feature mix right at prices most can afford. Fun seeing how close that gpo 4-16x44 ffp is to my first prototype 20 years ago. I'll have to try one when you get them.

I always type these long novels when I'm up late and in.pain because it takes my mind off the pain. Plus I know no one else will ever read long posts anyways so it's kind of like Journaling for me. I tell my kids they can read my stories on the fire when I'm gone.

The end!
Bb

That was a good read. Thanks for sharing. Chronic pain sucks.

I have one of the GPO passion 3 4-12x44 riflescopes on my 280 and I am always impressed at the clarity in the glass. I look forward to seeing their new scopes