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For this edition of “found on the web,” I want to share a recent video produced by ILya Koshkin. You might remember that I interviewed ILya for the podcast. He’s an optical physicist by trade and knows a thing or two about rifle scopes.
ILya has been hard at work building up his YouTube channel, and he’s been making a lot of strides with his lecture style and whiteboard. In a recent video, he walked through his choices for AR-15 optics in various categories from precision-oriented, low power variable, and electro-optical. If want to dig in and learn about his perspective on the market, then jump on in.
Hitting the Highlights
I’ve written my own guide to AR-15 optics as well. In it, I broke them into five major categories. The first four correlate to ILya’s chart starting from the bottom. The five class is a hybrid of optics and computers, and that stuff hasn’t hit the mainstream yet.
I don’t want to go through and share every optic that ILya suggests, as that’s kind of the point of the video. But I will admit that it’s refreshing to see someone go against the grain a bit for things. For example, he suggests the Meprolight MOR as the top pick for full sized red dot and the Vortex UH-1 as a holographic site.
When it comes to Class II optics, the low power fixed magnification, he suggests the same ELCAN SpecterOS 4x that I own. In fairness, it was one of ILya’s reviews years ago that pushed me over the edge to buy the ELCAN to begin with. He makes a great point about piggybacking a miniature RDS on top that I’ll have to experiment with.
As he gets up into the low power and precision optics, the explanations continue. ILya is one of the only people I know who actually has and regularly uses Tangent Theta optics, but he also suggests some more affordable ones as well.
So, there you have it. Give it a watch and don’t forget to check out his site at Dark Lord of Optics.
