Tactical Headlines with John McCoy – OCT. 3,2024

About This Episode

In today’s episode of Tactical Headlines, we dive into the latest firearm gear updates! Tyrant Designs boosts your Glock 43X and G48 capacity, Streamlight enhances its TLR tactical lights, and CZ USA is launching the competition-ready Shadow 2 SA pistol. Plus, Trijicon’s VCOG 1-8×28 is now the USMC’s go-to optic, and there’s an awesome deal on Leupold’s Mark 5HD optic with a free wind meter! Don’t miss out!

Insights In This Episode

• Maximize Your Glock 43X & G48: Tyrant Designs’ New Capacity Boost! (TyrantCNC.com)
• Streamlight’s TLR Tac Lights Just Got Even Better – Check Out the Upgrade! (Streamlight.com)
• CZ USA Unleashes the Shadow 2 SA: Your Next Competition Pistol! (www.CZ-USA.com)
• Trijicon VCOG 1-8×28: The USMC’s Chosen Squad Optic! (www.trijicon.com)
• Leupold Mark 5HD + Free Wind Meter: The Deal You Can’t Miss! (Leupold.com)

About Tactical Business

Tactical Business is the weekly business show for the firearms industry. The podcast features in-depth interviews with the entrepreneurs, professionals and technologists who are enabling the next generation of firearms businesses to innovate and grow.

Episode Transcript

Wade: Welcome to the Tactical Business Show. I’m your host, Virginia Beach based firearms entrepreneur and copywriter Wade Skalsky. Each episode will be exploring what it takes to thrive as a business owner in the firearms industry. We’ll speak with successful firearms industry entrepreneurs about their experiences building their companies, leaders and legislators who are shaping the industry, and tech executives whose innovations will reshape the future of the firearms industry. Let’s get after it. Welcome to the Tactical Business Podcast. I am your host, Wade Skalsky, and today we are joined once more by my co-host, John McCoy. John, how are you today, sir? I’m doing.

John: Great. It is sweater weather here in the heartland, so couldn’t be better.

Wade: There was a slight tinge of cool air today when I was taking my dog out at 545 this morning, and I got blankets for both of my children to take them to school today. So they were. It makes them comfy cozy in the car so it encourages them to go. So yes, I share with you we’re not cold yet, but we’re getting there.

John: Does it get cold in Virginia Beach? It does.

Wade: Yeah. It snows here every once in a while.

John: I didn’t know that.

Wade: Every, like, three years we’ll get some snow. And it was. It’s funny because everyone has a complete meltdown, and I’m from North Dakota, so I call my dad. My dad laughs and laughs because I had an eye appointment one year, and they called me up like, we’re gonna have to reschedule your appointment on Friday. And this is like Wednesday. I’m like, why? It’s like, it’s going to snow on Friday. I was like, all right. Very well. All right. So then my dad laughed. But different areas. But yeah, it’s cool. It’s getting fall weather, which actually is going to help us chat a little bit more today because it’s a lot easier to conceal carry in the fall than it is in the heart of summer. Yes.

John: Yeah. When you have your four inch inseam shorts on. Yeah. Hard to carry.

Wade: Exactly. When you’ve got your Miami Vice neon Runner shorts on. Like you wear that. I know that you do.

John: You know me too well, I do.

Wade: Well, look, we got a lot of cool stuff to talk about today. And let’s start with this. Tyrant. Tyrant designs. I actually really enjoyed learning about this.

John: Yes. So I was I was actually at Academy eyeballing a Glock 40 3XA couple days ago. I bought a little Ruger LCP because we were talking offline. I’m a very lazy concealed carrier, so I needed something I put in my pocket, but those were there and I really liked them. And then just so happens that we are talking about this magazine extension. For them. It’s a plus four mag extension for the G43 X and the G48. And these are not cheapo polymer. These are actual I think they’re aerospace grade aluminum. So they are milled aluminum and they’re awesome I like them.

Wade: Yeah. I think the cool thing about when you have the aluminum on there is that it. Your mag drops faster, right. It’s just everything comes out of there. And the only thing that gives me pause about this, which it shouldn’t because but I am not very super handy. Right. And so it does require the usage of some tools, even though it’s extremely simple to do.

John: You can just send your max to me. Wait, I’ll put it on.

Wade: A true craftsman wouldn’t do that. He has to trust his own tools, right? So trust his own and trust his own magazines. But. But yeah. What do you walk me through? The thought process that you have of why you would use one of these and why you think they’re so cool?

John: More is gooder. That’s my thought process. More is gooder. No, seriously though, I actually did the same thing when I used to carry a Glock 27, but it was about like carrying a brick on my waist. It was very heavy. And although I think you carry a 19, which is just insane, but that’s awesome.

Wade: Why is that insane?

John: Because that’s so big to conceal.

Wade: Carry, bro. When I started concealed carry, I started with 17.

John: That is insane.

Wade: I was appendix carrying a 17 when I started.

John: I don’t even understand how you could do that. That’s just crazy. Anyway, so I had a 27 and I did a mag extension. I can’t remember the brand for one thing, for a smaller pistols, which I know that I think the 43 X and the 48 have a full length grip already, but for the 27 it was really handy to have the Mag extension on there because it was hard. It wasn’t bad, but it had a little bit of snap if you’re firing full power or 40 caliber rounds. It was hard to to shoot it really well when only three of your fingers are on it. So that was really nice. And I think the extension I had was two. This takes these up to a 14 round mag in a really slim and pretty small package. But then especially if you have giant, gargantuan banana hands, this allows you to get your whole hand on your pistol. And since it’s the slim pistol, it still is pretty small, pretty easy to carry. So that’s my take away. And with the colors it just looks cool and aesthetics matter.

Wade: Yeah, well, the website is tyrantcnc.com. And they do make extensions for both the 19 and the 17. Right. So yeah. So you do get the one thing that I for me as someone who’s who doesn’t shoot as much as in my over my life, as some other people write. Is that the weight? Right? So if it’s if the gun is a little heavier. Yes. The weight part of it is more kind of a pain in the neck when you’re carrying it. But when you’re shooting it actually, obviously a little heavier gun helps a little bit with the recoil a bit. At least that’s what I, that’s what I find is a little heftier gun. And so yes, adding a couple more rounds if you want to do that for the 17 or for the 19, depending upon what you’re carrying, obviously that’s going to be it’s going to be very good. And then from a tactical perspective, obviously you don’t have to reload right as fast if you’ve got more rounds in the chamber.

John: So and from a tactical perspective, it comes in gold and red, silver black and blue. And this is anodized aluminum. So it looks really cool.

Wade: Yeah. And they have they don’t just have on their website. They don’t just have the the extended magazine. They’ve got some pretty cool triggers. They’ve got some they’ve got some cool stuff on their site. So it’s not just the extended mag itself.

John: I can definitely get lost on the AR 15 rabbit hole on their site.

Wade: And it’s not just the Glock either. They’ve got the Hellcat series magazine release extended on there. Let’s see what else they got on here. They got some AR upgrades. I mean, they do have some Gucci Gutterson stuff on here. I’m trying to see handgun upgrades. So yeah. So if you want to and especially obviously for your Glock and everything, they’ve got a little bit of everything a little bit of everything going for you here. So that’s cool. Let me see. They’ve got Glock, SIG Smith and Wesson Springfield and the heckler. So they’ve got a little bit of a little bit of everything. Do you. Now what do you feel about in terms of from concealed carry. If you’re going to extend out the butt of the handgun. Right. It’s going to make it a little bit more difficult to conceal it depending upon where you’re carrying. Yeah.

John: Like you said, it’s cool whether it makes it easier. Yeah.

Wade: I don’t care as much anymore. I used to really care. And then the one thing I think maybe you said it or I was, I don’t know who I was talking to, but nobody’s paying any attention to, you know, the only people that are paying attention to you if you’re carrying are if other people are carrying.

John: Yes.

Wade: And so, like now when I go to the off chance, I go out to like a big box store or something, I do now recognize there are a lot of guys that are wearing crossbody fanny packs.

John: Right? Yes.

Wade: Whereas like back in the day, I’d be like, that’s that’s not very masculine, right? And now it’s like, oh, that guy’s got a gun in there.

John: Is Virginia a constitutional carry state?

Wade: No. You have to have a permit to. Okay.

John: So Kansas is open carry and constitutional carry. So you really don’t give it any thought. You’ll see 2 or 3 guys open carrying at Walmart every time you go there. Well it’s very.

Wade: You can open carry here. Okay.

John: Yeah.

Wade: And I was saying but you need to conceal carry. You need to be legal to, not to not roll dirty. You’ve got to you’ve got to have a permit. Yeah.

John: I think I started carrying an outer waistband holster when they, when they went with open carry, even though I never. Well. And then when I let my license lapse here because they went to constitutional carry. And with both of those I just I carried an outer waistband and I have my shirt on untucked like a slob. So you can’t see it anyway. And I think anyone is really that interested. And I definitely during the winter I put I have an old Beretta Nano, and I put the extended mag in there because I can actually hold the whole thing. I still don’t think anyone really notices and if they do, no one cares.

Wade: The one reason why I concealed that open is because anytime a firearm is introduced to a situation, even if it’s holstered, it escalates a situation. That’s just how I view it personally. And again, my way is not the best way, it’s just how I look at it. That’s the great thing about firearms is that there’s such depth to it that as long as it’s legal, everyone can take their own way about how they want to do it. So that’s just my personal choice. But I would say is if you were, that may change depending upon if things start to get super spicy, then you may want people to know that you’re carrying just depending upon the state of the Union, if you will. So yes. But yeah, these are cool. And again, if they want to send us some and I’ll do a since I do carry a Glock, but.

John: I’ll have an excuse. I think they carry them in stuff too, but I guess that gives me an excuse to buy one just in case.

Wade: Yeah, exactly. So. And they do. Actually they do look cool because they do come in the different colors. Right. Mhm. So I think that’s pretty cool. So. All right. Cool.

John: Okay babe babe I know this this is a business purchase. I need to get this Glock. This is a need. It’s not a want. It’s a.

Wade: Need. I’m thankful that you were just doing a role play there to your wife. Because I thought you were addressing me as babe. I’m like, we’re not there yet, buddy. I don’t wear the fanny pack across the chest. I conceal carry like a man. Fbi. Strong side.

John: Thank you very much. Hey. And I don’t know if this is still valid, but I assume it is. This is a fairly seasoned article, but they also offer a 5% mil and law enforcement discount, so covers half of tax anyway.

Wade: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Let’s move on. And the website is again tyrantcnc.com And the last thing I’ll say about this too, is that since we do have like a we Are a business podcast, is that them offering it in the colors? They get two different groups of people because they’re going to get your concealed carry people. Or maybe, you know, you want to take it to a range and you just want to have more bullets, right? And they do it in the black or whatever. But the fact that they do it in the colors is like, you may not even be concerned with the wine the more rounds, but you just want to be able to add some flair right to your gun. Office space. You don’t have enough pieces of flair on your.

John: Firearm.

Wade: So you got to get them on there. So I think that is from a marketing perspective. You know, your traditionalists might Pooh the colors, but there are people who just like to trick out certain they’ll have their trick out gun. Right? Which is they’re like, this is my magic gun. This is my plus four chlorinator that I take. And I think that’s really smart from a business perspective.

John: So I want to build a Glock 19 clone that is the most gaudy piece I possibly can, like the gray and white urban camouflage for the frame, and then like a gold trigger, and then that iridescent rainbow for the barrel. Like just the ugliest piece in existence. That’s an aside, not an are.

Wade: You going to do a threaded barrel and then do like a 3D printed the worst suppressor ever? Like, like hell yeah, I like that hello Kitty suppressor.

John: Oh that’s terrible. Yes, I would.

Wade: Make a hello Kitty handgun just to cause a ruckus at the range because it’s horrible. Just just be like, hey, man, can you and then go to the range and be like, hey, can you help me out with this? I’m having a problem with this. What do you think? What’s going on with this gun.

John: You had a thread on? Actually, a giant compensator. If you’re running, like, a nine millimeter and just have this compensator for a ten millimeter on there.

Wade: Because I think we just found an awesome content idea where we prank people, where we make, like, the gaudiest awful guns and then have like a small little problem with them and take them in and be like, and they won’t even touch them. Like, what’s with this hello Kitty gun? It’d be. That would actually be pretty funny. Pretty funny for.

John: Get tetanus from touching that. Yeah.

Wade: That’d be a pretty funny reaction. Videos. Um, my mind’s clicking now. It’s not a terrible idea. Just stay with me. More for more marketing gold ideas. All right, let’s go. Next. Let’s talk about a little some lights.

John: This is good because I run a. Oh, God. Which one do I, I gotta, I gotta Google it. I can’t remember which one I use. I have a good one. It is worth a Google so I don’t speak out of turn. I use a tlr3. That’s right. Great light. I run out of my nightstand gun. I have never had any issue with it. It is fantastic light and it’s an older one too. This article is pretty old, so I don’t know if they’ve updated it again, but basically the gist of it was that everyone already had holsters for the TLR ones and twos and and string lights like, well, we’re updating all the electronics on these, but everyone already has the holsters for them. So the the gist of this was that they were still making them on the exterior identical, but just upgrading the guts. And but this is almost five years old, so they probably have updated them again. Well, they’re already.

Wade: On the TLR eight by now I think right in the seven.

John: I’m on stream right now.

Wade: Probably they’re on the seven. Yeah. The one thing about how do you charge your light or does it charge or is it. No, no it’s batteries.

John: It’s got the cr123 in it.

Wade: And which do you have a light that charges. Because what do you have a preference one way or the other? I do have.

John: A streamlight that charges. It’s not attached to a gun. It is. Hold on. Let me look up which one I’ve got. It is ridiculous. That thing is brighter than the sun.

Wade: I think it’s cool though. I’m torn on the charging versus the batteries. Right? Because from a tactical perspective, batteries can store for a long time. If you lose, you lose power, then it’s hard to charge it. You got to hook it up to a generator strap on.

John: I have a strap on. It is a strap on HPL if you want to look that up. And it is so freaking bright, it’s.

Wade: Incredible how bright these lights can be now. And I know people are like, don’t put it. Oh well, are you pro light on your gun or are you like, don’t put a light on your gun. Where are you? I have one.

John: On my on my nightstand going. Absolutely, why wouldn’t I? Yeah, well, nothing’s going bump out there. I’m a deep sleeper. All right. I want those as little thinking as possible. Well, I.

Wade: Agree with you. Some people will say one, you don’t want to give away your position to it. You want to have a separate light so that you can point it. So you’re not always pointing your gun to see what’s making the bump. Right.

John: And so yeah. Yeah.

Wade: But I think those are both silly because totally number one is that if I’m pulled my gun out, there’s a reason why I want to be pointing it at things, right?

John: Yeah. I’m not pointing it out for fun.

Wade: Right. Well, and then number two is how bright these lights are. If you have an untrained person rolling in your house and you shine one of these lights at them, what are they going to do? What’s the what’s their reaction going to be. Right. They’re stunned. Yeah. It’s they’re gonna be like, well it’s going to take them a little bit to figure that out. And that, that half second or whatever it is, is all that you need to be able to start putting some rounds down range if it’s a threat.

John: And also, I’m not an operator. I don’t train that often to where I’m going to competently use a flashlight in one hand and a gun in the other. I don’t do that. This is a gun that I keep locked under my nightstand for an emergency. Right? And I let’s enter the real world here, where when you wake up at 3 a.m. because you were up with the baby and you’re tired as hell, and you hear something, you’re not thinking that, well, you’ll forget the other light, or you’ll shine yourself in the eyes with it. Or God knows what else. Right. Just put a light on your gun, for Pete’s sake. Just do it.

Wade: I don’t have I don’t have a light on my EDC. Do you have a light on your everyday carry for no concealed carry?

John: No. I actually have a little pocket. I have a streamlight that I put in my pocket for that. It’s one of the little, um. It uses, like, two AA batteries and it’s very bright.

Wade: Yeah, I don’t care. One of my on my EDC. But but yeah. At home, my bedroom gun. That’s the Glock 17. In the bedroom. And the Glock 19 is the EDC. But I think it’s cool that the way that I charge the one is a charge. You can just plug it into the computer and charge it. Yeah.

John: So that’s what my strap on is. It’s a USB charged one. But, dude, I’ve never even charged the thing. I’ve had it for years and I’ve never even had to charge it. It’s ridiculous. Well, do you.

Wade: Not use it ever?

John: It just sits up above my nightstand, usually. I always check.

Wade: It every once.

John: I do because I’ll shine one of the kids across the pasture, and they start yelling at me because they can’t see. Sorry, kids. For the greater good.

Wade: Not with your gun. You don’t point your gun at them.

John: What? I’m just kidding. No, I was talking about my other one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I pulled my gun out once a month.

Wade: Yeah, yeah, I pull my gun out once a month. Point at my kids. Yeah. No, don’t do.

John: This, kid. Do what I say, not I do. No.

Wade: I changed all my batteries on the first of the year, and on July and then in July, just automatically.

John: Yeah. No, I was talking about my. The rechargeable one. Oh, the one on the. Yeah.

Wade: Okay. All right. I was like, you’re two times today. We’re not in sync right now yet. I don’t know, it’s the week because of the weekend or something. But I thought you called me babe. I thought you were pointing a gun at your kids. I’m like, John, are you trying to get kicked off the podcast, man? Because I have that power.

John: I can do this, John. Yeah.

Wade: Streamlight obviously very. And it’s streamlight.com, very easy website to find. They’ve got a million different options.

John: My first tactical flashlight I bought a long time ago was a surefire, and I transitioned to streamlights, and I couldn’t be happier. I think they’re a better product.

Wade: And what is it about them that make them a good product in your eyes? Like, what are the things that you just like about it? Like, oh, this is good. Like this is the quality.

John: That’s just, I don’t know, they’re just a really high quality equipment. Like it’s just good stuff. And what I love about the having a TLR on your pistol is that you can that it’s common size. So every holster manufacturer makes a holster for that.

Wade: That is one thing about accessories is that the advantage of going to a larger producer, especially for your everyday carry holster something inside the waistband, you really have to have the fit perfect for retention purposes, right? Like you don’t want any wiggle on there. You want it just right. And so that is a huge advantage of going to somebody for like streamlight for one of your lights.

John: Yeah, it’s and they’re just it’s just great stuff. Operators in Afghanistan use Streamlight for years. That’s good enough for me because I, I’m taking a walk in my backyard while my dog pees. Okay. That’s if it’s good enough for them. Hunting the Taliban. It’s good enough for me. Watching Mr. Sparkles take a whiz.

Wade: Right. Mr.. Is your dog’s name Mr. Sparkles? No. You almost got kicked off the podcast for a third time, dude.

John: Oh, that’s my third strike.

Wade: No, you got a lot. We’re playing cricket, I think. You get like.

John: Oh, okay. No one knows what the rules of cricket is.

Wade: So just make it up. Yeah. So the website is streamlight.Com. Yeah. And the one thing though, that this does show is that even though this the stuff that we were looking at was a little bit older is that they really very easily could have just said we’re not going to upgrade our old stuff. You have to buy our new stuff, we’re going to discontinue all this, and you’re just going to have to upgrade your holsters and we don’t care.

John: Yep. They still have the TLR ones twos and threes.

Wade: Exactly. And I think that is very cool that they did that. That’s that actually shows me something from a business perspective. Because again, when you’re making decisions in your business, like, okay, are we going to discontinue something? Are we going to continue to give support for it?

John: You’re invested.

Wade: Yeah. Well, and for a firearm, like if I get my firearm just right and I’m putting 10,000 rounds through it or whatever, how many rounds I put it over, like let’s say like six years, seven years, whatever. I don’t want to change it like it’s perfect. I get it, I get it, and maybe the new the newer lights. I don’t like something about it. Maybe the tension on the little paddle that you press to turn the light on or whatever is a little is is too sensitive, whatever. Like there are people out there who, like, just don’t want to change it because and that’s a safety issue. It’s like if I have everything exactly how I want it, it works exactly like I want it to work. That’s a big deal. And so I think that’s really cool that they continue to to support that personally. Agreed. And so again, the website is the website.

John: The website.

Wade: I’m telling you, man, I don’t know what’s going on with me lately. I’ve got to start taking some brain vitamins or something. Streamlight.Com normal spellings. All right.

John: Highly endorse them. I love my streamlights. Really good product.

Wade: All right, let’s go on to talking CZ.

John: That is a Gucci rig right there. So this is the CZ shadow two single action and is basically it is a super high speed single action 75, which is basically just a Browning Hi-Power but made in Czech Republic but imported to Kansas City, Kansas. Thank you very much.

Wade: So let’s walk through people. Maybe they don’t know what a single action is. Walk us through what that is.

John: Okay, so double action is where you can pull the trigger without the hammer being cocked. And it will manually pull back this hammer for you. And then it’d be like a Beretta 92 or an M9. And then every subsequent shot after that it would be a single action, unless you’re unless it’s the 1990s and you have a double action only semi-automatic. They did those because police departments were transitioning away from revolvers. I don’t know if you knew this or not, but that’s why double action only semi-autos were actually pretty common in the early 90s. They were getting away from the Smith and Wesson J-frame pistols that had been standard sidearms for years. So the old guys, it was an easier transition point for the triggers, what they were used to. So that is that. So a single action would be a 1911 be the most famous example. This one is the 75 is a double action single action. But they went with single action only because this is a race gun. This is a competition gun. So the benefit is that it’s a very light trigger that is consistent. Every poll, which if you’re a competition shooter, you want that because otherwise the double action single action, your first pull is really heavy like £10. And every pull after that is going to be light like 3 or £4. So single action, you have to manually cock the hammer the first shot. But then every shot after that is cocked by the slide.

Wade: Yeah, and.

John: I pick that.

Wade: Up. It does. Well, yeah. This might be for some people who I didn’t. The reason why I asked you is because you always have, like, a little history lesson in there of something I didn’t know. So I didn’t know the transition from the 90s to the from the for the police. And one thing I like about this is again and this is this positioning, right. So they’ve positioned this pistol as a out of the box ready for competition. Yes. And so it’s the perfect gun. So say someone like me who like I’m go to the range and go to the range and go to the range and go to the range I’ve got. I’m doing very well. I feel super confident now and I want to go to the next level on something, but I don’t. Like I, I think about precision shooting for example, with the Long Rifle is that there’s so much gear and such a rabbit hole of, of trying to figure out, well, what am I going to shoot for my first gun? Right. And what if I don’t like it? Right? So am I going to spend $10 million on a gun for a precision rifle and then then never use it. Right. So it’s cool that they have it, that that has an entry level pistol that is like, no, you pull it out of the gun, you can take it down to the competition and you can do okay. Right.

John: I’m looking to see if they still have the single action. I’m looking to see if they still make this, actually. Let’s see here. Shadow. To say, I’m actually not sure that they do.

Wade: Well, you can still buy one though. Yeah, you can still buy one.

John: But yeah, it looks like they actually dropped the single action one. They have this the shadow two which is and actually their entry level prices for competition ready gun are not bad because the MSRP on the shadow two black and blue, it’s a double single. It’s only 1099, which means its street price is lower than that. And optics ready is 12.99. So those are pretty affordable for a competition gun.

Wade: Are you sure they don’t still offer it? They think they do.

John: I’m looking for the single action. I don’t see it. Okay, okay. It is the CZ TS2. It is a little different than what we’re reviewing, but it’s the same basic thing.

Wade: They have the shadow two compact right here.

John: I went to the competition tab for their pistols.

Wade: Right here. CZ Shadow two optics. Ready?

John: Yeah, that’s a double action. Single action. Oh, copy.

Wade: Copy. Oh, yeah. Here we go. Well, you can probably get it much less expensive now.

John: There you go. We’re here for the people, Wade.

Wade: Well, you’re going to start into something. Go get a used. Go get a used one.

John: Yes. Yeah. And they’re actually they’re P10, so it’s their Glock competition ready. The MSRP is only 7.99. So the street price will be less than that. That’s very good.

Wade: Yeah that’s super good.

John: And I do want a CZ I just think they’re cool.

Wade: What do you think they’re cool. Like what is it about them that makes you think that they’re so cool.

John: It’s just one of those things. They’re just a cool pistol.

Wade: Do you have, like, Turkish? Do you like Turkish delights? Is that what it is?

John: I do like Turkish Delight. Actually. It’s delicious. But they’re Czech. Are they.

Wade: Czech?

John: Yeah CZ

Wade: I’m just kidding. That whole area of the world is all the same to me. It’s like one big mass of Eastern European people.

John: I just think they’re cool. I really like their lines of their pistols. I just think they’re slick. I like the Browning Hi-Power and all of its many descendants, I think is just the coolest. Line’s just a cool pistol.

Wade: The one thing about this too, is that and we’ve talked about this before, but I think you can have a lot of confidence going out of the country for your firearms because especially for these bigger brands, just because the machining and the manufacturing has become so much better.

John: Turkey produces some killer good pistols for cheap.

Wade: Yeah, same with the CZ. It’s like, I feel like there’s the CZ’s are pretty dependable. Yes. And basically what they’re doing is they’re using platforms that have already been proven. Yeah. You know what I mean? So. Oh, yeah. It’s not like they’re making something up. No. You know, they’re their own new thing. It’s like. It’s not like a version of the what was back in the day in the Soviet Union. And they had the car that.

John: Oh, the.

Wade: Yugo, the Yugo? No. Was it the Yugo? Yeah, I got the Yugo. It’s like they’re just making it up a car. It’s like, yeah, I’m just gonna make up a car that doesn’t work.

John: Like it didn’t work very well. No, no.

Wade: It did not.

John: Um, it was a real turd.

Wade: And so. Yeah. And I think it’s cool, like, again, and this is from a marketing perspective, this is really good. Um, first of all, the guy just looks cool, right? Yeah. And the shadow series just looks cool. The grip and the trigger match, and it just looks cool with the black, and it’s a cool looking gun. So you would for a gun like this that you would want to take to a competition. It looks cool. It also takes it to the range to use it. It just looks cool. It’s like when my daughter was going for swimming and we my wife was like, hey, should we really buy her these really expensive goggles? I was like, well, if you look fast, you swim fast, right? So exactly when you’re competing, you want to be confident in your gear, but you also want to look good because actually studies have been done that if you are, if you’re dressed well, you just naturally have more confidence. It creates confidence for you that you wouldn’t normally have in a situation. And the same would go for shooting. Right. Like if you you’re like, oh man, I love this gun. And I love how it looks. I feel good and I’ve used it and it’s just like out of the box. It’s good. Like it will actually make you a better shooter for competition. Right now, I don’t know if that’s really going to help you in the. The things are getting sporty and you need it for self-defense. But it is a cool gun in that way. And it’s a great, cool positioning for them as well because it’s it just makes you a competition shooter by buying it. Yes. Versus I had to go through this long education bridge of figuring out what kind of gun do I buy? Do I take it apart? Do I build it myself? Like, you may not have those abilities. And so you can just literally just buy this gun and they’re selling competence, right. And I think that’s a really smart. I think it’s like out of the box that you can use it I think is a very smart selling competence.

John: That is fantastic. That’s a great line. Well I really that’s a good line.

Wade: It’s but that’s what they’re doing the moment you buy it. You’re a competition shooter because you have a competition shooting gun that’s ready to go.

John: I dig it.

Wade: Yeah, I think it’s.

John: I really need to head over to their plant in Kansas City and see if I can get a tour.

Wade: I’m telling you, it’s only.

John: An hour away.

Wade: Well, you should send them the link to the thing. And maybe if they’re listening to our podcast, we can. They can send you a VIP badge or something to go do it.

John: That is fantastic.

Wade: Send them an email, say, hey, that was for free, John. All right. Thank you. All right, so anything else you want to talk about with the CZ?

John: No. Check him out at CZ-Usa.com.

Wade: We got a lot of cool stuff over there. This episode is brought to you by TacticalPay.com. Every few years, it seems large banks and national credit card processors suddenly decide that they no longer want to process payments for firearms and firearms related businesses, and so they drop these businesses with almost no notice, freezing tens of thousands of dollars in payments for months on end. If you want to ensure your partner with a payments provider that is dedicated to supporting the firearms industry, or you just want to find out if you could be paying less for your ACH, debit and credit card processing, visit TacticalPay.com. Again, that’s TacticalPay.com.

John: Next Trijicon.

Wade: Dun dun dun.

John: All right. So this is it’s old news but cool news. This one is about their one by eight by 28 powered low to medium power scope. Selected by the Marine Corps as a squad common optic, which I believe. So I think the Acog is there. This is the V18 by 28. I think the Acog is the standard rifle for the Marine Corps, like all just all the infantrymen. And then they’ve long since had a designated marksman for every squad. So squad is like 4 to 6 people. And so every squad has a designated marksman who will be the best shooter in the squad, and then he will get a rifle with a magnification like a variable magnification optic. So not actually it’s not actually a sniper. It’s just the best shooter in the squad. And he has equipped a little bit differently. So I had actually a friend when I was in the Air Force million years ago, and his brother was the designated marksman and his marine in his marine infantry unit. So so I thought that was pretty cool. So that’s what this is. This is for the for the squads designated marksman. So one guy.

Wade: In the squad is going to get this get this guy.

John: Yes. He’s going to be the the best shooter in the squad. So every squad of 4 to 6 guys has a someone that scores the best. So that’s who’s going to be the designated marksman. So they’ve got the RFI which is a request for information for all the military contracting types. And they had all the different stuff. And I’m not going to go through it because it’s about 14 million pages long. I used to work in that arena. I was in aviation, though. I wasn’t in. I wasn’t a door kicker, but it was the same stuff and I was like, oh, I have to read this whole RFI. This is insane. So basically they wanted a super durable. This is their The Military Times briefed synopsis. In a nutshell, the US Marine Corps wants wanted super durable, three gun style variable magnification optic with a BDC radical. So it says here also that the market is saturated with those which they’re right, but most of them are not actually sturdy enough for door kickers. So yeah, the BDC.

Wade: Stands for bullet drop compensator. So when you’re thinking about it, it’s not just like if you’re going to have your crosshair on a gun or you’re going to have a dot, right. Like it actually has the the little lines on it that will tell you that for distance, okay.

John: And it’s optimized for their bullet profile too.

Wade: For the. Yeah for the yeah. For that gun. Yeah. Exactly. It would make sense that if you needed somebody. Hey we’ve got a sniper. We got to take out, or we got something for a little further away than normal engagement distance. You’re going to get your best guy on it, and he’s going to wants to have the ability to it’s not going to help you with windage obviously, but it’s going to help you with bullet drop.

John: I’m glad you remember what BDC was because my brain was in automotive mode, which is bottom dead center, which the gearheads in the audience will know what that means. And I could not remember what BDC meant for the reticle. It’s like, oh God, what is it? I was about to Google it, but you came in there and saved me. It’s worth a.

Wade: Google. Yeah. And and I think that one thing that is important is anytime that you are and this isn’t if we’re going more on like the tactical side, not the tactical side, but more on the all right, I got my AR. Maybe I want to put a scope on it. Right. That’s going to give me some ability to go reach out and touch someone. But I don’t want to have it make it and turn it into precision rifle. Right. So because you’re thinking about the distances that you’re going to need, if you’re like, you wouldn’t put this on your AR in your house, obviously, right. That kind of scope or would you in your mind.

John: It’s a it’s got a one power setting. And that’s the beauty of it is since it has a one power setting, you can use it like a red dot. And that’s that’s why they went with that. But up to an eight power. So they’re in the RFI. It had to be good for 600 and 900 meter positive engagement. So but with a one power though you can use it like an unpowered optic. And I believe it’s got that little red chevron.

Wade: The only challenge is the reticle is really small. Yes, it’s more like a scope versus if you were to get for something for me, for a range of view, if I was going to have a red dot like that, I’d like to have a big a larger reticle, because my old ass eyes have to pick that up in my house. You know what I mean, right? Yes. Um, and so I can keep both my eyes open and see it versus something that’s a little smaller or looks a little smaller.

John: So Trijicon for theirs. They have a little upside down horseshoe and a red dot in the center of it. So for the one power setting, it’s actually more like a red dot. And I believe it illuminates red. So for close range engagements it’s basically like a red dot.

Wade: No, but I’m saying the actual the circumference of the scope itself seems a little bit smaller.

John: I know what you’re talking about.

Wade: That makes I don’t know.

John: The Marines put about a million rounds downrange every year. Lucky guys. So I’m not saying.

Wade: I’m not saying don’t get it. And I’m not saying it’s not awesome. I’m just saying is I personally would probably just get just one. That’s a red dot with a gigantic, um, Reader’s Digest magnifier on it. Right. Big circle about this big.

John: Most the average infantry rifleman in the Marine Corps is 20 to 30 years younger than us to Wade. How dare you? I’m just. There aren’t a lot of 52 year old infantrymen. All right.

Wade: I’m 51. I will not a.

John: Lot of 51 year old infantrymen, either.

Wade: 52 until next month. Thank you. And I think that’s one thing too, is like if you are a more on the tactical side, especially if you’re more on the like the recce side of things where you’re like, okay, I want to get out in the woods and run around and know how to do that, throw a rig on. And I think it would be a great option for a scope, I think, and I don’t think it’s $1 million either.

John: It looks like I’m on Amazon’s Trijicon store, so the street value for that is going to be around two grand.

Wade: Okay, maybe it is $1 million. All right.

John: Well, the Acog is like 1200 bucks. Yeah. Yeah, it’s it’s around two grand. So which means the government spending about 8000 a piece on them.

Wade: Right, exactly. That means they’re probably making them for, like, 80, $85. All right. Cool. Yeah. And I guess from that perspective, it really would be your one size fits all scope then. Right. And so for your AR right, if you’re going to throw it on your AR, you’re not going to need it for you wouldn’t put this on a precision rifle necessarily. Or do you think?

John: No it’s not.

Wade: Yeah.

John: No, this is definitely AR specific. I believe the Marines, it’s the Hk416 is what they have it on.

Wade: And this is what always comes down to it too, is you’re going to have like a $600 AR, but you’re going to throw a $2,000 scope on it, right?

John: For me personally, my actually I got it for 120. My vortex is fantastic, I love it, it is just fine. And I fired. I never fired the Acog because I wasn’t a combat arms in the military. So for the rest of us that were just qualifying with the M4, we use the Aimpoint, whichever one they use. And it was cool. But $800 for a red dot is ridiculous. So the Vortex’s Aimpoint knockoff is, in my opinion, just about as good. And I really like it.

Wade: I have a Trijicon my night sights for Trijicon nice. Am I making that up? No. They make.

John: Night sights.

Wade: Yeah, for my Glock. Yeah, I have the 17. I have the Trijicon night sights on them. That’s rad. They’re pretty sweet, actually.

John: I have night vision. I did some writing for them years ago, and they sent me a complimentary set. So all you aspiring writers write in the firearms industry. Because the companies will send you swag.

Wade: Every once in a while. They will send you stuff to do.

John: I’ve never written in any other market that has ever sent me anything ever. But firearms. They do. They send you stuff, which is super cool.

Wade: We’re actually going to have an upcoming review of something that we got set coming up here in about a week or so. I’m very excited about that. Um.

John: White suit. Do you have your white suit jacket?

Wade: Not going to be white suit, but it might be a suit. All right. Cool. I do like the fact that you can have close range to long range, because that’s going to be the outside range of this scope would be the outside range that you’d be able to engage anything with your actual. Ah, basically, yes. So it’s actually nice because it’s going to give you close and gives you far. So it’s pretty awesome. All right. Trijicon.Com Trijicon.Com. And last but not least. Leupold. Leupold.

John: Very nice. Another very high end optic. Now, I don’t think this promo is going on anymore because this.

Wade: Don’t talk. I told you before we started talking. We’re not talking about the promo. We’re just doing reviews. We’re we’re just pretending like we’re not looking at that article. We’re just doing a review. I’m waiting till the end. I’m waiting at the end of the podcast to tell you that. So. Because I just thought these were cool.

John: All right. So this is the Mach five HD. And I did open that up. It has. I’ll just start with the street value. It’s about a $2,600 scope. Very nice, very high end. If you don’t buy a Leupold until you’re good enough to afford a Leupold, you know, and.

Wade: This is for precision shooting. This is.

John: Precision shooting.

Wade: Like we’re like, we’re going the distance on this bad boy. Yeah.

John: So that is about to default to talking about the one in the article. But then I’m like, nope, that’s a promo article. We’re not, Wade said. We’re not doing that.

Wade: I said that like three times.

John: You did. I heard you the third time.

Wade: I have it in a text message I sent you in the slack message or whatever, or telegram and our telegram message. I sent it to you.

John: Yeah, I ignore this.

Wade: I know you.

John: Do. I know, just kidding. All right. So very high end scope. Very good stuff. Now they’re hunting series is are actually a lot more in the realm of what I would spend. This is not though this is a legit this is a precision scope. This is what you put on your rig that has a chassis on it, and you just spent $4,000 on the rifle because you can actually hit stuff a long way away. It’s a high definition scope. Yeah, it’s really cool.

Wade: The one thing about the one thing that I have learned from the from the podcast, because we had a really good interview with a precision shooting guy from Utah, long range shooters or Utah precision shooters. Is that the it’s a lot like the like make for precision shooting. It’s a lot like making beer versus making wine, right? Whereas for wine, it’s the weather and the soil and the type of grape that you’re doing. And there’s all these like really soft intangibles that are very hard to be able to put everything together to make a good wine. Whereas for beer, beer is all about the process, right? So you can give someone the recipe for whatever beer you want to make, and they won’t be able to recreate it because they can’t recreate the actual mechanical process of making the beer. And that’s what precision shooting is, that you remove every single aspect, every variable that you possibly can. You control through the gear, you narrow everything down so that there’s almost no give anywhere. And that’s where the cool kind of gear head people part really like it because it’s like really technical in that way. And that’s why we’re something like a Leupold scope for that makes sense, because you’re literally you don’t want there to be any variance at all. You want the best possible scope that you can get that keeps it zero anyways. Yeah. And so that’s the cool thing about when you start to go, and that’s why people drop. And people like, I will never spend this much money on a scope. Well, this is why they do is because this is something where they just piece by piece on their gun, they start to upgrade until they can hit something a mile away with ease every time. It’s insane.

John: And and this isn’t for uncle Buck, who’s going out and bagging his two doe limit with his trusty 3006. These are. This is very high end gear. It gets put away in padded cases. It gets babied and pampered because it has one mission, and it’s to hit a target that’s 1200 meters away. That’s the size of a quarter. And that’s insane. And that’s really cool that you that you did an interview and have that kind of analysis. I’ve done some writing on it. I’ve never done precision shooting. To me, it’s really intimidating. And because there are just so many variables and factors in it. And it’s it is a high end game, although I know that you can get into it. Some people take the 22 precision shooting super seriously. It’s cheaper, but they get really into it. Well, if.

Wade: You have the right, if you trick out your gun and it literally is, once you are able to do the math, it makes it very attainable. Where he was telling me that you can you can get almost anyone to make long distance shots, right?

John: That’s really cool. It is like, really? That is cool.

Wade: Yeah. You should go back and listen to the podcast. It’s really good. Yeah. Because if you look at the price, for example, they’re high Leupold’s. If I’m pronouncing that, I’m assuming they’re in Leupold. Right? Leupold. Yeah. Leupold’s like they’re in Germany. Leupold their their highest product on the is like 32 $3,300, right? Yes. And then all the way down to their entry level product is 2.99. Okay. So it’s ten times more than ten times more expensive. But like you said, like a normal uncle Buck taken out is 30. Taken out his rifle. Go and get this, dear. Do you just need something?

John: A three by nine by 40 is is ideal for that because you’re also. You’re not making a 1000 yard shot. The average shot is 1 to 200 yards. And you’re going to bump it against a tree. You just need something that holds zero. Yep. When you’re pumping it on on your back I can’t I’m looking at the reticle now for this thing and I can’t even you have to have a doctorate to understand this thing. But those guys, that’s their whole life. That’s their whole existence is those is making those shots.

Wade: Yeah. Well, and it’s unfair to the animal to try to take a shot that far away.

John: Yeah, it really is.

Wade: What if you hit it in the hoof and maim it? Yeah.

John: No, that’s that’s a very good point.

Wade: So it’s you’re doing hunting a disservice by trying to shoot animals that far away, right? Totally. Let me see here. But like I said, like you said, like this is the depth of the firearm. Like, if this is your thing, you should definitely take a look at the scope because these are.

John: Guys that they hand press all of their ammunition and like they have. I actually used to. One of my employees was in the. He was in the competition shooting and he wasn’t married. So that was his thing. And yeah, married guys. Good luck with this. All right. And and I was helping him load ammunition and like, you’re talking like very minute variances in types of powder and amounts. It’s like he’s got this book that’s like like as thick as a thesaurus. That’s give him the rundown. This is like they press it differently for different ranges. These guys are really serious.

Wade: Well and the reason why they do that is what I was talking about before, is that they want to decrease the variance in every part of the firearm that they can. Yes. And when they’re able to do that, then they can then count on the shot they’re going to make. Right.

John: Exactly.

Wade: Because and that’s yeah. Look at this reticle. Good lord.

John: Yeah. Seriously man how.

Wade: Do I how do you even see that with your eye like I need I’m going to need like, bifocals for my reading glasses, from my glasses, to be able to see.

John: That. Yeah. Yeah. I wasn’t joking, man. Like, that is intense. Anyway, Leupold makes really great stuff. Really great stuff. And I have no doubt that the Mach five HD is incredible. Mm. I will never own any firearm that is worthy of having that on it. You never.

Wade: Know. You never know, man. When you get older, you might want to like, get into precision shooting or something. And then you. That’s true.

John: I collect postage stamps and online shooting.

Wade: You collect postage stamps?

John: No, that’s just me. And when I’m. That’s what happens when you’re.

Wade: That’s what, 100 years old.

John: Got it. When I’m really old, like you. Oh, sorry. Sorry. You’re like. And there’s the end button. Goodbye, Jen.

Wade: Jen! The eject button. Jen. It’s old. Like, I don’t know what anyone’s talking about, so. All right. Awesome. Well, and that’s. We had some really cool. It’s funny because we had like a nice. We went extended mag for handgun to light to competition to like? Like we had a nice progression today. I like our progression of different things that we’re talking about. Any anything that stood out to you today or anything else you want to chat about?

John: I really like the I think these are cool. I think you have a great idea. I need to send them this podcast. Whoever views this, just ignore all the rest. We’re very serious people, I promise you. Extremely, extremely serious. I really dig their stuff. The Mag Extensions by Tyrant CNC cool their whole catalog. If you go to look at those, check out the whole thing. They have a lot of cool stuff. Makes great stuff.

Wade: I like. The one thing I do like about that trijicon thing is that is that it really does for your AR, is that it? It is a one size fits all for you would if you put that bad boy on your AR, you it. You wouldn’t need to ever change it out because you could use it for, like you said, for close quarters or out to like as far as you could actually accurately shoot with your platform. So I think that’s cool that it does that.

John: Yeah. For one of my AR builds, I will be putting a medium power scope like that on it. It will. It won’t be a trijicon unless Trijicon wants to send me one.

Wade: Then you can review it. I’ll review it as well. I’ll throw it on my ah and see what. Absolutely. Maybe I’m wrong with my. I need my giant old man Reader’s Digest reticle in it.

John: So anyway, that was really cool. That and the extensions were my favorite. I’ve always been a handgun guy. I just think handguns are cool. I understand they’re not. It’s a backup thing, but man, they’re just cool. Handguns are just cool. You know, I don’t agree.

Wade: With your handgun is a fight to get your rifle because all gunfights are over before if you look.

John: Yeah, this isn’t Fallujah. You’re not fighting combat gunfights.

Wade: Over, like, you’re not getting to your to your rifle. And if there’s a situation to where you need your rifle because of of things are going south, you’re going to have it handy.

John: Yeah, that’s exactly it. I’ve always thought that was so dumb. These are guys that have nothing better to do. All they do is doomscroll and they talk about them like it’s 2 or 3 rounds and the fight’s over because they’re either done or they’re gone because they ran away. All right. There is no fighting to get to your rifle. If you’re there, then there’s actually a hot war has kicked off either a civil one or we’ve been invaded, which will never happen. So. No, that’s just so dumb. That is such a so dumb. Have a good. Oh, yeah. Streamlight have a good gun light. Okay, there you go. There’s a have a good gun light on your pistol and get proficient with your pistol. All right. Yes. And and I understand they’ve all talked about all the ballistics stuff. I know all of that. When rifle is better than a pistol. Well, if you fire off an AR inside your house, you just lost your hearing. Okay. So congrats. Uh, pistol caliber carbine would be great. 9 or 10 millimeter carbine, or with 45 way higher velocity. Generally, I’ll use Glock mags now.

Wade: Well, a pistol is just so much more versatile. Two things about it is like you can’t sling your AR to go to the grocery store like you’re going to, even if in an open carry state. That will get some excitable looks if you do that. Oh yeah.

John: Definitely.

Wade: And then the other thing, don’t.

John: Think about a Glock or 1911 on your hip, but you carry an AR in there? Yeah. Good luck. Cops. From a safety.

Wade: Yeah. From a safety perspective, it takes your handgun. It takes a lot more to become proficient with a handgun than it does with a rifle from a time perspective. Yes. And so and just from a safety perspective. So just start there. That was a little disclaimer for everyone but.

John: Yep. No. Totally agree with you.

Wade: All right brother. Well I appreciate you again. It’s like the Princess Bride right. Good job. Good job. Wesley. Most likely to kill you in the morning. Good job. John, I guess you’ll you will see you again. I won’t kick you off the podcast again.

John: Thank you. Wade.

Wade: All right, brother, I appreciate you. Great gear reviews today and I’m looking forward to us recording this one here soon. The other one that we’re going to do soon. Yes. People are going to be excited about it.

John: Oh, yeah. It’s good, it’s good.

Wade: We’ll talk soon.

John: That’s just. It doesn’t mean I wouldn’t carry it proudly. They’re just ugly.

Wade: You’ve been listening to the Tactical Business Show by TacticalPay.com. Join us again next episode as we explore what it takes to be a business success in the firearms industry.