Fundamentals of LPVOs: Cheap vs Expensive

I appreciate Mike's blunt honesty.

His open honesty on how “the sausage is made” is some of the best marketing I’ve seen in a long time.

Talking about his glasses hit too close to home 😂

Dude has earned my business with honesty about a product.

Related reason to go with an LPVO: hunting in bear country. I spent much of my life on Kodiak (1 brown bear per square mile) and was an avid blacktail deer hunter. When hunting we saw bears nearly every day, and just learned to avoid them. I used a typical 3x9 scope until the day everything went wrong. Browns and grizzlies are ambush predators. When they decide to attack (which is rare), they sneak in very close and rush you from downwind (they don't know we can't smell them) at 25 mph. That happened to me one day and when I swung my rifle the bear was within 10 or 15 yards and I was blind. I had less than one second to sort that out and failed. I didn't even pull the trigger before it bowled me over and really messed me up. My partner ran up and also blinded by a high power variable point-shot a .300 Mag round into the animal's torso, it then turned and ran at him and he got another blind shot into it from the front, which finally turned the animal. I was a mess, lucky to survive and nearly bled out before a CG helo airlifted me to town. It was two years before I was healed up enough to hunt again, and when I finally got back out in the bush I was sporting a simple Burris 1x4 optic. I kept my rifle on 1X while hunting, and if I needed magnification dialed it up, took the shot and went back to 1X. I'm convinced that if I'd had a 1X optic I'd have gotten off that one critical shot that might have turned the bear, or even tumbled him before he reached me. That was 25 years ago and 1X4 (and maybe 1X6?) was all that was available. It's nice to see the advances in LPVO scopes. If you hunt in brown or grizzly country, this is the style of scope you want.

Mike is an extremely effective communicator. The blunt honestly of what he knows and what is products can do is very refreshing.

Webster should put a picture of Mike up in the definition of 'NO BS'. So refreshing to see this obviously very knowledgeable industry guy dispelling myths with pure truth.

Gun Jesus has had a lot of fantastic, informative guests, but none better, more knowledgeable, or transparently honest than this gentleman. Gideon sounds like a sweet price point for basic practical shooting and hunting. Gonna look into one of their sights for my son's AR.

This is how you sell a product. No razzle-dazzle, no chest-thumping; just brutal honesty and infectious enthusiasm.

It's always refreshing to have a guest speaker approaching forgotten weapons with the correct attitude: a frank discussion of the technical capabilities and limitations of the gadget that happens to be on the table. Too often the SHOT show people have a pitch that they've rehearsed. Nothing wrong with a rehearsed pitch, of course (rehearsing is good!) but it doesn't sound like this guy is pitching me anything, and that's the best pitch you'll ever hear in your life.

I love this guys honesty. "Its not just as good, but its probably good enough for you"

24:57 - I think Mike has shown he has earned the royal crown as "The King of Poors" at this point. He really, really makes his point and defends it clearly. That there is indeed such a thing as "Poor Pride". He has a crown, and wears it well. This entire interview series has been extremely humbling.

I like this guy, if he made a youtube channel explaining optics concepts or doing reviews or whatever I would definitely be watching.

I am in technical sales engineering and truly appreciate the honesty and the ability to call out his competitors not for his gain but to defend their higher prices. Quality counts until it isn't of benefit by finding that balance between affordability, your ability to use the extra quality and getting the features that are fit for the mission.

The firearms community needs more blunt honesty like this

Ian, you should invite Mike for a proper gather ‘round the camp fire.

Translation = it's a decent scope at a nice price point. It will perform 90% as well as the top tier optics but cost a fraction of the cost

accurizing your firearm is a rabbit hole. diminishing returns apply like anything else. and it's all kind of moot if your gun can outshoot you. at some price point, food stops tasting better and they're just slapping gold leaf and caviar on everything because some people want whatever has the highest price tag just to flex.

Mike's comments at the end of the interview re: 2A, availability, and snobbery were bang on! Best part of the vid in my opinion. Thank you Ian and Mike. 👍🏻

This conversation is what everyone really needs. Truthfully honest! The end was soo funny. I went into service in the mid 80’s. My “Door kicker” gun is way better that most guns I had access to when I was in.