by David E. Petzal

As many of you requested, I walked the hallowed (and semi-ventilated) halls of the 2012 SHOT Show with your requests for inexpensive stuff ringing in my ears, instead of just the usual ringing. Riflescope-wise, the standout is Meopta, which I originally thought was an Asian firm, but turns out to be Czech. Meopta has been around for over 70 years and makes rifle scopes, spotting scopes, and binoculars. I’ve used only the rifle scopes, of which there are two lines. MeoStar (pictured here) is the more expensive, made and assembled in the Czech Republic, while MeoPro scopes have their components made abroad and assembled here. Cabela’s sells both MeoPro instruments and its own Euro brand, which is made by Meopta.

The first time I used a Meopta rifle scope I guessed its price was $300 higher than what it actually cost. Think of it this way: A MeoStar that goes for $650 is a $1,000 scope on which you’re getting a $350 discount. A MeoPro scope that sells for $450 is a $750 scope, ditto ditto. Don’t let the modest prices fool you; these are very, very high-grade instruments.

by David E. Petzal

When I showed up at the Kittery Trading Post to buy a used Anschutz .22, I was saddened to see that this peerless piece of Teutonic precision (one with a $1,000 price tag, new) was saddled with a piece-of-junk scope that you might use to hold a window open, or throw at an armadillo if one particularly annoyed you.

There is no abundance of good rimfire scopes—in fact, there are damned few—despite the fact that that the .22 is the foundation of any serious shooter’s gun collection. I guess most people feel that when they've bought the gun they've shot their wad (as it were) and look for something cheap and rotten to use as a sight.

This brings us to the new Nikon Pro-Staff BDC 150 3X-9X-40. It is a very, very good scope, and it comes with Nikon’s BDC reticle, which will enable you to shoot out to 150 yards. This particular reticle is calibrated to work only at 9 power, and only with hyper-velocity (1,600 fps) ammo, but with a little experimental shooting, you can adapt it to just about anything.

By Chad Love

Last year at about this time we posted a story about a diminutive piece of pocket artillery called the mini cannon. It was a real, working gun that used  gunpowder, tiny steel balls and  what looked like firecracker fuses to wreak havoc on all sorts of common items.

SOG Specialty Knives and Tools is asking if F&S readers have the grit, guts and gall to show their best impersonation of the one and only Gunnery Sergeant R. Lee Ermey, a.k.a. The Gunny, to the world.

You know him from his Academy Award-nominated performance in Full Metal Jacket along with his many other film roles, including the Toy Story trilogy and the History Channel series "Lock N' Load With R. Lee Ermey."

If you think you can hack it, SOG has kicked off the "Are You The Gunny?" video contest on its Facebook page. Participants are asked to videotape and upload their best Gunny impression to the page and the winner with the best submission will be flown to Las Vegas as a guest of SOG for the 2011 Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show and Conference in January. The winner will also get to hang out with The Gunny himself at a special cocktail party on the first night of the show.