Jesse Mathewson

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete.” Sun Tzu

Budget prepping is a difficult thing to do. After all, there is a difference between budget and cheap, inexpensive and cheap. Cheap by definition does not mean something is necessarily bad or of poor quality, however, with some things cheap is bad. Red dot technology has progressed light years beyond the first bulky Aimpoint, EOTech, and Trijicon.

Obviously, Aimpoint as a company has maintained a seriously good reputation and continued to progress with the times, as has Eotech and Trijicon, however, their pricing reflects no shifts for markets unable to afford to spend $600 – $2500 on a simple 1-4 power red dot styled optic.

My search for a less expensive optic commenced several years ago. I worked my way through Bushnell T series which functioned fine but were hit and miss at best. Eventually, I settled on the Bushnell AR scope series and decided to simply move on from the red dot phase.

After all, a solid scope with excellent glass and comparable abilities to other more expensive brands will work in most cases.

This didn’t mean I had no need for a red dot, after all, a solid red dot with a solid pair of backup irons is an amazing thing to have. Quick on target and easy to use, good red dots mean the difference between hits and misses in many arenas, especially combat-related training and combat itself.

Over the past year, I decided to do some research and look around again for a solid red dot under $500. I found several brand names, Vortex, AIM sports, and even Bushnell had new offerings on the market. However, I was drawn to a relatively new company, Holosun©, this optic had serious potential.

After dropping $170 on the HS403B found on Amazon, I received the well-wrapped package and mounting hardware. Two sets, a low riser, and high riser were included. The high riser fit my carbine exactly as needed. Co-witnessed with my irons I took it out to the range and started testing.

After around 100 rounds I set the rifle to the side as there were other reviews that needed fulfilling and it held zero very well, so what more needed testing. As I leaned it against the carbine rack it smacked the crossbar on the way by and snap, the red dot came off. I leaned over and realized that the screw holding it too the gun had snapped off at the head.

I finished my testing for the rest of the products and called Holosun on the way home.

They assured me that they both knew about the problem and apologized for the inconvenience this had caused, I asked if this was going to be an ongoing issue or if it was a simple flaw in this particular part of the design.

The person I spoke with grabbed another individual who explained that the model I had received was the last in a first gen run and the new gen had the much stronger hardware.

Upon arrival 3 days after the call, I installed the part and decided to test it too its breaking point. After all, nothing to lose at this point as the people I had spoken with assured me they would replace the entire unit free of charge if it happened again.

I dropped tested it on dirt, grass, and concrete from approximately 5 feet. I also decided to “accidentally” smack the red dot housing into a few items during my next test run. Needless to say, it held firm and I have not had a breakage or issue since.

Though I doubt it will take a bullet to the casing as say an Aimpoint will, at 50,000 hours of battery life and with a VERY clear dot picture and glass as well as solid easy on when you pick the gun up, well I think this is my new best friend in the red dot world.

They have different variations, shotgun patterning dots, circle over a dot, plain jane red dot and all of the varieties can be had with a nifty solar-powered recharger put on the top if you want.

The company offers a limited lifetime warranty to the original owner, and their customer service is very expedient and quick to respond, a truly rare commodity in today’s age of somewhat lackadaisical service. They are located in the USA, Walnut California, to be exact.

They offer a 50,000-hour battery life, a variety of aiming products from lasers too red dots. In this case, my interest lying completely in their cost-effective, efficient and extremely solid red dots. The HS507A is compatible with the standard RMR mount and the other red dots have a variety of mountings available with some specifically designed for Aks and others for Ars.

Some options have a quick release mount and others a kill flash and other essential needs for red dots. The best part is their red dots run between $165 and $350 dollars and you can order from Amazon.

Now obviously I have not been able to test the veracity of the 50,000-hour battery life, however, the unit I have has been on and working clearly for well over 6 months without a hiccup. I have no doubt that the longevity is easily better than Bushnell’s offerings and Vortex. The price point allows budget preppers and shooters to have (as the company motto says) “A military-grade optic at under military prices” now personally, I have not tested it in combat yet. However, it has performed well through many tests it is NOT designed for. I do not recommend you treat your optics badly on purpose, that is my pleasure to do for you! Having family and friends still in the military this is the question I ask myself, “would I recommend this to them?”

YES!

It works very well, it will be ready for them when they need it, and will function with general abuse and function well. This being said, I am not the desk personnel from the Pentagon and it isn’t my job to accept money to pass along new products to our soldiers.

This being said, what are the pros and cons listed out?

Pros

1. 50,000-hour battery life with an optional solar panel for charging and auto adjustment in all light conditions.
2. Multiple reticle styles and mount styles available.
3. Crisp clear dot, brightness easily adjustable or set for auto adjust.
4. Movement activated the red dot when you pick up your firearm, the red dot comes on!
5. Built for shotguns, rifles of many calibers and even handguns.
6. Limited lifetime warranty.

Cons

1. They are a relatively newer company, so not as much time to evaluate and test as other more established companies.
2. They have had some issues with mounts, however, this is being addressed and is easily fixed, upgraded with a call to their customer service.

Overall, this is a product I definitely recommend and run on my carbines now. MD Creekmore also has one and here is what he says, “I bought this sight a couple of weeks ago and mounted it on my Colt M4 and so far I’ve been very impressed and agree with everything Jesse has said here in his review.

I have an Aimpoint and an EOTech on two other AR’s and the Holosun HS503GU (the model that I have) is just as good as either one of those for half the cost. ”

Free the mind and the body will follow…

Fire is an essential element of survival, living, and warfare. It has been used for many millennia for heating, cooking, controlling growth, reducing wildfire damage, to promote grazing and conduct defensive and offensive campaigns against enemies.

Ferro Rod usage is popular with many people within the prepper community, and yet, from what I have seen personally, there are many who have never actually used the ferro rods they carry! It is my goal with this article to hopefully show you the benefits and necessity of owning and using one correctly.

Did you know that contrary to modern American conservationist thought the use of fire as a tool to prevent larger out of control fires was embraced by many American Indian tribes?

Native Americans of the Southwest often used fire as a means of clearing grazing land, driving game, reducing the build-up of excess detritus or fallen leaves and pine needles as well as dead and or diseased trees further preventing the wild exceedingly large conflagrations seen over the past 80 years of modern “conservationism”.

They realized that not only did smaller fires contribute to the faster growth of young, strong plants it also allowed animals to populate faster and in greater numbers as they did not have to fear the massive millions of acres of burned out land that actually causes a far greater toll in the end to both plant and animal life.

Such is the wisdom of those who lived with the land versus seeking to control it.

For modern preppers, all of us have seen or lived through instances where are daily prepping came into play and filled holes needed at the moment. Even if it is as simple as having extra aspirin or band-aids. With current nasty natural and some not so natural events occurring and our ability to see them being as fast as our current cell phone or internet service allows, things seem to be spiraling out of control.

The reality is, they are not. So do not panic! Mortgaging the house and selling off the kids will only serve to enrich others, stick to your current approach of getting a little here and there as you can. Make sure you have holes filled in areas that may have shown weaknesses upon the use of preps (vehicle kits and house alike)

This week I assisted an older lady who had her cell phone and nothing else when her car broke down on the highway thankfully close to a fueling station. In Arizona, we have stretches of road where people are rare and most humans traveling have no idea as to what is readily available.

From food through water, and yes in Arizona even on the Playa outside of Wilcox or around Yuma there is available food, water and more if you just know what to look for and when and where to look. The Playa is a massive dried lake bed that stretches easily 40 miles long and upwards of 15 or 20 miles in width.

Currently used by fun seekers for their sand rails and even local military testing, it is a desolate area. While I could have preached the benefits of being prepared to this lady, her concerns were more immediate and after getting her vehicle to the parking lot she became a bit more at ease. The moral of the story is, there is no such thing as too prepared!

So let’s get back to fire and why it is so very important, dangerous and necessary all in one. Having a fire starting implement is a good idea, I know many people who carry mini bic lighters, waterproof matches, flint, and steel kits and my favorite the ferrocerium rods eg., ferro rods!

What I have also found to be true is that many times these implements are purchased a book or article is read and then they are stashed away never to be practiced with. The assumption being made that like many firearms owners, we have it if we need it, it is there.

Sadly, without practice a person can easily go through 20 plus matches, a bic lighter, and never get their flint to strike a spark…I know from personal experience that this is very true and occurs quite frequently.

Camping about five years back approximately 30 miles from nearest other humans, we were hit with an unexpected deluge and spent 3 miserable days without a fire. This was my fault, and my fault alone, why did we go ahead and stay, because, the roads had become flooded and we couldn’t have crossed back if we wanted.

Now thankfully I layer my preps, meaning I had wool blankets and candles for cooking, but it still wasn’t the same as having a nice campfire going, after all, a good flame tends to cheer the soul when things are dreary outside. It is the camping/ survival equivalent of a television.

Add a bit of shine or mead to one’s tea or coffee and things can get downright cheerful! What have I done to fix this glaring hole in my preps, well, I learned how to use my tools all over again and what to do with wet wood and more.

How do we best use a ferro rod?

1. First, it is essential to understand that a ferro rod is useless without steel, so make sure you have a striker or that your knives have at least an inch of 90-degree angle on their spine (do not use the sharpened side).
2. Using the sharpened side leads to cuts and cuts lead to infections which easily lead to death in a grid down situation!
3. I file the backs of all of my knives, 440c stainless will spark a ferro rod though not as well as a high carbon blade will. I only file about an inch to a 90-degree angle and I always file it at the base where the blade meets the handle.
4. Tinder, most of us probably carry some type of fatwood or tinder mixture from Vaseline soaked cotton balls too charred cotton cloth, (easily made in a small enclosed metal container with a small pinhole sized air hole, stuff it tight with small pieces (an inch square) of cotton cloth or cotton balls cut in quarters for best overall use.) Fatwood is the sappy heartwood of trees, [preferably semi-aged or well-aged trees, pine really works best but I have mesquite and more that also works well!)
5. Now here is where things get fun, just having some tinder materials DOES NOT MAKE A FIRE or ensure you can make a fire. You still need a semi-dry additional fuel to allow for damp or even wet wood to be capable of drying while burning. (bear in mind THIS CREATES A SMOKEY FIRE!) So how do you go about collecting more from around you?
6. Grass, older grass eating animal dung, small dead twigs and bark tend to make the best next step for building a solid fire. This is where patience becomes essential, if things are wet, you will have to keep a pile in an area that stays dry and allow it to dry, make sure you get good air flow and you may be able to get a fire going within a few hours, in worse case a days time. My suggestion is to find large dead logs when possible, bring them into the sheltered area and split them down, the insides past about an inch tend to be relatively dry in many cases unless the area is flooded or a regular rainforest. In which case splitting them down simply allows for their drying easier.
7. Once you have a 4 to the 6-inch square loose bundle of kindling (pick a type from above) you can try to get your fire started, I highly recommend working out kinks of your system when dry wood and kindling is available. However, am offering worse case scenario as a way to make the best case look much easier.
8. Using a ferro rod specifically, as this article is about that, place the striking device in your strong hand, place your hand fist down beside with the striking device above the tinder. Make sure your kindling is close and that you have built a good teepee style fire setup, eg., tinder into kindling and this underneath smaller branches/ pieces with larger angled over top leaving a hole in the side of the fire to be about the size of two fists so you don’t have to battle with yourself to get the tinder into the kindling and the kindling into the fire structure. Others prefer different shapes, I have found the triangle shaped approach to work best for myself.
9. Place the ferro rod UNDER the striking surface, with the end you are not holding facing the tinder.
10. Draw vigorously but NOT quickly towards yourself (making sure you have already scraped the water-resistant coating off of the rod so you get even solid sparks) This will shower sparks into the tinder igniting embers allowing for you to transfer these embers into the kindling and getting a flame going, Breath gently with long regular exhales towards the kindling and tinder from about 4” to 6” away or the length of the blade you are using. Do so until you get a young bright flame going in the kindling than smoothly move this into the pre-built fire. Continue blowing into this until the flames take on a life of their own and become teenagers, raging to get out!
11. Easy?
12. No, this takes practice, I would suggest working with dry woods until you are confident and then use a water hose to wet some wood and work with that, do this until you have used up a ferro rod! By this point as with everything we humans learn, the repetitions of the movements and practice will make it relatively easy based on circumstances to get a fire going when needed.

Now you may ask what product am I reviewing, I can answer that, firstly there is the FireSpark by helicon-tex – it s a robust ferro rod that gives a great shower of hot sparks when needed, the handle allows for insertion of anything from necessary pills too a very small amount of tinder material! And I should note the handle has an O ring making it waterproof. The second product I am reviewing is my home brewed ferro rods, I learned long ago that in my world making my own tends to allow me to better adjust needed aspects such as a good gripping surface and having a case of ferro rods available. I prefer .30 caliber diameter by 3 inches long for my ferro rods. And I use old .308 casings as handles. (makes for a fun conversation piece) The helicon-tex FireSpark runs 21.99 on their website. The blanks I get run about $13 for a case of 10 or 12.

I can and do make ferro rods for my friends and neighbors and tend to give them away, (I really should launch a product line – arrgg – but my marketing skills have declined over the years.) if any of you want to get some let me know, I may start marketing if not, I would suggest the linked amazon approach from HOODDEAL – they are a solid manufacture/ retailer and I have never been done wrong, besides it will allow the proceeds to go to MD Creekmore for further site maintenance! Regardless, I hope you found this article educational and helpful and as always.

M.D. Creekmore adds: The Mora Bushcraft Survival Knife with built-in fire starter is something else that you might be interested in. It’s the official survival knife of The Wolf Pack.

Free the mind and the body will follow!