Gear Reviews

The Vortex Viper was already a compelling little pistol optic when we originally put it through a match and several hundred rounds of practice. In 2026, the harder question is whether you actually want the Viper, Venom, Razor, SPARC AR, or the very different AMG UH-1 Gen II.

The $90 Vortex Triumph 10×28 HD binoculars are compact, lightweight, and surprisingly useful. I packed them for my honeymoon in the Dominican Republic, where they helped us discover a shipwreck and reminded me why the best optics are often the ones you actually bring along.

A long range scope has one job that matters more than the rest: when you dial 10 mils, the reticle has to move 10 mils, every time, and come back to zero. Clear glass is nice. Tracking you can trust is everything. Every scope in this guide was put on a rifle and shot by [...]

The Airlock Industries Zero Gravity 30 weighs just 7.5 ounces and measures 6 inches long, but the 2026 Silencer Summit numbers show this titanium hunting suppressor can run surprisingly close to much bigger cans. After shooting it on a .300 PRC, I understand why.

The Tenet Vesper 6.5 weighs just 9.77 oz without its thread protector, yet it delivers the kind of sound suppression I expected to require a much longer, heavier can. After testing its weight, length, accuracy, sound, and Horizon Brake, this suppressor left me wondering how Tenet stuffed this much performance into such a light package.

The Midwest Industries 10.5” Combat Rail spent over 2 and a half years on my primary AR before I hung 10lb and 25lb weights from it to see what really happens to laser zero. It stayed lightweight, slim, affordable, and impressively dependable, but the deflection numbers reveal exactly where hard barricade pressure can matter.

The SIG Sauer XRAY5 throws out the mechanical zeroing system pistol red dots have relied on for decades. With a fixed 225-dot matrix, enclosed housing and zero-distortion optical system, this solid-state optic may be SIG’s most interesting pistol red dot yet.

The SIG KILO MICRO 4x18mm squeezes 1,000-yard reflective ranging, Archery Mode, ballistic groups and a rechargeable battery into a rangefinder weighing just 3.4 ounces. At SIG NEXT, this tiny optic proved it has considerably more capability than its dimensions suggest.

SIG is taking the CROSS in several new directions for 2026, including a 9-inch .300 Blackout, a compact .223 Wylde and carbon-fiber SAWTOOTH variants built around precision-friendly features.