Each year outdoor media and industry professionals make a great migration to the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor, Trade Show (SHOT Show) and for us, it kicks off at the range before the show-floor actually opens. SHOT Show is presented by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) who boasts the largest convention crowds of any show. I’ll be scouring the aisles for outdoor and hunting items and share them with you. If there’s anything you’d like to see, let me know in the comments below or on social media sites.
Today I’ll share one of my favorite things from my day one, which is the NSSF’s Industry Day at the Range. Much of my time is usually consumed with meetings, networking, and the like, but I did get to demo some great guns, which I’ll share later, but first here’s one that gets a nod as a fave. (Yes, I did have more than one fave.)
Phone Skope is a company that introduced an attachment for your binoculars and spotting scopes, which allows you to hook your phone on and zoom in to take fabulous images. Digiscoping has since grown immensely as phone cameras have improved, and friends everywhere are taking phenomenal images using the Phone Skope and their phones.
This year Phone Skope had a huge presence at Range Day, giving media and industry professionals Phone Skope kits. I did receive one and will do an unboxing at a later date when I’m back home. It’s definitely cool to receive a digiscoping kit that will adhere to my Swarovski Optiks binoculars, spotting scope, as well as rifle scopes.
Speaking of rifle scopes, what I’m looking forward to is actually a new attachment that Phone Skope will begin shipping during the summer of 2018. It’s an attachment that will go on the side of your rifle scope. It’s angled, has a single mirror, and allows the shooter to actually look through the scope as their phone is mounted to the side and film their own shots.
Since I do teach hunter ed, as well as basic firearms courses, I have to tell everyone, your scope should not be used as a binocular, but with this attachment actually allows you to point your firearm at what you intend to shoot and record your shot at the same time. This is not just for those of you who are famous and have TV shows. I look forward to using it with students, when sighting in rifles, and even on hunts.
With students, and when sighting in rifles, I’ll be able to play back the shot and see where they were holding, whether they were steady or not, and if they pulled the trigger. This is going to be wonderful for sighting in my own rifles or a client’s!
”[objectSince I mentioned hunting, have you ever been on a hunt, shot at your elk, and it bolted? If you’ve been following my elk hunting stories, an elk bolted because he was chocked full of rutting-mad adrenaline. For me, on that hunt, he didn’t go far, but sometimes they can disappear into the dark timber making for a day or more of blood-trailing. If you recorded the shot, you could do a playback, see where your shot hit and know if you need to let it rest or start beating brush. (More about that later.)
The Phone Skope mounting device will be released in early Summer of 2018. It’s a universal mount that will fit most rifle scopes. It aligns your parallel to the rifle and scope and will have an attachment to fit most cell phones.
One thing I will note is that the device does extend the scope approximately 1-1/4″ (I didn’t take a tape measure to the range) so you may need to adjust your eye relief so you don’t get scoped when you’re shooting.
I’ll be sharing more of what I saw and shot at the range in the next few days or weeks. For now, I’m headed to meetings, press conferences and to explore the floor. Stay tuned!
*This is not a paid or sponsored article.
