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.

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

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.

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.

The firearms community needs more blunt honesty like this

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

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

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

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.

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.

Quality is king. Everyone hates the quality department because their job is to tell you when you're doing something wrong but they get to decide how consistent a product is and that translates to happy customers.

You had me at "in the realm of diminishing returns". All kidding aside, this level of honesty from a very knowledgeable person is refreshing.

I love these interviews. Mike is an enthusiastic engineer that can explain optics at a level the layman can understand without apparent bias.

He's great at discussing all these optical stuffs, really knows the products and very upfront about what is what. Two thumbs up!

I really respect his honesty

I love your interviews with this guy. I've met so many "experts" (in a completely different field) that you try to talk on a topic with and it just turns into a sales pitch of "our thing is soooo much better because xyz" "buy our thing instead because it does ABC and the competition does DEF". This guy is just straight up talking on the topic and only every now and then talks about his goods when relevant!

It's so refreshing to see a manufacturer tell you the good the bad and the ugly about their products and compare them to other products without bad mounting the competition! I've learned a lot about optics that I thought I knew just by these few videos that Gun Jesus has had him on! That being said more please!

Some of the best and informative content about LVPO's I have watched.

More from Mike please. Maybe get a bottle o' moonshine for a Q/A about firearms in general. Appeciate his insights, they apply to more than firearms!

This gentlemen has been very interesting to listen to over the last few video's. I hope we see and hear more from him in the future. Cheers.

I agree 100 per cent with this guy. I discovered IJK optics that sells 1 st focal plane and other scopes for a fraction of what Leupold, Nightforce etc. cost. They have performed excellent for target and hunting. The illuminated reticals work great for night varmint hunting. Don't waste your money unless you' re filthy rich.

Never has a guy saying "my stuff isn't as good as my competitors" so motivated me to buy an optic from that guy as in this video.

“Buy once cry once” has a place but, the “stop beign Poor” statement is always out of line. Honest Dude I wish him all the luck

Hey Mike, you dropped this: 👑

If I hadn't just bought an LPVO I would consider getting one now from this man due to his straight talk.

I love the mention that training is more important than Gucci equipment. I would push back ever-so-slightly for brand new shooters, though. They need to make sure that cheap gun /mount/optic isn't total trash, broken, or shot out. Otherwise they could get frustrated and quit training or stop shooting altogether. 22LR is great for training and there are lots of affordable but great pistols and rifles that will do a great job of building skills and confidence without breaking the bank.

Literally just bought a Sig Tango 1-6, 300 bucks, going to the range today to zero it in.

Love his honesty. Especially about sending US jobs overseas.

Great video - thanks to Mike for a refreshingly honest discussion.

This gentleman is great. His frankness is refreshing.

See, this is why I paid several thousand on eye surgery so now I can't afford an ATACR but I can see all the flaws in my Venom 5-25.

I hope you have more content to come with Mike! These are great!

So informative!! I'm pretty sure I'll never need an LPVO or an optic or even a gun, but the wealth of knowledge and passion of Mike Branson is really captivating. He most definitely is one of the best guests of this channel.

These are my absolute favorite videos on Forgotten Weapons. Mike Branson is awesome, and Ian asks all the right questions.

I know its been said, but this is the most refreshing guy I've ever seen. I work in a corporate-esq environment, and I have tried to get them to understand the respect sheer honesty instills. They're more concerned with looking perfect...

The CNC machine isn't responsible for quality control - it may make the same part with the same program no matter where you plug it into the world. BUT the person running the CNC machine still matters. As does the person checking the assembly work, and the parts coming in from suppliers, etc...

Another issue with polymer vs glass lenses is that polymers have a thermal expansion coefficient which is about two orders of magnitude higher than that of glasses and ceramics.

Once again, a super interesting guest and topic. Thanks!

I would definitely like to see more interview content with Mike, he is such an interesting, knowledgeable, and agreeable fellow to listen to. Appreciate you taking the time to get his take on a few topics during your busy Shot Show run through. 👍

This is one of the best product interview videos I've seen. I love the in-depth discussion. I bet if Ian did more product development videos whoever he's talking to would really step up their game compared to what you usually see

Great interview! I really enjoy listening to Mike Branson talk about his knowledge and experience with optics. Thanks Ian and Mike!

Mike is awesome. These interviews have been surprisingly enlightening and thought-provoking.

Always a pleasure to listen to someone truly knowledgeable and passionate about a field i know so little about, this guy's great!

This guy seriously needs a forgotten optics section on this channel.

Love the honesty. Great information.

GREAT interview!! Would love to hear more from you two!

Mike and Ian are some of the best spokesmen for the Second Amendment I have seen in years. True believers. I hope to see more of Mike.

What a great interview!

I greatly appreciate the practicality of these conversations. It's really good information that the community needs to hear rather than relying on affordability bias or bravado. Thank you.

Great interviews with Mike. Love his pragmatic outlook. Very refreshing.

Awesome video. Really helps me understand and be a better customer. Thanks Mike and thank Ian.

Excellent job the both of you. What a refreshing honest and educational opportunity.

Ive been loving these videos, guy is super informative and open

This guy is so refreshing to listen to, and clearly has a huge amount of passion for his field.

Great interview and some very coherent answers to difficult questions.

Very cool, thanks for those explanations. Super helpful.

Super cool interview!

What a pleasant honest and knowledgeable fellow. Thanks for sharing your interview with him.

Ian-this has been an awesome series. Really appreciate it. Very informative and also done in an entertaining way. Would love to see you two continue the conversation about use case for red dot, prism, and lpvo.

Really GREAT presentation !

In addition to what everyone else said about mike, I really appreciate when people give credit where credit is due. mike mentioning Primary arms really makes me like mike. Kudos to you.

Quite possibly the best, most transparent take on LPVOs I’ve seen. Well done Gentlemen!

Love his honesty. Will be checking out Gideon in the future.

I love this guys honesty, im going to have to check his optics out now!

Oh, this guy again, I love his explanations!

Honestly is always refreshing from a vendor. Great work! I wish the very best of health and happiness to you all and your families!

I love this guy. He explains things really well.

I know sweet f.a. about scopes, the technology and terminology, and a lot of this went over my head; BUT it's fascinating because of how Mike explains it all. Even if I don't understand what something is, he explains how and why it is or isn't important, so I can still understand the shape of what he's talking about - even if he loses me in some details. Props to him - he'd make a great educator!

This video gave me wonderful information and, more importantly, PERSPECTIVE! Thank you to everyone involved in making this video and bringing it to the world. This video and its info could have saved me some money and consternation over the years...lol. Keep up the good work! Special "Thank You" to Mike and Gideon.

I use a Vortex 3-9 for hunting and a 1-6 for general use. Both so far have been rugged excellent scopes. I'm not looking to be a scout sniper shooting people at 800 yards. I just need something that I can reasonably run in my house, in my local area, and expect it to work. And if it craps out on me I have backup irons.

What a fantastic interview!

Big Kudos to Mr. Branson - he did an amazing job in communicating why and/or why not buy expensives scopes.... Me personally I trust in Arken glases in all occasions. In Europe they are the absolute best value for money glases. I use them vom my .22 AR15 (an LPVO) up to my .338 LM with which I shoot long range (EP-5 5-25). I now bought the ZULUS just to see if I can mount it on several different non tournament rifles, simply load the one of the 24 programmable settings and be very close the before zero'd setup.... If yes, this will give a loooooooooooot of space in weapon safes 😀

Always glad to have more sfp scopes to choose from.

Love the honesty and logic

Gentlemen of culture, we meet again.

Please make more videos with this guy!

i dont think ive ever been this early to a forgotten weapons episode. thx ian for another drop 😎

Mike seems super knowledgeable and humble, great video

I worked with Mike for a very brief time. What a true gentleman! Thanks for the great video Ian.

This guy was pretty cool and insightful! I hope you'll have him on again sometime to talk optics!

It’s my boy Mike again! Love this guys info and honesty

Great job on the interview!

Great interview!

Gun Jesus provides us with a treat on the sabbath

Mike is awesome. Hope to see him in the future. Definitely considering one of his optics for a few of my rifles

Way cool and thank you both.

I clicked on this as a random video far down the rabbit hole, and it’s the most informative video I’ve seen in a long time

Keep it up Mike, you give a very refreshing honest perspective on modern optics and firearms. 4MOA was good years ago. Now a cheap homebuilt AR can give 1MOA accuracy and of course optics quality is light years ahead and is racing forward every year still.

FANTASTIC VIDEO thank you both

Outstanding interview Ian. That gentleman is a gem.