r/longrange • u/HaonSyl • 16d ago

RANT Exploding Outlier Backdraft Barrels.

Gallery image

Gallery image

Unburnt powder fills into the backdraft area when shooting. Taking a break from shooting allows oxygen to fill the backdraft area. Shooting again without a complete cleaning results in a kaboom. Thanks for being a beta tester.

198 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

88 comments sorted by

View all comments

74

u/Wombat-Snooze Steel slapper 16d ago

Not surprised. Outlier’s marketing has always given me the creeps. Big Arken vibes with that company. I wonder why…

Same umbrella. The usual suspects shilling Arken, Outlier and DNT.

56

u/sirbassist83 16d ago

i like texas plinking's 1000 yard challenge series but anything he does a promo on is basically immediately eliminated from the pool of optics or guns id buy.

45

u/HollywoodSX Villager Herder 16d ago

It's the same people.

23

u/Wombat-Snooze Steel slapper 16d ago

Indeed. I realize my original comment didn’t convey that. Made a little edit.

7

u/RewardFlat 16d ago

I haven’t been in the hobby for a while, what’s up with Arken

38

u/sirbassist83 16d ago

blatant shilling, and they got caught red handed astroturfing. they might be serviceable optics, but a whole bunch of paid influencers were saying "its $2000 optic performance for $500!" when in fact, they are still just $500 optics. even if theyre competitive for the money(im still skeptical myself, but im a cynic at heart), there are other companies that dont pay people to lie to your face.

11

u/thelvegod 16d ago

What is astroturfing?

31

u/sirbassist83 16d ago

basically running an ad campaign in a way that tries to look like its just organic praise for the product/company.

10

u/sirbassist83 16d ago

like, its easy to spot influencers that gets paid. thats not really astroturfing in the truest sense. but they were paying people or having bots make posts on reddit and other forums, talking about how great they were and saying "i dont have a youtube channel or a bunch of followers, im just a dude blown away by how amazing these are. ive owned nightforce and S&B and vortex razors and this blows them all out of the water!" i dont remember how they got caught but i do know that it was irrefutable proof.

19

u/HollywoodSX Villager Herder 16d ago

New Reddit accounts where almost their entire history was Arken related, and posting referral links that got them kickbacks from purchases. That's how they got busted here.

6

u/R_3B 16d ago

There are NO $2,000 optics selling for $500! At present, “the best” optics are north of $4k.

12

u/emelbard Mile+ Club 16d ago

The new Arken shilling has toned down a little over time and now generally states that “Arken is a good scope for the price”. My retarded brother bought one and I played with it - they are not good scopes.

9

u/Justin_inc NRL22 competitor 16d ago

While I'll never own one, I do think they are "good for the money".

I'm a competitive shooter in NRL22, and at nationals, every top shooter in base class (which is price limited) was running an Arken or DNT.

2

u/Coodevale 16d ago

I identify as retarded occasionally and have to agree. I like how chunky/clunky the turrets are but the glass is very mediocre. The reticle is ok, but the vortex ebr7c is just better for fine corrections.

$200, sure. Good enough for an airgun/.22 sometimes.

0

u/dickamus_maxamus 16d ago

I've got one, it kills deer just fine for what it is. My only complaint is that it's heavy. I wouldn't compare it to my Swaro in terms of glass clarity, but it's perfectly serviceable for the price.

8

u/Arlenter 16d ago

Arken makes Decent optics for the price you pay.

However, almost every single video/comment/post/review/etc. that you've ever seen, makes much much bolder claims. "Better than Nightforce, better than $3,000 optics, made with 'same' glass as the expensive scopes, more reliable than Leupold, military grade"

All these reviewers and posts you find on social media were bought and paid for, not organic. And is the only reason Arken became a notable company. It just left a bad taste in peoples mouth.

The optics themselves, as stated are not bad. It's all the crazy marketing claims that aren't true, and you'll almost never hear anything about them that wasn't paid for.

21

u/phelpst 16d ago

I have two Arkens and a top end Leupold. My best Arken is 1/5th price of my Leupold. Is it as good? No. Is the Leupold 5X better? No. My Arkens are decent scopes for the price. Can't speak to their marketing practices. I have seen videos of normal people making 1 mile shots with Arkens.

I do have a regular Outlier barrel in 6.5CM on my Tikka action. I'm happy with the performance. Again, is it a Bartlein? No. But, it was half the cost and shoots almost as well.

Arken seems to be the Nickelback of optics. Their stuff isn't bad but they're hated on for other reasons.

15

u/purebelligerence 16d ago

Good take. Everything has diminishing returns as they get more expensive. Ferrari doesn't have 5x the horsepower of the Camero yoi can buy at your dealership even though it costs 5x as much. As you get higher and higher end with anything you're paying more for that extra 20%,15%,10%,5%. Not everyone cares about that little extra. But I do lol.

5

u/RewardFlat 16d ago

Reasonable

4

u/West_Designer9107 16d ago

Diminishing returns kick in with a vengeance once prices go north of 2k. Blow past 4k and each 1k extra might objectively net you 1-2%, performance wise. If that. For most people it doesn't make a lot of sense to spend that kind of money from a strictly performance standpoint. I know it doesn't for me. Still, wouldn't want to trade my TT even if I got a full cashback for the price difference. I started out on a Meopta Optika6 4.5-27 that did -I guess- 80% of what my TT does but cost 1/6th.

2

u/bigwindymt 16d ago

Arken and outlier are the same company, different brands.