In this SHOT Show Q&A, we had the opportunity to speak with Sean Pickel, Co-Owner of Lux Tactical. He shared insights on what's new and exciting at Lux Tactical, emphasized why the SHOT Show is an essential event to attend and provided a glimpse into what we can expect from Lux Tactical in 2025.
Lux Tactical is a startup focusing on optical equipment for hunting, shooting sports, wildlife watching, outdoor recreation and law enforcement. Lux Tactical products include binoculars, rangefinders, riflescopes, reflex sights and other accessories.
Visit the Lux Tactical booth during the show located in the Venetian Expo Level 1 – Booth 41464
Tell us about Lux Tactical and what you do?
Lux Tactical is a breakthrough premiere optics company set around competition shooting. We offer high-quality optics at not a high-end budget. Our competitors are a little steeper in price than our products. However, we have the same features, if not better than the rest.
What new products will Lux Tactical be featuring at SHOT Show?
Our main showcase will be the Sky Raider open reflex sight, our first built-from-the-ground-up product. Our primary focus during SHOT Show is to get our name and our product out there.
Tell us about the Features of the Skyraider Reflex Sight
The most prominent feature of this is the large optical window; it's one of the largest windows on the market. It is 1.2 inches by 0.9 inches, offering a 30-millimeter by 23-millimeter view. It gives you the best view for ultra-fast target acquisition. We have three selectable reticles with dimness from 0 to 10. So there are 10 different settings on dimness. Shaking or pulling it out of the holster will give you an auto-illumination and it has an auto-sleep after three minutes. It is 7075 aluminum T6 one-piece housing and again, it is an open reflex sight.
Another feature is that the battery can be loaded and unloaded from the top, so you don't have to remove the optic to access the battery compartment.
What Makes Lux Tactical Stand Out?
I think what separates us is that we are military and law enforcement-owned. So, the rigorous testing and the rigorous everyday use of our Red Dot go hand-in-hand with what we wanted to develop. We are also competition shooters, so we understand what quality we want and what we need without breaking the bank.
The fact that we offer such high-quality products at an affordable price for the average consumer is a big piece.
We also understand that we need ultra-fast target acquisition. So that comes in with why we designed such a big optical window, so we can not just have tunnel vision on the target, but also be able to acquire multiple targets or multiple threats, not just for competition shooting, but also for real life.
Why is it so important for Lux Tactical to be at SHOT Show?
SHOT Show is going to be our breakthrough. We were just established. We started the process in 2023. We just got established in 2024. That's when we got our first products in hand after hours and hours of design, redesign and testing. It's been weeks and months of testing all the way through drop tests to four, five, six thousand rounds through one optic to make sure the reticle is still crisp, that the glass is still as perfect as we can get, that the weatherproof coatings are still good and that it still tracks correctly as you adjust it.
So again, SHOT Show is going to be like our big breakthrough. Right now, it's been off of hearsay and social media. We're gaining popularity, but I think SHOT Show is really going to be key to the breakthrough of Lux Tactical, especially for our law enforcement and military, seeing as how we're in law enforcement and military as well.
Where can people find your booth and what can they expect to see?
When you see us there, it'll be me, Sean and Scott. Again, we are the owners of the business. We'll be there answering any questions. We'll have not only our products but our competitors' products for you to see and demo as well. We will have a variety of weapons for you to test the optics to see how you like it, the various platforms that it could be mounted on and how good the target acquisition is.
Basically, you get a hands-on test to see how you like it, see the competitors' models and just do a side-by-side comparison. I think the best way to introduce something is for people to get hands-on rather than just reading a few reviews online or going off of what everybody else says. You want to actually be able to put your hands on it, see for yourself and get a feel for it.
What are you looking forward to at SHOT Show?
As far as the show goes, I've never been there, so I'm looking forward to basically everything!
However, I think the biggest thing that we're going to be looking forward to is meeting a ton of different people, a ton of different shooters and really getting people's opinions, not just the people that we had test our optics, but the variation of who's all going to be at SHOT Show. From hunters to competitors to amateurs, we want to get a wide array of opinions on our products to really see what we need to buckle down on and what we can improve on for next time. Also, we want to see what the consumer would want to look for for our next product that we design and release, hopefully later on in the year.
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