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Old 11-21-2017, 03:06 AM
JSH JSH is offline
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Default Athlon optics

Has anyone tried these or know someone who has had hands on with them? Since Bushnell has dropped the ball so to speak, I am looking at other scopes. I have been looking at Sightron and Vortex. Then again I have been keeping an eye on used Leupolds and Burris.

Wanting a piece of glass that will give me good service with the 17 Remington and others in the future. I prefer side focus, it has really spoiled me on a couple of others, but not a have to have.
Reticles on some seem to be awful heavy, intended more for shooting steel at distance.
The Bushnell Engage series that are out and supposed to replace the majority of the old Elite, just don't get me excited. I may try one if I can get an extra good deal. The reticle setup on them maybe usable, but darn sure wasn't designed by a shooter.
Jeff
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  #2  
Old 11-21-2017, 05:06 AM
Swift220 Swift220 is offline
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JSH,

A couple friends bought Athlon, not the bottom line but the middle line of scopes. They are typical Chinese junk just below Vortex. Tracking terrible and clarity at higher powers cloudy. I haven't ever had one but have had 3 Vortex's from $700 to $999 and all 3 had defects, I no longer have them, took a huge loss.

I don't know what you want to spend but I think the best scopes being made now under $2000 are Sightrons, the SIII's or the S-tac's. The SIII made in Japan and the S-TAC in the Philippines. I use the moa versions and the tracking and warranty are second to none even though out of 9 Sightron's I've never had to use the warranty, a great thing. I get mine from Scott at Liberty Optics and the S-tac 4x20x50 30mm is $409 delivered and my 6x24x50 LR MOA-H 30MM and 8x32x56 LR MOA-H 30mm between $749-$849 delivered. The crosshair lines are thick enough to hunt with but on higher powers thin enough to precision target shoot.

The only other scopes I've purchased in the past 6 years are 2 Zeiss HD 5's with the Rapid-Z varmint reticle made in Germany and they are simply awesome but expensive. They are 1" scopes and I love the reticle but let me say this, clarity is no better than the Sightron's.

That's just my opinion on scopes and others may disagree.

BTW, if you go to the Sightron website you can click on specifications and it will show the reticle then click on the reticle and a page will open showing you the sub tensions at the various powers.

Jim D
SE Texas
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Last edited by Swift220; 11-21-2017 at 05:29 AM.
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  #3  
Old 11-21-2017, 11:58 AM
squirrel_slayer squirrel_slayer is offline
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well I haven't had the pleasure of using a lot of scopes but I have had some time with the entry level of scopes (viper pst, super snipers, leupold MK4 and 6, bushnell 3200)

here's my take on it. I have a Argos BTR 6-24x50 and I feel it offers a great bargain for it's price point. I think the image quality is on par with the pst I've looked through if not a hair better. and I know it's not a fair example but I think it is far brighter and clearer than the 3-18 leupold MK6 both at 12x mag (the leupy at 18x loses a lot of light and has a uber sensitive eyebox at that mag)

I will say the Argos does start to degrade around 20x so I often keep mine in the 12-18 range. mine a has been tracking just fine but I will say the turrets leave a lot to be desired. clicks are mushy and the hash marks don't line up exactly. If Athlon could make a turret like the super sniper series it would be a home run in my opinion.

so all in all I'm happy with mine for what I paid. would I love to be able to afford top tier glass. hell yes but for what I do with mine I'm pleased. I would like to upgrade into the Ares model one of these years and also thinking about trying a Talos BTR for one of my AR's.
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Old 11-21-2017, 12:25 PM
rickiesrevenge rickiesrevenge is offline
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Haven't owned any Vortex scopes. I have however owned a few sightrons. Not any more though. Every one of them had the same problem. Once I got the parallax set properly it wasn't possible to have the crosshair and picture clear. This isn't on just one scope but rather multiple. They did track well and were repeatable. The last one I had was a SIII 6-24 MOA. It eventually had specks of crap inside it. Kinda like there was dust or dirt on the lenses but it was inside. They fixed that part, but it was still never clear once the parallax was set.

Aaron
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  #5  
Old 11-21-2017, 01:32 PM
Bayou City Boy Bayou City Boy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rickiesrevenge View Post
Haven't owned any Vortex scopes. I have however owned a few sightrons. Not any more though. Every one of them had the same problem. Once I got the parallax set properly it wasn't possible to have the crosshair and picture clear. This isn't on just one scope but rather multiple. They did track well and were repeatable. The last one I had was a SIII 6-24 MOA. It eventually had specks of crap inside it. Kinda like there was dust or dirt on the lenses but it was inside. They fixed that part, but it was still never clear once the parallax was set.

Aaron
First off, there are no good deals in scopes just waiting to be discovered. Each of the bargain scopes has its warts, just maybe the warts on one are different than someone else's warts.

If you want good quality glass, you have to pay for it. Go to Bear Basin, for example, and you'll see a good choice in quality optics, but none of the better stuff is cheap.

As for Sightrons. I'm with Aaron on them. I never could get the parallax set where everything seemed clear on one of them. Hence I too don't buy them anymore. And one I had with a mil-dot reticle a few years back........the reticle was huge..... Looking through it was kin to trying to watch tv through a picket fence. And, yes, it was a second focal plane scope, so the reticle was huge at all magnifications.

Lastly, scope quality is a very subjective and individual thing. What one person likes, the next guy might not. About all you can do is try a few for yourself and go from there.

I recently bought the cheapy 4-12X40 Bushnell Engage with the kinda' busy reticle which isn't bad at all in real life. It's very thin in profile and easy to "see through". The parallax adjustment on the ONE I bought seems to be spot on with better quality scopes. Notice I capitalized "ONE".

Overall, the scope is not one I'd trust for serious hunting at this point, but so far it has been more than adequate on a plinking rifle in 223 Rem used for one day on a 4-wheeler. It tracks well, and it is clear and bright at all magnifications, and when I say it tracks well, it was spot on with a 16 click box check when I mounted it. How will it hold up to use? I have no idea at this point, but I'm not thinking that I've found the Holy Grail by any means, simply because of the low price I paid for it.

Again, buy quality and you'll hopefully get quality. Buy cheap and you're rolling the dice........

Edited to Add: I didn't realize that the Mark4 and the Vx-6HD scopes were entry level Leupold scopes. I thought that was what the Rifleman, the VX1, and so on up were......

JMO - BCB
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Last edited by Bayou City Boy; 11-21-2017 at 01:51 PM.
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  #6  
Old 11-21-2017, 01:51 PM
Varmint Shooter Varmint Shooter is offline
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Buy what you like and can afford. Others opinions, and hardly any of them will
agree with yours, just keep you in a turmoil over which to buy. Been down that
road more times than I like to remember.
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  #7  
Old 11-21-2017, 02:18 PM
squirrel_slayer squirrel_slayer is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bayou City Boy View Post
Edited to Add: I didn't realize that the Mark4 and the Vx-6HD scopes were entry level Leupold scopes. I thought that was what the Rifleman, the VX1, and so on up were......

JMO - BCB
No not entry level persay. but definitely not "top tier" glass either. MK4 was expensive and top of the line what 15+ years ago, but by today's standard it's lower mid level.

I think the MK6 3-18x44 my cousin has is a compromise of features and magnification crammed into too small of a package in my opinion. 18x magnification with a 44mm objective on a $2K+ price tag? I mean the rest of the optic is fantastic (turrets, reticle, size) but in my experience it is only effective as a 3-12x optic. beyond that the brightness and eyebox become unworkable. especially for a "tactical" scope that may need to be shot in less than ideal shooting positions. at the end of the day exit pupil is exit pupil. you can't cheat that no matter how many bells and whistles you add.

He also has a trijicon 1-8. this one appears to stay clear and bright. but I haven't had a chance to shoot with it yet. just looked through it into the back yard.
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  #8  
Old 11-21-2017, 02:18 PM
steve123 steve123 is offline
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Default okay full disclosure

Hi guys,

I'll get it out right away. I actually helped design most of the reticles in the Athlon FFP scopes, as well as the input of some other features I value in a rifle scope, which are; close focusing, an emphasis on compact and lightweight, illumination, staying with mil turrets/mil reticle or moa turrets/moa reticle, and higher grade glass for the price.

That said, I am biased to the brand, but and it's a big BUT, I am also honest about these scopes and say so on the Snipers Hide all the time.

Keep in mind there are many shooters out there that flat out cannot afford $1000 scopes or for that matter a $500 scope. Hey, if we could afford it, we'd all have S&B's mounted up, right??!!!

Okay, guess what, I won the AZ state Field target air rifle match last year with a Athlon Argos BTR 6-24x50 on top of my USFT. This year I won freestyle division. One will never win any match with a scope that is "junk", so apparently..... BTW, that's a $369 MAP scope.

Two weeks ago with my Talos BTR 4-14x44 I delivered first round hits with it mounted on my 6mmFatRat on a 5" steel at 550Y, a 10" at 675Y + the next two, I missed the 12' at 812Y due to wind but connected the next 3 shots, loaded the mag with 10 rounds and pummeled the 1122Y steel which is 19" wide. It was not calm out either, 4-8 mph coming from 10-11 o'clock.

Now to the quality of the scopes, the Talos BTR and the Argos BTR are what one could expect for the price. The turrets don't line up perfectly all the time, some controls might be stiffer than should be and that concludes the downsides for those scopes. As far as tracking and durability they do very well overall. The lifetime warranty is such that if you do have a problem you send it back and will likely receive and a brand new scope as replacement.

That's the cheaper FFP scopes, it only gets better from there. The Helos with locking turrets, the Midas a SFP scope, the new Ares line with 10 mil or 24 moa turrets plus zero stop and a Japanese made scope named Cronus BTR that is outstanding and competes very closely to the $3000 scopes, it's a $1799 MAP scope.

I do have S&B's and have owned many different types of scopes of all grades.

Now take into consideration that all these scopes have a street price of 10% less than MAP.

Gotta go, so...
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  #9  
Old 11-21-2017, 02:28 PM
Spook Spook is offline
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I had a CronusBTR (4.5x20) sent to me on approval by a distributor.
the glass is really, really (and I'm tempted to add a 3rd really) nice, as in better than most.
the knobs are a good size and easily "clicked" with gloved fingers
the retical is crisp and the actual lines and dots minimally thick.
things I bitch about: no sunshade included , seriously WTF ? for what would have cost them less than a buck to produce , I get to sent them 30 bucks and I'm told the color match sucks. epic fail in marketing
the retical brightness control is on the end of the side focus knob ? could be worse I guess.

this scope, by virtue of the quality of the glass, might be a smidge better than my Vortex's and equal to the upper end Bushys .
tempted to keep this one
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  #10  
Old 11-21-2017, 02:29 PM
Bayou City Boy Bayou City Boy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by squirrel_slayer View Post
No not entry level persay. but definitely not "top tier" glass either. MK4 was expensive and top of the line what 15+ years ago, but by today's standard it's lower mid level.

I think the MK6 3-18x44 my cousin has is a compromise of features and magnification crammed into too small of a package in my opinion. 18x magnification with a 44mm objective on a $2K+ price tag? I mean the rest of the optic is fantastic (turrets, reticle, size) but in my experience it is only effective as a 3-12x optic. beyond that the brightness and eyebox become unworkable. especially for a "tactical" scope that may need to be shot in less than ideal shooting positions. at the end of the day exit pupil is exit pupil. you can't cheat that no matter how many bells and whistles you add.

He also has a trijicon 1-8. this one appears to stay clear and bright. but I haven't had a chance to shoot with it yet. just looked through it into the back yard.
Oh, OK..........

-BCB
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I miss mean Tweets, competence, and $1.79 per gallon gasoline.

Yo no creo en santos que orinan.

Women and cats will do as they please. Men and dogs should relax and just get used to the idea.

Going keyboard postal over something that you read on the internet is like seeing a pile of dog crap on the sidewalk and choosing to step in it rather than stepping around it.

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