Athlon Aries 4.5 x 27 BTR FFP vs. Vortex Viper pst ii 5 x 25 FFP.

[ranger3]

I am looking at these two Scopes and trying to see which is the better of the two for long range shooting and or prairie dogging. I don't like the turrets on the Athlon as well as on the Viper and I don't like the zero stop as well on the Athlon as I do on the Viper either. Has anyone made a comparison of these two and if so what conclusions have you reached? Glass, etc comparisons.

 

[dmoran]

Started out really liking the Athlon's, but ran into repeated parallax and turret issues with both Midas and Aries scope lines. Bad enough and repeated enough (even after replacements) that I no longer have any Athlon's in house, and stopped selling or advising them to any of my customers as well.
Just my 2-cents....

 

[ranger3]

Ok, I think that's good enough for me. My Vortex and sightron scopes have not had any of those problems.

 

[Tricktech]

Just picked up the Athlon Ares BTR 4.5-27 and have to say I love everything about it except for the crappy turret "Feel". In use next to the Vortex, I actually feel the clarity and resolution on the Athlon is a touch better - and for 549.00 during their Memorial Day sale, I feel like it falls into the "Great bang for the buck" category. It's better than my old eyes deserve at my level of shooting.

I have to admit I have not taken the time to set the zero stop yet, so I can't comment on that, but a ladder test was spot on. (Again, so far as my ability was able to judge it, lol)

 

[mysticplayer]

Instead of the Ares BTR, consider the new Midas TAC 6-24 FFP mil. new gen turrets for way better feel and deadly tracking, better glass.

If the budget allows, Ares ETR and be very very happy.

I compete with these.

Jerry

 

[muleman69]

I have the Athlon ETR,PST 2 and the Nikon FX1000. All three are very nice scopes,ETR has a lot going for it,PST 2 I don't like the clutter ,cross hairs or zero stop,The Nikon zero stops are much better than ETR. If I had to choose it would be the Nikon FX 1000

 

[steve123]

That so called clutter is there for a reason, more efficient holdovers and holdoffs.

The build quality is higher in the PST2, than it is in The Ares BTR, but not so compared to the Midas TAC, which is not to be confused with the old SFP Midas scopes.

Basically the Ares BTR was made to compete with the G1 PST which it stomps on, just like the ETR stomps on the PST2, there are different generations that we are talking about here.

 

[ballisticxlr]

Athlon's I've tested didn't live up to the price point. Only in subtle ways but honestly, there's gotta be better for the money.