How are Athlon optics, just for deer, and occasional varmint hunting.

[koger]

I do a lot of gunsmithing, and have had several people as of late, ask me about the Neos line of Athlon optics. I have seen them compared to Vortex lower end scopes. I have a lot of folks have had good luck with the Vortex Crossfires. Now I am talking about 4x12 or 4x16 power scopes, to go on a .243, /270 etc, they run between $150-200. Not benchrest or serious competition stuff, just wondering if anyone had seen them used, been around someone using them. A local gunstore has been having good luck out of them, but has not sold many. All replies appreciated

 

[Plumsask]

I do a lot of gunsmithing, and have had several people as of late, ask me about the Neos line of Athlon optics. I have seen them compared to Vortex lower end scopes. I have a lot of folks have had good luck with the Vortex Crossfires. Now I am talking about 4x12 or 4x16 power scopes, to go on a .243, /270 etc, they run between $150-200. Not benchrest or serious competition stuff, just wondering if anyone had seen them used, been around someone using them. A local gunstore has been having good luck out of them, but has not sold many. All replies appreciated

I have an Athlon ARES Etr on my 6 mm creddmoor Nd have run it for two seasons. Great glass and returns to zero consistently. Good scope for the $

 

[flatlander]

I'm one of the little individual dealers for Athlon, and have used Ares BTR & ETR, Midas TAC and Gen II BTRs, and several Cronus BTRs on rifles from 22RF to 6.5-08 Improved 30*, and lots of other 22CF & 6mm chamberings. I've been shooting behind these scopes since the 1st year that Athlon opened for business, and though some of the earliest Midas scopes I bought to meet the minimum requirements to be a dealer were less than ideal, I've always been very satisfied with the Cronus 4.5-29x56s, as well as the 6-24x50 & 5-25x56 Midas TACs and Ares BTR & ETR scopes. I've never ordered in any of the lower level scopes for my own use, although I have gotten a couple of Helos scopes for customers, and they've been satisfied with them. The newest models I've bought & mounted on my own rifles are a couple of sfp Midas BTR Gen IIs, and a ffp Midas TAC 5-25x56. I specifically wanted the sfp scopes to put on a couple of my custom bbl'd 22RF rifles (V-22 & CZ457) that get used around the farmstead in the role of nighttime varmint control rifles if a coon or coyote happens to show up while I've got my little border collie/Australian shepard cross out to 'do her business' before bedtime. I wanted a quality scope with mil/mil knobs & illuminated reticle for this purpose, and both these scopes have worked very well in this capacity. All the scopes I've mounted on custom 22RF repeaters get used from 50 to 200+yds, so see a lot of knob twisting for elevation - and they all track very well, as well as return to 50yd zero without fail. The Midas TAC 5-25x56 went on a custom M700 in 223AI in a McM A5 stock that I used recently in a practical/tactical match with targets at 500 & 600yds, so it got run back-and-forth between those distances repeatedly through the course of the 73rd match. As expected, there were no issues with tracking, and this scope has click/detents just as distinct as the 30mm 6-24x50 Midas TAC scopes. I can't vouch for Athlon's lifetime warranty service, simply because I've never needed to use it, since I placed my 1st order in Feb of 2016.

 

[Art Dirindin]

My personal and strictly MY personal opinion, but I'd MUCH rather have a scope go bad ANYWHERE but while I'm hunting. For ME there is no such thing as casual deer or big game hunting. A rare exception is when I put in for doe reduction hunts. Then if my scope fails in the field it can not cost me the animal or the hunt of a life time.

While I hunt I fallow an old Jack O'Conner rule of shooting my rifle 1x a day to confirm it still holding zero as I don't want to find out it lost zero after missing or far worse making a bad shot on an animal.

 

[AWS]

I bought an Athlon Argos 2-10 for a scope on a new 223 bolt action , nice scope, clear, bright and the adjustments were spot on. I killed a coyote on the first hunt with it, I just didn't like the tall turrets on it they got in the way. I gave the rifle and scope to my granddaughter(she's really nice to me and even has an RV hookup in her yard and won't take money for the extra electricity).

223 With tall turrets

Athlon came out with a Argos 2-12 with capped adjustments and a Ballistic Plex(or whatever they call it) reticle. It is great, so much so I'm going to dabble in some longer range coyotes after taking it to the range and having no problems ringing 500 yard coyote sized steel with it on my 20P. The only change I would like is if they would have put a dot at the junction of the crosshairs also, it would be nice for those close in hard chargers. I know it would be a pain to have the dot there for most others that would rather have a finer aiming point for zeroing and load workup.