I have posted several ad nauseum reviews of a couple of Athlon Optic scopes I own. I became a dealer with them because of the quality and value their products offer. That said...
Your vision is a controlling factor. Your ability to "see" which is to say, discerrn what the optic delivers is another thing. A telescopic sight is aid to shooting. It ain't the holy grail. If you seek the tightest bullet groupings at substantial distance, you probably want high magnification. High magnification in scopesights will generally have more distortion and aberation than lesser magnification optics of the same quality. The $12000 hensoldt 72mm objective scope (or whatever objective size it has these days) is case in point. To get high magnification with optical excellence will require optic systems usually too large or expensive to make their use practical.
Euro optics tend to have color balance designed to deliver extra crisp contrast. Japanese and the older quality USA produced sights like the B&L sniper sight of the late 90s, Unertl, and US Optics in their origin years sought neutral color balance. I have often wondered why scope makers don't offer threaded filters for enhanced utility. Color photography evokes emotional response, is the Gee-Whiz factor of great glass scopes any less influencing?
Anyway, I have tested the under $400 Athlon Argos BTR scopes and the Athlon Flagship, Cronus BTR at measured distance of 1100yds and observed their relative clarities and rendition quality at distance beyond 1500yds. I have 15/20 vision, or did before reading glasses necessity. The cheap seats Athlon Argos 8-34x 56mm showed incredible sharpness, clarity and color rendition out to the full 1100yds when focused on 4" dia blue runway marker lights. These are maybe 5" tall and are raised 15-18" above the tarmac runway. The Cronus BTR at 4.5-29x showed much superior clarity etc way past 1500 yds. Read the review for more details. There is a new Athlon Helos 8-34x 56mm introduced this week. This is an upgrade on the Argos BTR with HD Glass, better lens coatings and illum control and battery housing shifted from ocular lens to side-focus housing. The Helos is now available for under $600.
If 34x is a workable magnification level, the HD Glass Helos at $599 is worth a look. The quality of Argos BTR was enough for me to see that my leupold Mk4s and Vortex Viper PSTs were only "better" in superficial ways like anodized finish.
There is a great deal of invested bonding with shooters and their gear. Precision shooting is a confidence game. To do your best, you best know you have no reason to question your gear. The Cronus BTR is made entirely in Japan by Light Optical Works. Warranty work on all Athlon products is done in Kansas. All other Athlon products are either entirely made in China, or assembled in China from LOW optics and components. The quality is exceptionally high and the value is very real. Compare the Athlon Cronus BTR to S&B, Kahles, Razor II, ATACR, BEAST, March, or any other 34mm or larger tubed premium scopesight. You can spend tons of money on a scopesight, but now you don't have to...
Is 29x or 34x enough magnification? The clarity is there at super extended ranges with the Cronus BTR for sure. I owned a NF 8-32x 56mm NXS for about 6mos back in 2008. Sold it because the optic quality was NOT remarkable and it was damned heavy. The Argos BTR 8-34x has more clarity and rendition than that NXS 8-32x did. I have seen reports that A/O Parallax systems are not as precise as side-focus. NF BTR are all A/O (iirc) The BTR series was just under $1000 when the NXS 8-32 was $1750.
If you neglect to compare Athlon or choose not to try their product, you are leaving substantial money on the table. Money that could buy you that new best quality barrel you need, a better stock or chasis system, and you might find with the Cronus BTR you no longer need that 80mm ED spotting scope. It's not a huge magnifier, but superior clarity, rendition and precision focus will deliver superior results. Seeing is no longer believing. With Cronus BTR is its KNOWING!
For the last few years, I have competed mainly in the 300, 600 yard matches and have seen many great scopes at the matches. What is the consensus of opinion as far as quality (and value) of the top line Japanese (Nightforce, March, VView attachment 1008188 ortex, Sightron, etc.) versus the premium European optics such as Valdada, Kahles, Schmidt and Bender, and Swarovski). The most popular at our 600 yard matches at the present time are the Nightforce Competition and BR models. What are your experiences with the higher powered scopes from these makers? Thanks, James
