Athlon Argos BTR 6-24x50 mil FFP 1st impressions
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Hey all just wanted to share my first impressions on a new scope I acquired. An Athlon Argos BTR 6-24x50 MIL FFP, she came well packaged in a hinged box with magnetic closure and custom cut foam. Included were front and back flip up caps, manual, allen wrench, lens cloth, and battery.
I'll start off by saying I am comparing this to my only other scope (besides red dots), a SWFA SS 10x . While the SS is a good entry level/budget scope, I wanted a little more mag at distance. Since I wanted FFP and I am always on a budget, the new Athlon lineup looked promising.
OK out of the box the finish looks great. The turrets feel very clicky (more pronounced than my SS), but the vertical adjustment turret was a little misaligned from the factory. Luckily it was easily corrected by slipping the turret and tightening the set screw. The mag ring is stiff, but not too stiff. The glass very clear and crisp, as good or better than the SS. The reticle is well layed out. The illumination is NOT daylight bright, but it should be good for low light/ darkness (pic below with front lens cap closed). In the album below not sure if u can tell (crappy cell phone pics), but at 24x I can see the embossed wood grain pattern on my neighbors garage door.
She is now mounted on my Rem700, and I will post a follow up after my next range trip. At my club I can shoot out to 600 yards. So far I would say I am pleased with a less than $400 purchase.
More to come.
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Scope looks great on your rifle.
Look forward to your future assessment, especially the tracking.:smile:
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I will be watching this with interest.
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Athlon Argos BTR 6-24 FFP MIL scope follow up
Field Report
This is no way an exhaustive review of the Argos scope, but rather my observations on my first outing.
To quickly rehash my first impressions, the finish is excellent. Glass is better than expected at this price point. The reticle is fantastic. The turrets are OK,and the illumination is NOT daylight usable.
My first trip to the range with the Athlon Argos BTR went pretty well. It is mounted to my Remington 700 AAC-SD in 308 Winchester. I started off with a simple figure 8 box tracking test at 100yrds. Initially I started to worry as everything right of center was dead clicks with the reticle not moving at all. However, after working the horizontal a few minutes the reticle came to life and began to track correctly. I can only assume some of the grease or internals just needed to be worked. Vertical tracking was spot on from the get go. The sub-tensions of the reticle were spot on as well.
After zeroing the scope for my hand loads, 178gr A-Max, I shot some groups. It was unfortunately not my best shooting that day. The winds kept shifting directions, making it that much more difficult. I will note, coming from a fixed 10x scope to a variable 6-24x, 24x definitely makes the target easier to see, but it also amplifies your mistakes/breathing/unsteadiness.
Later, after waiting on some club maintenance crew to finish their work, I stretched my legs on our 600 yard range. I was also trying out the Applied Ballistics Android app that day. The app was at first glance giving me the wrong hold info at 5.5 mils. Later while eating lunch on the trip home I figured out it was user error, as I neglected to change the weather conditions from my previous scopes zero, to the current weather. After I entered the correct weather it spit out the correct hold of 4.6 mils. I was able to land consistent hits on my full size steel IPSC target from 600 yards, both by dialing and holding with the reticle. I fired off two groups of ten rounds at a SR-1 high power target. Scored 17 in the black, with 1x and 3 10s, which I felt was pretty decent considering it was my first time behind that scope and the wind was all over the place.
In the end, the scope tracks true, has a really good feature set for a scope at this price point. Overall I am very pleased with this scope. Is it going to be on par with other FFP scopes in the $2000+ market?....I don't think so. I do think its worth comparing to other FFP scopes up to the $1500 mark. I really do think you are getting far more scope than the $400 price tag suggests.
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I needed a scope for my .223 for our rifle clubs annual Christmas lunch and shoot. I picked up one of these Athlon scopes after contacting a number of folks that had bought and used the scopes. Somehow I had bent the tube on my SS 12X travelling and needed a quick and inexpensive replacement.
I was not expecting much, I was hoping that I could use up to 16 power and that I could use my DOPE. I was pleasantly surprised. The glass is pretty darn good even at 24 power. I put the scope on my rifle and zeroed and won the "know your limit" shoot at 100 yards, shooting all targets from largest to the smallest. I used my DOPE established with the SS to take first round hits on targets from 312 to 570 yards.
The turrets are a bit mushy, just need to pay attention when dialing. (I'm going to try the fix rhyno showed me on those.) The elevation turret does give me audible as well as tactile response, but the windage was quiet and soft.
The eye box at the higher powers is pretty tight and compels proper eye alignment.
The parallax adjustment is tight but not too tight and the power ring was smooth and not too tight either. Both moved when you wanted them to and stayed where you put them.
In comparing this scope to a PST 4-16 I once owned I would give the glass on the Athlon a better rating, much better at the above 12x settings and the PST better turrets.
Only time will tell how this scope will hold up, but for the price they are hard to beat.
They have a similar warranty to Vortex; time will tell if they have the service response as well.
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Took this picture through the scope while hand holding my camera. The picture doesn't do justice to actual image. Scope is very bright even on 24 power.
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No blue fringing...... Dang that NightForce in the SF thread was messed up.
Is that 100 yards? 24X
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@hypo
yes 100 yards.
The CA that you can see in the picture, when enlarged, was not there when looking directly through the scope.
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Little update here on the Athlon Argos 6-24X50 FFP mil/mil scope.
Did 2 things with it, first changed the grease to the green slime and it helps the turret feel.
2nd, I got some thin nylon washers and installed them for a zero stop.
The washers were from Non-Ferrous Fasteners Inc., Size NF9320
I bought 10 and only needed 4; cost about $7.00 with the shipping.
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That is cool. After having a zero stop it is a must have now.
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They're nice, even the simple ones.
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So my oldest son took his first major paycheck with lots of overtime on it and bought a RPR in .308. I recommended he get this scope in the meantime while waiting for Vortex to release the gen II PST for his LEO discount.
Sadly he had to send it back to Amazon. He said it was great when he first got it. Had it mounted and went out to break in his rifle. The magnification wasn't working. He decide to wait and save his money and get something else.
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That is unfortunate.
It absolutely sucks when you get a new something and it malfunctions right out of the box.
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Here is an update on the Athlon Argos BTR 6-24X50 FFP Mil/Mil scope.
I now have 554 rounds through my rifle with this scope without a hiccup.
I would buy it again as I have had no issues with it other than the grease change in the turrets...
Most of those rounds were dialed up and down to varying distances up to 570 yards.
The turrets require paying attention as they are not the most audible or tactile out there; however, they are accurate.
For the price these scopes are an excellent choice to get you out shooting as you save up for the Tier 1 glass.
