Athlon's two new 15-60x56's

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steve123

steve123

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May 26, 2019
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steve123 said:
athlonoptics.com

Ares ETR 4.5-30×56 APRS1 FFP IR MIL Rifle Scope

The Ares ETR First Focal Plane Scope is loaded with features that will allow you to take your long range shooting to another level.
athlonoptics.com athlonoptics.com

athlonoptics.com

HERAS SPR 15-60x56 BLR2 SFP MOA - Athlon Optics

Push your small caliber firearm or airgun to new distances with a wide high magnification range of 6-24X.
athlonoptics.com athlonoptics.com

Are these available yet?? I'm not sure but obviously very soon.

I'm hoping for a MIL ETR version.
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They are available in the warehouse for shipping!
 
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😊 I am VERY glad to see that despite the extremely high magnifications of these scopes — Athlon did not take the optical design shortcut they have taken with most of their 4.5-30x / 4.5-27x scopes — by making the min. parallax 25y or 20y. 😟

✅ Instead, they made the minimum parallax 10 yards.
Well done, Athlon. 👏🏼

➠ I'm looking forward to seeing those older edition high magnification scopes getting updated with a 10-yard-parallax in their next generation.

Matthias
 
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Green_Yamo said:
Nice looking scopes, but they screwed up big time with that reticle. They should have used their proven APLR4 MOA reticle for the intended purpose of this scope. Major bummer as I was looking forward to it.
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IMO most "target" shooters prefer a simpler reticle in the SFP and most will be dialing elevation so the horizontal of the crosshair will be used for holdoffs. Also many target shooters dial in windage for the conditions if its that windy.

There have been a ton of times I felt like Co's designed things I didn't like into reticles, some in this one too, and in the APLR4. Truthfully though in a target scope like this I would rather not have PRS style tree reticle.
 
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steve123 said:
IMO most "target" shooters prefer a simpler reticle in the SFP and most will be dialing elevation so the horizontal of the crosshair will be used for holdoffs. Also many target shooters dial in windage for the conditions if its that windy.

There have been a ton of times I felt like Co's designed things I didn't like into reticles, some in this one too, and in the APLR4. Truthfully though in a target scope like this I would rather not have PRS style tree reticle.
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The Ares ETR 15-60x looks like a very good target scope for BR, especially since Vortex has over the past two years jacked the price of their Golden Eagle to about $2500. For $1000 less, it seems like a very good deal.

I've seen the Heras 15-60x, and it was nothing to write home about.

But I did get to look at the Ares ETR 15-60X and if it was the same price as the Vortex, I'd take the Vortex. Is there a $1000 difference? Nope, they are very close overall!
 
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Centercut said:
The Ares ETR 15-60x looks like a very good target scope for BR, especially since Vortex has over the past two years jacked the price of their Golden Eagle to about $2500. For $1000 less, it seems like a very good deal.

I've seen the Heras 15-60x, and it was nothing to write home about.

But I did get to look at the Ares ETR 15-60X and if it was the same price as the Vortex, I'd take the Vortex. Is there a $1000 difference? Nope, they are very close overall!
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With not many people seeing them yet, I appreciate the quick thoughts on it. While we can look for different things and we don’t always agree on everything scope related, this makes perfect sense. I really liked the Golden Eagle back in the day, and it was only smaller things that kept me looking at other scopes, so this is a comparison I can use.

At around $575 and $950 street prices, they are in a good place.

My biggest worry is the fine reticle. Lots of people like them, but I hate them. Not much I hate when it comes to scopes, but a fine reticle is one that I can’t work around.

Also, the manual mentions and shows a large focus wheel, but it isn’t mentioned as included in the literature. I need to ask my dealer if he can find out about that too.
 
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SpiralGroove said:
I'm assuming U looked through the glass at targets - right?

- If Yes, IYO what are it's deficiencies?
- If Yes, at what magnification does clarity start to deteriorate?

I would appreciate any help :)
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Yes, looked at the Ares ETR 15-60x last year about the EBR timeframe at a prototype that was at AoA. Overall clarity and contrast were very good, didn't have my Vortex GE there to compare one against the other. Just a comparison in my mind since I've had the GE for a long time and am very familiar with it.
I looked through the Heras at RMAC at our AirBnB, one of the shooters was given one to test and I looked through it after shooting most of the day with both the GE and the Midas BTR Gen2; the Heras 15-60x was definitely inferior. There was chromatic aberration at the edges of the view, especially once you got over 40x. I have shot with the Argos BTR 10-40x and the Heras was no better than that.
 
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Centercut said:
Yes, looked at the Ares ETR 15-60x last year about the EBR timeframe at a prototype that was at AoA. Overall clarity and contrast were very good, didn't have my Vortex GE there to compare one against the other. Just a comparison in my mind since I've had the GE for a long time and am very familiar with it.
I looked through the Heras at RMAC at our AirBnB, one of the shooters was given one to test and I looked through it after shooting most of the day with both the GE and the Midas BTR Gen2; the Heras 15-60x was definitely inferior. There was chromatic aberration at the edges of the view, especially once you got over 40x. I have shot with the Argos BTR 10-40x and the Heras was no better than that.
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Thanks Centercut :cool:
 
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Guys, I found out from a higher up at Athlon a minute ago some important information about these scopes.

The good news is there were a number of improvements made on both these scopes from Prototype/s to Production versions. Athlon took most any critiques and resolved whatever they might have been.

The slight disappointment for some of us is that only moa is available in both the Heras and the ETR so it looks like I'll be using moa.
There might be plans to bring one out in mil if these scopes sell well but if not.....
 
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Smok3y said:
Isn’t that a FFP reticle? I wouldn’t want that on the SFP scope.
Click to expand...

steve123 said:
IMO most "target" shooters prefer a simpler reticle in the SFP and most will be dialing elevation so the horizontal of the crosshair will be used for holdoffs. Also many target shooters dial in windage for the conditions if its that windy.

There have been a ton of times I felt like Co's designed things I didn't like into reticles, some in this one too, and in the APLR4. Truthfully though in a target scope like this I would rather not have PRS style tree reticle.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I should have clarified that I would have prefferred a tree type reticle similar to Athlon's other tree-type reticles. I confess that I'm coming from a hunter FT perspective though, where the tree is EXTREMELY useful.
 
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Green_Yamo said:
Sorry, I should have clarified that I would have prefferred a tree type reticle similar to Athlon's other tree-type reticles. I confess that I'm coming from a hunter FT perspective though, where the tree is EXTREMELY useful.
Click to expand...

Oh I'm right there with you. Pretty much for any other type of rifle shooting I also prefer the Tree reticles. APRS6 in MIL is my favorite right now but in the past I've won lots of long range matches using only holdovers and holdoffs with the H59 reticle.

I'm still learning and evolving in my likes and dislikes. For example last year I discovered I like simple and thin-ish reticles for Benchrest shooting on paper bulls. I like the half MOA hashes in this BLR1 reticle. I'll have to wait and see how that works out in actuality.
 
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