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Athlon's two new 15-60x56's
- Thread starter steve123
- Start date
Yeah, I use the standard crosshair dot for 50yrd benchrest. Not the floating dot with the hashes.
Use NF 42x and the NF comps.
So hope they add that option in the future.
Use NF 42x and the NF comps.
So hope they add that option in the future.
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So, which model is that - the Ares ETR
I ordered one of each, arriving Wednesday. I am going to compare the Aries to the Sightron 10-50x60 SV and the Heras SPR to the Ares BTR to see if the HD version is worth the extra $$.
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It's the ETR.
We had our local FT match this weekend. I went out and camped at that location on Thursday afternoon missing out on receiving this in time by a day, almost, almost. Next month I'll have all the dope worked out for this new Ares ETR 15-60 but I'll be mounting it on my FT rig Purple Reign in a day or two and will get more pics up as well as some comments on the new scope.
We had our local FT match this weekend. I went out and camped at that location on Thursday afternoon missing out on receiving this in time by a day, almost, almost. Next month I'll have all the dope worked out for this new Ares ETR 15-60 but I'll be mounting it on my FT rig Purple Reign in a day or two and will get more pics up as well as some comments on the new scope.
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Got it mounted and sighted in at 30Y on Purple Reign. Slew some moving targets - a grasshopper and a stink bug while I was at it.
I ran out of time today to talk about the scope but I'll mention my first impressions tomorrow.
I ran out of time today to talk about the scope but I'll mention my first impressions tomorrow.
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Here's a list of the accessories my scope came with in the box.
Sunshade.
Throw lever and its hex wrench.
Large side wheel and its short hex wrench.
Flip caps.
Range distance tape.
Zero stop hex wrench and extra screws for the zero stop.
And a battery for the illumination.
Sunshade.
Throw lever and its hex wrench.
Large side wheel and its short hex wrench.
Flip caps.
Range distance tape.
Zero stop hex wrench and extra screws for the zero stop.
And a battery for the illumination.
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When I went to attach the large side wheel on the scope I found that there is a female recess in it that corresponds to a male protrusion on the focus knob on the scope. It was thoughtful of Athlon to include the short hex wrench which helps a lot because it fits in the slots of the side wheel to tighten the collar of the side wheel around the side focus knob of the scope. Tightened up there is no slop, lash, or anything but a well done interface and great feeling "action" which I feel is the perfect amount of rotational tension!
Caps fit and work well.
The throw lever works fine although the lever on it does start to intrude of the view of where the range markings on the side wheel will be at lower magnifications. Once I start working on ranging distances I'll know more and can comment on it.
The throw lever is made of polymer but seems sturdy enough.
Its worth mentioning that the hex screw does screw into a metal nut which appears encapsulated?? in the polymer which I feel a lot better about vs the screw just fastening into only polymer.
The sunshade threads fit the threads in the scope well. I could feel the quality compared to other scopes from other companies in the past when I felt like the threads interface was loose and wanted to start stripping and or felt like there was gritty sand in the threads.
Right now I'm thinking to myself - why bother talking about any of the controls on this scope?! There's nothing negative to mention. It's the opposite because everything about this scope is fantastic feeling!
I suppose I'll give some applause to the turrets which are simply wonderful. Everything lines up perfect, the feel is great, the ZS is a hard stop, what's not to love?! Those that have had ETR's know what I mean.
AND I like the super simple zero stop system in these Athlon scopes.
This Ares ETR is in MOA and has 1/8th clicks, something I used for many years in the past for FT. I don't mind so much because this is a target scope and is SFP but I'm usually a MIL guy.
The BLR1 reticle is a pretty nice simple reticle. It is on the fine side of reticle line thickness and the center dot is the right size IMHO.
Only the center dot is illuminated and on brightness level 6 it is almost daylight bright which is nice for seeing the dot contrasted against a target in the shade.
It is when the magnification is on 40x/(which is marked in RED on the magnification ring) that MOA is correct for using actual MOA holds.
As I mentioned before - I like those half MOA hashes in this reticle. Seems like most MOA scopes either have 1 MOA or 2 MOA hashes so this one is different. I like things that stray from the norm.
Likely you too but at the top of the list of my scope attribute preferences is how good is the image quality.
Ok, ok, many of you know I'm associated with Athlon so there is a little bit of bias and so I admit that. At the same time because of that association I get miffed when this company does something I don't care for because its kind of a pride thing with me. I get apprehensive before reviewing a new scope because I'm not going to be dishonest about what I experience with it. Gotta tell the truth regardless of the consequences.
I knew as soon as I mounted this scope and focused it at 30Y that the IQ was unexpectedly exceptional = WOW what a crisp clean image focus it has!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So I got my S&B PM2 5-25x56 out for comparison. I looked up close on fine writing on a box, far away on pine needles in trees hundreds of yards away, and no BS here "this ETR is every bit as nice with both scopes set at 25x"???!!!
Then I got out my Cronus G2 4.5-29x56 out to compare both at 29x. Uh this ETR has noticeably superior IQ, what?? I know K at Athlon worked hard with the factory to get nice IQ out of this scope and they certainly surpassed any notions I was expecting! I think the ETR being SFP helps because its got fewer lenses in it but I'm sure there is a lot more to it than that.
I had a Vector Continental 5-30x56 on Purple Reign for the last year for FT and man what a difference there is in about every way between these two scopes. As that year went on I became more and more disappointed with the IQ in the Vector and is the short of my opinion on it. I do love their reticle though so I'll give em that.
Yesterday I brought it out for our Wednesday shoot fest. My friends peered through the ETR. They also were amazed at the IQ by using words like WOE, WOW, etc, as well as nods of approval and shaking of the head in that disbelieving way that people do sometimes.
So at 15x through to 25x the IQ is brilliant and still super nice at 30x.
By 40x the IQ is starting to become slightly dim.
At 60x more dim however still in focus.
The caveat = BUT my $5000 March Genesis has also gotten slightly dim at 40x. The $3500 March HM 5-42x56 I had got both "blurry and dim" by 40x, eek.
And well to "my eyes" for the last decade any high magnification riflescope also becomes more dim by 40x and getting worse as more magnification is used. Part of this is old eyes and part of it is how high mag rifle scopes are. Heck even with decent quality spotting scopes its this way.
If you have good eyes I'm quite sure you will love the IQ in this scope at higher magnification compared to how it is for me.
I couldn't be more happy with my Athlon Ares ETR 15-60x56, what I nice scope!
As time goes by I'll be mentioning anything here in my thread I happen to notice either positive or negative. I also like to edit mistakes or rewrite what I should have said correctly to begin with.
Caps fit and work well.
The throw lever works fine although the lever on it does start to intrude of the view of where the range markings on the side wheel will be at lower magnifications. Once I start working on ranging distances I'll know more and can comment on it.
The throw lever is made of polymer but seems sturdy enough.
Its worth mentioning that the hex screw does screw into a metal nut which appears encapsulated?? in the polymer which I feel a lot better about vs the screw just fastening into only polymer.
The sunshade threads fit the threads in the scope well. I could feel the quality compared to other scopes from other companies in the past when I felt like the threads interface was loose and wanted to start stripping and or felt like there was gritty sand in the threads.
Right now I'm thinking to myself - why bother talking about any of the controls on this scope?! There's nothing negative to mention. It's the opposite because everything about this scope is fantastic feeling!
I suppose I'll give some applause to the turrets which are simply wonderful. Everything lines up perfect, the feel is great, the ZS is a hard stop, what's not to love?! Those that have had ETR's know what I mean.
AND I like the super simple zero stop system in these Athlon scopes.
This Ares ETR is in MOA and has 1/8th clicks, something I used for many years in the past for FT. I don't mind so much because this is a target scope and is SFP but I'm usually a MIL guy.
The BLR1 reticle is a pretty nice simple reticle. It is on the fine side of reticle line thickness and the center dot is the right size IMHO.
Only the center dot is illuminated and on brightness level 6 it is almost daylight bright which is nice for seeing the dot contrasted against a target in the shade.
It is when the magnification is on 40x/(which is marked in RED on the magnification ring) that MOA is correct for using actual MOA holds.
As I mentioned before - I like those half MOA hashes in this reticle. Seems like most MOA scopes either have 1 MOA or 2 MOA hashes so this one is different. I like things that stray from the norm.
Likely you too but at the top of the list of my scope attribute preferences is how good is the image quality.
Ok, ok, many of you know I'm associated with Athlon so there is a little bit of bias and so I admit that. At the same time because of that association I get miffed when this company does something I don't care for because its kind of a pride thing with me. I get apprehensive before reviewing a new scope because I'm not going to be dishonest about what I experience with it. Gotta tell the truth regardless of the consequences.
I knew as soon as I mounted this scope and focused it at 30Y that the IQ was unexpectedly exceptional = WOW what a crisp clean image focus it has!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So I got my S&B PM2 5-25x56 out for comparison. I looked up close on fine writing on a box, far away on pine needles in trees hundreds of yards away, and no BS here "this ETR is every bit as nice with both scopes set at 25x"???!!!
Then I got out my Cronus G2 4.5-29x56 out to compare both at 29x. Uh this ETR has noticeably superior IQ, what?? I know K at Athlon worked hard with the factory to get nice IQ out of this scope and they certainly surpassed any notions I was expecting! I think the ETR being SFP helps because its got fewer lenses in it but I'm sure there is a lot more to it than that.
I had a Vector Continental 5-30x56 on Purple Reign for the last year for FT and man what a difference there is in about every way between these two scopes. As that year went on I became more and more disappointed with the IQ in the Vector and is the short of my opinion on it. I do love their reticle though so I'll give em that.
Yesterday I brought it out for our Wednesday shoot fest. My friends peered through the ETR. They also were amazed at the IQ by using words like WOE, WOW, etc, as well as nods of approval and shaking of the head in that disbelieving way that people do sometimes.
So at 15x through to 25x the IQ is brilliant and still super nice at 30x.
By 40x the IQ is starting to become slightly dim.
At 60x more dim however still in focus.
The caveat = BUT my $5000 March Genesis has also gotten slightly dim at 40x. The $3500 March HM 5-42x56 I had got both "blurry and dim" by 40x, eek.
And well to "my eyes" for the last decade any high magnification riflescope also becomes more dim by 40x and getting worse as more magnification is used. Part of this is old eyes and part of it is how high mag rifle scopes are. Heck even with decent quality spotting scopes its this way.
If you have good eyes I'm quite sure you will love the IQ in this scope at higher magnification compared to how it is for me.
I couldn't be more happy with my Athlon Ares ETR 15-60x56, what I nice scope!
As time goes by I'll be mentioning anything here in my thread I happen to notice either positive or negative. I also like to edit mistakes or rewrite what I should have said correctly to begin with.
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Hey Steve, sounds impressive.
Is the IQ good enough to lure you back to Hunter and ranging at 16x?
Is the IQ good enough to lure you back to Hunter and ranging at 16x?
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Good write-up. My key questions in the search for a great hunter division FT scope are:
- Does it focus to 10 yards?
- How many degrees of focus knob rotation between 40 and 55 yards ranging? How many degrees between 10 and 55 yards ranging?
- How finely can it differentiate yardages between 40 and 55 yards, e.g., can it repeatedly determine 52 vs 55 yards?
- How much does the rangefinding change as scope temperature changes?
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Its going to be hard to pry me away from Freestyle!
I need to experiment at 15x with scope ranging because of the type2 diabetes my eyes change throughout the day. This is part of the reason I quit competing in Open and Hunter.
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It focuses a little less than 10Y at 60x.
As far as ranging when temps change who knows?? Best that other people evaluate this than me.
I'll try to answer the rest later today if its not raining and get back to you.
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I got one. I dig it. Going on my bench rest setup. Glass is crisp. So far so good. Replaced my Cronus and I'm happy with it
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The 5.170" Fly wheel/range wheel has around 185 degrees of total rotation.
The distance between the wider white marks from 10 to 11Y is .730".
From 50Y to 55Y the distance between those two white lines is .25"
I used 60x to do my ranging today and I put the targets at 50Y, 52.5Y, 54Y, and 55Y.
I could tell the difference from 54Y and 55Y, not much but some.
50Y and 55Y was very obviously out of focus from each other
From 52.5Y to either 50Y or 55Y I could see the difference in focus splitting the difference on the marks.
Additionally I found that 35x is also still bright and focuses sharp and crisp.
I haven't got the ranging dialed in yet but I did get the dope down well according to my SHOOTER ballistic app.
The distance between the wider white marks from 10 to 11Y is .730".
From 50Y to 55Y the distance between those two white lines is .25"
I used 60x to do my ranging today and I put the targets at 50Y, 52.5Y, 54Y, and 55Y.
I could tell the difference from 54Y and 55Y, not much but some.
50Y and 55Y was very obviously out of focus from each other
From 52.5Y to either 50Y or 55Y I could see the difference in focus splitting the difference on the marks.
Additionally I found that 35x is also still bright and focuses sharp and crisp.
I haven't got the ranging dialed in yet but I did get the dope down well according to my SHOOTER ballistic app.
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