Crimson Trace series 5 arrived but....

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Elgreco

Member
Apr 8, 2020
312
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TX, United States
But it's going back...

When Odoyle posted the $699 deal for the 3-18x50 I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to own Japanese glass on the "cheap". I recently purchased an Athlon Ares BTR gen 2 2.5-15x50 and wanted to see how much better a scope glass can get. So when it arrived a couple of days ago I put them side by side. Just a reminder the first victim of the Athlon was the new Hawke Sidewinder 30 which got returned as the Athlon left it in dust. 

Well the same thing happened here as well..Looking at a tree at 105 yards away through the Crimson and then immediately trough the Athlon it was obvious to me that whatever the Chinese did they did it well. The tree with the Athlon maxed out at 15 appeared in it's natural color like it was in front of me , crystal clear like I was not looking through a scope, just like someone had brought a tree that was far away and placed it a few yards in front of me. Just a pleasure to look at. The Crimson Trace was better than the Hawke I returned a few days ago. It didn't stress my eye or anything but in my eyes it gave the picture a more "warm" color like a cinecolor experience. My Athlon maxed out at 15 brought the image as close if not even closer than the CT at 18. 

I didn't need another scope I thought I would jump on it thought to see if said Japanese glass was a different level of good. Well it wasn't..if it was I would honestly keep it and find a home for it down the road. 

You can call me an Athlon fanboy I don't care. By all means I am not an optics expert and the Athlon was the first "expensive" scope I ever owned. Up to now my scopes were in the $300 range. But I think I am gonna stick with this brand..

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Good info. I was interested in that scope as well but to be honest besides this sale I've never heard of Crimson Trace. If they were so good I figured they would have been heard of before there huge discontinued sale. I ended up going to an Athlon instead also my 3rd actually going from the Midas Tac 4-16x44 to the Area ETR UHD 3-18x50. I hope to have it in a week or 2. Having owned other scopes I've just been very very impressed with my Athlons and decided to stick with the brand also. 
 
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...The Crimson Trace was better than the Hawke I returned a few days ago. It didn't stress my eye or anything but in my eyes it gave the picture a more "warm" color like a cinecolor experience....
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Well, your post made me pull mine out of its box and look through it.

Yes, you could definitely notice some yellow color through the glass. Not bad by any means. But to me $750 (including sales tax) is a lot of money for a scope, and I expected better.

There are probably a suite of features which makes this CT scope a great value for this price. But I'm not one who will likely use those features any time soon.

I like the image out of the CT 3-series 5-25x56 which was available for a short time earlier this year for a couple hundred bucks less. And then there is the Alpha 6 4.5-27x50. With scopes like the Alpha 6 around, for my current needs it gets very difficult to keep a scope where I have spent more money, but which gives me an image which I don't like as well.
 
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I too recently purchased an Athlon Ares BTR Gen2 2.5-15x50 FFP APLR3 for my RAW and find it's glass to be really really clear. As said above, it has the upgraded turrets but also heard it received the ETR's glass (not the ETR's turrets)...not sure about that glass upgrade but the glass was upgraded. Can't wait for Dillon's ETR 3-18 to arrive and get his review of it!
 
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Just received my CT 5-series 3-18 today. It is no Ares ETR and the turrets are nothing to share good things about, below average. I would call it optically in the ballpark/slightly better then the Midas TAC 6-24 and the Hawke Frontier 30 ffp 4-20. A bit heavy compared to these two @ 2# w/caps. Gray and snowing here today, so there was no contrast out to 116yd to test. . Will order an Arken SH4 and an Athlon Ares BTR to compare.
 
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Another thing I forgot to add is that when I was turning the AO on the Athlon the image was coming to clear focus at 100 ( tree was 104 yards away) and becoming blurry as I passed that mark by a few yards. So super accurate to range targets. The CT on the other hand was coming to focus around 90 yards and maintaining focus out to about 200. So if one was trying to.use the AO.as rangefinder would not be very successful 
 
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@TMH: you said yours has a yellow tint? I. Just curious because I have a series 5 and it don’t think it has the yellow tint or any tint. It isn’t the typical super duper white Japanese glass but the contrast and color is very good and details simply pop with the 5 series Vs other scopes I have that are super clear and white glass. It almost has the European glass look to it, not immediately Oh my gosh bright and white but once you look at objects the details seems to pop....at least for me. 
 
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To your point, the CT has respectively good DOF. A nice feature for those looking for it.
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agreed, every detail in scope design usually comes with some compromise. Most people like me don’t want really narrow field of vision because most people aren’t using the scope to range now and days like in a field target match. Most people want as wide field of vision as possible for target acquisition. 
 
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All I'll start with is everyone's eyes are different so everyone is going to see through a scope slightly differently. Right? Our eyes also have a contoured lens on them. The clarity of that lens, its curvature and variations, etc. will all interact with the concave and convex lenses of the scope differently. 

I haven't bought the CT5 series as it's just to long and heavy for me. I did get a 4-20 CT3 with the tree reticle. Everything about the 3 series, expect the reticle, is worth every penny of the $450 I paid. If $500 was my budget I'd be happy with it. 

That being said, I got to look through an Athlon Cronus BTR 4.5-29 this past weekend and I was very impressed. Very clear and the reticle was pleasant as well. I've never looked into the Athlon scopes, but maybe I'll keep an eye out for sales. 
 
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