FFP/Athlon Helos G2 2-12x42 is in hand!

Pics up and I'll have impressions here tomorrow.

Hi Matthias, 

Since it's a brand new scope on the market I'm going to guess that it'll fetch MAP price which is $499 OR a "little less" from a dealer that wants to give a discount???

Compact - I used to get hung up on how compact a scope could be made until I learned that the shorter the scope is, and the higher the mag ratio it is, the more optical compromises present. You probably read my comments about my March HM 5-42x56/$4200 which exhibits certain compromises even though it has High Master glass and is as well made as a scope gets. In other words physics rules all things regardless of price. That being said I'm not an optical engineer so that's my limited understanding on the subject. I'm kinda done with super high mag ratio scopes as well as super compact scopes! Also a major reason I didn't buy the March 1.5-15x42, among other reasons, well these were related to features mostly, but even that scope isn't super lightweight. Well this Helos is 20% the price and has what I want so....

And weight - As above, everything is a compromise, right?! In order to build a crossover hunting/DMR scope LOADED with nearly every modern feature (in this price range) weight had to be sacrificed a bit. Me, I without a doubt will carry the extra few ounces to have all these features but I'm very picky in that way. If I was just going to shoot squirrels up in a tree inside 30Y I would just buy a basic less capable scope that was lighter weight and call it good. I'm not that guy though, I NEED versatility which this scope offers abundantly!

Crossover scope, what do I mean by this statement?? I got to thinking about what things this scope might excell in yesterday. #1 It occured to me that my Vulcan AT BEST is a 1.5 moa rifle at 100Y so even though the large center DOT is .3 mil or 1.08 " at 100Y, the DOT is smaller than the average precision my rifle is capable of, and as I get closer to the muzzle, lets say 50Y now, my rifle is getting more like .5" of capable precision, which is just less than the size of the DOT, so I'm very happy with that aspect for hunting and plinking duties. #2 the BIG "circle of death" surrounding the center DOT is perfect, while making the reticle obvious, which promotes FAST acquisition, also which is a refreshing change from the norm in most FFP scopes, and reminds me of some prizm sights I've used! #3 holdover/holdoff tree reticle which is the best thing about FFP scopes. #4 most of the reticle is illuminated which makes this reticle stand out big time in low light. #5 Being FFP, put the scope on 2x, and the FOV is massive but "the reticle" can still be seen, put it on 12x and hit things as far away as you could want with that HUGE amount of elevation travel. Man, on a big game hunting rifle this scope would be awesome, or a AR15 for that matter! 

I spent nearly 3 hours fiddling with this scope yesterday - All the cool things I like about this scope off the top of my head - Kinda reminds me of the story of Goldilocks, it's "just right" in a lot of ways when you consider the different duties this scope will pull off adequately! It's not big, not too long, not too heavy, almost like a prism sight but has "adjustable parallax" down to 10Y, has good glass, good general purpose and fast acquisition holdover reticle, illuminated, tons of travel, LOCKING 10 mil knobs, easy to set zero stop, easy to see numbers on the turret, fast focus diopter, a great lifetime transferable warranty, and ABOVE ALL, it's totally affordable! 

Specific details I found I like. Actually I'll start off with what I dislike, even despise sometimes in a riflescope. I don't like super tall turrets, skinny turrets, or lines not lining up that are of course supposed to, or turrets with excessive lash, or small hard to read numbers on the turrets, mushy indistinct click action feel, or zero stop systems that in order to be set require a instruction manual present, or the typical 3 set screws that need to be undone and redone to zero your scope(God forbid that you don't have the hex wrench with you), or controls which are too hard to turn or too easy to turn. ALL THAT BEING mentioned, this scope has none of those annoyances!!!!! Even the locking mechanism is DISTINCT, push it up SNAP, push it down SNAP! To sum it up, these turrets are amazing for a scope in this price range!

Glass, I found zero oddities, and I liked it, it suited my eyes, I found it bright and clear from edge to edge, and the eyebox is very nice too! I would even say it's better than the price of this scope would indicate.

My magnification testing - I have different sized steels set up on my property that I shot at after I sighted the scope in at 25Y, which took 3 shots BTW. They were a 15" circle at 75Y(I aimed at splats already on it), a 3"x5" man silhouette at 65Y, a quadrant at 55Y with a 1" spinner in the middle, and the same type quadrant at 25Y. let's not complicate this with lengthy explanations by just saying that I was able to hit all those targets in the middle repeatedly over and over BOTH dialing, or HOLDING OVER/OFF using the reticle, ON ALL MAGNIFICATIONS! Easy peasey(except for wind). Man 4x through 8X DOES NOT SEEM like 4x or 8x! It's weird, I had this large field of view but the reticle was a wonderful size! 

Conclusion - I'd be untruthful if I said I didn't enjoy the entirety of this scope and what it offered! I think it's such a neat little scope that does SO MUCH!

Great review! That is a very compact FFP scope with everything done right for once, excellent reticle! And, I appreciate Athlons no nonsense warranty.

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Thanks Man, I appreciate the kind words.

Hey I just got back inside from shooting the Vulcan 2/Helos combo. I'm seriously loving this scope! If a guy isn't shooting benchrest or FT this scope punches way above it's weight! A very usable little scope indeed. 

I shot at steel - 50Y, 60Y, 70Y, 80Y, 90Y, and 100Y, off of my tripod and RRS Vice. I went from the closest to farthest dialing, then did the same all holdovers/offs, and other than that it was windy my dope was right on the money, like it was with the previous Ares BTR that was on the rifle beforehand. I had a blast! 

Thanks for taking the time to do a review Steve. I ordered my Helos BTR G2 exactly 1 month ago from CameralandNY and since you've received yours, hopefully mine should be arriving shortly. 

+1 for the review.

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You're welcome and you're gonna love it! 

how is the center dot nice and small

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It's pretty much 1 moa, but actual is .3 mil which is 1.08" at 100Y, half that at 50Y, and so on. 

I went to visit two of my friends for our Friday afternoon get together and showed them this Helos. The one guy isn't much of a shooter though he has old 3-9's on his hunting rifles. He thought it was really cool with the illume on inside the garage looking at a 10M match target, The COD/circle of death) is slightly larger than the bull and the center dot sticks out like crazy on the black bull, well we all thought that was a neat "side job" for this scope.

After a thorough critique my other shooter friend wants one ordered for the 17hmr he's getting.

Steve,

that scope is very cool and will make it at or near the top of my Scope Specs List for 3-12x/3-9x scopes.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to do the write-up. Much appreciated!

Matthias

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You're welcome Matthias!

You too GunshipGuy

I am SOLD on the Japan ATHLON Cronus even though mine isn't functioning perfectly (until I send it in for Warranty which I am not at all worried about).

Glass is FRIGGIN' HOLEY CRAP CLEAR!

IT WOULD BE A PERFECT AIRGUN SCOPE IF IT FOCUSED DOWN TO 10 YARDS!!!

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My Cronus G2 will focus down to 20Y on 15x, closer on 10x like 16Y, but almost focused at 10Y on 4.5x - not ideal for sure but definitely doable for hunting or plinking closer in than 25Y.

Yeah just send it back and they'll get your illumination evenly distributed and squared away. Because the illume is daylight bright it's much more noticeable if the alignment is slightly off. Oh and until then just reduce the intensity 1-2 clicks back from the brightest which will make it look normal or close to it.