How a new scope brought me back to airguns

Mark there is nothing more satisfying than a well made tool . And nothing more frustrating than a tool you have to work with to make it work . That goes DOUBLE for scopes. Lol
Glad you found a nice optic to make shooting more fun .

Happy for ya Mark, and happy shooting.

Merry Christmas Mark,
Sounds like Santa has already stopped by your house...glad to hear that you are as happy with your Athlon Scope as I am with mine. I had the same problem with constant inconsistency with all the other scopes I had before I got an Athlon. And I mistakenly believed that it was the pellets, or not cleaning them, or maybe cleaning them too much, so I lubed them, then wondered if I used too much lube on them, or if I over tightened the screws on the ring caps or the scope rail, or if it was the shooting table, so I bought a new shooting bench....on and on and on. I never dreamed that the scope could be the cause of those problems...And like what happened to you, all those problems disappeared when I mounted my Athlon Argos and started shooting it. It was unbelievable at first...It was like I was holding my breath waiting for the inconsistency problems to return, but they never did! And now I have another Athlon and it is absolutely consistent too!

I started out with the Argos BTR 6-24x50 FFP also, but not long ago I bought an Athlon Midas BTR 2.5-15x50 SFP scope to put on my .25 Wildcat for close range work where I do not need all that magnification. And it is every bit as nice as the Argos, just less powerful. Lately I find myself leaving it on 5x all the time and using it like a fixed power scope, except when I need to crank up the magnification for long shots. I find that I am much more accurate at offhand shooting when I have the scope set to 5x rather than 15x.

Our Wildcats have one other point that can affect group consistency and accuracy that can be cured very easily. I will share a tip on how I cured mine. Our barrels are free floating and there is a gap between the barrel and the shroud tube...and one fine day I noticed sometimes there is more or less of a gap at the end of the shroud tube where it meets the Huggett. ( and sometimes it is touching and other times not!) So I thought that if the barrel is allowed to move up or down at the end even a little, then my groups are going to suffer. So I got this black felt from JoAnn Fabrics that has a mild adhesive on the back. I cut about a 1/2" square and stuck it on the bottom of my Huggett so it touches the air tube cap towards the end. And now the gap between the barrel and airtube is consistent and never changes...and my groups are smaller and stay consistent.

And by the way, this trick also eliminated that clacking sound that you hear every time you bump the gun causing the barrel shroud to clack against the end of the airtube. Maybe FX should have placed a barrel band at the end where the barrel and airtube meet, or maybe something that runs the length of the barrel and airtube like the plastic thing that separates the two on the Sumatra's? Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy Shooting!

Best regards, Chuck

Good going and Marry Christmas
I was told in the beginning of my PCP days , By some guys that had a lot of knowledge on PCP guns and were a lot wiser than me,,
Do not skimp on the scope, Save your money and get a good one, a cheap one will cost you in the long run,
I prove that when I mounted my 3x9 bug scope on my 760 Crossman and shot quarter size groups at 30 yards,
Or was it dime size , been 5 years ago, can not remember.
Mike

"iride"Good going and Marry Christmas
I was told in the beginning of my PCP days , By some guys that had a lot of knowledge on PCP guns and were a lot wiser than me,,
Do not skimp on the scope, Save your money and get a good one, a cheap one will cost you in the long run,
I prove that when I mounted my 3x9 bug scope on my 760 Crossman and shot quarter size groups at 30 yards,
Or was it dime size , been 5 years ago, can not remember.
Mike

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are you talking about the bug buster 3x9 UTG scope? You like it?

Don't take this the wrong way but wait till you guys try some actual good scopes. lol. Stick a Leupy, Swarovski or even a higher end Bushnell on there and see what you've really been missing.

Or better yet Don't haha. You'll never go back

Merry Xmas and glad you got it sorted.

"Mark_Walt"I recently bought a different scope for my FX Wildcat. I bought the gun last year and mounted an affordable Nikko Stirling 4-16x44 scope on the gun. The scope did just fine, but I was never very consistent when hunting or shooting. I was always thinking it was just me, the gun, or something else. Well I recently bought an Athlon Argos 6-24x50 FFP scope and it has completely changed everything. I am shooting my gun a lot more already. It has made shooting about 100x more enjoyable. Now when I see a squirrel on the bird feeder I won't send the dog out to scare it away, but I'll go ahead and take care of them. I have killed 6 squirrels in 3 days, which might not sound like much, but that's just when I see them. I haven't gone out searching for them but twice a day. 
Overall the new scope has changed the experience with my gun quite a bit. I should have not skimped on a cheap scope on such an expensive gun to begin with, but now I'm happy to have learned what I was doing wrong. If anyone else is experiencing general airgun frustration then I would recommend spending the money on a different scope and seeing if that has any effect.
I hope that someone will learn something from what I've learned.

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I can relate as I feel the same way about my Primary Arms FFP scope.

My shooting had reached a bit of a plateau and I couldn't seem to make shots past a certain distance. The pressure of taking a shot at something small while hunting, knowing you have limited time before it moves etc, I struggled to make the mental holdover adjustments. Or, by the time I had zoomed in, lined it up and worked out the correction, the target had run away.

The FFP scope changed that. After spending a little time memorizing just one set of corrections, I am making shots that I never dreamed I would be able to do consistently. Plus, the glass is much clearer and the image more detailed than any other scope I have in the price range.

If almost feels like I'm cheating when I use an FFP scope. The simple correction process plus very clear glass makes shooting more fun.

The only thing I don't love about FFP scopes is the weight.

There aren't many scope brands that give you more than you pay for but PA and Athlon are two that do IMO.

I really can not say, I took the Crosman 10 dollar 4x15 off a 30 dollar 760 Crosman pump up riffle and put the bug buster 3x9 UTG on as a joke really , At the time I paid like 120 dollars for the bug buster, Bought two of them sold one, I did a 30 yard, Really it was 26 yards shot out with a Marauder 25 and a Cricket 22 and the 760 Very close match,,
I then went to 48 yards with the 760, No match at all the 760 was shooting huge groups, Never posted the test,
It was on the Marauder site anyway.
I have the bug buster on a 177 spring action super max , and its held together.
I have Vipers and Hawkes on my PCP guns,
So do you ask if I like the bug Buster,
I might stick it on my Mutant and go hunting sometime,
So to answer your question Do I like it,
As close as I can come is I am not saleing it, 
Mike