Scope recommendation for .25 Uragan pigeon hunter

HI ok here is what I like for $500 or less

Arken 4x16 34mm , I love this one

swfa 3x15 ffp .

both are very good , I prefer the turret on the swfa , but I really love the glass and the 34mm with the Arken

I love optics and am a long range shooter and I have tried and use scopes from $300 to $7000 and in the budget and to be honest I would hunt with either of these 2 scopes , the SWFA is and was always one of the best budget scopes priced under 1k and the turrets were spot on , I have noticed many new scopes coming out and I really like my german glass but I do buy alot of scopes to test and review , and I spotted a few things on the arken and by far it has exceeded anything I thought it would , it is a nice unit on par with burris xtr glass , , the mil fonts very large and crisp clicks , I like the reticle too ,it does not have alumination but it is a great value and more important I did a tracking test and it passed with no error . ALSO ON THE OPTIC AT 16X IT IS CLEAR.unlike many cheaper 5x25 or higher scopes , many have poor glass and they just magnify distortion ,hope this helps

LOU

Not sure if I need a 'compact' scope or just avoid the longish 24x power type scopes.

I'm thinking max power of 18x to 20x will help keep the weight down.

• Price range: up to $450, prefer less
• Need reliable, repeatable turrets for dialing adjustments
• FFP or SFP fine

It will probably come down to the reticle for me - hard to say what I like. Either like it or I don't and usually online pictures don't do it justice. Sometimes they are too fine, sometimes to thick or cluttered.

Click to expand...

wahoowad,

I have done some detailed scope searches for my own needs, and when I compared the specs they surprised me how widely the weight and the length of the scopes vary – sometimes completely unrelated to the magnification. So, maybe your intended shooting ranges (and eye sight) should have more influence on your choice of magnification than scope weight/length....



You can check this out for yourself in a Scope Specs Table (PDF attachment), it's for top end magnifications of at least 14x, but many have 18x.

• All 50 scopes in the table are under $500.

• All have exposed turrets, and holdoff reticles (unless otherwise noted).

• There are columns with the OAL and all the weights – for easy comparison (shortest&lightest marked with green, long&heavy in red).

• All have side parallax, down to 10 yards. (LOU's Arken 4-16x in previous post did not make the table, it's 25y, but there is an Arken 4-14x44, 13" short, 21oz)



Other specs the table details:

• Price

• Warranty type

• Elevation adjustment range

• IR

• FFP or SFP





Happy shopping!

Matthias



Attachment:

View attachment 1581083564_8411613635e3d6bac9c1d50.38948832_SCOPE TABLE. 4-14x or 3-18x Magnification. 2020-02.pdf

This doesn't quite meet all your criteria but I think the best scope for less than $450 is the Athlon Argos BTR Gen2 6-24x50.

I've had 5 SWFA scopes, both fixed power, and three of the FFP 3-15's, which BTW retail for $699, I have to say I like the Argos BTR Gen1's better. Well the Gen2 is a superior scope in more than a few ways! You'd just have to get one in your hands to appreciate how nice these are for the price point. The Gen1 is fine but they knocked the ball out of the park, so to speak, with the Gen2.

Yes these Argos BTR's turrets track well - I know from experience, and can attest so, because I've won Freestyle division and at our state match the last 4 years in a row using one of these scopes on my USFT.

Reticle too busy?? that just means the reticle has useful information in it! Once you learn about holding over and holding off, using that information, you'll discover the great value of a proper FFP tree reticle!

A friend and I were shooting at a steel full sized turkey silhouette painted black at 421Y with our 22 rimfires. I had a SWFA 3-15 on my rifle and he had a Argos BTR 6-24 on his rifle. I could not see the small marks our 22 bullets were making on the steel but he could. Then he dialed down the magnification to 15x to match mine, both of us could see the splats on the steel with the Argos and neither of us could see them with the SWFA. So I sold the two SWFA 3-15's and bought more Argos 6-24's as well as a Midas TAC 4-16.

24x - better to have and not need, than to need and not have....

I agree with steve123, I have an Athlon Helos BTR atop my Bantam Sniper and it’s proven to be a solid choice. Good glass and I love the APLR2 reticle. I can make consistent hit in the wind using the Christmas tree, works really well. I would also strongly consider illumination if using scope for pesting.

Wahoo,

L.Leon has the same reticle in his Helos that I have in my Argos, he seems to be content with it's line thickness. I would honestly say it's the right thickness for most situations. Though I rarely use it on low magnification. I usually put it on 10x for offhand shots in FT comps so I know I can see the reticle fine in this situation.

I've had FFP scopes with reticles, or seen reticles, that I thought were either to thick or too thin. I had a FFP IOR 6-24x56 that had a .1 mil thick reticle, that was very thick, well maybe ok on 6x???!

Seen Premier 5-25's with gen2xr reticle that was .025 mil thick which I thought was too thin, especially on low mag. 

I think the thickness of the reticle in the Argos is .05 mils thick, so you have a reference to compare with.

Let me know how you like that uragan when. You get it.

[Edited for clarity, sorry for sowing confusion:] This discussion made me curious what line thickness one of my own FFP scopes has.

The scope is a Falcon 3-18x50 FFP — I found the info on the manufacturers webpage — it has 0.04 MIL for the main crosshair lines.

Got curious and checked one of my FFP:

Falcon 3-18x50 FFP has 0.04 MIL.

Click to expand...

It’s actually .02 MIL on the Helos but I doubt the human eye could pick up the difference. A middle ground seems to work best as some find reticles can also be too thin.

Got curious and checked one of my FFP:

Falcon 3-18x50 FFP has 0.04 MIL.

Click to expand...

It’s actually .02 MIL on the Helos but I doubt the human eye could pick up the difference. A middle ground seems to work best as some find reticles can also be too thin.

Click to expand...

L.Leon,

This is incorrect.

The main crosshair in the middle part of the reticle is .05 mil thick, same with the smaller dots labeled A3. The part of the reticle of .2 mil thin lines next to the thick bar labeled A1 are .02 mil thick.

Just want to make a distinction because this certainly can affect one's purchasing decision. 

Got curious and checked one of my FFP:

Falcon 3-18x50 FFP has 0.04 MIL.

Click to expand...

It’s actually .02 MIL on the Helos but I doubt the human eye could pick up the difference. A middle ground seems to work best as some find reticles can also be too thin.

Click to expand...

L.Leon,

This is incorrect.

The main crosshair in the middle part of the reticle is .05 mil thick, same with the smaller dots labeled A3. The part of the reticle of .2 mil thin lines next to the thick bar labeled A1 are .02 mil thick.

Just want to make a distinction because this certainly can affect one's purchasing decision.

Click to expand...

Jungleshooter, I believe you might be incorrect.

A1 is called out as .02 MIL which represents the thickness of all hash marks. 

A3 is called out as .1 MIL which represents size of that dot. I posted the above image because the way I see it the main crosshair is .02 MIL. But I might be confused or misreading the chart. I enlarged the above image 800% on my home computer and can clearly see that the A3 dot is wider/bigger/thicker than the hash mark next to it. And the callouts also bear out what I originally posted.

Thanks for the suggestions and advice. I think I'm down to two scopes:

- Athlon Argos BTR Gen2 6-24x50 IR FFP

- Vortex Diamondback Tactical 6-24×50 FFP



I've seen both around $399, both lifetime warranties, both target turrets, both FFP, near identical reticles. I'm a bit of a Vortex fanboy as I have two 6.5-20x Vipers but right now I'm a slight lean towards the Athlon as I like the zero stop and it is illuminated. Anything about either I might be missing, or know of a better deal than $399 for either?

This will be my first FFP, as well as my first scope over 16x.

Click to expand...

You can't go wrong with either choice, but I would lean towards the Argos for the reasons you stated.

L.Leon,

thanks for investigating this line thickness issue. Through this thread I learned that this is indeed an important characteristic when choosing a scope.

In the future I will include this info in my Scope Specs Tables.



[Edited for clarity:] About the 0.04mil that I mentioned a couple posts back... — the 0.04mil does not apply to the Athlon nor to the Vortex.... Instead, it is the Falcon 3-18x50 that has that line thickness — sorry for sowing confusion. I believe you read the reticle diagram of the Athlon correctly.





wahoowad,

about the two scopes on your shortlist:



I read reviews where both have been confirmed that their turrets track well.

– Athlon Argos BTR Gen2 6-24×50 IR FFP

The MIL version has a grid reticle (Christmas tree style), with numbers. Thickness of the main cross hairs is 0.02mil = 0.07moa.

The MOA version has a just has hash lines, no numbers. Thickness is twice as thick: 0.04mil = 0.14moa.

It has a turret revolution counter.

It has IR.



– Vortex Diamondback Tactical 6-24×50 FFP

Both MIL and MOA reticles are grid style (Christmas tree), with numbers. Thickness is 0.03mil = 0.012moa.

It has NO IR.

It weighs 5oz less.





Happy shopping!

Matthias

L,leon,

Ha, that reticle spec chart is wrong. Look closely. See the "small dots" are labeled A3/.1mil and the "big dots" are labeled A4/.05 mil. The truth, or the correct labeling, is reversed because .1 mil is twice the thickness of .05 mil, right?! I can see now why there was confusion!!!!!!!!!!!

A1 labeling however is correct = .02 mil is very very thin - more than twice as thin as .05 mil. 

All I can think of is L,Leon somehow found an old?? reticle chart that was found incorrect at some point, then later corrected by Athlon, because if you go to the Athlon website right now both the reticle charts for Helos and Argos APMR mil reticles are correct with the A3 and A4 dots.

All I can think of is L,Leon somehow found an old?? reticle chart that was found incorrect at some point, then later corrected by Athlon, because if you go to the Athlon website right now both the reticle charts for Helos and Argos APMR mil reticles are correct with the A3 and A4 dots.

Click to expand...

I downloaded images directly from reticle manual on the Helos specs page. Anyway good catch above on the dot sizes.