My ETR turrets feel exactly the same as my BTR Gen 2 turrets - excellent! They feel very robust with super-distinct clicks. I have a hard time imagining a better turret feel.
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Athlon Ares BTR G3 2.5-15x50
- Thread starter steve123
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I bought an Ares ETR 3-18x50 a while ago, and it's a very good scope. Seems about perfect for PRS type shooting or even EFT.
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I prefer .05 mil reticle thickness compared to less in a FFP scope too. Maybe if I was young and had great eyes it'd be different.
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The Ares BTR G3 2.5-15 in mil has already arrived, straight from Athlon's warehouse, nice, that was quick! It'll be a fun weekend. Give me a few days and I'll start another thread about it for initial impressions and then ongoing review.
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WOW, this scope is killer!
I started some thoughts on it over at SH but I'll C&P them here.
I just got this scope yesterday and thought I'd post some whistle wetters about it. Straight off I'll mention I'm loosely associated with Athlon and have been since this company came about. That being said I've gotten a few scopes from Athlon in the past that had things I personally didn't prefer or for whatever reason the prescription in some of them didn't work for my eyes. However I haven't had any out of 20 or so of their scopes have to be sent back for repair which is pretty darn good.
Each generation of scopes has shown improvement in a number of ways is a point I plan on making in this post.
Back a decade or so I had a G1 Ares BTR 2.5-15x50. It was okay for a first try and my only complaints were turrets action feel was too soft and the Image Quality/IQ could have been better. Some felt the IQ was sub par but I didn't, or I should state not for what it cost back then. I remember comparing it to a FFP SWFA 3-15 and I found 'edit the Ares BTR' superior IQ wise by a decent margin. It worked fine and I sold it a year later to a local hunter who killed a deer that fall with it on the gun. Enough on that scope.
I bought a G1 Ares BTR 4.5-27x50 shortly after that which I suppose you could say was a G 1.5 scope. Athlon had made the turrets better on it compared to the previous one. I sold it when the Ares BTR G2 4.5-27 came out and got two of these. Once again Athlon had improved the turret feel. I was impressed by this compared to every other competing brand I'd come across. Like I've mentioned before here on the Hide the Ares BTR 4.5-27's prescription wasn't working well with my eyes. So I sold them and got Cronus G2 4.5-29's which do work well with my eyes. Enough on that.
Speaking of the Cronus G2 turrets. I still like the firm action feel, distinctness, the audible click sound, lack of lash, and how well the .1's on the turret match the line on the housing. IMHO they are about as good feeling as a turret can be. I've had older S&B's, NF's, USO, March's and although each brand of turret felt different however I wouldn't say that the Cronus G2 turrets are inferior in feel to any of them.
I had headed out to the shop to have a look see, opened the safe to grab what I thought was a Athlon Midas TAC 5-25 sitting on the shelf to have something to compare immediately to the new G3 Ares I had just gotten out of the box. It turned out the G3 turrets were even better. Then I looked closer and realized I had grabbed my G2 Cronus instead! What, how could that even be, no way??!!
This is my first positive comment about this new G3. Not only are the turrets wider than the Cronus, not only are they shorter profile, but they feel better in every way. Also because the G3 turrets are wider there's more room between each click. C'mon man on a mid priced scope like this?????!!!!!! Wow I really have to compliment Athlon at this aspect alone!
Not much longer than this I got my Ares ETR 15-60 out to compare, yep the G3 turrets made these already nice turrets feel mediocre.
All the rest of the controls are IMHO just right. Nothing to loose feeling or too tight feeling and no wiggle of the diopter at all. I like the size of the magnification actuator/switchview on the mag ring too, it's the perfect size and it can be easily removed as well.
That's all for today but I have more interesting things to bring out. I did mount the scope on a air rifle for now to use it right on my property so I'll edit this post tomorrow with more thoughts then.
Some photos. The other scope is the G2 Cronus. The pcp is a FX Royale.
I started some thoughts on it over at SH but I'll C&P them here.
I just got this scope yesterday and thought I'd post some whistle wetters about it. Straight off I'll mention I'm loosely associated with Athlon and have been since this company came about. That being said I've gotten a few scopes from Athlon in the past that had things I personally didn't prefer or for whatever reason the prescription in some of them didn't work for my eyes. However I haven't had any out of 20 or so of their scopes have to be sent back for repair which is pretty darn good.
Each generation of scopes has shown improvement in a number of ways is a point I plan on making in this post.
Back a decade or so I had a G1 Ares BTR 2.5-15x50. It was okay for a first try and my only complaints were turrets action feel was too soft and the Image Quality/IQ could have been better. Some felt the IQ was sub par but I didn't, or I should state not for what it cost back then. I remember comparing it to a FFP SWFA 3-15 and I found 'edit the Ares BTR' superior IQ wise by a decent margin. It worked fine and I sold it a year later to a local hunter who killed a deer that fall with it on the gun. Enough on that scope.
I bought a G1 Ares BTR 4.5-27x50 shortly after that which I suppose you could say was a G 1.5 scope. Athlon had made the turrets better on it compared to the previous one. I sold it when the Ares BTR G2 4.5-27 came out and got two of these. Once again Athlon had improved the turret feel. I was impressed by this compared to every other competing brand I'd come across. Like I've mentioned before here on the Hide the Ares BTR 4.5-27's prescription wasn't working well with my eyes. So I sold them and got Cronus G2 4.5-29's which do work well with my eyes. Enough on that.
Speaking of the Cronus G2 turrets. I still like the firm action feel, distinctness, the audible click sound, lack of lash, and how well the .1's on the turret match the line on the housing. IMHO they are about as good feeling as a turret can be. I've had older S&B's, NF's, USO, March's and although each brand of turret felt different however I wouldn't say that the Cronus G2 turrets are inferior in feel to any of them.
I had headed out to the shop to have a look see, opened the safe to grab what I thought was a Athlon Midas TAC 5-25 sitting on the shelf to have something to compare immediately to the new G3 Ares I had just gotten out of the box. It turned out the G3 turrets were even better. Then I looked closer and realized I had grabbed my G2 Cronus instead! What, how could that even be, no way??!!
This is my first positive comment about this new G3. Not only are the turrets wider than the Cronus, not only are they shorter profile, but they feel better in every way. Also because the G3 turrets are wider there's more room between each click. C'mon man on a mid priced scope like this?????!!!!!! Wow I really have to compliment Athlon at this aspect alone!
Not much longer than this I got my Ares ETR 15-60 out to compare, yep the G3 turrets made these already nice turrets feel mediocre.
All the rest of the controls are IMHO just right. Nothing to loose feeling or too tight feeling and no wiggle of the diopter at all. I like the size of the magnification actuator/switchview on the mag ring too, it's the perfect size and it can be easily removed as well.
That's all for today but I have more interesting things to bring out. I did mount the scope on a air rifle for now to use it right on my property so I'll edit this post tomorrow with more thoughts then.
Some photos. The other scope is the G2 Cronus. The pcp is a FX Royale.
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Some more thoughts for today.
The APRS13 mil reticle is the one in my scope. It has .06 mil reticle thickness for the main cross stadia.
The day I received this G3 a storm was rolling through so it was cloudy and intermittent snow. This lighting condition made the illumination, when at it's highest setting on 6, plenty bright enough to make the cross shaped part of the reticle stand out well, even on 2.5x. Of course it stood out a lot against darker backgrounds and less against the blonde colored grass.
When the reticle was not turned on it wasn't easy to see on 2.5x against dark backgrounds. For me it needed to be on 3x 3.5x to make out it well enough to make a good shot on something. I have old eyes so.....
Against the blonde grass I could see the reticle well enough on 2.5x to make a shot.
Yesterday I walked around in the woods for an hour hoping to shoot a jackrabbit. I left the G3 on 2.5x with the illume on at #6 and it was a very bright day. I saw a rabbit jump up 100Y away which disappeared into the woods a second later. The rest of the time I shot at random stuff like pine cones in trees, cans, twigs, etc. The illume reticle was not as apparent as the day before. I could see it against trees but it wasn't as noticeable and the illume got washed out against the grass so I learned that the next bright day I'll leave the illume off and dial the mag up to 3x or a little more instead.
Some might prefer this, and I suppose I'm fine either way, but the center dot/CD is .05 mil so it's quite small on lower magnification. I'd have preferred .06 mil. But what happened is I could bracket the beginning of the stadia round about it, so .4 mil wide total, and use that to aim with, and doing this works adaquately on low mag. Remember here I'm talking about "low" mag because at some point around 7x the dot becomes apparent to me around then.
The reticle at mid to high power is very nice if someone likes .2 mil reticles.
I didn't mind in the least that it's hair thicker than most competing reticles, instead it's a BIG plus on this scope.
On low mag the main stadia of the reticle looks like a crosshair and the tree kind of disapears.
My biggest take away is the illuminated cross during the first dimly lit day was a totally awesome experience! I loved it. If it was one step brighter in illume it'd be as good as one could have for a MPVO application on low mag and no need for a COD!
One experiment I did was compare the G3 to my S&B PM2 5-25x56. Both on 5x and 15x. I found the .05 mil thick H59 reticle needed to be at 7-8x before it matched the approx thickness of the G3 reticle at 5x. This suprised me?! Translating it back one can utilize the reticle in the G3 on less mag and have more FOV for the same approx reticle thickness, or .01 mil more actually does make a markable difference here.
Athlon without a doubt had found ways to improve the IQ in the G3. LOL, I don't want to get yelled at by you all so I'll just say that it's exceptional.
Backing up a bit I got a SFP Ares ETR 15-60x56 target scope 1.5 years ago. The short of it is the IQ in it is very very nice and it could be considered a G2 ETR scope although not labeled this way. It seriously is "almost" as nice as my S&B and my March Genesis, it's that good. This G3 is close to that ETR, maybe a hair less.
Just to condense things.
I doubt any other turret, on any other rifle scope, in this price range, can compete with these on this scope.
The reticle is great, I really like it with .06 mil for the main.
I really like the lit up cross on low mag! Though I wish it was a step or two brighter for the sunniest days.
The eyebox is huge and roomy on low mag and eye alignment is easy at high mag.
So far it has surpassed what I thought it would be like and I don't say this lightly.
There is literally nothing I can point out as a specific complaint.
IMHO Athlon really really outdid themselves with this scope!
As far as a MPVO.
It's not compact.
It's not lightweight.
It does not have daylight bright illume as far as a super sunny day is concerned.
But otherwise it's crazy how nice it is for the cost and the area in the scope world it should be compared to.
The gun is a FX Royale pcp air rifle.
The APRS13 mil reticle is the one in my scope. It has .06 mil reticle thickness for the main cross stadia.
The day I received this G3 a storm was rolling through so it was cloudy and intermittent snow. This lighting condition made the illumination, when at it's highest setting on 6, plenty bright enough to make the cross shaped part of the reticle stand out well, even on 2.5x. Of course it stood out a lot against darker backgrounds and less against the blonde colored grass.
When the reticle was not turned on it wasn't easy to see on 2.5x against dark backgrounds. For me it needed to be on 3x 3.5x to make out it well enough to make a good shot on something. I have old eyes so.....
Against the blonde grass I could see the reticle well enough on 2.5x to make a shot.
Yesterday I walked around in the woods for an hour hoping to shoot a jackrabbit. I left the G3 on 2.5x with the illume on at #6 and it was a very bright day. I saw a rabbit jump up 100Y away which disappeared into the woods a second later. The rest of the time I shot at random stuff like pine cones in trees, cans, twigs, etc. The illume reticle was not as apparent as the day before. I could see it against trees but it wasn't as noticeable and the illume got washed out against the grass so I learned that the next bright day I'll leave the illume off and dial the mag up to 3x or a little more instead.
Some might prefer this, and I suppose I'm fine either way, but the center dot/CD is .05 mil so it's quite small on lower magnification. I'd have preferred .06 mil. But what happened is I could bracket the beginning of the stadia round about it, so .4 mil wide total, and use that to aim with, and doing this works adaquately on low mag. Remember here I'm talking about "low" mag because at some point around 7x the dot becomes apparent to me around then.
The reticle at mid to high power is very nice if someone likes .2 mil reticles.
I didn't mind in the least that it's hair thicker than most competing reticles, instead it's a BIG plus on this scope.
On low mag the main stadia of the reticle looks like a crosshair and the tree kind of disapears.
My biggest take away is the illuminated cross during the first dimly lit day was a totally awesome experience! I loved it. If it was one step brighter in illume it'd be as good as one could have for a MPVO application on low mag and no need for a COD!
One experiment I did was compare the G3 to my S&B PM2 5-25x56. Both on 5x and 15x. I found the .05 mil thick H59 reticle needed to be at 7-8x before it matched the approx thickness of the G3 reticle at 5x. This suprised me?! Translating it back one can utilize the reticle in the G3 on less mag and have more FOV for the same approx reticle thickness, or .01 mil more actually does make a markable difference here.
Athlon without a doubt had found ways to improve the IQ in the G3. LOL, I don't want to get yelled at by you all so I'll just say that it's exceptional.
Backing up a bit I got a SFP Ares ETR 15-60x56 target scope 1.5 years ago. The short of it is the IQ in it is very very nice and it could be considered a G2 ETR scope although not labeled this way. It seriously is "almost" as nice as my S&B and my March Genesis, it's that good. This G3 is close to that ETR, maybe a hair less.
Just to condense things.
I doubt any other turret, on any other rifle scope, in this price range, can compete with these on this scope.
The reticle is great, I really like it with .06 mil for the main.
I really like the lit up cross on low mag! Though I wish it was a step or two brighter for the sunniest days.
The eyebox is huge and roomy on low mag and eye alignment is easy at high mag.
So far it has surpassed what I thought it would be like and I don't say this lightly.
There is literally nothing I can point out as a specific complaint.
IMHO Athlon really really outdid themselves with this scope!
As far as a MPVO.
It's not compact.
It's not lightweight.
It does not have daylight bright illume as far as a super sunny day is concerned.
But otherwise it's crazy how nice it is for the cost and the area in the scope world it should be compared to.
The gun is a FX Royale pcp air rifle.
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At the time I thought so too, I mean at this price range, but these Ares BTR G3 turrets uprooted the notion and are now up there so close to tier1 turrets its almost indistinguishable if one were blindfolded and didn't know which scope was in what hand.
Upvote 0
Great reviews man. I always appreciate your views on scopes.Some more thoughts for today.
The APRS13 mil reticle is the one in my scope. It has .06 mil reticle thickness for the main cross stadia.
The day I received this G3 a storm was rolling through so it was cloudy and intermittent snow. This lighting condition made the illumination, when at it's highest setting on 6, plenty bright enough to make the cross shaped part of the reticle stand out well, even on 2.5x. Of course it stood out a lot against darker backgrounds and less against the blonde colored grass.
When the reticle was not turned on it wasn't easy to see on 2.5x against dark backgrounds. For me it needed to be on 3x 3.5x to make out it well enough to make a good shot on something. I have old eyes so.....
Against the blonde grass I could see the reticle well enough on 2.5x to make a shot.
Yesterday I walked around in the woods for an hour hoping to shoot a jackrabbit. I left the G3 on 2.5x with the illume on at #6 and it was a very bright day. I saw a rabbit jump up 100Y away which disappeared into the woods a second later. The rest of the time I shot at random stuff like pine cones in trees, cans, twigs, etc. The illume reticle was not as apparent as the day before. I could see it against trees but it wasn't as noticeable and the illume got washed out against the grass so I learned that the next bright day I'll leave the illume off and dial the mag up to 3x or a little more instead.
Some might prefer this, and I suppose I'm fine either way, but the center dot/CD is .05 mil so it's quite small on lower magnification. I'd have preferred .06 mil. But what happened is I could bracket the beginning of the stadia round about it, so .4 mil wide total, and use that to aim with, and doing this works adaquately on low mag. Remember here I'm talking about "low" mag because at some point around 7x the dot becomes apparent to me around then.
The reticle at mid to high power is very nice if someone likes .2 mil reticles.
I didn't mind in the least that it's hair thicker than most competing reticles, instead it's a BIG plus on this scope.
On low mag the main stadia of the reticle looks like a crosshair and the tree kind of disapears.
My biggest take away is the illuminated cross during the first dimly lit day was a totally awesome experience! I loved it. If it was one step brighter in illume it'd be as good as one could have for a MPVO application on low mag and no need for a COD!
One experiment I did was compare the G3 to my S&B PM2 5-25x56. Both on 5x and 15x. I found the .05 mil thick H59 reticle needed to be at 7-8x before it matched the approx thickness of the G3 reticle at 5x. This suprised me?! Translating it back one can utilize the reticle in the G3 on less mag and have more FOV for the same approx reticle thickness, or .01 mil more actually does make a markable difference here.
Athlon without a doubt had found ways to improve the IQ in the G3. LOL, I don't want to get yelled at by you all so I'll just say that it's exceptional.
Backing up a bit I got a SFP Ares ETR 15-60x56 target scope 1.5 years ago. The short of it is the IQ in it is very very nice and it could be considered a G2 ETR scope although not labeled this way. It seriously is "almost" as nice as my S&B and my March Genesis, it's that good. This G3 is close to that ETR, maybe a hair less.
Just to condense things.
I doubt any other turret, on any other rifle scope, in this price range, can compete with these on this scope.
The reticle is great, I really like it with .06 mil for the main.
I really like the lit up cross on low mag! Though I wish it was a step or two brighter for the sunniest days.
The eyebox is huge and roomy on low mag and eye alignment is easy at high mag.
So far it has surpassed what I thought it would be like and I don't say this lightly.
There is literally nothing I can point out as a specific complaint.
IMHO Athlon really really outdid themselves with this scope!
As far as a MPVO.
It's not compact.
It's not lightweight.
It does not have daylight bright illume as far as a super sunny day is concerned.
But otherwise it's crazy how nice it is for the cost and the area in the scope world it should be compared to.
The gun is a FX Royale pcp air rifle.
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Thinking about it yesterday there used to be a huge gap between scopes in this price range compared to my S&B. I know because I bought or have used quite a few of them that friends owned. It seemed every new generation of scope the gap got closer and closer to my S&B, but has now shrunk enough to be very little with this G3.
In other words, yeah I want to give the nod to my S&B 5-25, BUT, that's because I know how much it costs, otherwise I'm somewhat second guessing myself. The main difference today is I've owned the S&B for over a decade and I trust it more, and the G3 needs to be proven over time.
This being said I actually had to send a S&B 3-20x50 back for repair twice, which was fixed the 2nd time, and consequently I lost trust, thus sold it!
In other words, yeah I want to give the nod to my S&B 5-25, BUT, that's because I know how much it costs, otherwise I'm somewhat second guessing myself. The main difference today is I've owned the S&B for over a decade and I trust it more, and the G3 needs to be proven over time.
This being said I actually had to send a S&B 3-20x50 back for repair twice, which was fixed the 2nd time, and consequently I lost trust, thus sold it!
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Thanks for the review. This is another one in my scope list to consider. Now only if they made an Ares BTR G3 in a 4-20x50. I still want to try out the Helos BTR G2 4-20x50. I'm glad they increased the floating center dot to 0.05 mil compared to my Cronus BTR G2 which is 0.04 mil. Like you, I agree. It's a little too small for my aging eyes.
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You're welcome. Thanks as well for taking the time to read my posts.
Athlon is heading in a good direction and I'm glad they haven't sat on their hands doing nothing putting out the "same old same old" by trying to be in tune with what aspects that work better and also fitting certain applications more than previously.
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One challenge this scope presents is limited geography on the parallax knob. Thus it will be a true challenge to make a HFT wheel for it that allows access to the illumination feature
Ares BTR GEN3 HD 2.5-15x50 APRS13 Riflescope
When you want the best features from the top-tier rifle scope but not break the bank, look no further than the new Ares BTR line of scopes.athlonoptics.com
Tempted to get one in mil because it has a little more reticle thickness at .06 mil so it'd make a decent MPVO compared to some others on the market using thinner reticles, plus the G3 probably incorporates some internal and external upgrades. I prefer the look of those lower profile turrets for sure!
There's a G3 4.5-27x50 version as well.
The G3 Midas TAC 4-16 also has .06 mil reticle thickness so nearly a third as thick as before, and this could be a popular Hunter FT scope for 2025!
Visit Athlon's website because they have lot's of newer scopes coming out in 2025.
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