Well, I finally had a chance to take out the
Athlon Optics Argos BTR 8-34×56 Side Focus Riflescope,30mm,Black,APMR IR-MIL Reticle 214066 on the range Sunday. Did not have a lot of time, and did not do a box test, but had to make many minor adjustments between .25 JSB 25gr and 34gr pellet POIs.
First the negative: the light switch turret is not very precise, at times it hangs between settings. But, I do not use it anyway. The elevation and windage turrets are not very audible clicking, but seem to track precisely. Inside the indoor range with artificial light at 20x mag it started to darken the sight picture to around 90%. At 30x mag this darkening was more noticeable and at 34x mag (max) it was at around 75%. (however, clear and uniform sight picture throughout all the field of vision of the lense, no noticeable blurring)
The good: the FFP reticle is perfect for my use. Very sharp, at 100 yards I can see it very clearly superimposed over the sight picture. I wish at 34x mag the entire tree of 10 mil dot range on the lower side could be seen, but it only visible to around -7 mil dots down. So in some cases may need to think about the zero range setup if you are past 150 yards (I never made it that far yet). I used 50 yards for zero and that still gave me -4 mil dots at 100 yards at full 34x mag. Magnification dial is smooth and solidly executed. Parallax focus knob works good, precise enough to detect variations in focus at 100 yards between uneven target surfaces. I think it can easily be used for precise ranging purposes.The range markings were right on, from 50 yards I just dialed in to 100yards on the side focus and when to target moved up (indoor range) at was in focus and only very tiny adjustments were needed.
The sight picture is very sharp, and small letters even at 100 yards are quite readable. At the 50 yard indoor range the light was not as good as at the 100 yards and at 50yards the focus darkened the sight picture, but at 100 yards it was very good again (due to the artificial lighting being better). Not 100% but I would say at least 80% with that light level. I think outdoors in normal light it would not be a visible darkening at all.
Please, note that I am not an expert and I know even less about scopes. For comparison, I had once a S&B but never mounted it thus never took it to the range where I shot with the Athlon. I also have a couple of Japan Custom Shop Tasco 12-60x that are real nice, but the Athlon outdoes them. Probably cannot compete with $1,600+ scopes, but the $350 I paid is easily worth $700 or more.