Looking around for a new high end scope.

[jking]

I’ve never bought a $1,000 and up scope for my air rifles but if I could I would, even more so than I would on a high dollar powder burner. Me, I shoot my airguns way more than my PB, so I’m looking thru the glass a lot. I use to be a Bushnell and Tasco only guy early on, figuring it’s the weapon, not so much the glass, that does the job. Just let me see the center of a shoot and see target and I’m good to go.

Well, shoot n sees, I hardly use anymore cause they lie to me. The truth of how well you shoot shows on hard stock standard targets, that don’t splatter and hide the gap that shows your only shooting a 3/4” group at 40 yards and not pellet on pellet like a shoot n see shows. I thought I was a pretty good shot, using only shoot n see splatterburst targets, till Dave Larsen sent me some nice target stock samples. I shot approx 100 shots the day I used those targets, and realized quickly that I suck.

As I go further out, I need to see pellet holes, and now at 60 years old and dependent on glasses almost 24/7, good scope glass is a royal treat. The first time I looked thru an Athlon Helos I was like WOOOW!! Then recently a delta striker HD that Rangur1 loaned me for RMAC and I was like SUPER WOOOW!!! Yes, good glass is a treat, for sure, and just helps to see EXACTLY where you want that shot to go to

"Well, shoot n sees, I hardly use anymore cause they lie to me. The truth of how well you shoot shows on hard stock standard targets, that don’t splatter and hide the gap that shows your only shooting a 3/4” group at 40 yards and not pellet on pellet like a shoot n see shows. I thought I was a pretty good shot, using only shoot n see splatterburst targets, till Dave Larsen sent me some nice target stock samples. I shot approx 100 shots the day I used those targets, and realized quickly that I suck."

Didn't intend to get off topic but I got to agree with you 100% Augie. When ever I post my groups you'll notice they are on hard cardboard with a small hand drawn circle with a marks-alot or sometimes the small orange stick on's. It's also easier to measure that way. Don't get me wrong I still shoot the Shoot-n-see's sometimes but if I'm shooting for good groups I'll do the cardboard backing.

 

[lbc_PSI]

Razor HD LHT 4.5-22x50 FFP​

From LibertyOptics in ID. The owner has sales occasionally, so the actual list price varies.

It is more than your price point..I thought the same thing..but I waited and saved..then splurged..with no regrets.

Relatively small..(13.3") and light..(20oz). And a great reticle.

It's going to perfect on my new RTI

 

[CoyoteGod]

I mean how high end? today with technology high end doesn't mean what it used to. You can be under $700, get ED glass, amazing tactile and accurate turrets, locking most of the time, great parallax, smooth operation, the magnification options you need, illuminated or not, zero stop and resettable a a minimum easily. Most at full mag have very little CA. Why spend so much even for PRS, NRL22 or EBR? One scope comes to mind is the Tract Toric 4-20. Absolutely amazing scope. Cut that in half and get the 4-20 Athlon Helos BTR Gen 2. Do not let the price fool you, this scope is truly a work of art. 10 years ago, if you didn't get a $1500 leupold you felt you left something on the table, today you get steel internal and precision operation for a great price. Take advantage of it!

 

[rangur1]

Sorry guys I mislead you a little,, My scope money stops at 800 dollars , And the Athlon is on six of my PCPs now , Good scope for the money,,Athlon BTR 6x24 -50.
Mike

ok, zerotech has both first and second focal plane scopes in the 600-800 dollar range. I love the thrive hd series for pesting.

 

[KevinWood44]

$1000 range Athlon Ares ETR

$1500 range Athlon Cronus

$2000 range Vortex Razor Gen II, Nightforce NX8, Kahles K624

$2500-$3000 Vortex Razor Gen III,Nightforce ATACR, Minox ZP, March optics

$3500-$5000 ZCO, Schmidt & Bender, Tangent Theta, Zeiss LRP

$1000 - The Midas Tac is the same exact scope as the Eres without illumination. I have the Midas Tac and LOVE it!! Save $300-$400 and lose the illumination!! Sadly I may sell my Midas Tac 6-24 ALPR4 reticle bc I want the Maven or Cronus. It's a brand new (replaced no questions asked by Athlon)

$1,500 - Who could argue with the Cronus! Stellar!! Kicks the Nexus' ass all day long

$2,000- Maven Rs4!!! Tract Toric a close 2nd. But the Maven parallax's down to 15 yards, better for air gunning. Not that I shoot that close but....

$2,500-$3,500 (BY FAR the hardest price range to pick from) Valdada Crusader, ZComp 420, March, Kahles K525 DLR (best parallax on any scope, on the elevation turret), ATACR

$3,500 + - Zcomp 527/480 (by far my 1st choice) Zeiss nice but the turrets are so TALL!!, S&B not my fav,

Nobody could pay me to use a Vortex scope. Give me an Athlon over a Vortex any day of the week. Preference I suppose.

 

[airgunmike56]

Wow, You guys paying 1000 to 2000 and up for a scope, I am not saying your crazy just hard core, I got a Crimson Trace 5x25x56 34 mm tube suppose to be a 1500 dollar scope got it for 500 bucks on a super deal LOVE the glass the turrents are crap and sloppy.
I got a 2000 $ RTI coming but I just cant see paying more than 600 for a scope .
Not sure when the gun will even get here but the market for a scope is open
OK OK NEVER MIND just bought a Helos Athlon BTR G2 4x20 x56 34 mm tube
Got a good deal on Ebay 480 bucks
Mike

 

[JungleShooter]

Razor HD LHT 4.5-22x50 FFP

Relatively small (13.3") and light (20oz). And a great reticle.
It's going to perfect on my new RTI

Congrats on your new RTI!

Do say: What is the minimum parallax setting on this scope?
If I remember correctly, almost no Vortex scopes focus down to our airgun ranges of 10 or 15y....

Matthias

 

[JungleShooter]

Athlon Ares APLR6 moa 3-18x50: [...] I like the reticle better than any I have used.
Reticles with all the dots look like bugs on my windshield.
Athlon Helos BTR Gen 2 4-20x50 with the same reticle as on my Ares.

I am very interested in the Helos.
➔ My one gripe with it was that it had a "reticle with all the dots that look like bugs on my windshield."

From your post I somehow gather there is a Helos that is free off all the dots — in other words it has a clean reticle, just crosshairs with hashlines?
And that the Ares has the same clean reticle?


➔ Please, do confirm (or disconfirm) this.
If there is a "clean" Helos, I will have to have a serious talk with the pig that's serving as my play money bank...!

Matthias

 

[Scotty1]

I don’t see a clean reticle for either of those 2, but the Midas Tac has one available.

 

[airgunmike56]

OOPS I checked again and its 6x24-56 APIR 6 reticle if that means any thing
One of them late night buys, I got to stop doing that.
Mike

 

[airgunmike56]

I got to have some lines on the scope I can see, I sold my Element T scope because I cold not see the lines, But that's just me.
Mike

 

[lbc_PSI]

Congrats on your new RTI!

Do say: What is the minimum parallax setting on this scope?
If I remember correctly, almost no Vortex scopes focus down to our airgun ranges of 10 or 15y....

Matthias

The turret says 25M..but when I set to that "min" parallax at 10X the sight picture is clear at 18 yards..enough so to see individual pellet holes in a 4"x6" redwood block At 22X a little fuzzy..but then I don't need to see the fleas on the squirrels at that distance. ;-)

/Larry

 

[JungleShooter]

Thanks, Scotty.

And thanks, Mike.
Yeah, for my shooting scenarios I need a wide FoV, even if I might shoot out past 100y sometimes — the elusive "do-it-all scope."
And 6x magni usually is around 18ft FoV, maybe 20ft — my minimum FoV is 28ft, maybe 25ft if it's a 5-30x....

Matthias

 

[JungleShooter]

The turret says 25M..but when I set to that "min" parallax at 10X the sight picture is clear at 18 yards.

/Larry

Thanks, Larry, I appreciate you checking on that for me.

Since I like my life difficult and expensive* — I decided to go into scope camming — and for that I need 10 or 15y parallax at full magnification.
*[NOT...!]


Well, the good thing is that I can continue to entertain high hopes for next year's ShotShow — that my dream scope finally will arrive on the market (at a 3-digit street price).

Matthias

 

[The Codger]

Someone already mentioned EuroOptic but I did not see Camera Land NY, you always call and ask for Doug @ Camera Land.
Scopes, spotters, tripods, Range Finders and Kestrel. I've purchased 4 out of those five from Doug, great place and service.
The demo section at EuroOptic should also be checked.

 

[Teber66]

Wow, You guys paying 1000 to 2000 and up for a scope, I am not saying your crazy just hard core, I got a Crimson Trace 5x25x56 34 mm tube suppose to be a 1500 dollar scope got it for 500 bucks on a super deal LOVE the glass the turrents are crap and sloppy.
I got a 2000 $ RTI coming but I just cant see paying more than 600 for a scope .
Not sure when the gun will even get here but the market for a scope is open
OK OK NEVER MIND just bought a Helos Athlon BTR G2 4x20 x56 34 mm tube
Got a good deal on Ebay 480 bucks
Mike

Just depends on what you use your scopes for. My 2 match guns, $4000 just in the 2 scopes.

 

[JungleShooter]

My 2 match guns, $4000 just in the 2 scopes.
View attachment 281049

Tony,

I hit the LIKE button on your post above.

What I can't seem to find is the WANT button!!

Matthias

 

[CyberDyneSystems]

I've not used a lot of the optics people mention here. But my favorite scopes under $800.00 right now are the Meopta scopes. I have two of the 4-20x50mm Optika 5 (SFP) and two of the Optika6 5-27x 50mm one SFP one FFP.

The Optika5 are about $450.00 or less depending where and when you buy them. I actually prefer them to the longer heavier Optika6 most of the time. That 4-20x focuses down to 10 yards, the others 25. Those ones come in at right around $800.00

To compare, I have used Nikon, Crimson Trace, Hawke, MTC, Cabellas Covenant, Aimsports, Truglo, and UTG, all on air rifles, and Leopold, Swarovski, and Bushnell in the past on powder burners.

 

[steve123]

Recent purchase....

Normally I just buy Athlon Optics. I get a discount in price and they are just so well done for the money, especially from the Helos G2 line on up, that it's hard for me to get interested in other brand scopes.

Honestly its been years since I bought something in the $900 price range from another company to compare to the Athlon scopes I own so I just wanted to try something different this time around and check things out to see what differences there might be. Plus I wanted a bit more magnification than 25x without spending all the allotted money I had on only one scope, that and I also wanted 10Y close focus. This brings me to the next paragraph.

For the last couple years I've been eyeballing the Vector Optics Continental 5-30x56 FFP in milliradian so I ordered one and received it yesterday. I like the larger center dot in the reticle and that it's an all .2 mil tree reticle. It's a pretty full featured scope as well with 10 mil per rev locking turrets, a zero stop, 10Y min focus, illume, Schott glass, and is reasonably light weight for this mag range at 28.6 oz. Not a bad scope at all upon the initial box opening and observations.

I'll post a review in a couple weeks about it with some thoughts comparing it, a Athlon Helos G2 6-24, and a Athlon Midas TAC 5-25.

 

[JungleShooter]

Recent purchase....:
For the last couple years I've been eyeballing the Vector Optics Continental 5-30x56 FFP.

I'll post a review in a couple weeks about it with some thoughts comparing it, a Athlon Helos G2 6-24, and a Athlon Midas TAC 5-25.

What took you so long, Steve?!?

Oh, I am SO GLAD that someone is doing a review of it (as my location does not allow me to return stuff to the store if I don't like it).

And I am SO GLAD that someone I trust with scopes is doing the review.

And I am SO GLAD that you will be comparing it to Athlon scopes, that are scopes in my price range that I can somehow relate to. A comparison to a Swarowski or S&B would be largely meaningless to me personally.



I'm dead serious, too: This scope is at the very top(!!) of my list of over 150 airgun scopes, the specs that are important to me beat anything out there that I have researched.


Thanks, Steve.

Matthias