Vortex, Athlon or Element?

[pieterdg]

Hi,



I'm looking to buy a new scope for around 800 to 1000 $.

I was thinking about the following scopes:

The Vortex strike eagle 5-25x56 FFP

The Athlon Midas TAC 5-25x56 FFP

Are there people who have been able to compare these 2 scopes? I'm curious about the eye box / eye relief difference in these scopes.

Or should I wait until the Element optics Titan comes out?

 

[edosan]

What I found great about the Element scopes, they are the only ones (vs vortex and athlon) made considering Airguns. 

You can't go wrong with those 3 brands. 

 

[Cloudrider]

I have an Athlon Ares and an Element Nexus, and have pre-paid for a Titan. Really excited about the Titan, I feel its going to be the bargain for the sub $1200 market. Its only downside will be the weight. I'm in love with the Nexus,,its everything as advertised and I can't see people buying Nightforce Atacrs for Impacts unless they're insisting on milspec toughness. I'm a MIL over MOA, Matt's reticle is perfect!

Little tip, at dvor.com, Element Optics are on sale, but your looking at a 4 week eta on shipping.

 

[sonny]

What rings are you guys using on the impact (high or medium), scope has 56mm objective.

 

[Smok3y]

Several questions here. For your price range the 2 scopes you ask about are well less than your max, so that is a good thing! 

Strike Eagle 5-25 - I haven’t owned one so I can’t say. It is in their middle tier and can be had less than the $700 starting price. If you like the reticle and don’t want to jump up to the PSTII line, I expect it to be ok. 

Midas Tac 5-25 - I owned the 6-24 and it is a great scope, well worth the money. Best optics I have tried at the price point. I would hope the 5-25 is similar, but I cannot confirm. I have tried the Ares lines on your price range and they are nice. Heck, I currently have two Ares ETRs. They are hard to beat at the price (in your range).

Titan - nobody knows, besides a few sponsor videos. I like the looks of it though and would want to try it. 

 

[Smok3y]

I can't see people buying Nightforce Atacrs for Impacts unless they're insisting on milspec toughness. 

To each their own, right. Having owned an ATACR and other more and less expensive scopes, I haven’t owned a scope that I liked as much. From getting behind, to optic quality, etc. It is the best scope I’ve ever owned and I miss having it on my rifle. But it was overkill and I was able to buy more rifles and optics by selling it. With one rifle, I would say go for it. For a collection, I say buy cheaper and more.

 

[Smok3y]

What rings are you guys using on the impact (high or medium), scope has 56mm objective.

I have always thought I like lower rings until the Impact. I actually used 1.5” rings, but I also had the cheek riser. I loved the more vertical setup and will try to mimic when I can. 

 

[pieterdg]

I have an Athlon Ares and an Element Nexus, and have pre-paid for a Titan. Really excited about the Titan, I feel its going to be the bargain for the sub $1200 market. Its only downside will be the weight. I'm in love with the Nexus,,its everything as advertised and I can't see people buying Nightforce Atacrs for Impacts unless they're insisting on milspec toughness. I'm a MIL over MOA, Matt's reticle is perfect!

Little tip, at dvor.com, Element Optics are on sale, but your looking at a 4 week eta on shipping.

And how is your Ares holding up comparing to your Nexus? Is it the BTR?

I guess the Ares has even better optic quality then the Midas TAC?

Several questions here. For your price range the 2 scopes you ask about are well less than your max, so that is a good thing! 

Strike Eagle 5-25 - I haven’t owned one so I can’t say. It is in their middle tier and can be had less than the $700 starting price. If you like the reticle and don’t want to jump up to the PSTII line, I expect it to be ok. 

Midas Tac 5-25 - I owned the 6-24 and it is a great scope, well worth the money. Best optics I have tried at the price point. I would hope the 5-25 is similar, but I cannot confirm. I have tried the Ares lines on your price range and they are nice. Heck, I currently have two Ares ETRs. They are hard to beat at the price (in your range).

Titan - nobody knows, besides a few sponsor videos. I like the looks of it though and would want to try it.

So you have tried the Ares BTR? how did that compare to the Midas?

 

[Cloudrider]

Only complaint I have with the Ares BTR is the minimum parallax is 25 yards.

Nexus in 10 and titan will be 15 yards.

My Ares is an earlymodel and I haven't seem a Midas to compare glass.

The Nexus so far has been outstanding, overall its easy to notice the quality of glass and especially the crispness of the turrets over the Athlon.

The stainless steel turret mechanism is bullet proof, its interesting to hear that FX actually supplies some of the finer components for their japanese scope manufacturer. Its not all 100% farmed out like sig sauer.

I am confident the Titan is going to be a touch better than the Ares BTR, been real impressed with the scopecam vids that 68 Whisky has been posting with both the Nexus and Titans.

 

[steve123]

Admittedly I'm loosely affiliated with Athlon Optics but I'm still honest about likes and dislikes. I do the same with any brand, even high end scopes.

Nope the Ares BTR's don't have any better glass than the TAC's. The Ares ETR 4.5-30 does have nicer glass than both those! I still think the Cronus has superior glass than the ETR.

Reticles, I hate numbers right next to the vertical crosshair when I'm holding over and I also dislike .2 mil hashes mixed with .5 mil hashes in a reticle. So I sold my TAC's, my ETR, and my Cronus BTR. This is why I went to the Ares BTR Gen2 with it's awesome reticle as my go-to scope for my more powerful AG's meant for longer distances than 25Y. 

The only complaint I've read about with the Strike Eagle is the glass is only acceptable, people aren't impressed nor totally disappointed, otherwise Vortex did well on this scope.

20x isn't going to cut it for me on the Nexus, nor the reticle.

 

[Smok3y]

Pieterdg...

I have owned the Ares BTR also, yes. I think the Ares BTR was very similar to the Midas Tac optically. I did not own them at the same time, so I cannot do a perfect comparison, but I think I liked the Midas Tac a tiny bit better. The Ares does have a little more magnification and an illuminated reticle.

I have not seen the actual prices on the Midas Tac 5-25, so I don’t know if I would choose it over their other models. The 6-24 and the Ares BTR are about the same, so if I was choosing between those two, I would pick the on with the reticle you like, or if the side focus or illumination is important. Can’t help with the 5-25 version. 

 

[sdel2]

Athlon is great but I sugest and SWFA Swampfox and new Vector Continental.Great optics for this money.

Regards

 

[Yo]

I had a couple of VORTEX ranging from the cheap $180 Crossfire front focus $399 Diamondback Tactical to the Viper and Strike Eagle around $800 just under $1000 for me too much chromatic aberration and IIRC the focus was 25 and one was 50 but the cheap $399 Diamondback has airgun acceptable close focus even its the blurriest that's why I still own this one IDK WHY in the HELL my cheap $180 front focus Crossfire is clearer than my $399 Diamondback Tactical. I would recommend the RAZOR line it's a see it to believe it in step up in optics. I settled for the $599 JAPAN BUSHNELL Elite TAC 4.5-30x50 with 25 yd focus as a compromise since its clearer than the $1000 Vortex at least according to my eyes and these Bushnells used to cost over $1000 before and even $1300 at some point. Yo!

 

[Yo]

Cheapest I found a JAPAN Athlon Cronus was $1349-13% off first time buyer discount then another with $249 rebate off of $1599 second best price. Got wind from a little scope guru birdie the Athlons are headed for price drop not sure when though with Coronas going on. I'd be SICK to buy then next month they're 30-40% (OR MORE) off like how BUSHNELL DID TO US. IM WAITING for the Cronus to dip below $1000 to buy. Yo!

 

[steve123]

As far as I know there is no Gen3 revision for the Cronus for 2020 which would be the only reason a big price drop would come about like when the original Cronus was put on sale. Those blowouts usually don't happen until the next gen, whatever that might be, is already on the market, just like what happened with the G1 Argos BTR and G1 Ares BTR, etc.

I think the OP is considering that brand new on the market Strike Eagle 5-25x56, not the old Gens. Heck I'm not much of a Vortex fan but for the money I'd consider it, though I don't want a big scope right now.

That TAC 5-25 is also a big scope. I've not owned one but did fiddle with it at Shot Show quite a bit. I wanted the ETR instead because of the daylight bright illume.

 

[Cloudrider]

Seems like a discount on the Ares Etr and Midas Tac.!

 

[lbmalleo]

I have an Athlon Ares and an Element Nexus, and have pre-paid for a Titan. Really excited about the Titan, I feel its going to be the bargain for the sub $1200 market. Its only downside will be the weight. I'm in love with the Nexus,,its everything as advertised and I can't see people buying Nightforce Atacrs for Impacts unless they're insisting on milspec toughness. I'm a MIL over MOA, Matt's reticle is perfect!

Little tip, at dvor.com, Element Optics are on sale, but your looking at a 4 week eta on shipping.

Hi,

I saw that Element sale at dvor like you stated, when I went to buy the scope the whole thing disappeared, I couldn't find Element Optics under "brands" anymore! I do have a tiny window that shows "recently viewed" and it shows the Titan I had selected and it says that the sale ends in 1 day!! Is this normal at this site? Never bought from them before!

Thanks,



Lucas

 

[DShepard]

My Ares ETR was $1,200 from Utah Airguns in January. It's a great scope.

 

[Cloudrider]

I have an Athlon Ares and an Element Nexus, and have pre-paid for a Titan. Really excited about the Titan, I feel its going to be the bargain for the sub $1200 market. Its only downside will be the weight. I'm in love with the Nexus,,its everything as advertised and I can't see people buying Nightforce Atacrs for Impacts unless they're insisting on milspec toughness. I'm a MIL over MOA, Matt's reticle is perfect!

Little tip, at dvor.com, Element Optics are on sale, but your looking at a 4 week eta on shipping.

Hi,

I saw that Element sale at dvor like you stated, when I went to buy the scope the whole thing disappeared, I couldn't find Element Optics under "brands" anymore! I do have a tiny window that shows "recently viewed" and it shows the Titan I had selected and it says that the sale ends in 1 day!! Is this normal at this site? Never bought from them before!

Thanks,



Lucas

I notice the same thing, and do not know why, dvor.com would do such a thing. They didn't just drop the one item, but the whole sale on all the Element Optics. Besides that, the FX Chrono was dropped from a sale yesterday at the same time the scopes vanished.

We can only speculate on what happened. It happened on a Sunday, at a membership site of a major online retailer, Opticsplanet.com. 

When I first saw the ad, I thought it was strange for a product to go on sale for less than the introductory price, before its release. For all FX products here in the USA, they've done an incredible job keeping their pricing consistent and tight among all the online and bm stores. With that in mind, I think somebody at dvor/opticsplanet screwed up and violated FXs MAP policy. Somebody at dvor, probably got an email from FX, probably not a happy one at that.

I'm wondering if my earlier post was a heads up to somebody connected to Element/FX.

 

[lbmalleo]

I have an Athlon Ares and an Element Nexus, and have pre-paid for a Titan. Really excited about the Titan, I feel its going to be the bargain for the sub $1200 market. Its only downside will be the weight. I'm in love with the Nexus,,its everything as advertised and I can't see people buying Nightforce Atacrs for Impacts unless they're insisting on milspec toughness. I'm a MIL over MOA, Matt's reticle is perfect!

Little tip, at dvor.com, Element Optics are on sale, but your looking at a 4 week eta on shipping.

Hi,

I saw that Element sale at dvor like you stated, when I went to buy the scope the whole thing disappeared, I couldn't find Element Optics under "brands" anymore! I do have a tiny window that shows "recently viewed" and it shows the Titan I had selected and it says that the sale ends in 1 day!! Is this normal at this site? Never bought from them before!

Thanks,



Lucas

I notice the same thing, and do not know why, dvor.com would do such a thing. They didn't just drop the one item, but the whole sale on all the Element Optics. Besides that, the FX Chrono was dropped from a sale yesterday at the same time the scopes vanished.

We can only speculate on what happened. It happened on a Sunday, at a membership site of a major online retailer, Opticsplanet.com. 

When I first saw the ad, I thought it was strange for a product to go on sale for less than the introductory price, before its release. For all FX products here in the USA, they've done an incredible job keeping their pricing consistent and tight among all the online and bm stores. With that in mind, I think somebody at dvor/opticsplanet screwed up and violated FXs MAP policy. Somebody at dvor, probably got an email from FX, probably not a happy one at that.

I'm wondering if my earlier post was a heads up to somebody connected to Element/FX.

I thought the same thing, they must have screwed up and put it on sale. I wonder how many people bought during the sale, they are going to have to honor that sale for them. It is unfair for those like us though. I sent them a message asking about it, but I know exactly how it's going to turn out!