Athlon Helos BTR Gen2 2-12x42 Reviews?

Grumman

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I’ve got one I’ve yet to mount but it seems awesome for the price. Big Stick over on 24HourCampfire endorses them and said they track very well. The reticle and illumination are great and the turrets have very positive adjustments.


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Nov 19, 2020
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NW Illinois
I just got mine in the mail today. I'm hoping to get some use out of it within the next week or two. Once I do, I'll give you my amateur opinion on it.

For now though, I'm having a hard time deciding which gun to put it on. I haven't built the 6.5 grendel upper yet that I originally intended for it to go on. I'll either mount it to my 18" SPR or use it to replace the 10x swfa on my SPS Tactical.

Fwiw, my first impression is that it's a damn nice scope. The glass is great. The reticle is a decent design and not too cluttered. I haven't put a battery in yet to check illumination. Parallax adjustment appears spot on at each marking. The turrets are very wide and make loud, tactile clicks. The windage turret wobbles just a hair but not enough to matter. The locking turret design functions perfectly. Focusing the reticle to my eye was stupid easy compared to some of my other scopes.

Tonight, when the sun goes down and the deer step out into my fields, I'll compare it's low light performance with my swfa 3-9 and maybe a couple other scopes. I'll report back on how it does.
 
Joined
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I did the comparison, as promised, but the deer weren't cooperative tonight. Only one doe walked by at 450ish yds, about 10 mins after sunset. I got a decent look at her with the Athlon and confirmed that the reticle size and design works well at that distance.

I'm posting a pic as proof that I actually have the scopes.

The top rifle is a rem 700 30-06 w/ swfa 3-9 mildot mounted in hawkins hybrid rings.

Other rifle is tikka .223 w/ swfa 10x milquad mounted in TO84's.

I was facing directly West, glassing the East-facing hill that is the end of my property. Furthest distance I can see is roughly 500 yds and ends at my neighbor's corn field. This area is all pasture with yellow grass and bordered by mature trees. Additionally, I tested the reticles against the woods at the lowest part of my property, which gets dark fast, approximately 160 yds away.

All 3 reticles were visible in the back pasture until 9pm, which was total darkness to the naked eye. The 10x MQ lost visibility in the woods around 8:44 pm but the 3-9 MD and Helos reticle were still visible until 8:55ish.

The Helos was set to 9x to match the swfa. Both reticles lost usefulness at 9pm. If you were shooting closer, like at 100 yds, both have thick posts you could easily use to bracket and shoot big game. The Helos has a slight advantage with its donut of death reticle. The 10x's posts were not visible enough though.

The swfa 3-9 and Helos have similar quality of glass, or so I thought until I remembered that I hadn't adjusted the parallax. Once I set PA to the proper distance, the Helos was slightly clearer than the swfa. Brightness was the same with both scopes. This all took place between 8:55-9pm.

Once it was near total darkness, around 9:03, I turned the illumination on. Thankfully, athon has off settings between brightness levels. The first 2 levels of brightness worked perfectly to illuminate the reticle without washing out the image. There wasn't any deer for me to look at so I have no idea what the image would be but I looked at a telephone pole that is 320 yds away. I could see it well enough to shoot it (disclaimer: I didn't shoot it).

In summary, this is a decent option if you're tired of waiting for back ordered swfa 3-9's, don't want to spend more than $450-550, and want a scope that can hang til last light. If you're wanting precise, small groups than you'll find the reticle is a bit too thick. If you're shooting steel, coyotes, or especially big game animals then the Athlon's reticle is perfect for that out to 450 yds.

I can't speak to durability or how precise the turrets are. I'll try to get to that soon and then I'll post results. I'll say it now: I'm not drop testing this scope. I know they have a great warranty but I don't feel like using it. Based on its country of origin and price point, I doubt it would survive repeated drops from 18-36". If you want bombproof, look elsewhere.

I hope this comparison is useful to somebody!
 

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hunting1

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I have two and other than the made in China I like everything! I have one on a 300WSM Kimber Montana and the other on a Springfield Waypoint. At 20-oz not too heavy but has a compact footprint. About the only complaint would be the dot is a little heavy but not a deal killer. Glass is comparable to my Leupold VX3's.
 

Bater

WKR
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Apr 2, 2020
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I have two and other than the made in China I like everything! I have one on a 300WSM Kimber Montana and the other on a Springfield Waypoint. At 20-oz not too heavy but has a compact footprint. About the only complaint would be the dot is a little heavy but not a deal killer. Glass is comparable to my Leupold VX3's.
I thought these were 25-26oz...
 

Bater

WKR
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Just ordered one for the boy's 260, guess we'll see. My main criteria will be tracking, RTZ and it's ability to hold zero under recoil....all else is fluff imo
 
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Just ordered one for the boy's 260, guess we'll see. My main criteria will be tracking, RTZ and it's ability to hold zero under recoil....all else is fluff imo

I agree that tracking and RTZ is most important if you plan to dial. Some people, myself included, don't plan on dialing much with this scope though. I mostly plan on using the reticle for holdovers.

The usability of the reticle, quality of illumination, clarity of glass when zoomed out, and low light performance are not fluff, imo. For example:

Most of the animals I've killed weren't out in the middle of the day. They stepped into view once the sun went down. Thus, low light performance matters.

Some animals require a fast, close up shot which is aided by a bold reticle when at low power.

Some scopes have crappy illumination that obstructs your view in low light.

Some scope lenses turn to milk when you zoom all the way out (Viper HS).

I could go on but I doubt it's needed. Just wanted to make a pro-fluff argument. I look forwards to your review on the Helos' dialing abilities.
 

jwood1284

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Nov 23, 2018
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Tuscaloosa, AL
Never skip breakfast. I just mounted the Mil version on my .243 and I’m impressed with it so far. The FOV is great and I find the eyebox very forgiving. This Combo weighs 8lb even empty ( McM edge Sportsmatch rings). The TO84 rings mount low enough ejected brass can hit the windage knob and bounce back in to the action. I removed the recoil pin from the rings and pushed everything forward enough to eliminate the interference.

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Joined
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Location
NW Illinois
Never skip breakfast. I just mounted the Mil version on my .243 and I’m impressed with it so far. The FOV is great and I find the eyebox very forgiving. This Combo weighs 8lb even empty ( McM edge Sportsmatch rings). The TO84 rings mount low enough ejected brass can hit the windage knob and bounce back in to the action. I removed the recoil pin from the rings and pushed everything forward enough to eliminate the interference.

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That's a slick looking setup! What distances do you intend to shoot with it?
 
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