Mini-eval HELOS BTR GEN22-12x42 AHMR2 FFP IR MOA

[sndmn11]

HELOS BTR GEN2​

2-12x42 AHMR2 FFP IR MOA sku214104​

This scope has come up in discussions for some time. @JustSomeGuy35 sent me a new one this week to drop test following @Formidilosus protocol as I have done before.

I should be able to wrangle up camera holder guy @TheViking this weekend to give it a try on the 22BR Tikka.

 

[ande7824]

One literally showed up at my door today. I can't wait to see the results of this!

 

[Lawnboi]

Seems to check all the boxes on paper but I won’t roll the dice with another China athlon after the Midas tac debacle I had.

 

[sndmn11]

• Elevation turret and windage turret are both uncapped and pull out to adjust, push in to lock. Both are 1/4MOA adjustments with 3 hashes in between whole numbers.
• Elevation turret is marked 0-24, with three additional hash marks (1/4, 1/2, 3/4) and 0 would equate to 25MOA per revolution.
• Windage turret is marked per direction; 1L, 2L, etc. / 1R, 2R, etc.
• Parallax is 10yds - infinity, it seems to line up appropriately.
• Illumination is 6 brightness settings with an off in between each (the solid dot on the dial is off). I think it was sunny day bright. The upside down horse shoe, center cross hairs, and "tree" illuminate.
• Occular focus in just the end ring of the eye piece; I think this is called european style rather than the whole ocular barrel moving for the focus.
• Zero stop is a brass rin around the erector with set screws. Loosen the set screws, rotate the ring clockwise so a square block on it hits a square block on the erector, then tighten the set screws.
• Windage and elevation turrets have the typical coin/flat head scew to hold them in place and "reset" to zero.

The scope was mounted on a Tikka T3 action with a 22BR Preferred Barrel sitting in a Bell and Carlson stock. It is the same everything (except for scope , duh) as in my prior tests. Nightforce SHV f1 , Bushnell LRTSi 4-18 , and Maven RS3. The rifle and load shoot more than adequate for this testing. "Witness marks" were drawn on the rings/scope body to show if the scope slipped or not.




Before eval witness marks


After eval witness marks



To sight in, I pulled the bolt and looked through the bore, and adjusted the cross hairs. It probably doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but the Maven RF.1 and Maven CRF.1 both read 103 yards from bench to target.

1. Low about 1.5" and left about .5" -->adjust 6 clicks up 2 clicks right
2. .5" and a bullet diameter low, no adjustment
3. 1" low, no adjustment
4. 1" low, no adjustment
5. 1" low, no adjustment
6. 3/4" low 1/4" left, no adjustment
7. 3/4" low 1/8" left, no adjustment

Shots 2-7 are all within the 1" square below the bull. I then made 4 clicks up.

Shots 8-12 were all within the 1" bull and made with no adjustments. The elevation turret was then removed, zero stop set, and turret set to 0. The windage turret was removed and set to 0. I made 10 clicks of vertical adjustment, which should have been 2.5MOA. It is possible that the cold bore (shot #1) was at the upper extreme of the cone of fire.


When setting the target, a 3' carpenter level was used to mark plum and level on the cardboard. On the plum line, two bullseyes were set 2' 10 9/32" center to center (34.28").
34.28" / .26 (I used .26" as 1/4MOA) = 131.84 clicks
131.84 clicks / 4 clicks per MOA = 32.96MOA
*Someone may come a long and tell me something about my math, but I am really proud that @TheViking and I figured that out with no error shots.

For tracking I aimed at the bottom bullseye firing a shot at 0, turning the elevation dial past a full revolution to 8 (25+8 = 33MOA) and fired aiming at the bottom bullseye. The plum line was used to keep the reticle plum to the best of my ability. I then returned the turret to zero, shot, turned the turret past a full revolution to 8, etc. I ended up firing 10 into the low bullseye and 10 into the high bullseye.





The center of the upper bullseye's group was about 1 1/4" higher than it should have been, at about 35.5ish" from the lower bullseye. I think that is an error of 1.25MOA. 1.25MOA error / 33MOA input = 3.78% error
*if my mathing is correct*

It also ended up about 1/2" left, but whatever, I don't want to chase that monkey.

 

[sndmn11]

I figured the tracking test was halfway to a return to zero test anyways. The lower group was adequate. I am not very concerned with the upper group being 1/2" left because some of the lower group was 1/2" left as well. I will call it trigger torque plus mirage and give the Athlon the benefit of the doubt.... Bigger fish to fry coming up.


Zero retention:

1. Zero "proof" prior to any drops. In the center of the bullseye (POA is the center orange 1" sticker of the three that are horizontal)
2. 18" drop on left side --> 3/4" left 1/2" low
3. 18" drop on top --> 1/2" left 1/2" low (touching right side of #2)
4. 18" drop on right side --> 3/4" left 1/4" low (touching left side of #2)
5. 36" drop on left side --> 5/8" left 1/4" high
6. 36" drop on top --> 1" left 1 3/4" low. The view was also a little bit blurred. I adjusted the parallax knob without any improvement through its entire range, and then returned it to the 100 mark before firing. It was still usable however.
7. 36" drop right --> 3/4" left 2 1/4" low, the view was still a little blurred.
8. 3x 36" drop left, 3x 36" drop top, 3x 36" drop right --> 2 1/4" low on center. The blurring was much worse and I would call it unusable.

You will notice that I used a cushier pad than before. I thought that this range might be frozen or more compacted, so I brought more cushion and less bounce.

Proofing the rifle:
I brought an untested Nightforce SHV F1, mounted it, and boresighted it as above. The first shot was low (NF Bore), I used the reticle to measure .8mils and adjusted. The next shot hit the top of the 1" bullseye (marked Z). I skipped the 18" drops and went to the 36" drops as described in #5-8 above. The printed 1/2" right of the "Zero" shot. If I remember correctly, it was middle, high, high, bottom for the POI sequence.

 

[JustSomeGuy35]

Seems to check all the boxes on paper but I won’t roll the dice with another China athlon after the Midas tac debacle I had.

What happened with the midas tac?

 

[Lawnboi]

What happened with the midas tac?

First one the eye piece came off
Second one was scrambled on arrival and wouldn’t hold a zero
Third one worked fine.

There’s nothing worse than wasting ammo diagnosing optic problems.

 

[RussDXT]

Chi-na

 

[sndmn11]

Big thanks to @JustSomeGuy35 for sending the scope, and @TheViking for the range and the camera work.

@Formidilosus

 

[JustSomeGuy35]

Big thanks to @JustSomeGuy35 for sending the scope, and @TheViking for the range and the camera work.

@Formidilosus

Well shit.... I appreciate you guys testing and filming. I'm not surprised at how things turned out but still disappointed all the same.

Good thing I bought one of the swfa 3-15's a couple days ago and have four of the 3-9's on backorder. I'm gonna peel the other Helos off my 7mm and throw a swfa on it instead.

I might keep one of the Athlon's for light duty use but definitely not both. I'll sell one and buy a Trijicon Credo or Accupoint as a replacement.

Thanks again for your efforts!

 

[Formidilosus]

We’ll see if the one Ryan has will do the same.

 

[260madman]

If it was mil you wouldn’t have this problem. MOA is Monkeypox of the scope world

 

[sndmn11]

If it was mil you wouldn’t have this problem. MOA is Monkeypox of the scope world

At least one of the people involved during the testing is an engineer and it took some painful thought trying to figure that out.

 

[id_jon]

But MOA is so much easier to convert!!!!

 

[JustSomeGuy35]

I have both the Mil and moa versions. There's a reason why the moa was the sacrificial lamb lol.