"He went on and on about how the cronus was "cheap chinese crap" and that Burris's commitment to US manufacturing meant that you were a commie-tranny-lizard if you bought anything else otherwise."I asked this same question on here ages ago (before buying both), and had some guy with Burris branded on both his asscheeks nearly have an aneurysm in the responses after. It was somehow sacrilegious to even consider comparing both.
He went on and on about how the cronus was "cheap chinese crap" and that Burris's commitment to US manufacturing meant that you were a commie-tranny-lizard if you bought anything else otherwise.
At the time, the cronus gen 2 was reasonably ($300-$500) cheaper on average, excluding a few occasional discounts on expertvoice that made the Burris lower priced for some. It was also new in the gen 2 offering, so not many were out there in the field for review.
Since then, the Cronus gen 2 has become a lot more popular (and the price has went up by a few hunded), the xtr got outsourced (not pro, since someone will undoubtably try to point this technicality out), and the price has lowered substantially on it as well. Its not uncommon now to see the Cronus compared to nightforce scopes and a coin toss to which some prefer.
My biggest complaint about the cronus was that the sunshade didnt match the finish of the scope. I thought the turrets were some of the best in terms of positive detent and sound (a big improvement from the gen 1), and arguably better turrets than my razor.
The burris has "dragonscale" on the turrets and magnification, which was a gimmick as clever as griffin's SPRM mount, and really was overpriced at the time for what you got. I think it was the only scope I compared at the time that did not have illumination. As the older US made models (non-illuminated) went to closeout and similar low price...they became a much better value, if you got a good example. Based on the items mentioned in this thread, you can see that not everyone did.
Also, for some "genius" reason, burris decided to etch the reticle name into the lens of the scope...so you can be reminded of it every time you looked through the glass I guess?
For your money, get whatever is cheaper, they're close enough now in price to admit that they're equally comparable scopes.
He, whoever that was, must not have known that the Athlon Cronus line is made in Japan.
That'd be neat to be there and compare those scopes!