Rifle Scopes Anything new to unseat the Athlon Midas TAC?
- Thread starter j3fff
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That's because there's really nothing this good and feature rich at this price point
Well arguably the Ares BTR. Depends on if exposed windage and illumination are important. To me, the TAC is almost the perfect feature set.
Nothing else has:
Dependable zero stop
10mils per turn
Great reticle choice with hash mil or tree
Lifetime warranty
Glass quality that was unheard of at its price just a few years ago.
Nothing else has:
Dependable zero stop
10mils per turn
Great reticle choice with hash mil or tree
Lifetime warranty
Glass quality that was unheard of at its price just a few years ago.
It’s hard to even justify the Ares ETR, regarded as one of the better optics in the $1k range, over the Midas TAC...
For the ~$500 or so you’re going to spend on one, they are really tough to beat.
For the ~$500 or so you’re going to spend on one, they are really tough to beat.
The Athlon Talos BTR 4-14x44 is a decent scope, BUT it feels like a $300 MAP scope. It's a solid 3 steps down in quality compared to the TAC.
The Argos BTR feels like 2 steps down.
There's things about the TAC that feel superior to even the Ares BTR, namely the turrets. For me the APLR3 reticle in the Ares strongly wins over but I prefer the glass prescription in the TAC over the Ares, the glass for whatever reason appeals to me more in the TAC.
The TAC falls into a very unique price point to quality ratio where right now it's king. It's almost not worth the money to upgrade from the TAC, especially for the entry level shooter that wants a FFP scope, (you could do worse buying a bunch of different scopes out there costing hundreds more). One could be satisfied for the rest of his life with the TAC if he wasn't going to get deeper into the rabbit hole of expensive scopes.
Man I wish Athlon would put the APLR3 reticle in it and quit mixing .5 holds with .2's! That's how much I like the TAC, even though I'm not warm on the reticle the rest of scope is nuts for the money!
I was hoping the Sightron S-TAC 4-20x50 FFP would be a good competitor to the Midas Tac, but the Sightron only comes with a simple hash reticle. Athlon offering a tree reticle in the Midas Tac kept it a step ahead. Depending on the reticle options and street price, the Meopta Optika6 might be a good competitor at a slightly higher price point.
I wonder where this leaves the Ares BTR. Other than a slightly wider zoom range and illumination, the Ares BTR doesn't offer much over the Midas Tac and it has inferior turrets.
I wonder where this leaves the Ares BTR. Other than a slightly wider zoom range and illumination, the Ares BTR doesn't offer much over the Midas Tac and it has inferior turrets.
You are confusing the reticle I like with all .2's - the APLR3 available in the Ares BTR, to the one in the TAC series which is the APRS3 reticle - that has .5 mil lines on the vertical crosshair.
That's the only thing I don't like about mine compared to a more expensive scope that I have. It's almost as if there are shadowy areas if the entire edge of the view is visible, unless it's dead centered. I really don't notice it at the range but it was noticeable when installing it. I have a Tango6 and a cheaper Midas SFP that don't have this issue. Also, it happens at low power as well as 24x. That's the only fault I can find with mine.
So I was having similar issues, and believe it or not it boiled down to the cheap one piece mount I was using. I replaced it with a quality unit and got my eye relief set just right and now that issue is totally gone.
I'm wondering about the comment made above as to the TAC having better turrets than the Ares - no doubt about that when talking about the earlier Ares BTRs, but I thought I read somewhere that Athlon had upgraded the turrets on the newer versions of the Ares BTRs. Anyone bought a new Ares BTR recently? Maybe they just changed the Ares BTR turrets to the coin-slotted caps as opposed to the ones held by small allen set screws, and left the turret mechanism alone?
I like my Midas TAC 6-24 very much - put it on a V-22 Ranch 18" bbl'd action that I have in a Manners EH2 stock, and am very pleased with this scope's optics, reticle, & mechanical features. Can't argue with the value assessment of this optic.
I like my Midas TAC 6-24 very much - put it on a V-22 Ranch 18" bbl'd action that I have in a Manners EH2 stock, and am very pleased with this scope's optics, reticle, & mechanical features. Can't argue with the value assessment of this optic.
Well you had something to do with the first reticle they offered in the Cronus so you should never comment on a reticle ever again or a any damn scope for that matter.
And it's the one I'd still rather see offered, because it's all .2's and thick enough to see well at 12-15x, which is where I'm at most of the time in dynamic stages, also I holdover and off more than most shooters so easily seeing those .2's matter to me.
I sold my Cronus BTR for these reasons, and bought the Ares BTR 4.5-27x50, with all .2's, I like that reticle. I still use my S&B's/H59's/.2's most of the time, because, well, S&B man.
I had absolutely nothing to do with the reticle in the Cronus BTR or the reticles in the TAC's! It is well known that I hate mil line numbers off to the side of the vertical crosshair BTW, just yesterday I was miffed at them obscuring in my 4-16 TAC.
Actually I advised the head of Athlon from the start that there are those that want simple reticles in all .5's and that he should offer some. That didn't happen much, but I saw the desire back then. It seems now most of the new reticle offerings of other Co's are all or mostly .2's so I see that as a sign that it's the most desired reticle trait currently, which I'm excited to see.
You try to pin me down about stuff, why I don't know exactly!!?? Get over it, forgive, let go. I apologize for past offences but in my defense you started it. Sometimes a person just grates on another, that's fine, the way it is sometimes, if so "please" put me on ignore. I did that with a couple guys here on the Hide that are not nasty people, it's just that they annoy me, lol. I'm much happier overall.
EDIT, just so you and others know, the first Athlon prototype scope was, get this - a 6-24x50 FF scope with a 1/2 mil reticle and 1/8th moa turrets, lol!!! I had it for a few years and gave it to a guy I know that lives on $750 a month disability, because his Centerpoint broke, and having "A" scope is better than "NO" scope. Now imagine how that would have worked out for Athlon, or anybody else benefiting right now from my "not so bad ideas as to what makes a neat FFP scope".
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