Night Vision Athlon Cronus ATS PRO 35CL Clip On.
- Thread starter Magsz18
- Start date
Sounds like you're getting into the quick menu with a short press of the menu button, a longer press & hold should get you into the more detailed menu... Agreed on the ballistics app, could be cool but not a deal breaker for me either. Hopefully I can get out tonight and try to put a coyote down
Kudos to @Overwatch260 on the 1x menu setting. I was also able to figure out synching the ballistic app to the unit. Took a while of tweaking bc to get to match my Kestrel but good enough out to 300m now which is likely as far as I’ll ever shoot pigs/coyotes at night. REALLY impressed with this unit, and so far glad I didn’t get the RH25 v2 I nearly purchased a couple weeks ago. Time will tell on zeroing process and if will hold zero, but so far loving this unit. Pic shows the solution as it comes up, and is generated pretty quick. Only complaint so far is the WiFi is a little slow to connect. Would need to connect at beginning of hunt and leave powered up the whole time, which may be an issue the way I typically hunt. Doubtful gonna be able to make it out next weekend due to work, but now trying to move stuff around so I can get out the following week.
If anyone gets the chance to post pics at distance please do. Interested to see what these will do out past 500 ish.
Looks like the ballistics profile and solver are internal to unit once you push a profile to it. Was playing around with it in the rain/humidity this morning (worked great) and it was still generating solutions when ranging despite not having my phone with me.
Question for those that have the 640 clip on. I received mine on Saturday, finally got a chance to mount it yesterday. Is there something specific I need to do to turn on the range finder? I short press the down button, I get the orange square box but only get 3 dashed lines and “yd”. No range numbers.
I’ve tried adjusting all the settings in the range menu, even factory reset, but cannot get any range numbers.
I have a call into Athlon support, they’re looking into it on their end, waiting to see if it has to go back.
Just checking to see if I missed anything obvious.
Thanks for any help you all can provide.
I’ve tried adjusting all the settings in the range menu, even factory reset, but cannot get any range numbers.
I have a call into Athlon support, they’re looking into it on their end, waiting to see if it has to go back.
Just checking to see if I missed anything obvious.
Thanks for any help you all can provide.
I believe you short press the down button to enable the rangefinder then another short press to actually range an object?
Edit: not home to verify mine just going from memory lol
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Mine has worked no issues messing around the yard, but still no formal hunting trip. Out of the box it’s been short press to bring up reticle, another short press to laze. Maybe mess with settings in long press menu? Could be on something weird?
Weird is the word for it. Changed batteries. Reset it to factory again a second time. Turned on the ballistic app. Short/short press and lookie there, distance numbers, and ballistic dope. Shrug.
Or I could be just goofy and didn’t do it right the first time.
Have to keep an eye on it, see if it reoccurs.
Thanks for the help all.
Or I could be just goofy and didn’t do it right the first time.
Have to keep an eye on it, see if it reoccurs.
Thanks for the help all.
Excellent , also just checked mine to be sure. Also to clear/turn off the rangefinder it's a long press of the down button as well
, also just checked mine to be sure. Also to clear/turn off the rangefinder it's a long press of the down button as wellFinally made it out to Ranch for the weekend but 30+mph winds not the best for trying to zero and shoot coyotes/pigs tonight. May get some pics at least to show performance in wind/dusty conditions.
Trying to work through issue with a non spec AR rail. MI handguard on my 6.5cm AR10 not wanting to cooperate. Screwed down clamp as much as I can to the point it’s difficult to close, but thermal still wiggles. Would probably benefit from an ADM mount or other. Not sure I trust the Chinese mount. Can shim with electrical tape but wouldn’t trust it, and not a permanent solution.
Mounts fine to my MCX, so worst case can just use that tomorrow night when weather is better.
Trying to work through issue with a non spec AR rail. MI handguard on my 6.5cm AR10 not wanting to cooperate. Screwed down clamp as much as I can to the point it’s difficult to close, but thermal still wiggles. Would probably benefit from an ADM mount or other. Not sure I trust the Chinese mount. Can shim with electrical tape but wouldn’t trust it, and not a permanent solution.
Mounts fine to my MCX, so worst case can just use that tomorrow night when weather is better.
Ok. Got it zeroed on both rifles today. The instructions in the manual are dogshit. Also didn’t help that I started with the AR10, which has a Zeiss S3 4-25 on it. Really hard to see the menu items when unit is on 1x base, and scope is at 4x base mag. Fumbled through it and got zeroed after some choice words and a few breaks to walk away and breathe before I lost my temper.
On the MCX with the Helios 2-12, much better experience. Really helps being able to put unit on 3x base, and rifle at 2x to be able to read the damn icons, and see the small hand warmer at 100m. That scope and reticle is just about perfect for this clip on.
Remounted to the AR10 to confirm zero/repeatability, especially since I had to shim the rail with electrical tape, and it was still good.
Emailed Athlon and ADM last night about any potential upgraded mounts, and will post here any updates I receive.
Wind still howling out here but at least under 20mph, so hoping the critters will be moving tonight and I can get some footage.
On the MCX with the Helios 2-12, much better experience. Really helps being able to put unit on 3x base, and rifle at 2x to be able to read the damn icons, and see the small hand warmer at 100m. That scope and reticle is just about perfect for this clip on.
Remounted to the AR10 to confirm zero/repeatability, especially since I had to shim the rail with electrical tape, and it was still good.
Emailed Athlon and ADM last night about any potential upgraded mounts, and will post here any updates I receive.
Wind still howling out here but at least under 20mph, so hoping the critters will be moving tonight and I can get some footage.
I was thinking about the menu magnification the other night, would be nice if they stepped the menu up 1X at a time instead of just 1,3,6X... 2X would probably be about right with the S3. I'm going to attempt running mine in front of the same scope on my 6GT bolt gun as well & was wondering how it was going to be with a 4X bottom mag. Gotta get a riser/higher rings first for better alignment.
First kill with the Athlon. 179m with 6.5cm shooting 100 ELD VT. Worked perfectly.
First piggy with the Athlon. Thought I had autorecord for video turned on but it wasn’t. 94m with 6.5cm, 100 ELD VT. Thermal worked perfectly again.
Barn is actually at 800ish, didn’t clear the range when scanned over. Windmills are about 2km away.
Lone cow at 737m.
Not bad. At what range are you able to distinguish between types of animals, i.e. canine vs cattle vs deer?
That’s a tough one. I’ve been using thermals for over 25 years, whether in the military or for hunting. With experience you can ID stuff much better based on temperature, movement patterns, and shape. My almost ten year old pulsar 384 scanner is still what I primarily use to find animals, and can usually figure out what type of animal it is within 30 seconds out to 800m or so. Where I hunt is mostly open country (West Texas) which also makes it much easier vs hunting in dense foliage/forest. Ambient conditions will also be a factor on range.
For me with this Athlon I would argue realistically out to 1200m to distinguish type of animal using 4-6x of scope magnification. Probably even out to a mile.
If I handed it to one of my kids they’d probably be able to reliably figure out type of animal out to 500m.
But, that is for type of animal, such as it is a canine. If I needed PID to the extent of coyote vs neighbors dog (which I luckily don’t have to worry about), I wouldn’t be shooting with thermal. Scanning yes, but I’d opt for good clip on IR device with a great illuminator.
Sorry for the novel but hope it helps.
Just a heads up on fitment of this clip on if anyone else is running a Solus action in a KRG Bravo chassis... The KRG backbone NV mount is a quite a bit taller than the actions integral picatinny rail. I took some measurements and instead of buying a set of super high 34mm rings I found a .490" riser from Precision Reflex. It's meant for AR10 upper receivers but it's almost the perfect length for the Solus' integral rail. Combined with my APA 1.125" rings the alignment is almost perfect now. Thinking about adding a cheek pad of some type so the cheek piece isn't almost maxed out in height lol
Currently building that almost exact same setup for my youngest son.
3 more pigs down with the Athlon compliments of my 13 y/o daughter and her friend. RTZ was perfect after being stored for two weeks. All perfect neck shots from 70-120m.
Only frustration was that the auto record function doesn’t stay turned on if you power off the unit. Thought if I turned on and didn’t change batteries out then would default to last setting, but I was wrong. Would have been some great video.
Also found out that if you range a target, the IR rangefinder continues to pulse and works great as an IR designator of which target you are on if hunting in a group using NVGs. Good thing in my setting, but could be a bad thing if trying to keep a low signature.
Only frustration was that the auto record function doesn’t stay turned on if you power off the unit. Thought if I turned on and didn’t change batteries out then would default to last setting, but I was wrong. Would have been some great video.
Also found out that if you range a target, the IR rangefinder continues to pulse and works great as an IR designator of which target you are on if hunting in a group using NVGs. Good thing in my setting, but could be a bad thing if trying to keep a low signature.
Thanks for the reply. I'm getting into the thermal game. Going to get a dedicated optic for a gas gun and pick up this unit also for dual purpose!
