Athlon Cronus BTR vs Burris XTR Pro ?

[granite wagon]

I have a Cronus w/APRS Mil reticle & cant find any reason not to like it. Have had it since late summer 2018. Its been on 2 rifles and seen 3 chamberings and 5 barrels. It does everything I ask of it. I will say the first one I got had issues but Athlon replaced it immediately and the replacement has been spot on , day in , day out without fail!!
I am thinking bout a new rig and thinking bout a Burris XTR Pro to go on it. I like the USA made thing & the scopes specifics seem to meet or exceed my needs.
I have questions of anyone who has spent time with both:

I Love the eye relief of the Cronus! How does the XTRPro compare?

I Love the eye box on the Cronus! How does the XTRPro compare?

I Love the wide & forgiving range of the parallax adjustment of the Cronus ( I can routinely run it corrected at 500yds & run it from 300 to 1100 without really any discernable change needed unless Im trying for tiny groups! ) How does the XTRPro compare?

Reticle line thickness at medium to high powder .. I tend to run around 15 to 22 power and really stay about 17-18 most of the time. I like the reticle thickness of the APRS! How does the XTRPro compare?

Thanks in advance & please offer opinions on aspects I have not mentioned!!

Granite

 

[Neurotic]

If my recollection:

Eyebox: Cronus was a bit better before any scope shadow.
Brightness: XTR Pro
Clarity: Similar
Illumination: Cronus was way brighter
Depth of Field: Cronus was less sensitive to parallax setting
Reticle: XTR Pro has thinner lines

Overall, I'm still impressed with the Cronus BTR.

 

[granite wagon]

Excellent !!

 

[EotS]

Unless you're just hardcore on the USA thing, there's no reason to not get the Cronus.

 

[srt-4_uk]

If you don't need the "competition" features, it's not worth the upgrade imo.

 

[NewsShooter]

They're both really good for the price, I have two Cronus and one burris XTRIII. Love the athlon reticles, I have a cross and a dot. Prefer the dot, but both work well. The Burris XTRIII can be had for less than the Cronus these days so I'd probably get another one instead of the Athlon products.

 

[granite wagon]

Thanks Bros!

Keep em comming!?

 

[TRPrecision]

@handfull just switched from a Cronus to a XTR Pro. I am sure he will chime in here, but the XTR looks pretty damn good to me. I have been shooting Cronus the past 2 years and had the chance to get behind the Burris at 1000yds last weekend. Color, clarity, CA are equal in my opinion. Eyebox, FOV and DOF I give to the Burris hands down. At 1st thought the dry erase turret was kind of a gimmick, now I want one...

 

[Birddog6424]

The Cronus doesn't compare in glass clarity. I've compared to a handful of them in different conditions and it's not even very close. The glass in the Pro is noticeably better. The more mirage you have the more noticeable it is. Last time myself and a handful.of shooters did a five scope comparison of the ZCO, Pro, ATACR, Cronus, and MK5, the Cronus and MK5 couldn't distinguish impacts on a white painted plate at 1000 yards. The other three scopes could tell it was two seperate impacts with a thin white bit of paint separating them. The Cronus and MK5 looked like one large black impact mark. It was a noticeable difference.

And I'm surprised folks think the eyebox is similar. Both the Pro and the XTRIII have excellent edge to edge glass and large FOV. For a rifle set up for the user where your eye is in the same spot, you see little to no shading from the scope tube and the eyebox is very user friendly. I don't find this to be the case with the Cronus.

But I'm the Burris guy, so a grain of salt. I try to not be ridiculously bias, but I drop scopes alongside mine like crazy. I think the Cronus costs less, appropriately so.

 

[Birddog6424]

@handfull just switched from a Cronus to a XTR Pro. I am sure he will chime in here, but the XTR looks pretty damn good to me. I have been shooting Cronus the past 2 years and had the chance to get behind the Burris at 1000yds last weekend. Color, clarity, CA are equal in my opinion. Eyebox, FOV and DOF I give to the Burris hands down. At 1st thought the dry erase turret was kind of a gimmick, now I want one...

I absolutely LOVE the Race Dial!

I've shot five Pro Series matches and six or seven local club matches with it. I cant believe it took me this long to try it.

 

[handfull]

Cronus is a nice scope all around for price, but I'd take the xtr pro any day. Bit better glass to my eyes and the race turret is fun. Love the easy zero mechanism. Like the reticle a tiny bit more on Cronus, but they are really similar as the cross is tiny and doesn't obstruct view.

Actually was running a ZCO just before xtr pro but my old man eyes could barely read the turrets. Not saying they are comparable glass, but I can say that I don't miss it at all since switching. At my skill level, the better glass in zco was less important than being able to dial quickly and accurately. And I like the xtr reticle better.

 

[granite wagon]

Thanks all for the info!!

 

[Bart430]

I have been waiting 2 months for my XTR Pro. I currently use a Athlon Cronus, great scope and it will stay on my old rifle.

 

[Neurotic]

And I'm surprised folks think the eyebox is similar. Both the Pro and the XTRIII have excellent edge to edge glass and large FOV. For a rifle set up for the user where your eye is in the same spot, you see little to no shading from the scope tube and the eyebox is very user friendly. I don't find this to be the case with the Cronus.

At a similar magnification, I could move further out of position with the Cronus before CA, then scope shadowing became noticable. I was actually surprised by the difference.

If your eye is always in the same spot, then eye box doesn't matter...

 

[LibertyOptics]

We have the XTR Pro in stock now! No more waiting or backorder crap. SCR2 MRAD model.

 

[TonyG]

Just ordered mine. Great deal from Scott! I'm a Cronus gen 2 fan, but couldn't pass this up.

 

[gr8fuldoug]

Today thru Monday the 19th, the Burris XRT III 3.3-18x50's are on sale starting at only $949.99. This is a slammin' deal if you're looking for a great made in USA scope