TLDR - Good clarity, range finder works as advertised, seems like this unit might be a "If I could only have one" level unit, if on a $3000-ish budget
Full and fair disclosure, I got this unit for T&E from Athlon. I'm not being paid by them, nor are they advertising in exchange. I'm just writing an article on thermal for a publication and it was available as a result.
With that said, I wanted to get my paws on it because it appears to be the new hotness for those without a generous Uncle Sam, trust fund, or five figure thermal in the budget.
I got the unit in hand at 7 PM and we had a 7AM departure, so time for reading and learning was very limited. We were happy to find the optic was minute of pig close to POA/POI without having to even go into a zero menu, so it did make it into the field and did put a pig on the ground.
The Athlon was being used side by side with a Steiner C35 Gen 2. The photos below shouldn't be taken as a comparison per se - we have a year on the Steiner, and barely adjusted the Athlon. The Athlon was on a 12.5" Grendel with a Leupold VX6HD 1-6x, and the Steiner on a 14.5" 556 with an old school first gen Vortex Razor 1-4X. The pigs were at 180 yards per the laser. The pigs decided to charge, which didn't prove to be the move. In both cases, through the scope, species ID was easy and absolute. The shots below are all taken from video.
I've come to really appreciate scanning with the handheld. Even a first gen Burris with a 400x300 sensor makes life much easier, and minimizes the amount of swinging guns around while scanning.
The view that shows the 196 yard laser shot is taken through a cell phone cam, so again doesn't begin to capture the clarity you're actually getting to the eye.
On the gong, the two shots above the center dot was with the scope, and the two to the right were just clipping on without touching zero. I let well enough alone and it was indeed minute of pig.
Full and fair disclosure, I got this unit for T&E from Athlon. I'm not being paid by them, nor are they advertising in exchange. I'm just writing an article on thermal for a publication and it was available as a result.
With that said, I wanted to get my paws on it because it appears to be the new hotness for those without a generous Uncle Sam, trust fund, or five figure thermal in the budget.
I got the unit in hand at 7 PM and we had a 7AM departure, so time for reading and learning was very limited. We were happy to find the optic was minute of pig close to POA/POI without having to even go into a zero menu, so it did make it into the field and did put a pig on the ground.
The Athlon was being used side by side with a Steiner C35 Gen 2. The photos below shouldn't be taken as a comparison per se - we have a year on the Steiner, and barely adjusted the Athlon. The Athlon was on a 12.5" Grendel with a Leupold VX6HD 1-6x, and the Steiner on a 14.5" 556 with an old school first gen Vortex Razor 1-4X. The pigs were at 180 yards per the laser. The pigs decided to charge, which didn't prove to be the move. In both cases, through the scope, species ID was easy and absolute. The shots below are all taken from video.
I've come to really appreciate scanning with the handheld. Even a first gen Burris with a 400x300 sensor makes life much easier, and minimizes the amount of swinging guns around while scanning.
The view that shows the 196 yard laser shot is taken through a cell phone cam, so again doesn't begin to capture the clarity you're actually getting to the eye.
On the gong, the two shots above the center dot was with the scope, and the two to the right were just clipping on without touching zero. I let well enough alone and it was indeed minute of pig.
