Athlon FFP Helos BTR G2 2-12x42 in hand!

steve123

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Mar 16, 2008
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What a COOL little scope!!!

Just some photos for tonight which unfortunately include my DIRTY fingerprints (photos of the rifle) 🤷‍♂️, lol, sorry about that. Obviously not a pro photographer, right!
But at least you have some scale to see and how the scope looks on my Vulcan 2 30 caliber PCP air rifle.

The longer scope is a Athlon Ares BTR 4.5-27x50.

Impressions tomorrow....

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I really like the AHMR2 mil reticle in the 2.5-12 Helos BTR Gen2 scopes; I'm hoping Athlon adds that reticle option to the 2.5-15 Ares BTR gen2, the 4-20 Helos BTR gen2 and/or the Ares ETR 3-18X50 UHD scopes.
 
What a COOL little scope!!!

Just some photos for tonight which unfortunately include my DIRTY fingerprints (photos of the rifle) 🤷‍♂️, lol, sorry about that. Obviously not a pro photographer, right!
But at least you have some scale to see and how the scope looks on my Vulcan 2 30 caliber PCP air rifle.

The longer scope is a Athlon Ares BTR 4.5-27x50.

Impressions tomorrow....

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I'm going to do some C&P from the airgun forum I belong to so I don't have to write the whole thing twice. I'll either put this scope on my AR or buy another one but impressions are just that so here it goes. But for now pretend I'm using the scope on a 22rf if it's hard for you to look through the """lens""" of an airgun and these short distances.

OKAY fellow shooters here's some photos, along with my first impressions about the new and highly anticipated Helos G2 2-12×42 DMR compact scope.

I got home last night about 6PM with an alert from my wonderful wife Robin that there was a package for me, ha even she could tell it was a scope sized and shaped box. So like any other self respecting gun and scope lover I went diving into the brown box 😁 As I cracked the lid of Athlon's typical stylish box, I marveled at the new Helos that I didn't even know was in the making until a few months ago! I'm so excited because I've had this exact form factor in my mind for a little affordable FFP hunting scope for the last 3 years!

Usually I have a list of things that I don't like about various scopes depending on what I want to use it for. I mention this because I've acquired so many scopes in the past that fell short for certain reasons. I'm sure we all have, right?! More on that subject later.

How about a look at the reticle from Athlons website.

DMR scope with AHMR2 MIL 2x-12x reticle


Here's a list of it's specifications;

Magnification2-12
Objective Lens Diameter42 mm
ReticleAHMR2 FFP IR MIL, Glass Etched
Surface FinishMatte
Lens CoatingWide Band Fully Multi-Coated
Extra CoatingXtra Protective Coating
Tube MaterialAircraft Grade Aluminium
Tube Diameter30 mm
Eye Relief3.6 inches
Field of View @100 yards55.7-9.6 feet
Click Value0.1 MIL
Adjustment range per rotation10MIL
Total Elevation Adjustment32MIL
Total Windage Adjustment25MIL
Turret StyleExposed
Parallax AdjustmentSide Focus – 10 yards to infinity
Purging MaterialArgon
Length11.8 inches
Weight25.4 ounces
User Instruction ManualDownload
Reticle ManualDownload

Compact – I used to get hung up on how compact a scope could be made until I learned that the shorter the scope is, and the higher the mag ratio it is, the more optical compromises present. You probably read my comments about my March HM 5-42×56/$4200 which exhibits certain compromises even though it has High Master glass and is as well made as a scope gets. In other words physics rules all things regardless of price. That being said I'm not an optical engineer so that's my limited understanding on the subject. I'm kinda done with super high mag ratio scopes as well as super compact scopes! Also a major reason I didn't buy the March 1.5-15×42, among other reasons, well these were related to features mostly, but even that scope isn't super lightweight. Well this Helos is 20% the price and has what I want so….

And weight – As above, everything is a compromise, right?! In order to build a crossover hunting/DMR scope LOADED with nearly every modern feature (in this price range) weight had to be sacrificed a bit. Me, I without a doubt will carry the extra few ounces to have all these features but I'm very picky in that way. If I was just going to shoot squirrels up in a tree inside 30Y I would just buy a basic less capable scope that was lighter weight and call it good. I'm not that guy though, I NEED versatility which this scope offers abundantly!

Crossover scope, what do I mean by this statement?? I got to thinking about what things this scope might excell in yesterday. #1 It occured to me that my Vulcan AT BEST is a 1.5 moa rifle at 100Y so even though the large center DOT is .3 mil or 1.08 " at 100Y, the DOT is smaller than the average precision my rifle is capable of, and as I get closer to the muzzle, lets say 50Y now, my rifle is getting more like .5" of capable precision, which is just less than the size of the DOT, so I'm very happy with that aspect for hunting and plinking duties. #2 the BIG "circle of death" surrounding the center DOT is perfect, while making the reticle obvious, which promotes FAST acquisition, also which is a refreshing change from the norm in most FFP scopes, and reminds me of some prizm sights I've used! #3 holdover/holdoff tree reticle which is the best thing about FFP scopes. #4 most of the reticle is illuminated which makes this reticle stand out big time in low light. #5 Being FFP, put the scope on 2x, and the FOV is massive but "the reticle" can still be seen, put it on 12x and hit things as far away as you could want with that HUGE amount of elevation travel. Man, on a big game hunting rifle this scope would be awesome, or a AR15 for that matter!

I spent nearly 3 hours fiddling with this scope yesterday – All the cool things I like about this scope off the top of my head – Kinda reminds me of the story of Goldilocks, it's "just right" in a lot of ways when you consider the different duties this scope will pull off adequately! It's not big, not too long, not too heavy, almost like a prism sight but has "adjustable parallax" down to 10Y, has good glass, good general purpose and fast acquisition holdover reticle, illuminated, tons of travel, LOCKING 10 mil knobs, easy to set zero stop, easy to see numbers on the turret, fast focus diopter, a great lifetime transferable warranty, and ABOVE ALL, it's totally affordable!

Specific details I found I like. Actually I'll start off with what I dislike, even despise sometimes in a riflescope. I don't like super tall turrets, skinny turrets, or lines not lining up that are of course supposed to, or turrets with excessive lash, or small hard to read numbers on the turrets, mushy indistinct click action feel, or zero stop systems that in order to be set require a instruction manual present, or the typical 3 set screws that need to be undone and redone to zero your scope(God forbid that you don't have the hex wrench with you), or controls which are too hard to turn or too easy to turn. ALL THAT BEING mentioned, this scope has none of those annoyances!!!!! Even the locking mechanism is DISTINCT, push it up SNAP, push it down SNAP! To sum it up, these turrets are amazing for a scope in this price range!

Glass, I found zero oddities, and I liked it, it suited my eyes, I found it bright and clear from edge to edge, and the eyebox is very nice too! I would even say it's better than the price of this scope would indicate.

My magnification testing – I have different sized steels set up on my property that I shot at after I sighted the scope in at 25Y, which took 3 shots BTW. They were a 15" circle at 75Y(I aimed at splats already on it), a 3"x5" man silhouette at 65Y, a quadrant at 55Y with a 1" spinner in the middle, and the same type quadrant at 25Y. let's not complicate this with lengthy explanations by just saying that I was able to hit all those targets in the middle repeatedly over and over BOTH dialing, or HOLDING OVER/OFF using the reticle, ON ALL MAGNIFICATIONS! Easy peasey(except for wind). EDIT - Man, 2x seems like 4x, 4x like 8x, and 8x like 12x. It DOES NOT SEEM like the normal sight picture we are all used to at these magnifications. It's weird, I had this large field of view on low power but the reticle was a wonderful size!

Conclusion – I'd be untruthful if I said I didn't enjoy the entirety of this scope and what it offered! I think it's such a neat little scope that does SO MUCH!

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Looking forward to hearing how it is. Illumination bright? 😎

It's normal and most of the reticle is lit up. It's not daylight bright though. I got up at 4:30 this morning with almost full moon, got the Vulcan out, and I gazed about on all magnifications and the 6 levels of brightness. In the less dark conditions present the 4 highest settings were too bright. I liked #2 the best.
It was bright enough yesterday on #6 setting to see the illume in the shadows of trees and other dark things. Plenty bright enough for dusk and dawn though. But it would be fantastic if this had Cronus bright illume!!!
 
I really like the AHMR2 mil reticle in the 2.5-12 Helos BTR Gen2 scopes; I'm hoping Athlon adds that reticle option to the 2.5-15 Ares BTR gen2, the 4-20 Helos BTR gen2 and/or the Ares ETR 3-18X50 UHD scopes.

I like it a lot more than I thought I would! I've been saying for years that reticles in scopes of this mag range need to be seen on low mag and this one does the trick nicely!!

Call Athlon and mention it, I did and this particular scope is the fruit of it. On that note if this scope doesn't sell well we can kiss the whole concept goodbye so vote with your wallet!
 
Great writeup! How would you say the image quality compares to popular scopes like the PST or Athlon Ares? Also do you have any reticle pics through the scope?

Being that it's 12x max the glass is bright and clear. I'm sure it's no Swarovski but I had zero complaints about the glass.

I've tried through the scope pics before which never give the reticle or the glass justice so I don't even try anymore.

The gist of it is that 6x looks more like 10x because of the reticle CD and COD thickness, yet the FOV is much larger.
 
Thanks for the writeup. I initially caught the announcement of the 1-10x Ares ETR at ~ $950 and got really excited. Then I saw this Helos at $500 and thought it looked like an even better value. I'll gladly settle for 2x on the low end to get a much larger objective lens for a do-all hunting & target rifle. I think this will be the perfect budget SPR optic.
 
Thanks for the writeup. I initially caught the announcement of the 1-10x Ares ETR at ~ $950 and got really excited. Then I saw this Helos at $500 and thought it looked like an even better value. I'll gladly settle for 2x on the low end to get a much larger objective lens for a do-all hunting & target rifle. I think this will be the perfect budget SPR optic.

I agree! I put a 2-12x42 on my 6.5 Grendel recce. The rifle weighs 8.5lbs with the scope and mount, which is great for the mag range and FFP reticle you're getting.

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This scope has me really excited. The reticle, compact size, weight and locking 10 mil turrets... I'm just afraid it seems to be too good to be true for the price range. how much of a compromise do you think it is optically? If I sold a Bushnell LHRSi 4.5-18 to almost fund buying two of these scopes(1 for an AR and 1 for a short barreled hunting rifle) that I would regret my decision based on the step down in optical quality?
 
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This scope has me really excited. The reticle, compact size, weight and locking 10 mil turrets... I'm just afraid it seems to be too good to be true for the price range. how much of a compromise do you think it is optically? If I sold a Bushnell LHRSi 4.5-18 to almost fund buying two of these scopes(1 for an AR and 1 for a short barreled hunting rifle) that I would regret my decision based on the step down in optical quality?

I haven't done it yet but I should get out my high end scopes, put them on 12x, and compare. I'm not in the least bit disappointed in the glass and I've been behind the scope for hours at a time, probably 14 hours total. You can kind of tell how nice it looks even with my crappy pics.
 
It is a tad heavy but not bad. The Vortex R2 1-10 is only 3.9oz less, so is the March 1.5-15, and the Helos is 1oz heavier than the Bushnell LRHS 3-12x44.

Originally I wanted a 1" tubed FFP scope with 38mm objective with this scopes form factor. That would have put it in the 20oz range.
 
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It is a tad heavy but not bad. The Vortex R2 1-10 is only 3.9oz less, so is the March 1.5-15, and the Helos is 1oz heavier than the Bushnell LRHS 3-12x44.

Originally I wanted a 1" tubed FFP scope with 38mm objective with this scopes form factor. That would have put it in the 20oz range.
Yeah but he Bushnell 3-12 FFP is a lot of scope for the money especially if you get it at a huge discount.
 
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Yeah but he Bushnell 3-12 FFP is a lot of scope for the money especially if you get it at a huge discount.

I sold my LRHS because.
#1 it had 50Y minimum parallax.
#2 it had a 50 cog spline and 100 cog turrets, so often I couldn't sight in to a 10th of a mil, I'd be a click low or high.
#3 it didn't have illume.
Glass was good but turrets had a fair amount of lash, and of course didn't lock.
But I liked it more than the NF 2.5-10x24 that it replaced.

So far I prefer this Helos more than both of them. Yeah, I know it's much cheaper but I still love this scope and have found nothing I dislike which I can't say about the other two.
 
I sold my LRHS because.
#1 it had 50Y minimum parallax.
#2 it had a 50 cog spline and 100 cog turrets, so often I couldn't sight in to a 10th of a mil, I'd be a click low or high.
#3 it didn't have illume.
Glass was good but turrets had a fair amount of lash, and of course didn't lock.
But I liked it more than the NF 2.5-10x24 that it replaced.

So far I prefer this Helos more than both of them. Yeah, I know it's much cheaper but I still love this scope and have found nothing I dislike which I can't say about the other two.
Good to know. It’s also on my list as a SPR style scope. The original PST 2.5-10x32 ffp was a decent size/weight but the execution was terrible and it seems like Leupold still doesn’t want to make a decent mark 4 2.5-8 replacement, 15 years later... How come we haven’t seen a ultra compact mark 5, a high quality lightweight 2-10 or 2.5-12x36 FFP with a reticle built specifically for the zoom range with illum, parralax, reliable locking turrets.
 
Good to know. It’s also on my list as a SPR style scope. The original PST 2.5-10x32 ffp was a decent size/weight but the execution was terrible and it seems like Leupold still doesn’t want to make a decent mark 4 2.5-8 replacement, 15 years later... How come we haven’t seen a ultra compact mark 5, a high quality lightweight 2-10 or 2.5-12x36 FFP with a reticle built specifically for the zoom range with illum, parralax, reliable locking turrets.

I've got a 2.5-10 FFP PST and think it's pretty great. For the price I paid and size and weights it's very hard to fault.

That being said I think I'll buy one of these Helos to replace it if there are more reviews that echo the ones in this thread.
 
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I'm thinking I might finally sell my VX-R Patrol 3-9x to make room for one of these. What started out as a lightweight AR is no longer lightweight, so the extra weight of this Helos might be worth it...
 
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I put the Helos G2 on my AR in 6mmFatRat.

The actual barrel is a 8 twist 22" but with the brake it's 24.5".

Sends 95gr SMK at 2870 fps into less than an inch at 100Y. It's quite an effective long range small frame AR. One time I was able to outshoot two friends at 1000Y on steel with much more powerful single shot bolt rifles. The reason why is it was windy, and gusty, with lulls, and by the time they loaded another round the wind had changed, whereas I could ride a condition and quickly adapt to a new one.

The thick center dot totally hindered me from self spotting and I couldn't hit anything, JUST KIDDING :p , it was the exact opposite!!! I love seeing the reticle plainly!

Not super long distances and in a short time frame, gave hit's on the 2.5" head of a 210Y chicken, a 300Y - 7" diamond, and a 421Y turkey which is painted black and BTW it was easy to see the black dot on the black turkey!!!

If the weather is decent tomorrow I'll try it at longer distances and report back.

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I got out two other rifles yesterday. On one is my March HM 5-42X56, the other a Athlon Cronus G2 4.5-29x56. Then compared both to the Helos G2, all on 12x.
The Helos was not disappointing, though as expected it wasn't as brilliant as the others.
I'm kinda picky about IQ but i was fine with the IQ level!

The glass in the Cronus G2 is exceptional, whatever Athlon did for this first shipment i hope it continues!!!
 
I got out two other rifles yesterday. On one is my March HM 5-42X56, the other a Athlon Cronus G2 4.5-29x56. Then compared both to the Helos G2, all on 12x.
The Helos was not disappointing, though as expected it wasn't as brilliant as the others.
I'm kinda picky about IQ but i was fine with the IQ level!

The glass in the Cronus G2 is exceptional, whatever Athlon did for this first shipment i hope it continues!!!
Just for grins I went and compared specs on the ZCO 4-20x50 to the Helos 4-20x50. It was shocking how similar all the specs were except the ZCO had 6 more mils of total travel at the expense of 9oz and the step up to 36mm tube.

Now obviously the glass is on totally different levels and I don't know anyone with a ZCO to compare, but now I'm curious.
 
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Arfcom has a really interesting thread with a hands-on review of the Helos 1-10x28, with favorable comparisons to the Bushnell 1-6.5x and Razor Gen1 1-6x. I still think this 2-12x is the sauce, but I'm glad to see the 1-10x is performing well.
 
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My 4-20x50 Helos came in last night and I have to say I'm super impressed. It is a fairly small, feature packed scope that has parallax down to 10yds. The locking turrets work awesome, it has the same zero stop as the more expensive athlon scopes and I got mine for just over $500 when cameraland was having their 10% off sale. They absolutely knocked it out of the park for a my rimfire scope needs.

Thanks Doug and Jeff at cameraland!
 
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My 4-20x50 Helos came in last night and I have to say I'm super impressed. It is a fairly small, feature packed scope that has parallax down to 10yds. The locking turrets work awesome, it has the same zero stop as the more expensive athlon scopes and I got mine for just over $500 when cameraland was having their 10% off sale. They absolutely knocked it out of the park for a my rimfire scope needs.

Pics please!!!
 
Please comment on glass quality compared to other options when you feel comfortable. My area btr gen 1 I feel had much better everything optically than the gen 2 model (2.5-15)
 
Please comment on glass quality compared to other options when you feel comfortable. My area btr gen 1 I feel had much better everything optically than the gen 2 model (2.5-15)
I'd like to know how this compares with the Vortex PSTII and SE.
The 4-20 Helos sounds like the scope I've been waiting for to replace my 3-15x44 PST.
 
I'd like to know how this compares with the Vortex PSTII and SE.
The 4-20 Helos sounds like the scope I've been waiting for to replace my 3-15x44 PST.
It just replaced my 3-15 PST. I'll get some pics thru the glass this weekend but I've got no regrets switching. I even sold my PST for $100 more than I paid for this so it really was a no brainer.
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It just replaced my 3-15 PST. I'll get some pics thru the glass this weekend but I've got no regrets switching. I even sold my PST for $100 more than I paid for this so it really was a no brainer.
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Curious to hear more.
I'd happily trade a slight decrease in glass quality if the locking turrets are nice and crisp.

Whats the FOV like, the PST is very good in that regard.
 
Curious to hear more.
I'd happily trade a slight decrease in glass quality if the locking turrets are nice and crisp.

Whats the FOV like, the PST is very good in that regard.
Athlon - 27.9-5.6 feet at 100 yards

Vortex - 41.2-8.6 ft/100 yds

That's right off their websites. Not sure how exactly they would compare at the same magnifications, but it looks like vortex has athlon beat by a little.
 
Athlon - 27.9-5.6 feet at 100 yards

Vortex - 41.2-8.6 ft/100 yds

That's right off their websites. Not sure how exactly they would compare at the same magnifications, but it looks like vortex has athlon beat by a little.
How does the zero stop work on the Helos, could you take some pictures of the turrets with caps removed?
what total elevation do you have?

Does the Athlon have the tunnel vision type effect some scopes have? Hard to explain other than the PST site picture feels like there is very little black ring to look through, vs other scopes.
Its the whole apparent FOV vs actual FOV that I like about the PST.
 
The zero stop is 3 set screws inside the turret, very easy to set. The locking turrets are very satisfyingly snappy. It has 100moa of vertical travel compared to the vortex's 75moa.

The athlon was very easy to get a whole sight picture behind even at max power. The eyebox was pretty forgiving. And at about 12x with the parallax set to 10yds, I could see the other side of my basement very clearly at about 15ft.

My favorite part about this scope is it's not huge with a crazy high minimum power like a 6-24, and it has a lot of things going for it.
 
This checks every box that I was looking for on my 308 hunting rig. This is exactly what I was hoping Bushnell would do with their LRHS2 line. Just curious how durable it will be, that’s the one thing holding me back.
 
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