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.
Here's a list of it's specifications;
| Magnification | 2-12 |
| Objective Lens Diameter | 42 mm |
| Reticle | AHMR2 FFP IR MIL, Glass Etched |
| Surface Finish | Matte |
| Lens Coating | Wide Band Fully Multi-Coated |
| Extra Coating | Xtra Protective Coating |
| Tube Material | Aircraft Grade Aluminium |
| Tube Diameter | 30 mm |
| Eye Relief | 3.6 inches |
| Field of View @100 yards | 55.7-9.6 feet |
| Click Value | 0.1 MIL |
| Adjustment range per rotation | 10MIL |
| Total Elevation Adjustment | 32MIL |
| Total Windage Adjustment | 25MIL |
| Turret Style | Exposed |
| Parallax Adjustment | Side Focus – 10 yards to infinity |
| Purging Material | Argon |
| Length | 11.8 inches |
| Weight | 25.4 ounces |
| User Instruction Manual | Download |
| Reticle Manual | Download |
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!
