I am having issues deciding which scope to buy. I was all in on the new vortex pst viper 5-25x50 ffp but I have been looking at the new athlon ares etr which is 4.5-30x56 ffp 34mm tube which has 32 mil adjustment on elevations and windage with the same warranty. Any good advise from you would be awesome. I'm just starting out in this.
Rifle Scopes Scope decision
- Thread starter Tjfrench03
- Start date
That's a tough one. I have Vortex and Athlon products. I think I might lean toward the Vortex on this one though.
Agreed, between those two.
Any special requirements for areas of use, Tjfrench03? Hunting, targets, competition, etc?
In that general price range there are quite a few choices with decent glass and repeatable turret tracking, but the features will be dependent on your intended use...Burris, Bushnell, used Steiner, SWFA, to name a few.
Welcome to the Hide.
I would just mention that more magnification is not always better. 30x is a whole lot of magnification and with mirage and other factors it can make it difficult to use on a regular basis. If you watch some of Lowlights videos on YouTube he regularly engages targets quite effectively I might add using less than 20x power. Not saying you shouldn’t get 30x if that is what you want, I would just encourage you to do some research and let your mission dictate your equipment and not the other way around.
Thanks Plidenbrock. I'm not 100 percent on what all I'm going to use it for but I would like to start shooting long range stuff. I like to stretch put to 1000 yard someday with practice. We cant hunt with rifles in Iowa so not unless I hunt out of state with it. I don't know about competition yet but maybe eventually would be fun but for now long range fun
I agree with you 100 percent that I don't need really anything more than 20 but I'm looking more at the fact that it has a lot more adjustment if needed plus the occasional zoom might be nice
I know but I quess I should of said hunt deer with rifle. And why would you use your good precision rifle to go hunt predators. That what the ar 15 is for.
Decide which reticle you like best. The two are very similar in terms of everything else. I say similar not equal. Glass quality will be almost identical to my eyes at least. I rarely dial past 20x unless I am using it as a spotting scope for a friend while we both shooting.
I agree - reticle choice is the biggest difference between these. The rest of the scopes are close enough to not really matter that much.
If you are willing to go used there’s lots of good options to get out to 1,000 yards. There’s regularly Nightforce NXS’s 3-15 hardly used in the for sale section for right about what the Vortex and Athlon run new. In my opinion it has better resolution, clarity, and a more forgiving eyebox than the other two choices. I had a Athlon I now own a NXS 2.5-10x42. Aside from the optical advantages I like that it doesn’t feel like a telescope mounted to my rifle when I move with it.
I suppose I'd compare all the differences in these two scopes rather than the similarities.
length, weight, reticle, mag, etc.
30x is handy for certain things. I like using as much mag as is available when shooting groups, or spotting hits on steel, looking at details, etc. It's a better to have and not need, than need and not have thing.
With my 22 for NRL matches on paper, on 20x which is the max power on the one scope I couldn't see where the holes were when they went into the black ring on the bull. 25x with another scope I could make them out. This may sound a bit nitpicky but when 1 or 2 points means you just came in 2nd place rather than first place, it matters.
EDIT, I was using that same 20x scope at 1025Y last week on white painted steel. It wasn't til I had a group happening that I could barely make out where I was hitting. With my friends 25x Swaro X5 he could see indiviual hits. What if I'd had a 30x???
length, weight, reticle, mag, etc.
30x is handy for certain things. I like using as much mag as is available when shooting groups, or spotting hits on steel, looking at details, etc. It's a better to have and not need, than need and not have thing.
With my 22 for NRL matches on paper, on 20x which is the max power on the one scope I couldn't see where the holes were when they went into the black ring on the bull. 25x with another scope I could make them out. This may sound a bit nitpicky but when 1 or 2 points means you just came in 2nd place rather than first place, it matters.
EDIT, I was using that same 20x scope at 1025Y last week on white painted steel. It wasn't til I had a group happening that I could barely make out where I was hitting. With my friends 25x Swaro X5 he could see indiviual hits. What if I'd had a 30x???
There was a guy with an older vortex razor for 1000 with rings in the classifieds, that would be perfect for you.
I agree. I use power for .22 than centerfire.
22 matches I’m almost always at max power. Centerfire, 18x at the most.
In fact I have a k525i on vudoo and k318i on AI rifles.
Good timing on this post as these are two I am also looking at. I am an obsessive researcher and I can tell you that the PST Gen2 gets recommended a lot relative to others in the same price. My struggle is I don't mind used, not abused, gear. This opens things up a little. Hard to find a used 5-25 PST Gen2, but lots of other scopes that normally are several hundred more than the PST are now at or close to $1000.
For those not educated enough to recognize the practical differences, why does one pick the EBR-2C over the APRS1? I think I want higher magnification for shooting groups and playing around with F-Class (I know wrong tool for the job), does the ETR at 30x darken any more than the PST at 25x?
For those not educated enough to recognize the practical differences, why does one pick the EBR-2C over the APRS1? I think I want higher magnification for shooting groups and playing around with F-Class (I know wrong tool for the job), does the ETR at 30x darken any more than the PST at 25x?
You can get better prices from Hide Vendors like @gr8fuldoug , @CSTactical , eurooptic (I can't remember Jason's handle), Scott at Liberty Optics sometimes has some crazy deals as well. I'm not knocking Bass Pro, just saying that these Hide Vendors will take care of you and can beat the box store prices usually, even their sale prices.
As for the Athlon ETR or Vortex PST II 5-25, I have the 5-25 and think it's outstanding, but the Chinese ETR is supposed to be one of the best to come from China yet. I'd say pick the reticle you like the most and go in that direction between those two.
