Athlon ARES BTR

[Clay Target Guy]

Just wanted to say, I ordered one of these and got it today, wow this is a lot of scope for the money.
I was not sure about it as the old saying says, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.
Well first impression is that the glass is way better than the price would ever lead you to believe.
I hope to have it mounted this weekend and give it a run next week.

 

[gr8fuldoug]

The $549.99 sale runs thru June 3rd

 

[RockyMtnMT]

That is great news as we just became Athlon dealers. Just placed our initial order and having our website updated for Athlon products.

 

[762x51]

they are nice. i have one of the cheaper models, the talos btr 4-14. i thought they were all made in japan, but it turns out this one is made in china. the glass is still really good, seems to track well but the turrets arent very crisp. that's my only complaint so far, but i've only had it a few months. i wish i had waited as the ares is on sale for $494 at optics planet right now.

 

[Txhillbilly]

I purchased a Midas BTR not long after Athlon came on the market just to see how it would compare to the Sightron SIII scopes that I have. Optically,the Midas BTR was pretty close.
The turret feel wasn't very good. Soft/Mushy feeling,but it actually tracked pretty well. I heard about some guy's cleaning the grease off the O-rings under the turret caps,and that did improve the feel/sound of the turret's. Later,I removed the O-rings,and the turret sound/feel is loud and tactile. Problem solved!

After a good comparison of the Midas BTR scope to my Sightron's,I purchased an Athlon Cronus scope to compare to my top end optics - Nightforce-Swarovski-IOR Valdada.
Out of the box,the turret feel was better than the Midas but still lagging behind where it should be,so I cleaned off the factory grease and removed the O-rings. Once again,that fixed the problem and the Cronus doesn't give up much at all to the scopes costing 2-3 times as much.

I ordered one of the Ares BTR scopes the other day. I'll remove the grease & O-rings as soon as I take it out of the box.
Athlon is producing some really good optics for the money,and from what I've seen,they perform very well.

 

[Clay Target Guy]

Well after reading the above post, I checked this out and found the mushing clicks just as reported. I removed the cap and just turned the turret by hand and it was night and day difference.
On this scope, I found no grease to remove but I did remove the O-ring and now it has much nicer clicks.

 

[JAYgs8163]

I purchased a Midas BTR not long after Athlon came on the market just to see how it would compare to the Sightron SIII scopes that I have. Optically,the Midas BTR was pretty close.
The turret feel wasn't very good. Soft/Mushy feeling,but it actually tracked pretty well. I heard about some guy's cleaning the grease off the O-rings under the turret caps,and that did improve the feel/sound of the turret's. Later,I removed the O-rings,and the turret sound/feel is loud and tactile. Problem solved!

After a good comparison of the Midas BTR scope to my Sightron's,I purchased an Athlon Cronus scope to compare to my top end optics - Nightforce-Swarovski-IOR Valdada.
Out of the box,the turret feel was better than the Midas but still lagging behind where it should be,so I cleaned off the factory grease and removed the O-rings. Once again,that fixed the problem and the Cronus doesn't give up much at all to the scopes costing 2-3 times as much.

I ordered one of the Ares BTR scopes the other day. I'll remove the grease & O-rings as soon as I take it out of the box.
Athlon is producing some really good optics for the money,and from what I've seen,they perform very well.

I have a Midas also. I was able to to create a zero stop function for it using some left over Vortex shims I had. Just a FYI for the maybe interested.

 

[WYO300RUM]

I bought an Argos BTR 6x24x50 MOA a couple months ago to put on a TC Encore barrel. I got it from a dealer friend for $275. I'm impressed . Glass pretty good. Like it better than the Vortex 6x24x50 HS.

 

[Thomas Culver]

I like my Ares BTR as well. I have the 4.5-27 on a 6.5 I built for my son, and have been impressed with it's tracking to 1000 and back to 100. Taking it to Africa in 11 days to get a workout along with some 124 hammer hunters from @RockyMtnMT

 

[JAYgs8163]

I'm looking for a deal on the MOA version of the Ares ETR if anyone stumbles on one let know.

 

[WYO300RUM]

I like my Ares BTR as well. I have the 4.5-27 on a 6.5 I built for my son, and have been impressed with it's tracking to 1000 and back to 100. Taking it to Africa in 11 days to get a workout along with some 124 hammer hunters from @RockyMtnMT

Good luck. Have fun . Be careful and want some pics when you get back.

 

[JAYgs8163]

The $549.99 sale runs thru June 3rd

PM me on a ARES ETR MOA in brown please. 212101B

 

[Clay Target Guy]

I wanted a MOA version as well but could only find deals on the mil version so that is what I got.

 

[SavageHunter11]

Well after reading the above post, I checked this out and found the mushing clicks just as reported. I removed the cap and just turned the turret by hand and it was night and day difference.
On this scope, I found no grease to remove but I did remove the O-ring and now it has much nicer clicks.

Athlon told me in an email to remove the o-ring as it isn't needed for 99% of scenarios.