The Different Athlon Spotting Scopes

This article goes into detail about different Athlon Spotting Scopes. We get questions about them all the time, and for good reason.

Athlon is pretty new to the game, when you compare them to a company like Vortex, Leupold or Bushnell. But with hits like the Ares ETR, Cronus BTR and Argos BTR, they’re making a pretty big name for themselves.

The company prides itself on it’s supply chain innovation, which drops the cost of producing high performing optics (as they claim on their website). Still, whenever you see a scope with the features of the Ares (Spotting Scope and Rifle Scope), you tend to get a little skeptical when you see the price point.

For instance, there’s plenty of reviews out there (our full review is coming soon, join our member list so you get updated) and a couple compare it to the Vortex Razor, which is twice the price!

What I wanted to do was not necessarily review the Ares Spotting Scope (that’s coming later) or any of the other ones, but rather take a look at some of the products they’re known for. I’m going to analyze them as just Spotting Scopes, and compare what they feature to what makes a spotting scope good.

This is going to make you more knowledgeable. So when you decide to buy one, borrow one, use one, whatever you want to do you will know what you’re dealing with, and can make a good decision. Best spotting scopes

What Is A Spotting Scope?

 Let’s start with what a Spotting Scope is. Once you understand how it’s built, you can start to determine what might make the scope well built. From there, you’ll be better equipped to know what you’re looking at when you use one, or when considering buying one.

A Spotting Scope is basically a mini telescope. We call it a Spotting Scope because it’s used to “Spot” rounds, wildlife, game, etc.

A Spotter spots rounds. The Shooter calls the round, and the Spotter spots where the round lands.

Why is this useful? Because it’s harder for you as the Shooter to spot where the round lands as you’re focused on the mechanics of making the good shot.

Plus as humans we can suffer from Cognitive Bias, which is a mistake made by holding onto personal beliefs, etc. And when you are performing at anything, this is huge!

Having someone there watching the rounds gives you two advantages:

 1) They have an outsider’s perspective of what’s going on (i.e. how you’re shooting) and can be more objective

2) They can give you corrections based on where they saw the shot land and where you called your shot to land

Now, you don’t have to have a Spotter to use a Spotting scope. I use mine by myself when I go shooting all the time. I personally like shooting alone, as it’s my time to work on something I want to get a lot better at.

So if you use it alone, you just point it at the target and after you make your shot, observe where it actually hit. Then do the math and make your corrections

What Makes A Good Spotting Scope?

Again, you might find it useful to know what makes for a good Spotting Scope, because then you can make decisions based on what you see and not waste money.

Before we determine what’s “good” or not though, let’s look at how a Spotting Scope is made.

Components Of A Spotting Scope

A Spotting Scope is actually multiple different parts with different functions that combine to give you the image you’re looking at. This is why they tend to be a little pricey.

For a high quality Spotting Scope, this lens is made up of ED Glass. This is important for Spotting Scopes because you want the target you’re spotting to be crystal, and I truly mean, crystal clear.

Imagine trying to spot a round at 1000 yards with a fuzzy image. You might miss the bullet hole!

That light passes through a focusing lens (usually, some models don’t have this) and then passes through a set of prisms.

Prisms are useful because when light enters the objective lens, it is presented inverted. What a prism does (like a Porro Prism, which is used in the Athlon Ares) is erect this image so it appears the correct way when you view it.

The final piece is the Ocular Lens, which takes the light from the prism assembly and presents it to your eye.

Good Spotting Scopes

A good Spotting Scope at a minimum will have ED Glass (Edge to Edge), the ability to focus your image, and a reticle for adjustments.

A reticle is helpful because, as I mentioned above, the Spotting Scope’s purpose is to help you make adjustments as you are shooting. Well a reticle inside the lens is going to help with that, don’t you think?

The magnification is also important. However, the magnification that will be best for you will be based on how you’re usually using it.

The Different Athlon Spotting Scopes

Cronus Tactical

The newest one is the Cronus Tactical, which literally just came out a couple of days ago.

Athlon really went all out on this one, which is why it’s a bit pricey. But we’ve been using it personally out at various ranges and it is feature rich.

The reticle is a much appreciated new addition to the different Spotting Scopes Athlon makes. In fact this was one of the only downsides of The Ares.

This Cronus (yes there are two different types of Cronus Spotting Scopes) also has an advantage because of it’s ability to adapt to tactical accessories a it features an Embedded Picatinny Rail.

 The only real downside to the Cronus Tactical is the price. Coming it at $1199.99, it’s double the cost of the Ares 15-45x (my own Spotting Scope). Still, it’s less than the other Cronus.

For those of you who love the Ares ETR, this is the spotting scope version of it!

The Ares

Boy, did they get this one right.

The Ares is pretty much everything you want in a spotting scope, without the insane price points most of them come with.

ED Glass gives you an image with little or no chromatic fringe so the final result brings an ultimate clearest and sharpest image to your eyes

ESP Dielectric Coating is a multi layer prism coating that reflects over 99% of the light to your eyes bringing you a clear, bright image that displays accurate color reproduction.

 Aluminum Central Chassis

 XPL Coating gives you an extra protection on the exterior lenses from dirt, oil and scratches

 Bak-4 glass prisms reflect more light to your eyes which will give you brighter and sharper image.

 Advanced Fully Multi-Coated Lenses gives you better light transmission to bring optimum brightness and true color across the entire light spectrum.

 Argon Purging uses the inertia gas with bigger size molecules to purge any moisture out of  the tube giving you better waterproofing and thermal stability .

It’s also built like a tank. The Ares comes with an aluminum central chassis making it virtually indestructible. You would have to really try hard to damage it.

And even if you did, Athlon’s lifetime warranty covers it.

The Talos

This is Athlon’s cheapest option in the Spotting Scope world. However, don’t let the low price make you that skeptical.

I mean I can’t blame anyone who does. They recently went on sale for about $150, and that’s probably less than the price of your Rifle Scope.

But still they come with a pretty sweet set of features:

Silver Coated K9 Prisms – all you glass snobs are gonna moan at this, I just know it. No, sadly, no Bak4 prisms, or BK7 for that matter. But for those of you that just want the job to get done, these prisms do the job just fine.

Fully Multi-Coated Lenses – remember, Spotting Scopes can lose up to 50% of the light that passes through them. Fully multi-coated glass is essential to preventing this.

Nitrogen Purged – gas purging is useful for making optics waterproof. Not as effective as Argon purging, but Nitrogen seals the seals (haha) and gives you a tight, waterproof optic.

Rotating Ring – not necessary, but handy. Makes the world of using it more comfortable than if it was just stuck in one place.

20-60x80mm – a good magnification range, and a large Objective lens. This is going to let in a lot more of the outside light than the smaller Objective Lens sizes

The Cronus

The Cronus is different than the Cronus tactical in a few ways. For starters, it isn’t set up with a Picatinny Rail mount, rather it looks more like The Ares.

That and the missing reticle are the only disadvantages the Cronus has to the Cronus tactical though. It comes stock loaded with features:

Apochromatic Lens System Apochromatic lense system gives you the result of images which have greater contrast, sharpness and color definition

 ED Glass gives you an image with little or no chromatic fringe so the final result brings an ultimate clearest and sharpest image to your eyes

 ESP Dielectric Coating is a multi layer prism coating that reflects over 99% of the light to your eyes bringing you a clear, bright image that displays accurate color reproduction.

 Magnesium Chassis give you the strength of a metal chassis while reducing the weight as much as 30%

 XPL Coating gives you an extra protection on the exterior lenses from dirt, oil and scratches

 Bak4 Prism reflect more light to your eyes which will give you brighter and sharper image.

 Advanced Fully Multi-Coated Lenses gives you better light transmission to bring optimum brightness and true color across the entire light spectrum.

 Argon Purging uses the inertia gas with bigger size molecules to purge any moisture out of  the tube giving you better waterproofing and thermal stability .

 Dual focus has dual speed focus knobs that offer both faster and finer focus adjustment

 Rotating Ring allows you to rotate the scope around tripod supporting ring into the most comfortable and convenient angle for observation

 ESP Dielectric Coating is Athlon’s multi-layer prism coating. This is very effective for color reproduction, because it reflects up to 99% of the light coming through the lens. This combines with Bak4 prisms, making this a very effective optic.

Finally, the Magnesium Chassis is very welcome to a lot of hunters, as it provides the same protection a metal Chassis does but with way less weight.

Wrap Up

I’m more impressed with Athlon’s optics every time I use them. The Ares is comparable to the Vortex Razor, and it’s half the price. Spotting Scopes for sale

They must be doing something right with the supply chain innovation they keep talking about, because it’s difficult to manufacture these puppies for the cost they do.

 I always recommend Athlon for people who aren’t looking to spend a ton of money but want to get a good optic.