Athlon Talos BTR specs

At Christmas time, I got an Athlon Talos BTR 1-4x24 from my in-laws. I mounted it on a Henry lever action .357 magnum 16” barrel. Henry scope base, and TPS aluminum low rings (favorite rings on the market). Here is a picture of the scope all mounted up.

This scope is my first mil adjustment scope with a mildot reticle. It’s also my first “tactical scope”. It is a second focal plane scope.

A day or 2 after I mounted it, I had a chance to get to an indoor range in ft worth with a decent size rifle range. I started at the 25 yard target, no boresight, and the scope was less than 4” off of bullseye. I used the mildot reticle to determine what my adjustments needed to be. I made those adjustments, and the next shot was less than 1/2” of from the bullseye. One click left and one click right and it was perfectly sighted in. I shout 25 rounds that day at 25-50 yards. I took it to another range today that only goes to 15 yards. I put 60-70 more rounds through the rifle using the scope on 1x. It held zero perfectly through all of those rounds.

I have/ have had 5 scopes with exposed turrets (swfa fixed 12x, falcon menace, leapers 3-9, Nikon M-223 (monarch, not p223) and a Nikon Prostaff 7). The adjustments on the Athlon are far and away the best I’ve personally had on a scope I’ve owned. These turrets have a much crisper “click” that is both audible, and tactile. I can feel each click and hear them very well. I haven’t had to shoot with gloves on yet, so I can’t comment on that, but I rarely need gloves anyways.

The glass is shocking great considering the price point. I was impressed while looking through it in my backyard, looking at objects on 4x at 40-300 yards away. I was just as impressed looking through it at 1x at the 15yard range today. I had my AR with the m223 (4-12) scope with me today, and I greatly preferred the Athlon glass. I got mine from camera land, Doug posts here regularly, and answers a lot of peoples questions, he’s been great to work with, and he offers a THF discount. Retail on this scope is $169.99 and he did it for even less than that. It’s the nicest glass of any scope I own, it’s nicer than the swfa, which I thought was also good. I’ve never owned top tier optics, so I can’t compare it to anything above the $400 mark, but I shouldn’t need to. This scope is sub $200 from every single optics website.

The mildot reticle is nice and simple, no frills, no Christmas tree, just a regular serviceable mildot reticle. It is illuminated with red at 10 or so varying degrees of brightness. Zero complaints with the reticle.

The fit and finish on the scope seems really excellent. Reminds me alot of the swfa scope that I had, but this one has better turrets. The metal is smooth and even, it arrived with no marks or scratches of any kind, no complaints at all.

If I had any sort of complaint, I’d love this to be ffp, I think it would make it even more perfect, but that’s way to much to ask for at this price point.

In conclusion, for around $150 with a discount from camera land, I’d put this up against any low power variable tactical scope that is sub $400 on the market. It will stack up incredibly well. I’m so impressed with it that I intend to convert most of my scopes to Athlon as the need arises. They have a good line of both tactical and straight hunting scopes at prices from $89-$1000. I expect that in the next couple years Athlon will have the popularity we saw from Vortex a couple of years ago. They have the same 100% coverage no questions asked warranty that vortex offers.

I’d say anything Athlon is a buy with confidence in my book. I believe an Ares BTR will be my next purchase for my AR to replace the m223.

And I’ve mentioned it a couple of times, but if you aren’t calling cameraland when you need a new scope, you should be. Doug spends a lot of time on the THF answering questions, and they have incredible pricing + THF discounts.

Great review. Love my Talos BTR 4-14x44. Have it on my 6.8 pig rifle.

After reading this I just might go get the 1-4 for a 300BO build for my son.

Why do you want ffp on a 1 x4

Guess I should have clarified that. I don’t need ffp on this scope for what I’m using it for as a short range hunting scope, it’s great. If I was using it on an AR for something like 3 gun, ffp is nice because on 1x you have a small crosshair in the center of the scope which basically acts as a red dot and at 4x you have a standard crosshair. Most people will use it as a tactical scope in that way I figure.

This kind of nit picking your review. But if you were 1/2" off, moved it one click left and one click right you should have been right back where you started, not on target. One click shouldn't move you 1/2" at 25 yatds,it should move you 1/4" at 100 yards and 1/16" at 25.

There were a couple typos in that section, but this scope is a .2 mil per click adjustment. 1 mil at 100 yards is roughly 3.6” so 1 mil at 25 yards is roughly .9” so .2 mil is right around 1/5”. So it possible it was 2 clicks, or I was actually off by 1/4” and didn’t remember specifically. But it’s a lot closer to what I said that it seemed.

Caribou - considering one of these for my carbine-type AR. Would it be a decent scope for that application? Looking to stay as cheap as possible with minimum-but-adequate performance.

Absolutely. I just sold the lever action this scope was on, and it’s going to be mounted on my AR. I’d be surprised if you could find a better scope for the money.

Thanks. Seems like a good fit for a my AR on a budget. I'm taking her to the range for the first time this afternoon. Not sure if I'm even going to scope it, but if I do, it's going to be a budget-friendly option for sure.