The Different Athlon Spotting Scopes

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! Best red dot sights

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.

Here is a full video about the article, and it goes into extensive detail about what we talk about in the article, except you get to see the different spotting scopes in action.

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.

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.

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. Compact prism scope

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.