Jim, back when you did your best scopes under $500, I think you gave the top pick to Vortex Diamondback Tactical. Since then, it seems a lot of others have come out that are very similar in terms of features and price point. I am wondering if that would still be your top choice, or if you think any others would pull ahead these days. Example: As I recall, the Arken you had reviewed at the time got knocked for its weight, but now they have the EPL-4, which is much lighter. Also, looking at the list below, I noticed many now have illuminated reticles. I think these all have 30 mm tubes, and come in 4-16x44, and/or 6-24x50 flavors. And there might be others that are FFP under $500 which I’m not aware of, too, but I have been seeing some of these specifically, e.g., they will show up on recommended lists for NRL22 base class.
Athlon Talos BTR, 25.9 oz, X-mas tree reticle, Illuminated - $320
Arken EPL-4, 24.1 oz., Mil-dot-ish or X-mas tree reticle options, Illuminated - $350
Primary Arms SLX, 25.4 oz., X-mas tree reticle, Illuminated - $300
Blackhound Genesis, 25.6 oz., Mil-dot-ish reticle, Illuminated - $369 (this one includes rings!)
Hard to believe the prices given the features, etc. Are these too good to be true?
Great question. I was looking at the Primary Arms SLX just yesterday. Maybe an update to the under $500 review? I would add one other, the Element Optics Helix at $459, though not illuminated.
I really like my monstrum g3 4-16x50. Seems really nice and the price is hard to beat. I also have the scope you reference on another scope and in my opinion pretty comparable honestly.
You’re right. There are lots of new scopes in that category. Most notable to me are the Primary Arms and Athlon in that group. I couldn’t say an absolute winner without testing them head to head but those two are especially good.
Update: I just learned that the Athlon Talos BTR 4-14x44 is actually manufactured by Blackhound for Athlon, and it is almost the same scope as their own Genesis 4-14x44. Few differences in how it’s dressed up, of course. But between those two the Athlon has much better reticle options. I had heard before that there aren’t that many factories in the world where scopes are made, so different brands pretty much originate from the same places; I guess this is one example of that. You can kind of tell too by the weird offset side knobs for windage & parallax on both.
I think what happens is a factory in china engineers its own optical designs and then companies white label it and put their own industrial design on the turrets and such.
Thats how a company like Blackhound blasted onto the scene with 4 scope designs one year and then 14 the next year all while only having a couple in house engineers. That would be years of work to accomplish if they were actually designing the optical systems.
Many many many of the scope companies are really just distributors for Chinese optical factories. Same thing is true of Turkish guns sold by 5,000 companies who take the same gun, put a tiny change on it, and sell it under different labels.
I’ve liked my Athlon helos btr gen 2 4-20x50. I think if I did it again thought I’d get the one that’s just a little bit of a step up that’s HD glass and 4.5-27. I think it’s the Ares btr gen 2.
The Athlon checked a lot of boxes for me at a great price. I think I spent $500. I got FFP, illuminated Christmas tree reticle, zero stop, and locking turrets. I don’t have well trained eyes for glass quality in a rifle scope yet but 300 yards so far is too easy, granted it’s a pretty big target I’m shooting at (10” steel plate). I really want to get it to 1000.
