Tag Archives: Athlon Optics

Shooting Sports

Athlon Midas Flash

Athlon means “Prize” or “Medal” and Midas was the legendary king who’s touch turned everything to gold. I was hoping adding a Midas red dot to my pistol could add a little gold medal performance to my accuracy. Athlon sent me a Midas Flash micro red dot to test. Midas has a LOT of Midas red dots in their product line, so I’m finding identifying them challenging (though nowhere near as confusing as Holosun or EOTech’s nomenclature). The Midas Flash, a low-profile 3MOA red dot with a RMR footprint.

The Flash has a underside battery compartment for its CR2032 battery requiring the Midas Flash to be removed from it’s base or slide to replace. While this could requires checking and perhaps adjusting your zero, in reality the unit as a 50,000 run time with a fresh battery, so battery replacement would be roughly every 5-6 years! The Flash has motion activation so when you draw it or move your pistol, it will automatically turn on and be ready for action. After a few minutes in storage the unit will automatically go into sleep mode conserving battery life.

Having an underside battery compartment allows the unit to be very low profile compared to other micro red dots (even others in the Midas product line). The low profile base allows the red dot window to sit low to the bore line of your pistol improving accuracy. Though not quite low enough to utilize my factory Glock 17 iron sights.

The Flash will fit a pistol with an RMR cut slide or mounting. It comes with a number of packets of screws labeled for various popular pistol models. My after market Glock slide best fit the packet marked Smith & Wessen 2.0. It comes with a gasket spacer to give the unit a weatherproof seal to your exposed battery compartment. Unlike some red dots which only offer a limited time warranty (because micro electronics are notoriously susceptible to damage from vibration), Athlon offers a Lifetime Warranty.

I ran through a box of ammo and found the 3MOA not too small to find and aim. I’m relatively new to using red dots on a pistol so it helped me to find the dot by increasing the dot brightness to the point of blooming for faster target acquisition. For more precision, I tone the brightness to get a finer point. Running through alternating target drills I was generally able to get most of my shots within an 8″ target in rapid fire. I don’t think this is gold medal performance but for me the Midas Flash aims like a winner.

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SPECS

RETICLE DOT SIZE: 3 MOA

WEIGHT: 1.16 oz

MOUNT: RMR

RETICLE COLOR: Red

LENGTH: 1.78″

MAGNIFICATION: 1x

BATTERY: CR2032

CENTER HEIGHT: 0.96″

OBJ. LENS: 22 x 16 mm

Gadgets, Shooting Sports

Rangecraft Velocity Pro Chrono

Back in January, I got a chance to see a pre-release sample of the Rangecraft Velocity Pro at Athlon’s booth. Athlon had planned to release the Velocity Pro in early April for a price of $350. Unfortuantely, nobody knew that the Trump Administration would be imposing over 100% tariffs on Chinese made products. Nor that this would cause widespread parts and shipping delays.

Some folks online were posting negative comments about Athlon, butthurt because the chrono didn’t ship in April and the price had gone up to $399; which is only about 10%. Retailers started getting their shipments at the very end of April and customers were getting their orders in the first week of May. I was pleasantly surprised to get a Velocity Pro from Athlon to test this early on. Often when a company has such high demand for a new product, they skip the gun-tubers until after they get their 2nd or 3rd shipments fromt he factory.

The Velocity Pro looks strikingly similar to the Garmin Xero. It is slightly larger in size with a slightly bigger display screen. The Velocity Pro has 2 additional control buttons on the top and has its menu arrow buttons on the side of the unit. Its physical dimensions are only slightly larger than the Xero and it also has a slightly bigger and brighter LCD screen. The Velocity Pro’s tripod base is heavier providing a more stable platform against high winds.

Comparing the two at the range, the Velocity Pro showed slightly faster readings on average to the Xero. The difference between the two chrono’s was less than 1% which is neglibable. While testing a pistol shooting in rapid fire, the Xero could not keep up with the Velocity Pro. The Xero would miss recording shots if there was less than a 1.5-2 second delay between shots. The Velocity Pro’s more reliable sensors, better menu layout and contols, and with less than a 1% difference in readings made the Rangcraft the better chrono.

BUY

Optics Planet https://shrsl.com/4w9cc

SPECS

VELOCITY PRO

Battery Type: Lithium-Ion

Battery Life: 6 hrs

Display Size: 2.4”

Display Resolution: 240 x 320

Radar Type: Dopler

Velocity Range: 65-5000 FPS

Velocity Accuracy: +/- 0.1%

Connector: USB-C

Weight: 4.7 oz

Gadgets, Shooting Sports

SHOT 2025 Athlon Rangecraft Chrono

Athlon Optics is known for making a wide range of high-quality scopes on par with other Leupold, Vortex, and Burris at a more reasonable price. At SHOT Show 2025 their most surprising new product wasn’t a scope or optic.

Athlon is releasing the Rangecraft Velocity Pro ballistic chronograph. Looking strikingly similar to the Garmin Xero, the differences lie in its user interface which is much easier to use and snappy. Like their scopes, the biggest advantage that Athlon delivers is price. The expected street price is about half that of the Garmin Xero.

UPDATE: Due to the Trump Administration’s Tarriffs, prices for electronics made in China went up and there were delays in shipment. The original launch date was intended for late April but the first shipments were delayed.

Shooting Sports

SHOT 2025 Athlon Budget Thermal Scope

Athlon Optics released a slew of new products at SHOT Show 2025, but one of the most exciting is a budget-priced thermal scope, the Cronos ATS Pro 25p. This high-performance thermal scope will have a retail price of around $699 with a 1024×768 OLED HD display to provide a sharp, high contrast view with vivid color.

As Dustin said, Athlon has been offering shooters great value, and with these updates, even more so. I look forward to trying out all of these new products in the coming year.

BUY

Amazon https://amzn.to/44jeGlx

Shooting Sports

SHOT 2025 New Athlon Optics Scopes

Athlon Optics is known for making a wide range of high-quality scopes on par with other Leupold, Vortex, and Burris at a more reasonable price. At SHOT Show 2025 the displayed design and packaging updates to their entire scope line. They have enlarged turrets to allow more visible markings, added screw-on throw levers, and added sunshades.

Like Vortex and other brands, I suspect Athlon is addressing competition from new Chinese-built budget scopes like Discovery and Vector, and even budget US brands like Monstrum. Those new brands include high-quality accessories with their scopes such as flip-up covers, sunshades, throw levers, and even scope mounts and rings.

As Dustin said, Athlon has been offering shooters great value, and with these updates, even more so. I look forward to trying out all of these new products in the coming year.

BUY

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Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

Athlon Cronus G2 20-60×86


Athlon makes a wide range of spotters but doesn’t have as storied name recognition as other bigger brands. The Cronus is Athlon’s top tier product line. Their Gen2 UHD 20-60x86mm spotting scope is not in the same class as a Kowa or Swarski, it still does not disappoint. This scope is a beast weighing in at nearly 5lbs, which isn’t surprising given it’s large 86mm objective. This large lens gathers in a lot of light providing a very bright picture especially during dusk.

The Cronus comes with a set of rubber lens caps. The front has a loop for a lanyard but no lanyard was included. The body is rubberized and armored for durability and grip. The body comes with an ARCA-Swiss compatible tripod ring which rotates 180º with indexing for an easy return to 0º. The eyepiece has a large diameter lens for a wide eyebox and a built in retracting eye cup.

The Cronus sports UHD glass which is Athlon’s term for their flavor of Extra Low Dispersion glass. While my testing camera does show some slight chromatic aberration at 60x, this is not noticeable with the naked eye. The image I was seeing was clean, accurate, and sharp from center to outer edge.

The only disappointing aspect of this scope isn’t the scope but its accessories. The padded sleeve style case is designed to allow you to keep the scope inside the soft case while mounting and using the scope on a tripod. While a laudable attempt, the materials and construction feel a bit cheap compared to the the scope. And the lens caps should have come with optional lanyards to keep them retained onto the scope. These issues are superficial and don’t detract from the actual performance of the Cronus.

Athlon sent me their new dual focus model with a fine focus knob sitting on top of the fast focus. This model is not yet released but their standard model with a large focus ring around the tube is widely available.

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Ring focus Cronus G2 on Amazon https://amzn.to/3CIiwJh

SPECS

CRONUS G2

Magnification: 20-60x

Objective: 86mm

Eye Relief: .79 – .7”

Close Focus : 29.5 ft

FOV: 117 – 60 ft @ 1000 yrds

Coating: XPL

Glass: UHD

Prism: BaK-4

Waterproof: IPX 7 

Purge Gas: Argon

Weight: 73.5 oz

Dimensions: 15.2 “x 6.7”

Gadgets, Product Reviews, Shooting Sports

Athlon Argos G2 8×42 Binoculars

Athlon’s Argos line is their value tier product line, a step up from their budget/entry level Talos. But taking a look at the build quality and features of the Argos Gen2 8×42 binoculars, it looks more like a premium optic. The tubes are encased in rubberized armor coating with checkerboard textured panels to add further grip in wet conditions.

The Argos comes with soft plastic retained front lens caps which are one of the few disappointing features. The retaining strops too easily slip off the front of the tubes when flipping open the caps. The rear caps are spectacle style which can be retained to the optic, when used with a neck strap. The rear lenses have built-in retracting eye cups.

Indicative of budget level optics, there was some softness in focus and increased chromatic aberration along the other edge of the image. The Argos does not have ED glass like their more expensive Midas and Cronos optics but was nicely bright and clear. For an 8x scope, the field of view is nice and wide with good depth of field.

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SPECS

ARGOS G2

Magnification: 8x

Objective: 42mm

Eye Relief: 17.3mm

Close Focus: 4m/13 ft

FOV: 371 ft. @ 1000 yrds

Coating: XPL / USP

Glass: UHD

Prism: BaK-4

Waterproof: IPX7

Argon Purged

Weight: 25.5 oz

Dimensions: 5.7″ x 5.3″

Shooting Sports

Athlon Midas LE Gen2

Clint Eastwood’s first leading role was in “A Fist Full of Dollars“. Not many people know this, but that Western was a remake of the Japanese film, “Yojimbo” by Akira Kurosawa. Even fewer realize that Kurosawa was inspired to write his samurai film, by his love of American Westerns.

All this came to mind when I opened up the Midas LE Gen2 box sent me by Athlon. I was struck by how much the LE looked like a giant micro red dot. I realize that RMRs (Ruggedized Miniaturized Reflex-sight) are themselves shrunk down reflex sights. Like the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns: the original was great, the copy was just as good and different enough to be its worth it.

The LE has a reticle that can be changed from a 2MOA red dot, a 65MOA circle-cross, or combined. Activation, brightness, and reticle are controlled by two function buttons on the left-hand side of the LE. Pressing both button simultaneously changes the reticle. The unit has motion activation (aka Shake Awake) and Athlon claims the LE can run for up to 50,000hrs in medium intensity off its CR2032 battery.

The LE was designed as a rifle top red dot. Despite its giant RMR appearance, the LE only a little bit wider than a typical tube-style red dot and about the same weight; it’s smaller than an EOTech X. It offers a nicely designed locking QD Picatinny mount and relatively low profile sitting less than 1.5″ above your rail.

Everyone who tested it remarked on how light it felt on the rifle and how easy it was to sight in. The large reticle and its wide field of view made it easy and fast shooting, thanks to its massive 26x35mm objective lens. Its rare for me to test an optic and then have those who tried it asked me later for links so that they could order one themselves! If Athlon ever roll out an LE Gen 3, I hope they offer a green illumination option and add a 25MOA circle reticle.

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SPECS

RETICLE SIZE: 2 MOA, 65 MOA

WEIGHT: 7 oz

MOUNT: Picatinny Rail

RETICLE COLOR: Red

LENGTH: 3.4″

MAGNIFICATION: 1x

BATTERY: CR2032

CENTER HEIGHT: 1.29″

OBJ. LENS: 28 x 36 mm

Shooting Sports

Athlon Helos BTR 1-4.5×24

The Athlon Helos BTR with a street price just under $400, is the most affordable LPVO that offers a side-focus parallax focus. Most LPVO’s (even Service Grade LPVOs over $2K) only offer 100-150yrds fixed focus optics. This Helos BTR was designed with the input of NRA High Power XTC “service rifle” class competition shooters.

The first sample that Athlon sent me had a very minor 1x image shift issue that most shooters would never notice unless you ran it with both eyes open. I’ve discovered image shift at 1x to be a common issue with LPVOs; I’ve even experienced this in much vaunted combat grade LPVOs from Trijicon and Vortex. I contacted Athlon, who’s excellent customer service got me a replacement quickly.

My first impression of the Helos is that of an optic in a higher price tier in terms of build and construction. It has exposed turrets are similar to high-precision turrest found on Athlon’s long range optics. The elevation turret has a one revolution zero-stop for competition. For an AR moving from the 200yrd to 600yrd target during a XTC competition, the adjustment for drop would be within it’s 23MOA rotation. Its beefier turrets also help make it a tad heavy at around 23oz.

The reticle ATSR3 SFP reticle is unique to this Athlon model offering a crosshair-with-floating dot within its circle of death. The center circle and holdover T are illuminated for day-to-dusk competitions but is not red-dot bright. Against black competition bullseyes, a brighter illumination would be welcome.

When I first got the Helos BTR, I was puzzled as to its relatively low 1-4.5x power range, which I assume comes from the heritage of NRA High Power ‘service rifle’ competitions. The current marketing trend in LPVOs to offer more-is-better with 8x, 10x, and higher magnification. I wonder why Athlon doesn’t offer a parallax focus in their 1-10 Ares ETR? Regardless, the Helos BTR is an LPVO that offers competition grade features and high quality optics at a “budget” price for an Athlon.

AFFILIATE RETAIL LINK

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3LncAXr

RESOLUTION

@ 50yrds: Element 6 / Group -2

SPECS

Magnification: 1-4.5
Objective Lens: 24 mm
Tube Diameter: 30 mm
Lens Coating: Fully Multicoated
Exit Pupil: 12.2-5.2 mm
Eye Relief: 3.2 in.
Field of View @100 yards: 100-22 ft
Click Value: 0.25 MOA
Elevation Adjustment per rotation: 23 MOA
Total Adjustment: 80 MOA
Parallax Adjustment: 10 yrds-infinity
Length: 9.5 in.
Weight: 22.9 ounces

Shooting Sports

Athlon Midas 1-6×24 BTR Gen2

Athlon designed the Midas BTR Gen2 1-6×24 LPVO for 3Gun competitors. It features low profile turrets to maximize the shooter’s field-of-view when moving through the course. Its ATSR4 second focal plane reticle has a high-visibility Death Circle, minimal graphics (no wind holdover stadia), and BDC holdover dots offering just enough reference points for quick hit adjustments, while not obscuring steel targets.

Athlon sent a sample of this competition grade optic for my tests. The package comes minimal contents, just the optic, a CR2032 battery, cleaning cloth, and the user manual. At 18oz it is relatively light weight, which is ideal for competitions where speed is a factor in scoring.

It’s illumination is daylilght bright enough for 3-gun with an off in-between it’s 6 intensity settings. It’s capped turrets offer a crisp and loud 0.25 MOA per click. Its tracking tests proved it precise with an impressive 75MOA per direction of adjustment.

Optically, the scope is sharp and flat with a decent eyebox. At 6x the glass is not very bright, my target view appeared muddy in a shaded cover but this shouldn’t effect most 3-gun competitions which are conducted in broad daylight. The ASTR4 reticle proved very quick to aim and intuitive. It’s a good copy of the ACSS reticle which is an evolution of Trijicon’s horseshoe-of-death reticle.

In my live fire tests it held zero and proved to be one of my favorite 1-6x LPVOs. With a street price just under $500, this LPVO is a surprisingly good value.

AFFILIATE RETAIL LINK

Amazon https://amzn.to/4bkjAPd

RESOLUTION

Element 1 / Group -1 @ 100yrds

SPECS

Magnification1-6
Objective Lens Diameter24 mm
Reticle ATSR16 SFP IR MOA, Glass Etched illuminated
Surface FinishMatte 
Lens CoatingAdvanced Fully Multicoated 
Extra CoatingXtra Protective Coating 
Tube Material6061 Aluminium 
Tube Diameter30 mm
Exit Pupil 12.5- 4 mm
Eye Relief3.8″
Field of View @100 yards108-17.6 ft
Click Value0.25 MOA
Adjustment range per rotation30 MOA
Total Elevation Adjustment150 MOA
Total Windage Adjustment150 MOA
Turret StyleCapped
Parallax AdjustmentFixed
Purging MaterialArgon 
Length10.6″
Weight18.1 oz