Interested in trying one of these,i like the donut reticle on the btr for hunting.
I have the Athlon Helos BTR 2-12X42
I haven't gotten a chance to shoot with it yet, but I have it mounted to a Tikka T3X and I have been pointing it at various critters around the house/backyard to get a feel of it.
Likes:
-Glass is okay. It is as good as the Leupold 2-7x33 VX-II and Freedom 3-9X32 EFR scopes that I have on hand. The Leupold Vari-X III 4.4X14 has similar glass.
-Reticle is easy to see in low light without illumination at 5X and up, below that in lower light I need illumination to see it
-Eyebox is pretty good, not quite as good at the Leupold 2-7X33 but better than the Freedom scopes and equal to a hair better than the Vari-X III at full magnification.
Dislikes:
-It is noticeably heavy on the rifle. It makes the rifle want to "tip over"/rotate in my hand where the Leupold Vari-X III is more neutral
-The eye relief could stand to be just a hair longer, the Tikka has a 14" LOP and when I am standing I have to crane my neck forwards to not have scope shadow, prone and braced I tend to climb the stock a little so it is okay there. For reference I am 5'11" 155 lbs thin build. When I reach up with my right hand to adjust something on the scope my deltoids/pectoral muscles noticeably affect the scope shadow
-The mount that I am using, MTN Tactical 20 MOA rail interferes with the objective bell such that I can't move the scope back any further, if the rail was scalloped out/missing the first crossbar or the optic was just a tad longer, it would allow me to get my preferred eye relief
Observations:
-The center dot of the reticle is .36 Mils (1 MOA) and it is kind of fat compared to other scopes, but it has been visible on every target that I have pointed it at: Turtles at 75-115yds, housecats at 200-250 yds and cows at 400-600 yds. I could see if you were shooting at very small targets it might be a problem though
-The cross hair thickness is .08 Mils which is quite a bit thicker than the 0.05 mils in the Sightron. The ranging reticle at the bottom is a .07 and that would be at the limit of what I would want to use in the field I think, .05 would be thin enough that I would have trouble with it with my eyes
-At 2X there is a bit of fish eye effect that you can see when you pan with it. If you move off the very bottom 2X it goes away
It seems to be an okay scope so far, it isn't what I would consider the end all of scopes but it is my first FFP scope and I plan on trying it out shooting before I make my final decision. If I would have had experience with this scope on a rifle before I bought it, I probably would have kept it on my list but likely would have kept looking for something better. Unfortunately where I live there really aren't any places I can go to experience scopes mounted before buying without driving several hours down to Memphis, which I try to avoid. However, for a $500 scope, I don't think it bad at all.
If I had my druthers, I would prefer a 20 oz 'ish FFP scope that had a reticle that was just slightly thinner with or without the doughnut with a equal or slightly better eyebox and longer eye relief.
If you have any other questions, let me know.
ETA one more dislike.
The Moutain Tactical rail and SWFA low rings are a bit too high for my dolicocephalic head and I had to get a Triad Tactical stock pack to raise my cheek up enough to get a good sight picture. I would prefer to have the scope lower.