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Rifle Scopes Can't decide between Athlon Talos BTR 4-14 APLR2 or Vortex Diomondback Tactical 4-16 with EBR-2C

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gunshinestate

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Oct 12, 2012
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I spoke to Doug at Cameraland and he was helpful and offered a great price on the Talos BTR 4-14.
I came home tonight and was looking around at the forums on the Talos and came across the new Vortex Diamondback Tactical 4-16 FFP.
They seem similar and the price is essentially a wash (plus, I have bass pro gift card to bring the Vortex down to $300).

I'm looking for a FFP MIL/MIL scope to put on a .22 that is part trainer, part chipmunk harasser, part fun .22 match gun.
I've got a Bushnell XRS in MIL/MIL so I'm sticking with it as opposed to moving over to MOA.
Wanting to stay under $300 for this scope.

I'm hoping some of you that have direct experience with either of these scopes can help sway me towards one or the other.

Anyone care to weigh in?
 
I have a Talos BTR on a Ruger precision rimfire. I think it is a good match. The glass is suprising for the price. It tracks and has a good reticle. The down side is the turrets are mushy and the shim type zero stop sucks and isn't precise, but works ok. For the price its a solid package. I would recommend that on a 22 match rifle a 10 or more mil per rev. turret makes life a little easier if there is one in your price range.
 
D Richardson said:
I have a Talos BTR on a Ruger precision rimfire. I think it is a good match. The glass is suprising for the price. It tracks and has a good reticle. The down side is the turrets are mushy and the shim type zero stop sucks and isn't precise, but works ok. For the price its a solid package. I would recommend that on a 22 match rifle a 10 or more mil per rev. turret makes life a little easier if there is one in your price range.
Click to expand...
If you had the opportunity, would you get the Talos again or would you consider the Vortex?
I was 100% on the Talos but now heavily considering the Vortex just for their warranty.
It being on a 22 also means it'll be the rifle my 5 year old learns on. Having that warranty seems like a win.
 
I just picked up a Diamondback Tactical 4x16, mil,ebr2c.
It’s on a 22 also.
Only spent couple or three hours with it.
Initial box test it did what it was supposed to. No issues.
Turrets are decent with soft, but good clicks. Sight in the clicks moved exactly where it was supposed to.
Glass is better than I expected for a sub 300 scope (I get a little discount)
I have another that hasn’t figured out where it goes yet.
All in all quite a decent scope for the price and the EBR2C reticle on a 300 + or - scope.
 
I don’t have any experience with the Talos but I do have an Argos BTR and a Diamondback Tactical FFP. I’ll be honest I was a little disappointed in the Vortex. It isn’t a bad scope considering the price but I feel the Argos is a much better scope for the money. I noticed that Camera Land has an Argos BTR with a dented box on their website for $329. Personally I would give Doug a call about that one.
 
The disqualification for the Vortex is always the mil line numbers directly off the vertical crosshair which can obscure using holdovers/ more so the holdoffs in particular. Then also it makes little sense when .2's are mixed with .5's.

The APLR2 reticle clearly is superior because one can see where 1 click is by bracketing the .2's with the entire reticle, being it's in .2's round about.
Another interesting visual is that the hashes crossing over back and forth every .5 mil causes the reticle to appear bigger when on low magnification, it's easy to see.

Lastly the "+" center draws the eye.

The rest of the scope is what it is, for a $300 MAP scope, mine have worked well.

A huge improvement in quality, like 3 steps up in quality!!!, is the Midas TAC series, but the reticle is two steps down, lol.
 
I like Vortex made in Philippines not sure about this newer stuff. I just took my Argo BTR out to a mile decent glass turrets are mushy along with my Talos. Looking for Midac Tac down the road
 
Last edited:
steve123 said:
The disqualification for the Vortex is always the mil line numbers directly off the vertical crosshair which can obscure using holdovers/ more so the holdoffs in particular. Then also it makes little sense when .2's are mixed with .5's.

The APLR2 reticle clearly is superior because one can see where 1 click is by bracketing the .2's with the entire reticle, being it's in .2's round about.
Another interesting visual is that the hashes crossing over back and forth every .5 mil causes the reticle to appear bigger when on low magnification, it's easy to see.

Lastly the "+" center draws the eye.

The rest of the scope is what it is, for a $300 MAP scope, mine have worked well.

A huge improvement in quality, like 3 steps up in quality!!!, is the Midas TAC series, but the reticle is two steps down, lol.
Click to expand...
This is good info. Thanks.

I can't play the step-up in price game with this rifle so have to stay under $300 when all is said and done.
 
Eoddave27 said:
I don’t have any experience with the Talos but I do have an Argos BTR and a Diamondback Tactical FFP. I’ll be honest I was a little disappointed in the Vortex. It isn’t a bad scope considering the price but I feel the Argos is a much better scope for the money. I noticed that Camera Land has an Argos BTR with a dented box on their website for $329. Personally I would give Doug a call about that one.
Click to expand...
Is the glass the same between the Argos and the Talos?
Is it worth the $50 or so to go with the Argos?
 
I don’t have any experience with the Talos but the Argos glass is really good for the price. You may want to ask Doug about the glass quality. I think the glass in the Argos is a little better but I don’t know for sure. Right now Camera Land is running some killer deals on the Athlon Midas BTR. I believe the lower magnification version 5-15 I think is less than $250 and the 4.5-27 is $330 but they are SFP which may be a deal breaker for you. I have several of the 4.5-27x50 versions and they are outstanding scopes at that price. I have been told the glass is the same glass that comes in the $850 Ares BTR but once again I don’t know that for a fact. I will say that to my eye I can’t tell a difference in the two scopes glass.
 
I installed an Argos on my 10/22 and it works plenty well for NRL22. A buddy has the Diamondback and, I think the controls are much nicer. I am planning to get one for my NRL22 bolt rifle build.
 
Eoddave27 said:
I don’t have any experience with the Talos but the Argos glass is really good for the price. You may want to ask Doug about the glass quality. I think the glass in the Argos is a little better but I don’t know for sure. Right now Camera Land is running some killer deals on the Athlon Midas BTR. I believe the lower magnification version 5-15 I think is less than $250 and the 4.5-27 is $330 but they are SFP which may be a deal breaker for you. I have several of the 4.5-27x50 versions and they are outstanding scopes at that price. I have been told the glass is the same glass that comes in the $850 Ares BTR but once again I don’t know that for a fact. I will say that to my eye I can’t tell a difference in the two scopes glass.
Click to expand...
Im looking to stay with the FFP line of scopes so it'll match my other scope.
 
Yes, the glass is better in the Argos BTR, especially if you stay in the 20x range. The glass in mine totally destroys SWFA 3-15 glass and that scope is a $700 scope at normal price.

I've won my division in state in FT the last 3 years in a row with the Argos BTR 6-24, it's a great scope for the money. I just wish the reticle was the APLR2 instead.
 
EchoDeltaSierra said:
I installed an Argos on my 10/22 and it works plenty well for NRL22. A buddy has the Diamondback and, I think the controls are much nicer. I am planning to get one for my NRL22 bolt rifle build.
Click to expand...
Have you shot behind the DB Tac?

This is a tough decision. There doesn't seem to be a clear winner. I don't care for the illumination feature so it really comes down controls and glass.
 
gr8fuldoug said:
A few things:

Athlon and Vortex both have a no questions asked warranty. No reason to choose 1 over the other for the warranty

A while back I asked a member here, who is a ballistics analyst for a major city PD, to do a review on the Argos BTR & Talos BTR which I think makes send to link here:

Click to read review
Click to expand...
Ah. I thought vortex would repair/place anything (even if my 5yr old dropped it) but athlon was more of a "defect or normal conditions."

That review is what got me interested in the Athlon originally. The Talos makes more sense for what I'm going for (vs the Argos) based on that review.
 
gunshinestate said:
Have you shot behind the DB Tac?

This is a tough decision. There doesn't seem to be a clear winner. I don't care for the illumination feature so it really comes down controls and glass.
Click to expand...

I have and the controls and glass are what I preferred over the Argos. That said and in my opinion, both are very suitable for NRL22.
 
gunshinestate said:
If you had the opportunity, would you get the Talos again or would you consider the Vortex?
I was 100% on the Talos but now heavily considering the Vortex just for their warranty.
It being on a 22 also means it'll be the rifle my 5 year old learns on. Having that warranty seems like a win.
Click to expand...

I would still definitely buy it. The warranty is the same as the vortex too. My 5 year old daughter trains with mine too.
 
D Richardson said:
I would still definitely buy it. The warranty is the same as the vortex too. My 5 year old daughter trains with mine too.
Click to expand...
It really seems like Athlon is where it's at these days for budget scope.
I'll give Doug a call on Monday.
Thanks everyone for the input.

Now we just need to get Cameraland to carry rings so I can order everything from the same place.
 
We are in tomorrow, and 7 days a week till Christmas o_O

We can order rings from Burris or Hawke for you. I will be looking at SHOT for a good set up for rings and flip caps
 
I have no experience with the vortex, but i have the talos btr and the argos btr. I really liked them both. Right now the talos is in the box waiting for the next gun, i took it off in favor of a zeiss v4. I love the reticle, and only dialed out to 540 yards once and 400 a few times, so it didn't have heavy usage... but it seemed right on the money with my ballistics app and returned to zero perfectly.
I did clean the turrets and the clicks were a lot more defined. Overall it was everything i could ask for the price.
 
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