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vortex viper HD vs athlon ares spotting scope

I

ibanezboy21

Private
Minuteman
Apr 8, 2012
15
1
38
Hi all,

I believe vortex is made in philippines and athlon in china, anyone know which one is better or any other spotting scopes in that price range?

thinking 20-60x85 glass, looking for a long range spotter for target shooting and bird watching.

I live in Australia and many of the shops do not have them for me to try out so i am relying on the internet and youtube for my research.
 
I have the Ares with the angled body 15-45 eyepiece. Can’t say + or - about the Vortex.
I also picked up the 22X Mil Eyepiece. For game spotting the 15-45 is great. On the range, the 22X is great for picking up trace and calling correction. I like it’s weight and length for my purposes but I’d imagine there’s probably something lighter if you’re a backcountry hunter worried about every ounce of gear weight.
 
I have contemplated the same questions as you ibanezboy and TBH still not really sure what to go with. I will say, I had the opportunity to look though a Vortex Diamondback 20x60x85 spotter recently and was very impressed with the quality. I say this based on spending a few hours behind a NF TS80 which is outstanding IMO. I would like to see them both side-by-side at some distance to truly evaluate the differences. Now, am I so naive to think the DB is a good as the NF....no, but for the price, it may be nearly as good and that may be good enough.

WRT the Athlon, I have read good reviews on the Ares and the Talos spotters. With that said, it seems Athlon is making a good run on the optics game and developing some quality products! Currently the Talos can be had for $120 from Euro....very tempting to me if nothing else than to try it out.

Good luck!
 
I along with a buddy just got Athlons and for the price I don't see where you can go wrong. So far only played around the neighborhood but im super happy with it.
 
Why angled?

As for the tripod, my advice would be to buy just the shooting one, unless you go super cheap on the spotter one. The shooting one will hold the spotter just fine.
 
The athon comes with a small tabletop tripod to use. Works fine. I've got the angled fyi. If you'd going to buy a full size tripod like others I'd suggest one that can be shot off of. Kill two birds. I use my rrs for both and it works great.
 
KnowNothing256 said:
Why angled?

As for the tripod, my advice would be to buy just the shooting one, unless you go super cheap on the spotter one. The shooting one will hold the spotter just fine.
Click to expand...

I shoot by myself, and so I intend to put my cellphone on my spotter to record.
with an angled spotter, you can turn the spotter on its side so the screen can face the shooter instead of up.
 
Razor6300804959 said:
I shoot by myself, and so I intend to put my cellphone on my spotter to record.
with an angled spotter, you can turn the spotter on its side so the screen can face the shooter instead of up.
Click to expand...
Fair enough, thanks for explaining
 
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