Video: Athlon 8-34X56 Argos First Focal Plane Reticle Rifle Scope

Tyler is reviewing a real showstopper this week, the Athlon 8x34 Argos with its first focal plane illuminated etched reticle. This advanced feature means your reticle zooms as you zoom in on your target, meaning you never have to change your holdovers at ANY magnification! Who wants to adjust when you can zoom and boom perfect shots all day long?

Athlon 8-34X56 Argos FFP Rifle Scope Transcript:

Welcome to the Pyramyd Insyder, I’m Tyler Patner. Today we're going to be taking a look at a brand new scope offering here on Pyramyd Air, the Athlon Argos 8-34x56 rifle scope. 

So as I said guys, Athlon optics is brand new to us here at Pyramyd Air and the cool thing about Athlon is that they have first focal plane scopes, and this is the first time we've had first focal plane optics here at Pyramyd Air, all of our other stuff has been second focal plane with the exception of an oddball entry into our lineup here and there, but the vast majority of the stuff is second focal plane, and we'll discuss what the differences are, but right now let's just go over some of the features of the Argos 8-34x56, so starting at the back of the scope, notice we have some rubberized flip covers, they seem pretty sturdy haven't had any problems, you get one for the back and the front of the scope. And underneath that, we do have a fast-focus eyepiece to bring the reticle into focus for your eye. Also at the rear of the scope, you notice we have an 11 step rheostat, basically your illuminated reticle feature. 11 steps of brightness. It is read-only and we will show you exactly what parts of the reticle get illuminated. It's pretty much the vast majority of the reticle, it's a very nice feature and they've done it very well in this particular scope. You don't get any flashing around the outside or anything like that so it's really, really solid. And just up in front of that, we do have our magnification ring. And you'll notice they do have this extended piece right here, give you something to grab onto when you're going ahead and making those adjustments. Goes from a low setting of eight times the naked eye all the way up to 34. So something to that will be checking out here is seeing how much darker it gets on that 34 times magnification setting. The Argos BTR is built on a 30-millimeter monotube, all aluminum of course, and talking about our adjustments or windage in our elevation, it is quarter MOA adjustments and you get about 60 minutes of adjustment for the entirety for both the windage and the elevation, so that's about five revolutions with both. So 12 minutes per turn. Then on the left-hand side of the scope we have our parallax adjustment, obviously side parallax adjustable. Nice and smooth operation goes down to 15 yards on that 34 times magnification setting. Doesn't go all the way to 10 but 15 certainly good enough for what most folks are doing, especially with something that they has the capability of 34 times magnification. Overall the Argos is a pretty heavy scope, about 32 ounces. So take that into consideration when you're thinking about what gun you're putting it on. But up at the front here we do have our front flip cover, which is nice and tight, also plastic but seems to be working very well. And a 56-millimeter lens on the end there, so it's gonna definitely require high mounts for most guns, so something to consider as well when you're thinking about how you're mounting it. We do have it on an Ataman M2R here, the tactical carbine in .25 caliber which we're gonna be reviewing at a later date for you guys, but I thought this would be a nice combo, as this is gonna be a gun you're definitely gonna be doing some long-range shooting with probably. So wanted to mount a first focal plane scope on there. And really when we're talking about first focal plane just so you guys understand. The only difference between a first focal plane and a second focal plane scope in terms of the physical scope itself, not how it works but the scope itself. On a second focal plane scope, the reticle’s housed back here, okay. On a first focal plane scope, the reticle is actually housed up at the front of the scope. So that's why you get that first focal plane effect which we'll take a look at here in just a second. But before we get to that, let's take a look at the reticle itself, it's a very unique glass etched reticle, and then we'll head out to the range, do a box test for you guys, and show you the real difference between first focal plane and second focal plane in terms of what you're gonna be seeing. Let's check it out. Checking out the ATM our first focal plane reticle closely you guys will notice right away that the 8x image and the 34x image look distinctly different, and that's because on a first focal plane reticle, your reticle scales with the magnification so as you zoom in you get a more zoomed image of the reticle as well. now on this particular reticle we have two MOA markings and that's all of those hash marks regardless of what side of the centerline they fall on. So basically two inches per marking in a hundred yards. Now one of the features, outside of having a lot of markings, that I really like about this reticle is that suspended plus sign right in the center. It gives you a nice focused point to aim at when you're dead center. But the cool thing about first focal plane and the reason first focal plane is so significant is because the reticle scales with magnification, your holdovers are never going to change regardless of the magnification that you're using. So let's show you what that looks like compared from a second focal plane scope to a first focal plane scope, check this out.

So we're taking a look through a second focal plane rifle scope here, and you'll notice it has a half mil dot reticle so we have the hashes and then the dots and that will come into play a little bit later on, but we're gonna go ahead and confirm our zero at twenty yards on 8x. And you see we've put two shots basically right through the black on that target, so we know we're zeros twenty yards. Now where the second focal plane difference comes into play is when we go out to 45 yards, so we'll go ahead and take two shots here, and you'll notice we're about a hash mark low and a hash left. Now I left the scope not centered intentionally so that you could see it when we go ahead and hit that target. So with that hash low hash left setting on 8x, we go ahead and crank to twelve, and you notice how all of a sudden with a little bit more magnification our adjustment using a mil dot holdover is going to take now a hash and a half. So we're going to be between that first hash mark and that first mil dot on 12x, and then when we crank it back out to 3x we're only a half a hash mark away. So you can see how as we change the magnification even a little bit, our holdovers are changing pretty astronomically to the point where you may miss a target at that distance if you use the wrong hold. So very important to note. I'm gonna go ahead and use that hash low hash left hold on a 8x and you'll see I'll put one just to the right, but definitely in the center of that bullseye, which would be a kill zone on any of your small game animals at that 45 yard distance, but you can see we do have to compensate quite a bit, you know almost two and a half inches almost at that 45 yard distance compared to our 20 yard zero, and that's never gonna change but when we go ahead and crank it back up to 12x, now I have to hold even a little bit more a hash and a half to go ahead and put another pellet right through that center bull. So now with our first focal plane Athlon scope in this APMR reticle we're gonna start out on 20 yards with a 20x setting on the scope. Now we're gonna put two shots into the bull just to confirm we're zeroed. So same zero distance as our second focal plane scope, so we should experience the same two and a half inches of drop roughly at that 45-yard mark. Going out to 45 yards that's exactly what we see. Two shots of 20x confirm we're about two and a half inches low of our center and we're just off to the right. Now I'm gonna go ahead crank that scope up to 34x, and as we go ahead and magnify that image you can see we're zooming in on the reticle as well, so everything is scaling together which is exactly what you are gonna see out of that first focal plane scope. So our holdover which is about two to three hash marks low, doesn't change regardless of the magnification. So cranking that on in, now we're gonna hold just off to the left of that bull to compensate for being a little bit to the right and between the second and third hash mark, and we're gonna put that pellet dead center. That's the beauty of a first focal plane scope, no matter what magnification you're on, your holdovers never change. It really gets no easier than that when you're talking about being out in the field and having to use holdover for a target.

For those of you that don't know, a box test is performed to see how well the scopes clicks are tracking. Basically to make sure that everything is as it should be. So the Athlon has a quarter of an MOA adjustment, which at 25 yards, which is where we're shooting, equals one-sixteenth of an inch in terms of actual movement. So we're gonna adjust things 24 clicks per adjustment. So we're gonna take two shots on just 24 clicks two shots and other 24 clicks in the other direction. So we're gonna create a box here is what we're doing, and you see that taking shape now. What we're looking for is an inch and a half between those groups and that is exactly what we have with this Athlon scope, which means it's tracking perfectly. So this box test is a success. All right guys the Athlon Argos BTR 8-34, I'm taking this one home with me. A very nice scope for the money, at a sub $400 price point, guys a lot of magnification, pretty nice glass, a really slick reticle, and first focal plane. You're not gonna find that many places so. Box tested like a champ, obviously going down to 15 yards you got to know that going in. And it's a little on the heavy side, but overall really impressed with this scope at the price point. If you haven't tried a first focal plane scope before I would definitely recommend getting your hands on one, particularly for the hunters out there, you know if you guys have ever had to screw with having multiple range cards for different magnifications, and all that, you know, they know your holdovers, that is over. Okay first focal plane is the way to go. So definitely check it out on pyramydair.com, for the Insyder I'm Tyler Patner, we'll see you guys at the next one. 

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