Discovery/Arken/DNT/Athlon.

O

ocanuck

Member
Rating - 100%
46   0   0
Location
BC
Any recent reviews of their higher magnification scopes? I'm putting together a 223 Tikka Varmint for casual 600 yard F-T/R and PRS style shooting. And I mean casual... not looking to compete, just go out and have fun and improve my skills. My frame of reference is a Vortex Venom 5-25 on a T1X that I have zero complaints about but I think I want a bit more magnification to reach out to 600 yards.

All the reviews I've read are mixed... either "it's great for the money" or "it's a piece of crap chinese scope, dont bother and go spend 3-4x on a leupold".
 
I have had good luck with Arken, a lot of features for a reasonable cost. You really don't need crazy high magnification shooting out to 600. A 6-24 or 5-25 would be lots. I'm shooting steel out to 550 yards with my .223 and I often don't go above 20x magnification. Depending on the ammo you are using, you don't need a ton of adjustment on your turrets to get out there either.
 
Depending on how gusty the wind is I can hit it multpile times in a row, yes. What's your point?

Do you have anything constructive to share with the OP?
 
Last edited:
The rifle currently has an old trusty Bushnell 10x on it right now which to me seemed barely adequate for trying to shoot small groups at 200. 600 yards would be 3x the distance so at least 3x the zoom would be prefered.

I don't have a strong opinion on tube size. Talley makes affordable rings for 30/34/35...
 
ocanuck said:
Any recent reviews of their higher magnification scopes? I'm putting together a 223 Tikka Varmint for casual 600 yard F-T/R and PRS style shooting. And I mean casual... not looking to compete, just go out and have fun and improve my skills. My frame of reference is a Vortex Venom 5-25 on a T1X that I have zero complaints about but I think I want a bit more magnification to reach out to 600 yards.

All the reviews I've read are mixed... either "it's great for the money" or "it's a piece of crap chinese scope, dont bother and go spend 3-4x on a leupold".
Click to expand...
Arken EPL-4 6-24X50 FFP Illuminated MIL VHR

I have 3 of these. One happens to sit on a Tikka CTR in 223. For the $, they are really really hard to beat. especially given your criteria. I use another one to compete in my local benchrest competitions.

24x is plenty for PRS, especially starting out. If this optic limits you, then you are probably ready to upgrade your rifle and optic and spend $6000-10,000
 
Last edited:
OP is looking for higher power than 24x for more accurate precise shooting at long distance and I agree more is better
And can offer more info based on a few details
 
One sport wants lots of magnification with clear glass and the other doesn’t need much because anywhere on steel is fine and you don’t really need the scope to be in focus to make the shot either.

If I were in your shoes, it would be a first focal plane scope with 30-35x mag for the 600 yard bullseye stuff and dial it back to 12-16x for PRS. Find the clearest glass that fits your budget.
 
DNT 7-35 is the easy button, they are pretty much same company like Arken.
I wouldn't bet too much on Discocery.
Athlon is slightly more expensive than the other 3.
All made in China.
 
jimbo14 said:
One sport wants lots of magnification with clear glass and the other doesn’t need much because anywhere on steel is fine and you don’t really need the scope to be in focus to make the shot either.

If I were in your shoes, it would be a first focal plane scope with 30-35x mag for the 600 yard bullseye stuff and dial it back to 12-16x for PRS. Find the clearest glass that fits your budget.
Click to expand...
Wrong Jimbo. Your correct in just having to hit the plate but? Did the plate swing straight back or hard left not to mention correction on misses. If you cant see what is happening at the plate you AINT gettin in the top ten or twenty or thirty let alone shooting with a blurry optic.
 
Longstud said:
Wrong Jimbo. Your correct in just having to hit the plate but? Did the plate swing straight back or hard left not to mention correction on misses. If you cant see what is happening at the plate you AINT gettin in the top ten or twenty or thirty let alone shooting with a blurry optic.
Click to expand...
I was just in the top 10. We can both be wrong. No time to keep adjusting for parallax between targets. Blurry is a thing you need to deal with.

Yes, better glass and good focus can spot correction info. Not possible on all stages though.
 
jimbo14 said:
I was just in the top 10. We can both be wrong. No time to keep adjusting for parallax between targets. Blurry is a thing you need to deal with.

Yes, better glass and good focus can spot correction info. Not possible on all stages though.
Click to expand...
Was this a rimfire or centerfire match and be honest as to how many participants.
 
ocanuck said:
All the reviews I've read are mixed... either "it's great for the money" or "it's a piece of crap chinese scope, dont bother and go spend 3-4x on a leupold".
Click to expand...

Both of those can be true at the same time. I have a DNT 7-35x on my rimfire, for its price, it is actually decent and certainly a massive step up against the Vortex Venom (a buddy of mine has one so we compared them side to side, we both despise it) But here comes to second part, it is better served as a 7-30x, the 30-35x range is not even worth it, it really shows the glass limitation. It also completely get destroyed by other scopes one you start going up in the price range, so yeah, if you want nice, you'll have to spend more.

It comes down to budget when selecting optics, no shame in, it should be: i'm going to do X style of shooting with X rifle, i have these preferences (FFP vs SFP, MIL vs MOA, tube size, etc etc) i have X amount to spend on it, what's the best i can do?
 
sonichanxiao said:
DNT 7-35 is the easy button, they are pretty much same company like Arken.
I wouldn't bet too much on Discocery.
Athlon is slightly more expensive than the other 3.
All made in China.
Click to expand...

Why not bet on the discovery? I have the Arken EP5, DNT 7-35, various discovery PRS ED 5-2( and the ED 5-40.

The discovery doesn’t look as tactical but behind the scope it’s comparable. Chinese scope with Japanese ED glass. Behind the scope it’s hard to tell the difference between the two. Although longer with the front bell , the image seems to have a better depth in the image compared to the Arken.

I do prefer the Arken and DNT for more tactical precision rifles. But I consider the Disconery ED optics to be a great value. I use them on more target only or varmint type rifles.
 
For F class, the Athlon Heras 15X60X56 is an insane value. Several have been used by local F class shooters and they were impressed with the performance vs price.

Now the caveats... eyebox is going to be quite tight (typical of many high mag scopes), image quality drops off and gets darker past 45X (again, typical of mid tier high mag scopes), reticle is super fine and I found it hard to see (old guy with glasses, younger eyes may see it fine). Parallax and knob markings may favor short range but it will work for long

Tracking, like most Athlon scopes, is deadly. I would leave it at 40X where the subtension is supposed to be correct... the middle mag is also where the sweet spot is for image quality.

If you can find a Sightron SIII 8-32 or 10X50 (I used this), great option too. These are SFP scopes which is not ideal for PRS games.

If you want a great all around, do everything kind of scope, Athlon Helos BTR Gen2 6-24X56. I would have no issue cranking to 24X and shooting an F class target. This is the only scope I currently own for all my rifles.

Jerry
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom