Athlon Ares BTR 4.5-27x50

[SageRat Shooter]

Have any of you guys got any idea as to what may be going on in the following scenario??

Brand new Athlon Ares BTR mounted on a Winchester 7RM. Just put a brand new high quality barrel on it and it still won't group or even zero.

Scope is mounted using two piece base and Blackhawk 6 hole precision rings. Bases are solid and rings are too.

We originally thought the barrel was shot out (which it was) so put a new barrel on it and still we can't get it to group or even zero.

The weird thing is this... When I try to move the POI using the turrets, the next shot seems to move the POI correctly. It will put 2 shots together, and then throws the 3rd round out like 4 inches left if I moved the POI to the left originally. If i moved it to the right, two shots about correct and then the 3rd.... 4 inches right.

I've tried 2 brand new scopes (Nikon FX1000 & Athlon Ares BTR) right out of the box and they both had this same issue. I find it hard to believe that I got 2 Lemon scopes in a row????

Please help!!!!!

[hamiltonkiler]

Have any of you guys got any idea as to what may be going on in the following scenario??

Brand new Athlon Ares BTR mounted on a Winchester 7RM. Just put a brand new high quality barrel on it and it still won't group or even zero.

Scope is mounted using two piece base and Blackhawk 6 hole precision rings. Bases are solid and rings are too.

We originally thought the barrel was shot out (which it was) so put a new barrel on it and still we can't get it to group or even zero.

The weird thing is this... When I try to move the POI using the turrets, the next shot seems to move the POI correctly. It will put 2 shots together, and then throws the 3rd round out like 4 inches left if I moved the POI to the left originally. If i moved it to the right, two shots about correct and then the 3rd.... 4 inches right.

I've tried 2 brand new scopes (Nikon FX1000 & Athlon Ares BTR) right out of the box and they both had this same issue. I find it hard to believe that I got 2 Lemon scopes in a row????

Please help!!!!!

Let’s back way up.
Is the scope base on the action right and correct?
Is the barrel nut on right and the head spacing correct?
Who put the new barrel on and are they qualified?
I doubt it’s the scope.
If you think it’s the scope mount it to a solid table looking at something 30-50yds away and mark it with a dot. Do a tracking test.



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[Txhillbilly]

It sounds like there's an issue with the rifle - action screw torque,bedding issue,etc.. I doubt you have 2 brand new scopes that are bad.

[SageRat Shooter]

Let’s back way up.
Is the scope base on the action right and correct?
Is the barrel nut on right and the head spacing correct?
Who put the new barrel on and are they qualified?
I doubt it’s the scope.
If you think it’s the scope mount it to a solid table looking at something 30-50yds away and mark it with a dot. Do a tracking test.

1. Scope bases are on correctly
2. No barrel nut as it is a Winchester not a savage
3. Barrel was cut, chambered and installed by certified gunsmith who has built many a long range rifles.

The action and stock on this rifle are more than 50 years old, but was a good shooter it's whole life... just doesn't make any sense to me, so was wondering if anyone else had anything like this happen to them.

[hamiltonkiler]

Like will not hold zero what do you mean. What’s it printing at 100yds? Or 25yds. I’m curious.



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[Robinhood]

Use your phone to record yourself pulling the trigger. Verify free floating barrel. If it is a thin profile barrel it may be button riffled responding to stress as it heats up. What is the source of your ammo...all incompasing?

[SageRat Shooter]

Like will not hold zero what do you mean. What’s it printing at 100yds? Or 25yds. I’m curious.

It prints patterns more than groups at 100 yds. It will put 2 shots together and then the 3rd shot gets thrown 4" out one way or the other depending on which way I moved the windage turret.

Robinhood, It's a heavy sporter contour and is a cut barrel, not a button rifled one. Ammo has been Nosler brass, over RL25 with the 162 ELDX or 160 Accubond. We are still breaking in the barrel, but we both believe that it should have shot better (at least group some anyway) My CBI on my 260 shot 1/2" groups @ 100 yards just doing break in.

Pop pulled it apart and sanded the channel, and re accraglassed the tang area yesterday. Pulled the Athlon off and slapped his 50 year old Leupold back on to see if it would shoot like it did before. Will see what results we get in the next couple days.

Here's a question for you... The old Leupold I believe is actually a metal tube rather that the Aluminum the new scopes are all made of. Is there any chance the new scope is just flexing too much under recoil and causing optic failure??? I'm grasping at straws here, but thought I'd ask anyway.

[hamiltonkiler]

I’ve never heard of one flexing but I only torque scope mounts to 25# and I bed the back of the rail on the action so there isn’t bend or torque in the rail.
Flyers like that seem to tell me the action is moving or settling in the stock after a shot or a few. If the recoil lug and action aren’t bedded into the stock those heavy recoiling magnums shift in the stock every time the triggers pulled. How to test? Put it in a chassis.



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[SageRat Shooter]

I’ve never heard of one flexing but I only torque scope mounts to 25# and I bed the back of the rail on the action so there isn’t bend or torque in the rail.
Flyers like that seem to tell me the action is moving or settling in the stock after a shot or a few. If the recoil lug and action aren’t bedded into the stock those heavy recoiling magnums shift in the stock every time the triggers pulled. How to test? Put it in a chassis.

Thanks Hamiltonkiler... The stock and action were bedded 30-40 years ago in the nice wood stocks that Winchester rifles all had on them. The old barrel was a little smaller (pencil sporter) too. We'll see what we get after the glass bedding he did on it this time... He's not going to buy a chassis (EVER). If it shoots with the old Leupold, but not with the Athlon, I'm going to be :frusty:

[SageRat Shooter]

Update: Made it back to the range yesterday... With the old Leupold on... Rifle stacks 3 shot groups in about 1/2 inch with no horizontal movement and only a little vertical from barrel heating up...... The Athlon went back on again later in the day and wouldn't stack them at all. 4 shots and about a 3" spread horizontally... This blows my mind that I could get 2 bad scopes back to back????

The only difference between the Leupold and the Athlon is that the Leupold is a 1" metal tube and the Athlon a 30MM Aluminum tube (along with the dialable turrets, parallax, etc...) Same with the first scope (Nikon FX1000); they both had the same problem... What am I missing here???????

[bc160]

Do you have another set of 30 mm rings you could try? That seems to be the only other variable besides the scope.

[SageRat Shooter]

Do you have another set of 30 mm rings you could try? That seems to be the only other variable besides the scope.

We've used 2 different sets of rings... Warne rings and the 6 hole Blackhawk precision rings... Same results with both rings... :confused:

The only thing left to try in my mind is to run it through a tracking test as suggested above... Or move the Athlon onto my 30-06 and see if it does the same thing on that rifle.... I have the exact same rings on my 260 ( I have a Sightron SIII) but I don't want to mess up my setup on that rifle as it shoots so dang well.

[bc160]

Well it's definitely an interesting problem. Let us know how the tracking test go. It would also rule out a bad scope by putting them in another rifle to see if they preform the same

[efm77]

Hope you get to the bottom of it. I have heard of some others having problems with the Nikon FX1000's not tracking or holding zero well so your story with it doesn't really surprise me. Now as for the Athlon, I don't have any experience with them but haven't heard of too many problems. Always a possibility to get a bad one though no matter the brand.

[SageRat Shooter]

Thanks fellas... We'll keep at it until we figure out what the problem is... At this point I have to believe its the optic... Will post again when I have resolution... Might be awhile though as I'm sure the turn around time from Athlon won't be fast.

Will probably swap it to another rifle to confirm the problem still exists before we send it off to Athlon for repair...

[Txhillbilly]

If the scope has a problem Athlon will do you well. They have great CS from what I've heard.
I have 3 Athlon scopes-Midas BTR,Ares BTR and a Cronus. Never had any issues with any of them.

Hope you get it figured out.

[celltech]

Had a problem with one of my Athlons parallax not focusing past 200 yards. They jumped right on it, told me they didn't have any more of that model and gave me a better scope in return. They will take care of you...

[hamiltonkiler]

Well I’m glad to know it’s not the gun.
I’ve been fighting with some .22 rifles lately because getting to a range where a center fire is fun is becoming more rare. Anyway I’ve skipped the most important that I learned in centerfire and have dismissed.

Find an ammo it likes [emoji23]

I hate those scopes are not preforming for you. At the 300$ price point I love my swfa ss scopes.
No bells and whistles but a solid scope for me.



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[SageRat Shooter]

Had a problem with one of my Athlons parallax not focusing past 200 yards. They jumped right on it, told me they didn't have any more of that model and gave me a better scope in return. They will take of you...

Well that would be awesome if they did something similar. I hear the Ares BTR Gen2 have the same turret system that the Cronus and ETR have, so that would be awesome if they did something like that for me. Thanks for that... It's good to hear they honor their warranty or exceed it.

It seems to be tracking closer to 1/2 MOA per click rather than 1/4 MOA on the windage turret but that isn't even exact. Elevation turret seems to track better but it won't hold a zero either, so it's a bit hard to tell.

[SageRat Shooter]

Hey All,

Just wanted to follow up with the last report... Finally got the Athlon Ares BTR Gen2 (yeah, they replaced the Gen1) mounted back on My Dad's 7 Mag. Got it zeroed out on the landing and got his drop trued out to 400 yards. We tried getting him on a 10" gong at 800 yards, but couldn't see the bullet splash with the mirage issues we had. Scope seems to be tracking and is holding zero. The turrets on the Gen2 are leaps and bounds better than the Gen1 from a tactile point... You can feel every click and the audible is also better.

When I reviewed the footage from the Camcorder, we actually had the elevation almost spot on, but just didn't have enough windage factored into the shot. So, here is a double thumbs up for the Athlon Ares BTR Gen2 optic for all you guys out there wanting good optics for under $1000.00

On a different note... I've improved my record a little bit... Old record was a 10" gong at 900+ yards... My new record (in my mind anyway) is a 4" clay pigeon @ 805 yards.... I still have some room for improvement, but I'm getting better.... LOL! Now if I could just hit it on the first try....