So I put the new Athlon Talos BTR 4-14×44 APLR2 FFP IR MIL through its paces yesterday.
I initially sighted it in at 50 yards and then ran it through a square shoot to see how it tracked. For the price it did that very well IMHO.
Shooting the square is all done with the same point of aim (on the large center dot) to check that the turrets adjust the scope properly. Since shooting NRL22 is going to require dialing the scope fairly frequently I thought this was a good test to conduct. Started with two shots at the center spot. They were the lower two shots of the group of seven shots in the center spot. I then dialed up 22 clicks (2.2 mils) and fired a shot. That should have moved the point of impact 3.96 inches, basically all the shot for the square should have been just inside (0.040 inch) the square formed by the four smaller red dots. I then proceeded around the square counter clockwise (22 click moves) ending with a five shot group at the center. I was please with the results, except maybe the bottom middle shot but that might have been me.
I also chrono'ed the SK Standard Plus ammo from my gun using my old Shooting Chrony Alpha Master. The velocity was not as consistent as I had expected but still shot fairly well. I ended up running 25 rds across the chrono at two different times in my playing.
First string was 10 shots
Low: 1008 fps
High: 1056 fps
Average: 1030.6 fps
Extreme Spread: 50 fps
Standard Deviation: 16.19 fps
The second string was the fifteen(15) shots of from the shooting the square target above.
Low: 1030 fps
High: 1067 fps
Average: 1041.1 fps
Extreme Spread: 44 fps
Standard Deviation: 12.1 fps
I was really hoping to see Standard Deviation in the single digits and extreme spreads closer to 25 fps but this is still plenty good for shooting NRL22 ranges.
I use Strelok Pro App on my phone for a lot of my shooting so I update my zero and scope information for my 10/22 and selected SK Standard Plus from the internal library for a BC. I adjust the velocity to match the above data and moved back to 100 yards. Strelok Pro told me to come up 2.2 mils (that was luck, being exactly the same as what I shot the square with) for 100 yards. I was going to true the Strelok solution by using an internal function that lets it change the BC to match your real world data but it appears that it does not need trued as it was right on.
My best 5-shot 100 yard group after dialing the Strelok predicted 2.2 mil adjustment (22 clicks).
At this point I am very pleased with the scope. The above group was the best of several I shot but I was getting the occasional flies and most of my other groups were ~1.3 MOA due to these fliers. I think I am going to give the barrel a good cleaning with CR-10 and start over re-seasoning it with this new SK ammo. I also need to stretch the range out even more. NRL22 never officially shoots further than 100 yards but the group I am shooting with like to add two bonus stages to the five official monthly stages at the monthly matches and those have stretch ranges out to nearly 200 yards.
Can't wait to give this try at the next match. Thanks for reading all my rambling and all the feedback and advice.
