TESTED: Athlon Ares HLR 2.5-15xx42 APRS-H2 SFP IR MIL

Athlon’s Ares HLR 2.5-15xx42 APRS-H2 SFP IR MIL is a turn-key, affordable rifle scope well-suited for hunting. It has a wide magnification range, illumination, and performed well on our optics test rig and on our custom 25 Creedmoor hunting rifle. Watch to see it for yourself!

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About the Athlon Ares HLR 2.5-15xx42 APRS-H2 SFP IR MIL

This lightweight scope (18.9 ounces) offers a wide magnification range and parallax adjustment from 10 yards to infinity. This makes it suitable for a wide range of distances. Athlon offers several models of this scope, but I decided to stick with MIL adjustments over MOA.

The Ares HLR comes with a sunshade, lens cloth, battery, instruction manual, and metal caps. Caps may seem like a small thing to get excited about, but these are extremely well made with detents.

Like many hunting scopes, this is a second-focal plane optic, meaning that the reticle subtensions are only accurate at a particular magnification.

Athlon delineated this calibrated magnification (15x) in orange on the magnification ring.

From Athlon:

The Ares HLR Lightweight hunting scopes from Athlon Optics deliver rugged performance in a streamlined, lightweight design. Built with a one-piece aircraft-grade aluminum tube, these scopes are fully argon purged, waterproof, fog proof, and shockproof. Fully multi-coated lenses provide bright, clear imagery, while an illuminated etched glass reticle ensures fast, precise aiming in any hunting condition.

Ultimate Reloader Optics Test Rig

The Ultimate Reloader Optics Test Rig, designed and built in house, measures actual optics performance using precision 100 yard targets (MIL, MOA) and camera positioning to sub -0.0005”. It tests tracking, zoom, parallax, and distortion. Though we do not currently have a way to capture optics image quality in a meaningful way, the glass on this scope is very clear.

To test tracking, we took the scope up, down, left and right 3 MIL, noting where we landed on the target. It passed with flying colors!

For parallax, we started with the center of the scope scope and camera collinear. With the parallax set to the testing range (100 yards), we moved the scope left and right 0.050” to simulate varying head position. With the parallax set at 100 yards, we noticed a very slight parallax shift. In my experience, parallax distance markings are not always 100% accurate and may need some fine tuning. The shift I observed was so minimal, I was not concerned.

I also walked through the various magnification settings from 2.5x to 15x.

To test image distortion, we took one frame from the video and aligned it with a rectangle to see if there is any pincushion effect. All lines were parallel, indicating zero distortion.

The reticle was also extremely level in relation to the scope body, which we had leveled on the optics test rig.

Mounting

I mounted the scope in Athlon rings using a Wheeler F.A.T. wrench and the appropriate bit.

I decided my custom 25 Creedmoor hunting rifle would be a great test platform for this scope. This build is centered around a BAT Igniter action with Hawkins M5 DBM in a WOOX High-Grade Superleggera stock.

The High-Grade series of stocks are hand-selected and hand-oiled, providing a rich, natural look that I absolutely love. It also blends in with the terrain and won’t draw extra attention from game.