DLO Review: Long Range Precision on a Mid-Range Budget, Part 1

This is the type of scope I have a lot of interest in.

Thanks largely to Light Optics Works (LOW) being a pretty decent Japanese OEM, the quality of a long range scope you can get under $2k has really exploded in recent times.  It seemed like nearly every brand was getting something made by LOW.  Naturally, other OEMs started getting into the game and offering increasingly good product at competitive prices.  Now, I can get a full featured scope that is reasonably decent anywhere from $600 to $1700.  There are obvious differences within that price range and that is one of the things I am looking to explore.

In the past, SWFA had this segment largely to itself, thanks to the success of their 3-9×42 SS HD, 3-15×42 SS Classic and 5-20×50 SS HD.  Frankly, I still use these and the 3-9×42 is one of my all time favourite scopes due to its simplicity and ruggedness.  If you are looking for track record, it is hard to do better than these.  That having been said, the new players are more full featured designs with more modern reticles.  I fully expect SWFA to not take it lying down, but in the meantime, I figured I should make an overview of what is out there.  In the video below I talk a little bit about three of the contenders: Athlon Ares ETR 4.5-30×56, Vortex Viper PST Gen 2 5-25×50 and Delta Stryker HD 4.5-30×56.

I also have a lot of mileage with much less expensive, but very decent Athlon Ares BTR 4.5-27×50, so as I go through this review, I will talk about it as applicable.  A bit further down (below the video and some advertising) is the spec table where I show several additional scopes that I will add to the conversation a little later in follow-up videos.  Sig Tango6 4-24×50 and Vortex Razor AMG 6-24×50 are both designs I happen to like, albeit for different reasons.  I will talk more about them as I go down this path.