Deals and steals

This is a freggin solid deal from PSA.
18” AR10 kit for $600.

-18” stainless barrel, mid length gas, 5 position Adjustable DI gas block,
-15” mlok handguard
-magpul furniture (new buttstock)
-complete upper receiver with lower LPK (nickel boron trigger)



And they have blemished PA-10 lowers for $99 - both in stock.

https://palmettostatearmory.com/labor-day-sale/lowers/blem-gen3-pa10-stripped-lower-receiver.html
 
Dagger G19 complete frames for $99
These look pretty damn nice.
 
Dagger G19 complete frames for $99
These look pretty damn nice.
You honestly can't beat that. That's a complete lower including the lower parts kit. The barebones P80 kit without LPK is usually $100 alone.
 
Ordered one to compare to the Swampfox Arrowhead 1-10x24 I ordered for $421.49. Not having either in hand I prefer the Swampfox Guerrilla Dot MIL Long reticle. It's less cluttered and is a MIL reticle. The Athlon ATMR4 seems pretty busy to me and it’s MOA. I’m tending to everything in MIL. We’ll see how they actually compare in real life.
so, did you get that arrowhead? any impressions?
 
so, did you get that arrowhead? any impressions?
So I got both the Athlon Optics Helos BTR GEN2 Rifle Scope 34mm Tube 1-10x28mm Illuminated ATMR4 MOA Reticle from Midway (on sale for $358.92 with free shipping) and the Swampfox Arrowhead LPVO 1-10x24 with the Guerrilla Dot MIL Long red illuminated reticle (on sale for $412.49 with free shipping). Just received them via UPS two days ago so haven’t even mounted them on anything yet.

First impressions, considering their price point, they compare favorably to my Trijicon 1-8x28 AccuPower (replaced by the Credo). They Trijicon is a much better scope but it costs almost triple what these scopes cost. Both scopes have a pretty good 1X, which, for me, is one of the key reasons for getting a LPVO. Both are easy to use on 1X with both eyes open (determine just by holding them up by hand).

Both scopes are well built and have good glass as far as I can tell (getting cataract surgery the end of October so I should be a better judge after that). The Athlon did not come with a battery and only a tiny lens cloth. The Swampfox came with a battery and a large lens cloth. The eye box on both scopes gets pretty small at 10X, but if you're shooting at 10X you’ll probably be able to take time to line yourself up correctly. The Athlon has a fixed throw “bump” (I wouldn’t call it a lever) while the Swampfox has a true throw lever that you can place at three different points on the zoom ring (and they give you an extra set of mounting screws for the throw lever probably because they are small and easy to lose). Since both scopes have 2nd FP reticles, the true throw lever on the Swampfox makes it easier to crank it up to 10X where the sub-tensions are accurate. The Athlon has six brightness settings while the Swampfox has 12 (including 2 night vision settings). The Athlon has covered turrets while the Swampfox has locking exposed turrets (same as the more expensive Trijicon). On LPVO’s I'd normally just use the reticle’s hold over points rather than dial up, but with a 10X I might actually like to be able to dial in a solution, so the Swampfox’s exposed turrets are a plus for me. The turrets on the Swampfox have nice definite clicks and move very smoothly while on the Athlon they are very stiff and have kind of “mushy” clicks. As said before, both scopes have 2nd Focal Plane reticles and, as I thought, I prefer the reticle on the Swampfox since I like uncluttered MIL reticles. I was pleasantly surprised that the Swapfox reticle is completely usable with the illumination turned off even though it appears to be a bit finer than the Athlon.

If I was going to rate them 1-10, I give my Trijicon a 9, the Swampfox a 7 and the Athlon a 5. The Athlon is kind of what I expected of a $350 scope. The Swampfox, at the $412.49 that I paid for it, was much better than I expected. It's probably worth it’s normal $549.99 list but it seems to be a real steal at 25% off.

All of this might change when I get them mounted on a gun and out on the range, but right now I’m very happy with the Swampfox. The Athlon is an OK scope, but at it’s normal $499.99 I would definitely go the extra $50 for the Swampfox. I’d actually be hard pressed to justify the Trijicon Credo’s normal $1,199 price over the Swampfox’s normal $549.99. For me one additional big plus on the Credo (beside it’s overall better build) is that it has a 1st Focal Plane reticle, which I prefer to 2nd Focal Plane.
 
So I got both the Athlon Optics Helos BTR GEN2 Rifle Scope 34mm Tube 1-10x28mm Illuminated ATMR4 MOA Reticle from Midway (on sale for $358.92 with free shipping) and the Swampfox Arrowhead LPVO 1-10x24 with the Guerrilla Dot MIL Long red illuminated reticle (on sale for $412.49 with free shipping). Just received them via UPS two days ago so haven’t even mounted them on anything yet.

First impressions, considering their price point, they compare favorably to my Trijicon 1-8x28 AccuPower (replaced by the Credo). They Trijicon is a much better scope but it costs almost triple what these scopes cost. Both scopes have a pretty good 1X, which, for me, is one of the key reasons for getting a LPVO. Both are easy to use on 1X with both eyes open (determine just by holding them up by hand).

Both scopes are well built and have good glass as far as I can tell (getting cataract surgery the end of October so I should be a better judge after that). The Athlon did not come with a battery and only a tiny lens cloth. The Swampfox came with a battery and a large lens cloth. The eye box on both scopes gets pretty small at 10X, but if you're shooting at 10X you’ll probably be able to take time to line yourself up correctly. The Athlon has a fixed throw “bump” (I wouldn’t call it a lever) while the Swampfox has a true throw lever that you can place at three different points on the zoom ring (and they give you an extra set of mounting screws for the throw lever probably because they are small and easy to lose). Since both scopes have 2nd FP reticles, the true throw lever on the Swampfox makes it easier to crank it up to 10X where the sub-tensions are accurate. The Athlon has six brightness settings while the Swampfox has 12 (including 2 night vision settings). The Athlon has covered turrets while the Swampfox has locking exposed turrets (same as the more expensive Trijicon). On LPVO’s I'd normally just use the reticle’s hold over points rather than dial up, but with a 10X I might actually like to be able to dial in a solution, so the Swampfox’s exposed turrets are a plus for me. The turrets on the Swampfox have nice definite clicks and move very smoothly while on the Athlon they are very stiff and have kind of “mushy” clicks. As said before, both scopes have 2nd Focal Plane reticles and, as I thought, I prefer the reticle on the Swampfox since I like uncluttered MIL reticles. I was pleasantly surprised that the Swapfox reticle is completely usable with the illumination turned off even though it appears to be a bit finer than the Athlon.

If I was going to rate them 1-10, I give my Trijicon a 9, the Swampfox a 7 and the Athlon a 5. The Athlon is kind of what I expected of a $350 scope. The Swampfox, at the $412.49 that I paid for it, was much better than I expected. It's probably worth it’s normal $549.99 list but it seems to be a real steal at 25% off.

All of this might change when I get them mounted on a gun and out on the range, but right now I’m very happy with the Swampfox. The Athlon is an OK scope, but at it’s normal $499.99 I would definitely go the extra $50 for the Swampfox. I’d actually be hard pressed to justify the Trijicon Credo’s normal $1,199 price over the Swampfox’s normal $549.99. For me one additional big plus on the Credo (beside it’s overall better build) is that it has a 1st Focal Plane reticle, which I prefer to 2nd Focal Plane.
awesome, i was specifically curious how the eyebox of the arrowhead will feel compared to the accupower.
good to know about athlon too. thx for the review.
 
So I got both the Athlon Optics Helos BTR GEN2 Rifle Scope 34mm Tube 1-10x28mm Illuminated ATMR4 MOA Reticle from Midway (on sale for $358.92 with free shipping) and the Swampfox Arrowhead LPVO 1-10x24 with the Guerrilla Dot MIL Long red illuminated reticle (on sale for $412.49 with free shipping). Just received them via UPS two days ago so haven’t even mounted them on anything yet.

First impressions, considering their price point, they compare favorably to my Trijicon 1-8x28 AccuPower (replaced by the Credo). They Trijicon is a much better scope but it costs almost triple what these scopes cost. Both scopes have a pretty good 1X, which, for me, is one of the key reasons for getting a LPVO. Both are easy to use on 1X with both eyes open (determine just by holding them up by hand).

Both scopes are well built and have good glass as far as I can tell (getting cataract surgery the end of October so I should be a better judge after that). The Athlon did not come with a battery and only a tiny lens cloth. The Swampfox came with a battery and a large lens cloth. The eye box on both scopes gets pretty small at 10X, but if you're shooting at 10X you’ll probably be able to take time to line yourself up correctly. The Athlon has a fixed throw “bump” (I wouldn’t call it a lever) while the Swampfox has a true throw lever that you can place at three different points on the zoom ring (and they give you an extra set of mounting screws for the throw lever probably because they are small and easy to lose). Since both scopes have 2nd FP reticles, the true throw lever on the Swampfox makes it easier to crank it up to 10X where the sub-tensions are accurate. The Athlon has six brightness settings while the Swampfox has 12 (including 2 night vision settings). The Athlon has covered turrets while the Swampfox has locking exposed turrets (same as the more expensive Trijicon). On LPVO’s I'd normally just use the reticle’s hold over points rather than dial up, but with a 10X I might actually like to be able to dial in a solution, so the Swampfox’s exposed turrets are a plus for me. The turrets on the Swampfox have nice definite clicks and move very smoothly while on the Athlon they are very stiff and have kind of “mushy” clicks. As said before, both scopes have 2nd Focal Plane reticles and, as I thought, I prefer the reticle on the Swampfox since I like uncluttered MIL reticles. I was pleasantly surprised that the Swapfox reticle is completely usable with the illumination turned off even though it appears to be a bit finer than the Athlon.

If I was going to rate them 1-10, I give my Trijicon a 9, the Swampfox a 7 and the Athlon a 5. The Athlon is kind of what I expected of a $350 scope. The Swampfox, at the $412.49 that I paid for it, was much better than I expected. It's probably worth it’s normal $549.99 list but it seems to be a real steal at 25% off.

All of this might change when I get them mounted on a gun and out on the range, but right now I’m very happy with the Swampfox. The Athlon is an OK scope, but at it’s normal $499.99 I would definitely go the extra $50 for the Swampfox. I’d actually be hard pressed to justify the Trijicon Credo’s normal $1,199 price over the Swampfox’s normal $549.99. For me one additional big plus on the Credo (beside it’s overall better build) is that it has a 1st Focal Plane reticle, which I prefer to 2nd Focal Plane.
OK, so rummaging around looking for a mount for the Athlon, I discovered I also had one of the older Vortex Strike Eagle 1-8x24 with the AR-BDC2 reticle that I picked up for another AR build I have yet to finish. According to a Vortex rep the only real difference between this model and the latest is that the newer one has a throw lever and the AR-BDC3 reticle (the BDC3 has an upper ranging reticle). Don’t remember what I paid for it, but I do remember it was on closeout as a kit with the Vortex 2 in. offset mount (being a typical NSE skinflint I like to buy the older gen of something while the retailers are trying to liquidate their inventory). Thinking the whole kit was like $450.

In any case, I compared the Strike Eagle to the Swampfox and the Athlon. It is much more similar to the Athlon than the Swampfox. 1x performance about the same, with maybe a very small tad of edge distortion. Eye box at 8x was almost as small, only reason it was as good was that it’s not 10x. Capped turrets like the Athlon. The new models have a good throw level like the Swampfox. Unlike the other two, it has storage for an extra CR2032 in the windage turret cap (and it came with two batteries). Still preferred the Swampfox reticle.

Unfortunately I can’t give a good review of the optical quality due to the old eyes but comparing them they were pretty close. Certainly noticeably better than the really cheap $100 to $200 scopes.

The current market price for the Strike Eagle is $399.00. Personally, I would still probably go the extra $150 for the Swampfox, but I would take the Strike Eagle and its $100 savings over the Athlon.

ETA In the future I will take these kinds of post out of the Deals and Steals and put them in the Hardware/Equipment section where the probably belong.
 
Trijicon MRO green dot for $399
Seriously considering getting one for the HD rifle
Damn, if I hadn't just bought like a half dozen of the things for like 20 bucks this would be tempting.
 
Some how I managed to post this in the Target Sports thread. Here is where it should be.

Bereli is having another sale on the Sig Romeo red dot with the Juliet magnifier, $219.99 for the combo. I got one last year for $249.99 and even at that price it was well worth it. Put it on an inexpensive AR build. At $220 I just might pick up another.


Here is a decent review of the combo:

I know of a better deal coming soon.
 
Go Time on Raider Pants!
Get 25% OFF RAIDERS with code:FALL21
Ends 9/30 if supplies last that long.


I just started to wear my long pants.

Might not wear shorts until next Spring.

For my current uniform, I have been wearing the same pants for over 3 years.

They have held up great!

DISCLAIMER: I have no stake in Kitanica. I just want to share the love of this fine US made brand!
 
Back
Top Bottom