Razor gen III vs Athlon Cronos Gen2

[fholdburg]

Hello gentlemen,

I have been lurking for quite some time now and familiarized myself with the search function in an attempt to cut down on redundancies. Anyways, I will be shooting in the Mammoth sniper challenge in January of 2023 and am looking to upgrade my optics system. I am a fan of the EBR-7 reticle from Vortex and like everything but the weight of the Razor gen 3. I have not used or looked through an Athlon Cronus but have read a lot of reviews with some people liking them more than the razor gen 2 and some less than the razor gen 2. Price is not a huge concern but I would save a few hundred dollars with the Cronus but I don't want to sacrifice scope quality. How is the warranty with Athlon? I will be pretty tough on the scope and will be shooting sniper challenges and it will be brought in and out of a vehicle coyote hunting in ND.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Macintosh]

I have a cronus BTR g1 on a prs rifle, had it for a couple years and have time behind a razor g2 that I borrowed for a while, but not a razor g3. I would not say I'm particularly hard on match rifles, but they do get used in matches, all sorts of crappy weather living in the northern part of the northeast (everything from chucking down rain to well, well below zero, etc), probably have a couple thousand rounds through each. I also made the decision between the cronus and a razor g2 4.5-27 or whatever magnification it is.
Cronus glass is indistinguishable from the razor--I cannot tell the difference, and I've tried, in a lot of different light and weather conditions. Both are a BIG step better than glass on my viper pst g2. Both the razor and my cronus have tracked well and not had issues over the couple years--again, a dead heat as far as I can tell. The one thing I have noticed is the razor clicks are a little more positive than my cronus--I am told the cronus g2 has more positive clicks but have not had a chance to try one. I did call athlon to talk to a person and ask about warranty and get a feel for the company, person I spoke with seemed very knowledgeable, helpful and said the right things, although I have not had to utilize their warranty service, so can't comment on that. Resale on the vortex probably a bit better, but not sure if it's enough to make up for the initial price difference. Couple more reticle options in the vortex, although I like the reticle in my cronus just as much (they are very similar). Neither are lightweight scopes, but no scope in that size range is going to be. If I had it to do all over again, I'd still have a hard time making the decision, I think they are both good scopes. Flip a coin.

 

[fholdburg]

I get a good LEO discount from either one and the price difference is still 1k with the razor gen 3 compared to the gen2 cronus. Man I wish I could look through a cronus to see if there is a big difference.