Athlon has been one of my favorite companies of late, as they have been producing some great optics at very competitive prices. Their red dots in particular have been getting some very positive feedback, so I was very excited when they sent me their Midas TSR3 model to test out. I ran it through its paces and was very impressed.
Athlon is selling four different red dots right now that represent four different size classes. The TSR3 is the second largest of them, and I absolutely loved this size mounted on my AR. There is no need on a gun like that to have a super compact sight. Conversely, the enormous objective and ocular lenses on this optic gave it crystal clear vision and the ability to very quickly pick up a target. After using this red dot, I don’t think I could ever go back to a smaller sight. I was also incredibly impressed with the glass quality. The model tends to be about a couple hundred bucks, and with optics in that price category sometimes the glass is hit or miss. However, Athlon did a great job here. I was very impressed, although I shouldn’t be surprised since the glass is fully multicoated and I’ve always had good luck with their products.
The Athlon Midas TSR3 mounted on my standard DPMS AR-15.
Mounting the sight was easy, just a simple wrench tightening and it was solidly on my AR’s rail, it definitely won’t be moving on accident. I ran it through a bunch of shooting, starting with zeroing. It has 1/2 MOA adjustments underneath screw on caps, which is perfect for a red dot like this and makes zeroing the sight easy. The sight has a simple two button control for dialing the brightness of the red dot. Even on the middle and lower settings, the dot was more than bright enough to work outdoors. And obviously in a lower light setting it will be highly visible.
This offering from Athlon boasts a claimed 50,000 hour battery life. It uses Smart Power Management, putting itself in sleeping mode after 5 minutes of no motion detection. This is a great feature that makes total sense on a sight like this, and I’m not sure why all red dots don’t have something similar!
Overall, I would not hesitate to recommend this red dot highly. There are a lot of good options out there when it comes to tactical sights, and this is one of the best if you are looking for something without magnification for your AR or similar rifle for close up shooting.