Ares BTR 4.5-27x50 FFP arrived yesterday. Amazon - $850. Superb packaging, looks like a quality unit.
Strapped it on a stock for glass comparison at 500 yards today. Compared to Leupold VX3-L 56mm and VX6-4x24 x 50mm using eye chart and .338 bullet holes. Clarity was as good as both leupolds, not better but as good. Was slightly dimmer it seemed.
The field of view at similar powers was noticeably less than the leupolds.
The eyebox on the Ares is very narrow - you have to be very centered to get a view. The good thing to that is that parallax is a non issue - you hardly even need an adjustment whereas the Leupold its critical to get parallax set right.
Your stock and scope height will need to be perfect for the Ares ( it should be anyway of course).
The FFP makes the cross hairs very thin at 100 yards and heavier than I like at 500+ but useable. Thats the nature of FFP. Wind hold off will be easier than on the Leupold I think.
Have not had a chance to clamp it down and test the tracking yet. Need to draw a box and see how it tracks.
The turrets click very nicely - not mushy.
The parallax adjustment maxes out at infinity too soon it seems. At 500 yards I put it on max then had to move the focus ring way out to focus. Not a problem just seemed different. And the focus ring increases the power significantly as your turn it out. Also something different.
Overall so far I Like it because it only weights 27 oz and has glass as good as the Leupold. I don't like 2 pound plus scopes.
I would like it better if it had: 56mm for wider field of few, brighter and wider eyebox - but it would probably be the Chronus then with a lot more weight than I want.
For the price, it seems like a good value so far.