Athlon Optics Cronus ATS Pro 25P-250 Picatinny Thermal Scope

If your first thermal scope is going on a rimfire or an AR for raccoons, hogs and coyotes inside a couple of hundred yards, the Athlon Cronus ATS Pro 25P-250 is built for that job: a 256 × 192, 12 μm sensor behind a 25 mm F1.0 lens in a 17.8 oz, 8.8-inch scope that ships on its own Picatinny mount, the lightest of Athlon's six Cronus ATS Pro scopes. Athlon calls it "a great entry point into thermal hunting", and Outdoor Life named it the Great Buy thermal scope of its 2025 Field Tested Awards, finding it "fully capable of getting you on coyotes and pigs out to near 200 yards".

Key Features

• Picatinny mount, no rings. The scope ships on a lever-clamp Picatinny mount, and Athlon lists no tube diameter for it, so it goes straight onto a rail.
• Preset holdovers from your load. The 25P-250 has no laser rangefinder. You build rifle and bullet profiles in the Athlon Ballistics app, send them to the scope, and set holdover points on the reticle for up to four distances, in a choice of four colors.

• First focal plane reticles and One Shot Zero. Athlon's reticle manual for the 25P-250 lists ten reticles, five MOA and five MIL, on the first focal plane, each in six colors with ten brightness levels. Five profiles (A to E) each save a zero at 50, 100 or 200 yards or meters with its reticle settings. To sight in, pick 1x, 2x or 4x, fire, freeze the image and move the reticle onto the point of impact.
• Zoom and image tools. Digital zoom takes the 3.6x base magnification to 14.4x. Hot track follows the warmest point, picture-in-picture sits at the top left, middle or right, and three scene modes work with seven color palettes.

• Recording with sound. With automatic recording on, a shot triggers a video from 3 seconds before to 7 seconds after, plus five images, and the microphone adds sound. Files go to 32 GB of internal memory and download from the scope's DCIM folder over USB-C, and Wi-Fi streams live video to your phone.

• Three batteries. One internal battery and two external 18500 batteries, with their charger, give 9 hours or more, and the scope draws on the external battery first. It also runs from USB-C power, but it will not start on the external battery alone if the internal one is flat.
• Sealed for weather. IP67, fog proof and shockproof, rated to work from -4°F to 122°F.

Who It's For

• A first thermal for pest and predator work, the predator and varmint hunting Athlon names. Athlon rates its detection range at 1,400 yards.
• Choosing between the 25P-250 and the 35P-400. The 35P-400 shares the manual, controls and menus and also ships on a Picatinny mount, and Athlon says it "takes it further with a higher-resolution 400x300 sensor": 2.4 times the pixels behind a 35 mm lens (0.34 mrad per pixel against 0.48), rated ≤25 mK against ≤30 mK and to 1,950 yards of detection against 1,400, at 19.7 oz and 9.6 inches.
• If you want a laser. The Cronus ATS Pro 35L-400 ranges to 1,600 yards and, in single ranging mode, puts the holdover point on the reticle for each distance it measures, on a 30 mm tube with rings in the box.