Athlon has been impressing me lately with a lot of their quality sporting optics. One of their most popular items of late has been the Neos riflescope, particularly the version designed specifically for rimfire rifles. I’d been wanting to get my hands on it for a long time after reading some excellent reviews and seeing it climb the bestseller charts, and they sent me one to put through the ringer.
First off the basic details. This is a 3-9 power scope with a 40mm objective lens. It is fully multicoated to increase light transmission. It’s tube is constructed from a single piece of aircraft grade aluminum, and it’s waterproof and nitrogen purged for fog resistance. The scope is available in three different reticle options: Center X, BDC 500 IR, and the BDC22 Rim Fire that I tested out.
I was immediately impressed by this scope. I’d been looking to get a scope on my old Savage bolt action 22 (which was my very first rifle!), which hasn’t had a scope mounted on it since I broke the cheap one that I first put on it. The Neos was a perfect fit for this great old gun of mine. It mounted without issue, and zeroed in only a few quick adjustments at the range. It looks great, like a much more expensive scope, and is definitely one that I’m going to be showing off.
The reticle is designed specifically for use with a .22lr. When zeroed at 50 yards, it has bullet drop compensation marks for 75, 100, 125, and 150 yards. That definitely gives you a lot of great options for a caliber that you won’t be using beyond that distance anyway. The second focal plane design also means you can use those drop compensation marks at any zoom setting on the scope.
The scope is simple and very user friendly. After I’d zeroed it in at 50 yards, I handed the reigns over to a couple of teenagers who were out shooting with me. They easily and intuitively picked up how to accurately take shots with this scope/rifle combo and were shooting tight groups immediately, even though in one case he had never shot a rifle before.
Overall, considering this scope can be had for just barely over a hundred dollars, I would highly recommend it for anyone who wants a scope on their 22. It makes the joy of plinking more accurate and stretches your effective distance. It’s also an obviously very high quality scope that is built to handle large calibers, so it’ll be able to take a beating. You can’t go wrong with this scope.