Both Mike and Bill's posts are most excellent counsel!
I might interject something here just for your information and comfort, when you are working on a tight budget.
In looking at today's scopes, as mentioned, the dollars expended generally reflect the quality recieved... to a degree. Here I'd like to point out the apex of technology we now enjoy, and compare it, with our CNC machining, the lazer technology that guides optical lens production and the list goes on. When comparing, even the most modestly prices rifle scopes on today's market with the Leupold's, Redfield's and Burris scopes of 1970's and even early 80's manufacture, these relatively inexpensive scopes available at discount and department stores rival the quality of the "best scopes"available 20 years ago!
It's interesting how, in some comparisons that I've been doing lately with some of those older scops that sit on guns in my safe, how even the two cheap tasco scopes that I put on the .444 Marlins for the series of tests done for the articles we are posting, rival those older scopes in every way! Too they are rugged, take the .444's and the tasco scopes mentioned above, and they have been subject to at least a couple thousand exceedingly heavy recoiling rounds out of the .444 Marlin's and have not yet lost their zero, nor repeatability. Those scopes were purchased from Midsouth Shooter's Supply for under ษ each!
<a href="www.midsouthshooterssupply.com" target='_blank'>www.midsouthshooterssupply.com</a>
I purposefully purchased those inexpensive scopes for the purposes of punishing them, then in a later tech note this winter do some serious, quantitative light transmission reports when compared not only to today's "best scopes", but to those of a couple of decades ago. The results are amazing in regard to the quality of scope, the clarity of lens and light transmission in some of the lesser priced equipment. No, I'm not for a minute going to tell you that today's best scopes aren't indeed superior to these department store price leader bargain scopes, far from it, but what I will tell you is that those inexpensive scopes for the most part are well on a par with the best available twenty years ago. We had some great scopes then!
Don't filch on scope mounts. Buy good solid mounts of the best quality you can afford, then get a scope that fits your budget and go hunting! If you want another scope later, you can certainly do so, but you don't have to spend three hundred dollars right now on a scope to get reliable hunting optics!
Wow, sorry, this has turned into a long post, and I'm on a soap box, so I'll get off! Perhaps this info will help!
God Bless,
Marshall