Agreed!
With a good steel base and rings from Warne, you are still under $400.
I mean no offense to anybody, but just because you spent $1000+ on an optic, it does not make you a 1000m+ shooter.
I'm most certainly not and so I'd agree with your advise to the OP. Without reservation! A thought though: Might the inverse be true? I'm inclined to think a good shooter could be held back by lesser glass, reticle, turrets, etc.. I suppose "Say No to US Optics" might be in order for a first recreational scope, but I think I bought my Weaver 3-15 FFP for about $600 or so new, so you can get decent glass at a reasonable (sorta) price. Heck EMDR reticle and illuminated too. It just seems a lot of scope or not lots more money. That was a year or so ago, but it should still be close.
Another thought: If you're shooting 800+ as the OP wants, well... that ain't cheap ammo. FGGM is what, maybe $1.5 a shot? Is this the hobby, and the time, to cut corners? Course maybe he's reloading.
OP, one other thought: I'm an "bigger objective" fan. While common lore is this only affects light gathering, that lore is simply note true: Exit pupil is a straight out math exercise. Objective/magnification= Exit pupil. Now in a 1-4 scope that can actually be a burden, so smaller objectives can help (as can some physics trickery. Some of the better 1-4x stuff does something, I know not what, to break that rule). If you do stay with 3-10 than 223Rem's 40mm suggestion is likely to be great. But if you start thinking more like 4-16x or more I'd start thinking 50mm objective.
Meh. As I read this I'm not explaining exit pupil well. From memory (weak!) the human eye work best with an image presented about 7-8 mm (this varies a little, but it will work for here). Too little or too big an exit pupil from a scope are both problems, so you want to try to get what you can. Consider a 24x on a 50mm scope. The best exit, with proper eye relief, you'll get is about 2mm. Lets call that 1/4 of what the eye could have used for best case. You need to be really still behind the scope, and of course the image won't seem as bright as it would have with more exit pupil.
But I don't wish to do more than help OP consider, and so will bow out w/a "point well made" and a reminder that I'm a darn rookie and so should not be trusted too much.
Regards to all, and to 223 for allowing the point counterpoint. Hopefully we've helped.
